Lost No More

Chapter 1

Jax Lancaster pov

THUD!

My eyes flung open as a I sat up in my chair from the loud noise, a pencil stuck on my face after pressing on cheek for a long time.

"Nice of you to join us, Mr. Lancaster." said my history teacher, Mrs. Moyer, her hand still on the textbook she had just slammed on my desk.

"Happy to be here." I mumbled as she walked back to the front of the class.

"As we were discussing, before Mr. Lancaster decided to disrupt the lesson,"

You were the one making all of the noise! I thought to myself.

"Alexander W. Thomas, is the person who invented a machine, back in 2082, that used nuclear gases to create energy.

At the time, the invention seemed like genius, being able to rid the world of dangerous hazards, and produce a nearly unlimited amount of energy, however, a year after, there was a leak in the machine, and large amounts of nuclear gas combined with our atmosphere.

This, of course, caused the Quick Tumble, the term in the history books for the halt of human development and the fall of the world's governments as a result of 80% of the world's people being killed.

Now, does anyone know what happened after the Quick Tumble?"

The room is silent.

"Really, guys? If you read Chapter 12 Lesson 3 as I assigned, then you should know this."

The room is still silent.

Mrs. Moyer sighed in defeat. "The creation of the departments.

The Department of Defense from the old United States was one of the last systems still standing after the 5-year period of the Quick Tumble.

It isn't clear how everyone started to create their own departments, but it led to our system that divides departments into 1st Class, 2nd Class, and 3rd Class departments.

There are five 1st Class departments. The Department of Defense, the most powerful.

The Department of Land, the one that owns the most land area.

The Department of Transportation, that holds the most access to railways, our fastest way of moving.

The Department of the People, which has the most members.

And, of course, The Department of Collections, which holds the most resources, useful now we trade to get what we need rather than use money.

There are fourteen 2nd Class departments, our Department of Promising Youths one of them. In your textbook it will go into more detail, but it is basically lower scales of the 1st Class departments.

And, finally, there are more than one hundred 3rd class departments, some more known than others, such as the Department of Post-Cuba.

And that raps up this Chapter 12 of the textbook. Be ready for the test next class."

Although you could not hear it, you could feel everyone in the class inwardly groaned at this news.

"One last thing before the bell rings. Two of the students that took the Department-wide test from last week got scores noticed by Director Samuel Allen himself.

First off..." She checked a paper that was on her desk.

"Aston Cooke!"

Mrs. Moyer started clapping ferociously like a seal, the class following her a second later after realizing this was supposed to be a glorious, though expected moment, considering he was the assistant of Dr. Fenrir, a top class scientist.

"And..." She checked the paper once again and didn't even try to hide her groan.

"Jax Lancaster" Mrs. Moyer said the enthusiasm lacking in her voice this time.

Her head turned to me, followed by the rest of the class.

I lifted my hand giving her a thumbs up, my face still on my desk. I had returned to my comfortable position as soon as she got into lecture mode.

"Good job, Mr. Lancaster." Mrs. Moyer nonchalance in her voice. I could practice feel her rolling her eyes.

RIIINNNNGGGG!

The bell had just rang.

"Remember to study for the Chapter 12 test!" Mrs. Moyer said, a last second attempt to be a good teacher, though half the kids were already out the door.

Ah, good. Now I can go to my next class to sleep.