Dust swirled around. The sky was a dark, filthy shade of brown. The smell of smoke and melted steel was fresh. A young boy was in the ashes. He sat up quickly, as if someone shocked him. Ash was in his blond hair. Every breath felt like fire in his lungs. He couldn’t recall anything that happened before he woke up here.

“Come on…” He mumbled to himself, putting his fingers through his hair. He had to do other things before this, right? One thing popped into his head. His name. Finn. That was all he could remember. His mind became fuzzy if he thought of anything else. He paused for a moment, looking around. Everything around him was a mess. There was ash floating around through the air. There was the remain of buildings around. Some of them were still burning.

A metal clacking sound echoed through the area. Finn turned his head, seeing a small group of people. One of them had a robotic leg. They all had large guns. One of them yelled, pointing in the general area where Finn was. Finn made eye contact with one of them for a moment. He looked at the guns they were holding. Fear started to take place. Finn stood up, becoming somewhat unbalanced at first. He then started to run, stumbling for his first few steps. A voice yelled out to him. “Hey! Wait!” He slowed down, and glanced behind him. They were putting their guns away. “We won’t attack you!” Finn slowed down even more, until he came to a stop. The people ran over to Finn.

The one that yelled out to him was standing in front of him. Finn was guessing she was the leader. She had an aura to her that made her seem… powerful. Her gray eyes seemed to be scanning him. “A kid is out here in the wastelands, still alive?” She scoffed. He scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Well...” Finn said. “What are you even doing here?” said the leader. “You should be dead by now... Especially if you are alone.” Finn shrugged. “I just woke up. I don’t know what's going on or why I’m even here.”

The leader seem to be mumbling something under her breath. Seconds passed by, but it felt much longer than that. “Kid.” Finn looked up at the leader. “If you want to live come with us, but you’ll have to pull your own weight.” Finn considered his options. “Y’know, I think i'll come with you.” The girl handed him a rusty revolver. “Take this; You’ll need it.” She started to walk off, expecting Finn to follow her. The others were, at least.  After she had walked a few feet, she looked back over her shoulder, saying “What are you doing? Get over here!”

Finn scrambled up and started to follow them, although he was a  bit behind. He stared at the revolver in his hands, unable to comprehend what had been happening. Memories flooded into his mind. Blood. Suffering. Heat. So. Much. HEAT. Finn shook his head, trying to get the images out of his mind. He put the gun in his pocket. “You okay kid?” Asked the leader.  “What Is your name, anyway? I’m getting tired of calling you kid,” She didn’t seem as aggressive as she was before.
“My name’s Finn.”
“Neat. I’m Ava. Some others call me Great one, but I can’t imagine why.” She said, her voice dripping with honey. Finn felt safe with her… He didn’t know why, though.

About an hour later they arrived at the colony. Some of the buildings seemed broken down. A few people were standing in front of the gate. Finn assumed those people were some sort of guard. Ava nodded at the guards. One of them walked over to a lever, pulling it. The gate slowly opened up. Once it was done opening up the guards nodded to Ava. She walked in and others followed her. Finn followed them. All of the guards had their eyes on Finn, as if they were scanning him. He got to the other side of the gate and it immediately started to close.

The colony was very quiet. There wasn’t that many people around and the ones that were around weren’t talking to each other. They were just working. Ava glanced at Finn, seeing that he looked somewhat confused. “Finn, what is up with that expression?” She had an annoyed tone in her voice.

“I was thinking that there was going to be more people here,” He responded back. Ava sighed at him.

“There are more people here. Just not in this part of the colony.” She shook her head at him, then she waved her hand at the others that have been with her. They all went off. Then she pointed to Finn. “You need to come with me.” Finn nodded, not sure what else to do. Ava walked over to a building that looked a bit cleaner than the others. She opened up the door, showing the inner part of it. It looked a lot cleaner and high tech inside of the building. “Come on.” She slightly growled at him, and Finn rushed in the building.

“So do you remember anything?” Ava asked Finn once she closed the door. Finn shook his head. “Hm, strange… but anyways I have a question for you.” She sat down in a chair. “Are you staying here?” Finn nodded. He didn’t have anywhere else to go and he didn’t want to be out in the wastelands.

Ava slowly nodded, “I see. You will be getting a guide to teach you how we live in the colony.” She got up, motioning Finn to follow her. He followed her, going back outside again. They both walked over to an area in a few minutes, then Ava stopped at a door. “Here we are.” She opened up the door, revealing other people. A few of the people jumped up. “G-great one!” A few mumbled. Ava glared at them, silencing them. She sighed before calling out a name. “Guide009!” She waited for a few moments then sighed again. “...Kirk.” A person got up. He glanced at Ava, and then looked at Finn, making eye contact with him. He didn’t say a single word while walking over to them. “This is the person that is going to be showing you around.” Ava glared at Kirk. He noticed and stepped closer to Finn. “Guide009 is a… defect.” Finn looked at Ava when she said that.

“What do you mean by defect?” He asked. Kirk seemed like a normal boy. Nothing seemed wrong with him.

“He broke the rules. Which he should go over them with you when he is showing you around.” Ava sneered. “I’ve given him one more chance. If he messes up…. Let’s just say he’s gonna have a bad time.” Finn glanced at Kirk. He almost seemed unfazed by this. Almost. He looked somewhat annoyed. Ava mumbled something under her breath. Then spoke in a normal tone. “Anyways, show him around Guide009. I have my own things to deal with.” She walked off, leaving Finn with Kirk.

Kirk sighed, “Let’s just get this over with.” He started to walk over to another place. Finn followed him. Kirk was talking about places and who was who.

“I have a question for you. Would you like me to call you Kirk or Guide009?” Finn said while they were walking to another area.

“I would liked to be called Kirk, but my ‘name’ is Guide009,” He muttered under his breath, “Or that is what Ava thinks.” He balls up his fists.

“Kirk it is then!” Finn said outloud. Kirk looked somewhat surprised. Most people went with Guide009, after all that is what Ava calls him. Finn then noticed how Kirk seemed… unhappy? As if he was remembering something he didn’t want to remember. “H-hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Kirk glanced away. “Everything is fine. Just like it should be. Let’s go on.” He walked off a bit quicker than he normally did. Finn felt somewhat bad. He didn’t mean to make Kirk feel bad. While they were both walking people were walking by them with blank expressions. “What’s up with the people here? I mean all of them seem as if they are… dead.”

“Nothing it wrong. It’s all the same. Like it should be,” Kirk mumbled. He glanced away again. Finn now knew something was up. “Fine?? It doesn’t seem fine to me.” He grabbed Kirk’s arm. “Tell me.” Kirk yanked his arm away from him. He didn’t say anything. “You’re… scared, aren’t you?” Finn mumbled. Kirk didn’t respond to that, he just looked down. “Let’s just go.”

They were both walking until a loud sound rang through the area. “Well, I guess I have to go for now. I will meet up with you tomorrow in front of my building.” Kirk started to walk off. “And your building is over there,” He pointed towards a large building. It seemed to be in good shape. “Hey, thanks-” Finn was going to thank Kirk, but he was already gone. “...Oh.” He walked over to the building, opening the door and walked in the building.

The next day Kirk was waiting in front of his building. Finn met up with him. “Hey Kirk!” He had a cheery tone in his voice. Kirk didn’t seem to care. “Hello,” He muttered under his breath. “Come on, let’s not waste any time.” He stomped off. Finn followed him.

Kirk kept talking about the rules. What you should do, and how you shouldn’t break them. “Hey Kirk? What rule did you break anyways?” Finn asked. Kirk froze up. “...It wasn’t anything important.” He glanced away again. He wasn’t a good liar. Finn sighed, “Kirk, you are lying. After all Ava said you were a ‘defect’ and that you were going to have a ‘bad time’ if you messed up. That doesn’t sound like nothing to me.”

“Fine. I’m going to tell you, but only once.” Kirk lowered his voice. “I wasn’t part of this group at one point. I was with my older siblings. We somehow lived in the wastelands. One day, we messed up. They picked a fight with a larger group. They…. I’m not going to go into details, but they died.” His voice became somewhat funny. “The group… took me in. They didn’t want to kill a kid. They thought I could be use to them. I could be a guide.” Finn nodded. He understood the group was this one. “I didn’t want to be a guide. So I tried to escape. I just want to leave, find a safe place where I could just… live my life in peace.” He smiled. “I guess that really isn’t going to happen now, is it?”

Finn didn’t say anything to that last part. He didn’t know how much Kirk has gone through. Then something popped up in his mind. “Why don’t we try to escape? I mean I feel like we both could escape if we tried hard enough.” Kirk looked at Finn straight in the eyes. Hope seemed to shimmer in his eyes. “Are you serious?” He mumbled, his voice was somewhat bubbling.

“I’m serious! We can try to meet up… after that sound? I’m guessing most of the others in the group are gone. Just some guards will be around.” Finn had a large grin on his face. Kirk had a small smile on his face. “That works with me.”

A sound rang out. Kirk and Finn both knew what to do. They had to hide somewhere for the first few minutes. Waiting for everyone to clear out. It wasn’t hard to find a hiding spot. There was some broken down buildings and the rubble made a perfect place to hide. They both came out of hiding once a few minutes passed by.

“So where do we go now? I mean there has to be some weak points in the borders right?” Finn asked. Kirk nodded. “We aren’t going to go through the main gate. That would be a good way to die, which last time I checked we want to get out.” He pointed to another direction. “Over there. There is an older gate that hasn’t been used for a long time. The only one that goes over there is… Ava. Which we could get lucky and Ava might not be there. If she is we can just make a run for it.” Finn agreed. They both started to sneak around, avoiding every guard out there.

“Here we are.” Kirk pointed to the gate. “Looks like we got lucky for now-” “Wrong.” They both turned around hearing another voice. Ava was standing there, glaring at both of them.

“Looks like you broke the rules again Guide009.” She growled, pointing her gun at Kirk. “I guess I’m going to get Finn a new guide, seeing how you can’t complete your duties as a guide.” Kirk backed up, looking at the gun. “I can just finish you off right now-” Her gun went flying out her hand. She looked at the direction where the bullet came from. Finn was standing there, with the rusty revolver in his hand. The revolver seemed to be broken from that one shot. His hand was shaking. Ava growled at him, reaching over for her gun. Kirk grabbed Finn by the arm, dragging him away from Ava. They both ran as fast as possible. Ava yelled for guards, and started shooting at them. The two boys were climbing over the gate. The were stumbling away from the gates.

They both ran for a long time. They didn’t know how long it has been before they both found a broken down building. “Ha.. looks like… we got away..” Finn was struggling to get words out. Kirk took a deep breath, unable to speak. A few moments passed and they both caught their breath. “I guess we got away, they shouldn’t go after us, correct?” Finn asked. Kirk nodded, “They aren’t going to come after us. We are far enough from them.” They were both silent again. “What are we going to do now?”  Kirk mumbled. Finn started to grin again, “Well you said you wanted a nice place to live! We can find a nice place where everything will be okay!” Kirk’s eyes were shining. They both were free. They could do anything they wanted to do.