The Deciding Games

Chapter 1

I sat there silently, waiting for Ella to finish braiding my thin brown hair. Ella is my mother but calling her that is a sign of weakness. You can't show weakness. Gangs rule this city now, and soon I will be in one too. Right now I'm in the Trypinx gang, the family gang, with Ella. We live in an old apartment building, on floor five out of seventeen. This building is the only thing that unifies the Trypinx gang considering it's the one place the families can be raised safely after parents leave their real gangs.

The bad thing about this apartment building is how old it is- cracked walls, holes in the floor, charred and peeling wallpaper, and the list goes on. If you walk out my door, turn right, and there's a hole in the floor a few rooms down that leads to the fourth floor where my best friend Tyler lives. We have been best friends since the day we discovered we were born in the same month, that was also the day I started calling him Ty.

There was a pull as Ella finished my braid. I stand up, "I'm going to see Ty."

Ella looks up at me from the chair she is sitting on, "Be careful Camie." I turn away to walk out the door, not giving a second thought of my moms wishes.

Walking down the hall towards the hole, I ignore the screaming coming from a door inches away from me. The scream is high pitched, continuesly sounding thruogh the thin walls. Suddenly it stops, quickly silenced. Knowing that who ever made the woman scream is done with her makes me fasten my pace.

When I get to the hole I jump down to the fourth floor skillfully, considering I do this all the time it's not a challenge anymore. Walking down the hallway I see his door is open. I call to him with our usual sign: two clicks with my mouth. Almost as if I'm calling to a stray dog.

For a moment i didn't think he'll respond but then I hear his answering clicks coming from his room as I walk through the door. When I get to the room I see he is just now getting up, I must have woken him. I lean up against the wall as he finds a shirt on the floor and pulls it over his musclular back. He still wearing his worn out jeans from yesterday.

His window is open, letting the morning sunshine sift through the dust moving through the room. Ty turns around and starts walking my way, passing the open window. The sun glints off his wavy blond hair and he almost trips from the light that shines into his eyes. Passing the window he says "Let's go Camie." We leave his apartment and quickly walk down the stairs to meet our friends.

"They're at Mackey D's right?" I ask.

"Shhhhh!" he says with a finger to his lips, looking around at the people walking near us. "You don't want others to know of our usual spot...and yes, we're meeting them there." Ty turns forward again and continues to walk.

Mackey D's is the usual spot we meet, undiscovered but by my group of friends. The McDonalds is scarred from its past; no roof, burnt black walls, and cracked tiles. I look up to at gray sky, the only color showing is from a red, glowing electronic message. Its grown faint but I can still see it clearly. 'New York news: GOVERNMENT HAS FALLEN -blink - WORLD IN RUINS- blink- PLAN 34197 IN ACTION.' I remember the first day I realized those words in the sky. I was walking down the street with my mom when I suddenly looked up. I must have been 5 years old but I still remember asking, "Ella?"

"Yes Camie?" she looked down at me and saw I was looking straight up, pointing at the sky. She grabbed my hand, ensuring I didn't fall.

"What do those words mean?" We kept walking for a few seconds until she stopped and looked up at the sky too.

"No one knows Camie. They had so much technology and luckily we still have a lot of it. Whatever happened must have been huge." She paused and started walking forward again. "Could've been disease, a nuclear war, or anything..."

I was suddenly nudged by Ty, waking me up from my day dream. "Camie?" Ty says, slowly drawing out my name. "Hello?" Waving a hand in front of my face, I finally see the annoyed expression on his face.

"Oh ok I'm here." I say letting him know I am listening now. Ty hesitates, looking like he wants to say something but then were walking into Mackey D's so he stops himself. Together we walk to the table our friends are sitting at. I'm so familiar with the place that I step over the cracks in the floor and ignore the black and brown spotted walls as I walk towards them. Ty and I get to the table and relax back into the hard, familiar plastic chairs. I greet all my friends sitting here with me.

First is Jax, he has short brown hair and hard brown eyes. His tanned skin brings out the scar he has going across his jawbone. He will not tell any of us where he got it, but we've all got our guesses. Jax is the leader of our small group of 5. His parents used to be big leaders of their gang until they left to join the Trypinx gang to raise him. He knows he needs to live up to them and eventually lead a big, strong gang.

Next is Kat, she is the only other girl in the group besides me. Jax wouldn't let just anyone join the group, so she's definitely got her reason straight: she is the best fist fighter I've ever seen. When you see her fight you can see the challenging glint in her eyes and the cruel smile she has on her tiny face. And then your down, wondering what happened. There's another thing about her; she is smaller than any of us. That helps her in the fights she gets into since she can move fast and surprise the poor other kid. Although she may be the best fighter, she has her disadvantage: she isn't too smart.

The smartest kid in our group is Zac. The most recent to join our group since Kat brought him in one day claiming he knew everything. Zac is quiet but useful when he needs to be. He will probably be put into one of the smarter gangs.

"Hey, yo! Dudes!" Jax says, pulling us from our greetings. We all quiet down and wait for him to begin talking.