the string with only one end (i had no choice)

Chapter One: no kid should have to get used to this

It's a miracle that Alby survived the first month. He was alone, in this terrifying place. The first 4 days he didn't sleep, until he finally cried himself to sleep the 5th night, in the freezing cold night next to a tree. If he hadn't found that dead squirrel the next morning, he probably would have starved to death. The noises from the Outside terrified him. Through those dark doors that opened every morning, and closed every night. The screeching, the clicks and creaks of whatever the hell was out there. Alby never intended on walking through those doors soon. Right now, the goal was simple.

Survive.

After two weeks, he built the garden, with the potato and broccoli seeds that were with him in that box he came up with. Miraculously, it worked and Alby finally started to go to sleep with a satisfied stomach. He got better at hunting too, he made wooden spears and managed to kill squirrels and bunnies, one time he even caught a deer. He made a blanket from its hide, it made for warmer nights.

Yet with food, a better shelter and some sense of safety, Alby still cried himself to sleep every night, hugging his knees, wondering why was this happening to him.

Why couldn't he remember a damn thing? He was alone, he desperately wanted to miss his family, but he couldn't remember a family to miss. He wanted answers, and those answers felt so close. All he could remember was his name.

He felt like he was so close to recalling everything, but he never did. It drove him insane.

After a month, everything changed. There was a blaring siren, and the ground shook. Alby woke in a cold sweat, panic seizing his chest, he gasped in the cold night air. A flashing light shone from the same crate that he got out of that horrible day. Alby saw the crate open, illuminated eerily in the night. Alby reached through the darkness for his spear, gripping it tightly as he walked towards the crate. He thought of the noises in the night, the noises of the Outside, and he imagined a terrifying spider crawling out of that box. Alby steeled himself as he walked closer. He heard a scream, and he fought the urge to run. But it wasn't a scream of some beast, it was a human. A child.

He ran over to the box and looked down. He saw a boy, dark brown skin, short and scrawny, and dirty, though Alby was no better. His eyes were wide, full of tears. Gasping for air, he started at the spear in Alby's hand, the one Alby has instinctively pointed at the boy. Alby lowered the spear, but not completely.

"Who are you," said Alby, keeping his voice as level as possible.

"I-I don't know," gasped the kid, and he stumbled to his feet, his face glistening with sweat and tears. Alby glanced down and saw blood on his pants, and his shaking arm clutched his thigh, "I don't know where I am," he sobbed.

Alby dropped his spear, deciding to trust this boy for now, "Calm down, you'll remember your name soon. I'll tell you everything I know, just calm down."

The boy didn't calm down, somehow he started breathing harder. "I don't remember anything, I'm so cold and my leg hurts and-"

"Just shut up," said Alby, regretting the words after, but the kid stopped talking. Alby lowered the blunt end of the spear down for the kid to hold on to, "hold on the stick, I'll pull you up."

He nodded and grabbed on, and Alby pulled him up, the kid was light.

"Ow," the boy winced and grabbed Alby's shoulder for support. Alby saw the wound on his thigh now, it was stained dark red, it soaked through the dirty jeans he was wearing.

"What happened?" asked Alby.

He waved him off, "It doesn't matter, I'll be fine, I just got cut by something in the box."