Cruel World (The Tribe Book 1)

Prologue

The ominous black vans swarm the city streets, urging everyone to stay inside and wait for further instructions from officials.

Inside one house in the suburbs, a teenage girl of 16 watches the television, terrified, as it broadcasts information on the pending evacuation of underage children. Her parents sit beside her, begging her to go as she pleads to stay with them, afraid of leaving.

She jolts up in bed from her dream, hearing her own distant cry of refusal before being forced to evacuate. Having come back when all the adults were gone, she sits in her bed as a tall boy walks in. He comforts her before telling her they have to leave because one of the tribes from the city, the Roosters, are approaching to move in. He suggests they head towards Sector 10, the suggestion rebutted with her saying that sector is run by the Locos, but he informs her they have no choice as the Roosters are nearly there. They head out to the city, hiding from the Roosters in the bushes and tall uncut grass as they scout for somewhere to stay. They make their way through the country side along the coast and reach the outskirts of the city near nightfall, slowed down by her heavy protruding stomach indicative of the late stage of her pregnancy, before he leaves her inside an abandoned train tunnel near a stream as he scouts further into the city for a safe place.

In the city, a different, much younger girl no older than 9 or 10 wanders the streets of the city alone, teddy bear in hand, following a stray cat and attempting to coerce it near her. The nightmarish echo of police sirens grows nearer, as the Locos approach in an old cop car, graffitied so heavily you'd never know it used to be a cop car if it weren't for the siren.

Two others rollerblade their way through the streets, one girl around 15 with her hair in several buns, and a boy of 14 with naturally olive skin and large brown eyes. The pair are making their way out of the city and towards the country side far from the city where it is safer for them. They hide behind stacks of cardboard boxes, waiting for the Locos to drive past so they can make their escape, when they spot the stray girl in the middle of the street petting a cat, unaware of what was approaching, in her own little world. As the Locos approach with speed, the older girl races into the middle of the street and grabs the girl, herding her to the side of the street behind another stack of cardboard boxes, effectively hiding from the troupe of Locos patrolling the streets.