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This is a story that I hope to have published some day. DO NOT STEAL!!!

Title: The Night Express

Book blurb: 100 years after a world crippling war, civilization has collapsed.
Nyx, a woman with no past, finds herself in a post apocalyptic world were there are enemies around every corner: Renegades, Inasna, and maybe even some within Central itself.
James, a techno-path, must uncover the past to lead everyone into the future.
Kira, a girl with a knack for getting into trouble and an even greater ability to get out again, manages to get herself in a game that children shouldn't be involved in.
A rumor brews about a weapon left over from the war and a race against time begins in which Nyx must find the weapon before the enemy does... whoever they are.

Rating: PG13

I have been known to take character requests and place minor characters into stories. If you have an idea for a character that would be great in this world and you want to share it, go ahead. I might use it.
But be warned! Once, long ago, I wrote a story where the majority of the characters were made by my friends and I let them decide if they were ok with that happened to their character. I had to shut down the story because my 'friends' (two of them) decided they didn't like the direction the story was going and insisted that I changed it or take their characters out. And it wasn't like I was killing off their characters or anything, it was basically the reason why everyone else other than the heroine in the story was chosen. It was an idea that my brother came up with and it was freakin' sweet.



What he said. So I dropped the story, making a lot of people upset.
So, if you want a character in any of my stories, I'll try not to kill them off and keep them as close as what you want them to be but ultimately they are MINE.
Okay?
If you want a character in the story, send me a profile of the character! I'll put a skeleton profile after I'm done posting the first chapter. Either post it here or pm me.

Okay, on to the first chapter.

7:24 pm, 5 days earlier

“DID YOU BREAK-” He begins, fury showing in his cobalt blue eyes as his voice echoes in the ‘large’ library. ‘Large’ only when compared to the libraries of the posts and caravans. Central has everything bigger.

“No.” She responds, turning a page in the book she was reading. Her cheek rests on one of her hands, the other turning the pages.

“LIKE HEL-”

“Now, now, James, there are children present.” The dark haired woman shifts the hand on which her cheek leans to point to the group of little kids around a story book without looking up from what she is doing.

“Wench.” James mutters as he put a hand through his messy brown hair, ruffling it. Once he gets his initial yell out, he usually calms pretty quick, unless she’s done (broken) something that really makes him mad.

“How very archaic. And you’re supposed to be the super genius ‘to take us into the future’.” She puts air quotes around the last part with the fingers of her page turning hand as if it was a motto of some kind, her eyes fixed on the page before her.

“‘-by restoring the past.’” James finishes. He slumps down into the chair next to her, places his head on the table in front of them and puts his arms around it as though he is shielding his cranium from the world.

James looks like a man in his twenties when he is angry, but now he looks closer to a boy barely out of his teens. “You’re giving me gray hairs.” He almost whines.

“That’s my line.” Another page turns, her cheek now resting on her knuckles.

He shifts one of his arms to look at her from underneath its protective cover.

“You don’t get gray hairs.”

She looks at him now.

“So far as you know.”

He mutters something under his breath so the children wouldn’t hear.

“Orphan.” Is her reply as she turns back to her book. Whatever he said before was clearly an insult.

“***** raises her head slowly, following with an equally slow blink.

He swallows, wondering if he crossed a line that he should not have.

“James, I’m flattered that you think of me in such a way, but it could never work out.” She smirks then, causing him to relax. “Besides, that’s just gross.”

Suddenly, his nose collides with the surface of the table, hard. She had reached out with her hand, gripped the back of his head and slammed it to the table top.

I knew she would retaliate.

“It was just a joke.” He pleads, seeing her rise from her seat through his watering eyes.

“I did not appreciate it. You know some people think you slept around to get to your position. I beat those people up. Be careful what you say in public areas.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He sits up, feeling his nose. It wasn’t broken. She had gone easy on him. “A momentary lapse of judgment. Won’t happen again.”

“Why is it that all your ‘lapses’ happen around me?” She turns to look at him, hands on her hips. Her hair is almost to her waist now.

“Because I trust you.” James says simply.

Her left eyebrow raises, making her look every imposing.

“Oh? And what about all the stuff I break?”

“I’ve come to expect that.”

4:13 pm, ten years before

Eyes roll as saliva drips down from ‘its’ mouth before ‘it’ rushes the bars of the cage, causing the room to ring with the metallic sound.

A ten year old James, already clinging to the dark haired woman’s pant leg, buries his head into her thigh, letting out a yelp in fear.

“Terrifying isn’t it?”

She doesn’t turn to look at the voice. She knows who it belongs to already. ‘A mouse of a man’ is the best way to describe him. He just screams ‘Ratty’.

‘It’ scurries to the back of the cage, trying to gauge this seemingly 25 year old woman who doesn’t flinch when the bars are attacked in front of her face.

She tilts her head slightly to the right, trying to take in the appearance of ‘it’, one of the Inasna. ‘It’ looks to be a woman in her late teens. A rag that could have been a dress at one point is covering ‘its’ form.

Her?

“Hmm…” The man says, and she can feel his eyes on her. She wants to cringe or slap him or something, but she pushes down the urge. She remains as a statue; the only show of life from her is the eyes that take in every detail and the hand stroking James’ hair in an effort to comfort him.

“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” He speaks again. “That’s good. You won’t have many people to talk to out in the wilderness.” She feels his eyes looking at her again. It is starting to lean more to leering than just looking. “You don’t look like much.”

She looks at him through the corner of her eye. “I know about half a dozen different ways to kill you with just a ruler.”

He rolls his eyes, clearly not afraid of her.

“Inasna. Or singular, like the one before us is Inasnum. It’s-”

“Latin for ‘Insane’. I know.”

The man coughs and glares, trying to tell her without words not to interrupt him.

“The Inasna are leftovers from the war. The majority of the countries involved thought they had an unspoken agreement to not use nuclear bombs.” He chuckles, as though laughing at the many countries and many more lives that were ended with a few atomical blasts. “So instead they used biological weapons. The Inasna are the result.” He reaches into the cage with a cattle prod, an evil smirk on his face. “They-”

“What. Are. You. Doing.” It isn’t a question. It is a ‘Stop or die’ statement.

His forehead furrows.

“You can’t allow them any mercy. They’re not even human anyway.”

“They were once.” She replies solemnly.

He sneers at her.

“You won’t last ten minutes out there.” His leer widens. “Maybe it’ll be you in there someday.”

She turns to look at him full on, her fierce green eyes ablaze.

“Or maybe it’ll be you.” Her words sound like a promise.

He chuckles at her, taking in her appearance again. Her 5’ 11” frame wants to throttle him, but she resists.

“Fine.” He says. “I’m a humanitarian.” He turns and walks back into the side room.

She finds herself looking at the Inasnum again. Her hand rises to brush a strand of her pixie style hair from her face.

Who were you? Did you have family? Are they looking for you? Do you remember them?

Questions race through her mind until a familiar sound comes to her ear.

The tell-tale click of a fire arm.

The man is beside her again, almost too close for comfort.

“Do you want to do it?” Scratch the almost. His breath is horrendous.

He’s supposed to be the head of the technological department of Central!

It takes her a moment for her to realize what he meant by ‘it’.

“There is no cure? Even after over 100 years?” She asks, her eyes still looking at the Inasnum.

“It’s cheaper to put a bullet in them than to do research.”

Something clicks in her head. He’s given up looking for a cure like he promised and now was spending the research money.

On booze most likely.

She turns to him again. “I won’t take a life if I can help it.”

He sneers at her. “Then you’re going to die. You’ll need a weapon.”

“I’ll just carry a ruler then.” With that, she picks up James and walks out. She goes calmly at first, then quicker until she is jogging with the ten year old in her arms.

“Cover your ears.”

James does as she commands, but the sound of the gunshot makes him jump none-the-less.

He lowers his hands from his ears as she slows to a walk and sets him down.

“You’re really going to be a Carrier?” The small boy asks.

“Yes.” She kneels down to look him in the eye, taking his hand in her own. “Are you going to be alright with that?”

He nods, lost in thought for a moment.

“I’m going to take that man’s job. I’ll be known at the scientist that rediscovers the past to help the future!” He gives her a toothy grin.

8 months later, he did.

4:12 am, 1 hour and 5 minutes before dawn

After a few moments of trembling and side winding, the sounds of others died behind her and she allowed herself a sigh of relief.

She turned again to get back in the general direction of Dane’s caravan and slowed down to adjust her charge into a sitting position, check the packages and fix her scarf.

“Kira.” She let the word hang in the air for a moment.

The girl in front of her hung her head.

“Yes?” The sound was small.

She chose her words carefully. She didn’t want a repeat of this ever again.

“Do you know who those people were?”

“The Renegades?”

“Do you know who the Renegades are?”

“They’re people who don’t want to follow the rules so Central stopped sending them supplies.”

“And what happened when they stopped getting supplies?”

“They got angry?”

“Yes?”

“And they started to ambush carriers.”

“Like me. What do they do to people like you?”

“They um….”

“They either ransom you if they think you’re important enough, or keep you as a slave. Now why were you out here in the first place?”

At this, Kira seemed to perk up; she turned in her seat to smile up at the older girl.

“Because I heard you were coming, Nyx, and I wanted to welcome you!”

Nyx looked down quickly into eyes almost the exact shade of green as her own. A lot of people thought they were sisters. Kira wished that Nyx was her sister. Nyx wished that Kira would forget about her.

It wasn’t that Nyx didn’t like Kira. She just didn’t want Kira to end up like her: in a constant battle with survival where the stakes aren’t just your life. It’s the lives of those who are waiting for your delivery.

She's copying my speech pattern, she noted to herself.

She turned her attention back to the road.

“That was foolish.” It was. It also made her angry that Kira, normally exceptionally bright Kira, had done something so stupid for her sake.
Kira hung her head.

“I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do.” In Nyx’s anger, her hold on the clutch tightened, causing the bike to speed up. “Are we close to Dane’s Caravan?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because they know you walked,” Nyx didn’t have to say who ‘they’ were. “They’d know that there are other people nearby.”

(More suspense!! twisted )

5: 17 am, Dawn

Just as the sky was turning pink, she crossed the threshold into the dome. There was a cry as the bike was turned off and Kira was grabbed off the cycle by a blond, tall man who was none other than Dane himself. The gate she had just ridden through shut with a slam to keep out the light from the new dawn.

“Good to see you Nyx. Thanks for getting back the escape artist.”

“Same to you too Dane. The escape artist isn’t as good as we originally thought.”

“Oh?” Dane’s sharp brown eyes gave Kira a look, at which the child turned away, red flushing her cheeks. “What happened?”

“Renegades. You’ll need to turn up the notch on the dome’s speed.”
Dane nodded and put Kira down.

“You’ll stay for the day?” Dane asked as he turned to leave. “You know where your room is.”

Nyx smiled. Dane had a way of making people relax even when there was trouble. Not that Dane couldn’t handle trouble.

A crowd gathered around her as she picked up the brown paper wrapped items and began calling names. There was a new book, a toaster, a new doll for another little girl, and the like. Kira stayed with Nyx the entire time, her eyes lightening up every time a new package was picked up. Finally all the personal items were gone and all that was left was food and such. The crowd departed except for Kira.

“Are you sure that there isn’t anything for me, Nyx?” She asked quietly. “It’s my birthday tomorrow.”

“Sorry, I don’t have anything.”

Kira nodded and walked away.

Silly girl, of course I have something for you, She wanted to say as she watched the retreating form. She had already come up with her plan on the way over. The present was hidden in the bottom of the bag. Nyx hadn’t signed it, so it would be a surprise for Kira to wake up the next night with it.

But for now, she was going to take a bath.

(End Chapter One)

Character profile skeleton for those who want a character:

Name-

Age-

Affiliation (Central, Renegades, maybe even Inasna)-

Powers (There are some mutants. James, for example, is a mutant: He's what they call a techno-path.)-

Job (Carrier, scientist, leader of a caravan or post, etc.)-

Rank (See bottom for ranks when not military)-

Hair-

Eyes-

Height-

Weight-

Build-

Skin tone-

Tattoos-
All those a part of Central have a crescent moon. Because Renegades have black and blue for Tattoos, Central uses other colors. What rank and faction of Central you are determines the color and how dark it is. Newbies have the lightest tint while Leaders have the darkest.
Also, it is possible to customize the tattoo with something else.
For example, James, as the Head of the Technological Department and therefore Head Scientist would get a Dark Red Crescent. He had a light bulb placed behind the crescent (not shown).
Ranks for Carriers and Scientists shown on the bottom of this post

Newbie Soldier
Head Soldier

Elected Official (Only happens in Caravans)

Also, about once a year all the Carriers are at Central together. One such day, the group was admiring Marina's Wolf tattoo with more than a little too much alcohol around them.
Lets just say that they all woke up with a new feature.


Favorite weapon (if any, I doubt scientists have any)-

Favorite vehicle (only for Carriers)-

Favorite clothing-

Personality-

Likes-


Dislikes-


Family-

History (I might tweak it if I think it doesn't go with the story, but I'll tell you how I want to change it and ask if that's okay first)-

Their favorite saying or something you would like them to say-

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What Carriers do: A Carrier is a combination of Commando, Spy, and Postal worker. The common people just know about the Postal part.

Carrier Rank System since Nyx became the leader (Wolf Pack):
Initiate- Pre-Carrier, they don't even have a mark. Initiates usually approach a Carrier and request to join. The Carrier then goes back to Central, does a background check on the Requestee and (if the person checks out) returns (or another Carrier) to the Initiate to have them do a series of tests (To see if they are mentally competent. A lot of people who ask aren't). If everything checks out, the Initiate is taken to Central for training. Training comprises of hand to hand combat, field analysis, engineering (if anything breaks when they're on a road), and what to do under torture (in case they get caught by Renegades). Training usually takes anything from 6 to 9 months depending on the Carrier schedule and the speed at which the Initiate learns.




































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Scientist Ranking since James became Head Scientist:
Initiate- See Initiates for Carriers up to them getting to Central. Pre-Scientists basically observe scientists. Think Intern. Lasts for 1 to 2 years.

"Happiness is like peeing in your pants..."

Yay!!
-dances around-
"It's okay... I'll probably argue my way out of having to make too many corrections..." sweatdrop

xd "...Everyone else can see it, but only you can feel the warmth."

"Happiness is like peeing in your pants..."

You better! I know where you live!!!
I think... stare sweatdrop

xd "...Everyone else can see it, but only you can feel the warmth."

"What is a Taco Ranger? Click here and find out."