Survival

By Anbreene Mungroo

When our normal adolescent lives are destroyed by a sudden war, we are forced to run and question everything we ever took for granted. Underestimating the part we are to play in this battle, how well can we survive the challenges we are about to face?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anbreene Mungroo
• Release date: May 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201301132

Book preview

1. Disclaimer

2. Who am I?

3. The famous new guy

4. Coincidences

5. REVELATIONS

6. Foster Truth

7. Secrets

8. Bad News!

9. The nightmare continues...

10. It all begins now!

11. SURVIVAL, PART 1: First lessons...

12. SURVIVAL, PART 2: From friends to family.

13. SURVIVAL, PART 3: Love and War!

14. SURVIVAL, PART 4: Pain is part of the process

15. SURVIVAL, PART 5: More than what we are...

16. SURVIVAL, PART 6: Not the only ones in love.

17. SURVIVAL, PART 7: More Secrets...

18. SURVIVAL, PART 8: The sins of the father...

19. SURVIVAL PART 9: What I did.

20. SURVIVAL PART 10: Defeat!

21. SURVIVAL PART 11: Angel of Death.

22. SURVIVAL PART 12: Lullaby

23. SURVIVAL PART 13: Turnover.

24. SURVIVAL PART 14: Talent?

25. SURVIVAL PART 15: The eye of the cyclone.

26. SURVIVAL PART 16: The offer.

27. SURVIVAL PART 17: The plan

28. TRAINING PART 1: Tyler.

29. TRAINING PART 2: Training Begins.

30. TRAINING PART 3: Sleepless night.

31. TRAINING PART 4: Guns

32. TRAINING PART 5: Torturous minds.

33. TRAINING PART 6: Isolation

34. TRAINING PART 7: Back together

35. TRAINING PART 8: How far apart?

36. TRAINING PART 9: Between training and love.

37. TRAINING PART 10: Mystery unfolds.

38. TRAINING PART 11: The calm before the storm.

39. TRAINING PART 12: the beginning of the end.

40. TRAINING PART 13: Life has meaning

41. TRAINING PART 14: The worst is yet to come.

42. TRAINING PART 15: To every action...

43. TRAINING PART 16: Leader!

44. TRAINING PART 17: Forbidden Love.

45. TRAINING PART 18: Tears of Love!

46. TRAINING PART 19: Vow.

47. TRAINING PART 20: The last day

48. WAR PART 1: A night of great loss...

49. WAR PART 2: The final fight.

50. AFTERMATH PART 1: Another Decision to make.

51. AFTERMATH PART 2: Family.

52. FINAL: 10 years later...

1.  Disclaimer

WITHOUT PREJUDICE,ALL EVENTS AND CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK ARE PURELY FICTIONAL AND FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. IT WAS NEVER MY INTENTION TO THREATEN, FINGER-POINT OR DISCRIMINATE ANY PERSON OR COUNTRY. 

2.  Who am I?

I've always wondered why I couldn't walk down the school corridors without everyone looking at me, why I couldn't just be a normal teenage girl with a few friends. You know, like general teenage girls who feel lazy in class, prank the teachers and go for a snack after school. I used to love a few classes; art, music, history and sports, especially martial arts. Above all I loved dance. I was good at all of those, but academically, I was what everyone would classify as a failure. My grades went from bad to worse ever since college started, and I never understood why. After all, I never really had a choice in my life. My parents have always chosen for me. Whether it's my studies or my lifestyle, it was pointless to even think about what I wanted, because it didn't matter. What mattered to my dad was what he wanted me to do, and that's how things went since I was born till now, life was always made of decisions that were not mine, and I was always doing what others wanted me to do. No one ever cared what I wanted for myself. Some of that did change though after I went to university.

You're all probably wondering why I'm writing all this unimportant and uninteresting facts about me. Well, at the start, this was not meant to be a story, but mostly my personal journal. But for some people's pleasure, let's make a proper introduction. Hi, my name is Quesiyah Morris. Strange name right, for a 21st century girl, but we'll figure that out later. I'm basically 19, and starting university this year. I am a student in IT, more specifically Internet Networking and Security at University. Sounds cool? It is.

University is amazing. What's funny is that there's always something happening here. There's always an event, or someone selling something, or some entertainment. It's the place where we had no time to get bored, except during class of course.

I have a best friend, Kayra, who is also 19 and my roommate. The twin sharing room option was my decision, my parents always thought it was a mistake, but I liked it. It felt good having a friend around when I got home, and it was much cheaper. Kayra's pretty much the most stubborn, the craziest and at the same time the loveliest person I know. She's like a small energy ball and just like a child most of the time, but when I need her, she's always there for me. I'm used to calling her Kay. She reminded me of those kittens brought into a house for the first time, cute and crazy.

My story started with a look. A simple look that matched my eyes when he first came into class. This guy, with his deep cow eyes, brownish hair, his dimples, and that deadly smile he always had on. This guy that only had to walk in the room to catch my attention. He was strange, mysterious almost, and silent. That silence only made me more curious to know who he was. Never a stranger caught my attention the way he did. Who was he? I don't know. That was actually the first time I ever saw him. I guess he was just the new guy. And of course, a new face is always intriguing. Who knows what he had to hide? After all, too much silence is not a good thing.

As for my other friends, I had a few. An elder brother, sort of. His name was Kaleb. We didn't have the same parents. We were actually cousins, kind of distant cousins I guess, but we were as close as could be. He knew all about me like I knew all about him. We told each other everything, and supported each other through everything. Speaking of age, he was younger than me, by six months, but emotionally, he felt like the elder one. He was also very quiet, except if you're close enough to see his fun side. And even though most people agree on it, he never accepts when he's told he's good looking. Then there were Rebekah and Maya. Rebekah was more of the sarcastic, pretty and fun person. Always here to tease but also to support and help. She was kind of like an elder sister. She was also one of the strongest people I've ever met, emotionally. As for Maya, she was a good student, straight A's, who could also be very fun. She's always ready when we talk about vacation. None of us ever understood where her straight A's came from. She was very cute, but also very responsible and mature most of the time. Finally we had Ryan and Chris. The two boys of the group who were completely different from one another. Ryan was kind of the cool guy who loves cars and motorcycles, typical boy. He didn't seem serious in studies either but his results also always were good, though he wouldn't agree. However talking to him was easy as he always made an effort to understand what the other is feeling. And Chris, well he was special. Chris was the guy that could do anything. He knew how to take public transport in a country none of us knew, god knows how. He was the responsible, always here for everyone kind of guy and always felt like the elder brother of the group, or at least that's how I saw him. We always knew we could count on him, even to buy us snacks in the middle of the night because of our midnight stress crisis.

Summary: Kaleb, Kayra, Maya, Rebekah, Ryan, Chris, and the new guy. And that's it, just a bunch of school friends, and stranger who I knew absolutely nothing about, not even his name, but was planning to know him better, hopefully. That's pretty much all my life is about. Nothing extra, and nothing interesting. Just a simple, not so ordinary, teenage girl who needed to figure out why her life was as weird as could be, with a bunch of 'normal' friends. I guess my life began pretty simply. I was not normal, anyone could see that. I seemed normal, but I had a whole other world in my head. A world of magic and fairy tales that I used to escape my daily family drama. Somehow I always felt like I was meant to do something bigger than be a regular person. I wanted to really be someone, to do something meaningful. I once asked my parents to take me to a psychologist. Most of you must be thinking, why would she even ask that? Well, I guess that's what my parents thought too, they laughed and joke, not realising just how serious I was. Today I think I should be glad they didn't.

3.  The famous new guy

Remember when I mentioned the new guy, the one I wanted to know more about because he was always too silent. I guess my wish came true. Turned out his name was Jace. And he actually was the new guy. New in school and in my class, nice. He was a year older than all of us. Teachers mentioned he missed a year of school, and I mean MISSED, not failed or repeated. Of course, he seemed too much of a good student to fail. And of course we had to bear the traditional 'be nice' speech, which I definitely did not listen to. I did intend to be nice though.

As head of the Student Welfare Department of our school committee, I was asked by the teacher to welcome him to the school and explain to him a bit how things worked, which I did without hesitation. My friends, or at least the boys, found that weird that I would just go talk to him, while the girls teased me for months because I talked to the good-looking new guy. And since I practically spent all my life with Kayra and nearly crossed his way all the time, she wouldn't let me be. That's what best friends do after all. And that's why I love her so much. She knows how to annoy the hell out of me and make me laugh all at once.

Anyways , let's go back to our guy. Whenever I tried to talk to him, all we could say was hey, what's up? or hi! We could never have a proper conversation. He didn't talk much. He would answer questions, but nothing more. Strangely that just intrigued me more. Why would he not socialise? It's not like we were not nice to him, after that speech. Each day he would walk into class and sit quietly in a corner, and the same into our common clubs and societies' meetings and each day his behaviour would draw me closer to him.

What did he have to hide so much? Why was he so mysterious? What was the mystery about? He was never seen outside school, like he never went out. He came in the morning, and went back home after class. Whenever we would ask him to come with us eating, after a school event or anything, he was always busy. He always had to be somewhere, or to meet someone. My first thought was that he had a girlfriend, which would have been the simplest and more normal explanation for someone who's always on his phone, always texting or talking to someone, or watching some silly video. But of course my overactive mind could not stick to that conclusion. I started thinking about fake IDs and fairy tales, because those were made life slightly more interesting. Everything out of the ordinary was either a fairy-tale or a mystery.

People told me that I could write books about those mysteries in my head. Maybe that's what I'm doing now. Maybe that story I had inside my head is actually real. At least he was real. He was cute, no one could deny that. His smile was the kind that could make any girl melt, and those dimples, ah those stupid dimples that make me shiver. Maybe I was the one obsessed, maybe I did like him. No matter what the case was, there was definitely something about him that didn't quite fit. He was not like any other guy. He was different. And even though different in most people's mind mean dangerous, in mine, different meant interesting. This different was definitely interesting.

My life went on, everyday seeing him, everyday having class with him. The classes were as boring as they always were, but at least now I had something more interesting to focus on than those useless lectures. I had something more intriguing in life. So each day, before or after class, or whenever our paths coincidentally crossed – and that happened a lot – I tried to initiate a conversation about anything I could find. I asked him about school, how he was doing, how he was getting used to a new school and new people. I asked him whether he made new friends, whether he'd rather be back to his hometown, whether he missed his friends. He never told me much. Lack of trust maybe, something I can really understand. Why would he trust me? Who was I to him anyways? I was only a weird lonely girl in school.

Nothing ever made sense when it came to me and him. But I kept on trying. I kept on hoping that the strange hi hello would somehow turn into some kind of friendship. Things did start to shape a little over the days. He smiled when he saw me from afar. We went from the weird girl and the new guy status to knowing each other. Although the friendship status was not there yet, things got less strange and cold. We felt more at ease, or at least I did.

However, I still couldn't unfold that mystery of his. All I noticed was that he never spoke of his family. His parents or any brother or sister. He never let anyone know anything about his roots, his origins. All that people knew was that he was from India. I know his name doesn't sound Indian but I didn't dare to ask him about that. Maybe I should, maybe that's where the mystery lies. I guess I'm going to have to find out by myself, and I will. How hard can it be? After all, teenagers are professional stalkers, aren't we?

4.  Coincidences

Iguess, no matter what subject you do, or which class you're in, class is always the most boring moment of the day. Can you believe sitting somewhere and hearing a guy speak of the same subject for 3 hours? Especially when that guy doesn't try to make things a bit more interesting. I was already bad in that subject, now add a mono-faced monotone teacher to it. What do you get? I don't know, I'm not good at math. However, my class attendance sheet has always been perfect. Never absent, never late, just not good at the subject. I was a good student in class.

Turned out that one day, we had an assignment. So basically our teacher only gave instructions on how to do the assignment. That was for an elective class: psychology. We had to choose a subject among a variety that is given to us. That subject had nothing to do with the IT core, but we had to do it. So I picked psychology as one of my electives, and strangely so did him. Psychology was quite a fascinating subject. The class itself was dull, but the subject was nice.

Anyways back to our assignment. It had to be done in pairs, and could we choose our partner? No. Otherwise, everyone would choose their friends and no one would actually socialise, or at least that is what the teacher said. He always kept on repeating the importance of socialising and making new friends and blah blah. I wanted to choke him every time he talked about that. For some unknown reason, people repeating stuff day after day always bugged me. Anyways, he decided to make the pairs himself based on the names that were present on the attendance list. He looked at the list, and picked two names out of the blue and these two people, who didn't know each other most of the time, had to work together. Good idea, right?

Imagine having to pair up about 100 students, that's crazy. But finally my name came up, after a long list of random strangers. My