Well, here is chapter one.. But I'm kindof at a standstill as to where to take this. so.... any help brainstorming or storyboarding would be greatly appreciated... Chapter One – For One More Day. Nail woke slowly, his eyes adjusting to the harsh light cast by the uncovered bulb hanging from the earthen ceiling, though his body stayed underneath the blanket. It had itched, at first, but now its weight and roughness comforted him…helped him keep the thought that he was safe. A single hand reached out, testing the temperature of the room, then retreated to the warmth promised by the blanket. Cold. He sighed, and another hand ventured out, grabbing a pair of rough, worn socks, and going back under the blanket with its prize. A sigh…a voice… “Up yet, Nail?” Sarah…She was a grown-up, but she was different from the others…She was nice, and somehow still had her personality…The place had a habit of making people incredibly stiff…Unfeeling. But she was always happy, or sad…Never indifferent, and she always had a way of making Nail feel better when he was down. Lately she had been walking closer to him, and spending more time with him, as if she was going to lose him soon, or something. Nail muttered sleepily. “Yeah, I’m awake…” He could hear Sarah’s light chuckle. “Alright then, hurry…” He heard her pull in a breath, like she had just been crying. “The others are still waiting for you.” Nail’s eyes widened and he leapt from his cot, underwear and half a sock adorning his skinny frame…Embarrassed, Nail could tell Sarah was stifling a laugh. Blushing red (as most proud children do when embarrassed) Nail dressed, wincing as he pulled the woolen shirt over his head. Itchy. “Okay, I’m ready.” A smile graced Sarah’s face, and was quickly replaced by a sad shadow that placed a deep fear in Nail’s gut…She sighed, and that fear settled itself there…Got comfortable. She attempted a fake smile at him. She failed. “Nail…Come eat breakfast, then go outside with the other children.” The feeling he had been hoping was false before, became very real with the look of defeat that was resting upon Sarah’s soft features. He sighed, shuffled along the earthen floors (they were surprisingly smooth) into the room where the children ate. It was small, with a makeshift stove, and two termite-ridden tables…Nail had once overheard the grown-ups say that it was sad, that all of the children only filled one of the tables…The child sat, and let his shaggy, shoulder length blonde hair hide his face from the few children that didn’t go outside. He was the newest, and the others had developed a rather strong hatred towards him. He was just another mouth to feed, and another place for food to go that didn’t reach their own mouths. He didn’t mind being alone though. The food wasn’t bad, either, for being stolen. It was what the adults…the ‘scavengers’ could get ahold of from the ruins of the city above them… Nail had heard stories. Mutated humans, not quite killed through the process of radiation…Animals, driven mad by the sirens, mutated…savage. The sirens…They had scared him when he had first come here, and he wondered some nights how in the world he had never heard them before. Over the nights, he had found a comforting rhythm to fall asleep to… He wasn’t afraid anymore. Not of the sirens, at least…Nail took his last mite of oatmeal – shuddered as he swallowed – and went to put the steel bowl and spoon into a large tub. The older kids would wash them later…The boy wound his way through the tunnels with the other children, looking at everything he could as they crowded their way to the surface, unknowingly imitating a group of ants going to hunt… The light hurt. It assaulted their eyes, made them raise their hands, and flinch. A man’s voice, rough and deep, cut through the avid silence. “You five need to come to me… NOW!” The last word was barked as an order, so the children scrambled to the hulking figure, looking up at the one who had spoken to them. Nail looked up as well…and his stomach plummeted. The training process had begun. The bodies of five men lay in front of the group, still set with their full gear, though blood stained certain parts of it, and the smell of death hung around their bodies like some telltale funeral parade…Noah’s eyes skimmed across the blank, lifeless faces, and as his eyes caught on one, his breath caught in his throat, and he momentarily lost track of it. He had known one of them…Adam. Adam had been a good person…and an even better hunter. And now, as the boy’s eyes lay upon his friend’s dead body, and his eyes threatened to fill with tears, his mind spoke to him. He had been invincible. Wha- Who could have done this to him? Will…Will it get me too? The man spoke again, returning Nail’s mind to reality. Upon looking about, he realized the others had lined up alongside him, each at a different body. The man cleared his throat…Looked at him. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” Oh. He hadn’t heard anything. He looked up, once again embarrassed, as the rest of the group snickered at him until they were silenced by a glare from the huge man before them. Surprisingly, he smiled at Nail, and laughed gently. “I understand, son…This is a lot to take in, and you’re the youngest here…” His gaze became stern once again, and his voice rose…hardened. “But I’ll only repeat myself once, so listen this time.” Nail nodded quickly. “I’m Griff.” His name made each of the children’s eyes widen. Everyone knew Griff. Or knew of him, at least. He was head of the gathering party…He fed the entire population. “You five are the next generation of Hunters.” He grinned, and chuckled lowly. “If you can make it through training.” A step…the crunching grind of gravel. “Each of the bodies before you is a person that died trying to keep you—” He pointed to a boy whom Nail knew as Patrix. “Safe. And trying to get you—” This time he pointed at Nail. “Food.” There was finality in that word, Nail noticed. A sort of hope? Longing? He wondered. “You five are going to take their weapons…Learn to use them.’ His face fell slowly. “You’ll learn how to find food, and test its safety…How to return home in one piece, and keep anything nasty from following you home.” The grin reappeared, and Griff waved an arm back to the place that was home to everyone. “You’ll begin tomorrow. Go and enjoy your childhood for one more day.” Nail, however, stayed behind, knelt beside Adam’s body, still fighting tears he knew he couldn’t let loose. Crying was weakness…He glanced at Griff. “How did…” A sniffle. “How did Adam die?” His own look of surprise seemed to set a gentle smile upon the man’s face. Nail’s voice seemed so small…so insignificant out here. And he supposed it was, for now…Griff knelt, and his smile softened further until it became a look of sympathy that most didn’t think he had. His voice had softened also. “Adam died bringing back the largest payout of food we’ve had in quite awhile. Months, even.” He sighed, and wiped his brow. It had been incredibly hot for the past several months, and it was getting to everyone. “It’ll feed the entire colony for…” He continued, but the words trailed off in Nail’s mind, and he heard nothing but his own thoughts. He isn’t answering the question…Nail’s fists clenched, as did his jaw. He was really fighting his anger, and he was losing. My best friend…my only friend…He’s dead, and all this man can do is sit here and talk about how much food he brought in? How great of a scavenger he was? Nail came back to reality to hear Griff still rambling on about how great a hunter and a scavenger Adam was. “Kid, Adam was amazing…I—” “I don’t care about any of that!” Nail’s voice finally cut through the heavy droning of Griff, and the screaming of the heat, startling the huge man enough that he stumbled a little, nearly falling from the pile of stones on which they both were. The child stood, and let go of Adam’s hand, his feet carrying him towards Griff, his voice still raised. “He was my best friend! The only one I had! And you can’t even tell me how he died!” At this last word Nail’s voice faltered, but only the slightest bit. The tears he had been holding back now fell freely. He wasn’t afraid of them, anymore, either. “ I don’t care about what he did for this place. I don’t care about what anyone thinks about him. He was the closest thing to family I had here.” Nail had finally reached the man that had only a few minutes ago been talking with such authority. “Now I want to know what killed him, so I can go out and show it that we don’t just hide. That we aren’t just insects to be crushed underfoot. Tell me. Because I know that I can do what no one else has been brave enough to do before.” Griff smiled slightly after Nail was done speaking, and chuckled lowly as he stood once again. “You’re strong willed, and you have a passion for what we are going to be sending you out to do.” He tilted his head in Nail’s direction. “So I suppose I could tell you what it is that killed Adam.” Once again he knelt, staring into the boy’s dark blue eyes, and for an instant he caught a glimpse of himself in their depths. The boy was smart for his age… “Adam was killed by The Children of the Primal Despair.”