Hey guys! I'm back with a whole new story and I hope you all love it. It's a lot different from my other stories, so enjoy my attempt at trying different things!

This story was inspired by 30 Seconds to Mars's album This is War, and there will be a quote from a song at the end of each chapter. This is a disclaimer for the whole story so I don't have to repeat myself, I do not own those quotes and I have given credit to the band by putting them in quotes and stating where it is from. So don't freak out.

Also! This story is MINE. I own all the characters and the entire plot. So if I find people copying it I will be very upset.

Enjoy!

Kent veered the vehicle sharply to the right.

Crash.

"Kent, you asshole!" Talia screamed, her head throbbing from the sudden impact.

"Well you should've held on tighter!" he exclaimed, swerving the van left and right to hit the men approaching the vehicle. They were almost out; Kent could smell the freedom ahead.

"I can't hold on!"

"Well, why not?" Kent was thoroughly annoyed with the interruptions. Couldn't she see that he was busy running over these bastards?

"I'm trying to kill these Mutts!" Talia put both hands up, revealing two sleek black 9mm. She aimed one at a man with sharp fangs - too big for his head - and the other at a man with wings for arms. Firing the guns, they both dropped dead, blood flowing out of their wounds.

"Nice shot, TJ!" a man with spiky, black hair complimented.

"Gary, this is hardly the time for compliments," Talia retorted. A bash on the side of the van caused her to fall into the wall once again. "Damn it, Kent! Can't you control this thing?"

"That wasn't me!" Kent exclaimed.

There was a small scream. "Talia!"

Both Gary and Talia turned to the cry. A small boy was caught by a man with talons that clawed at his leg.

"Forrest!" Talia rushed to her brother's side. She pointed one of her guns at the Mutt and fired. The Mutt let go of Forrest's leg, falling limp on the ground.

Gary knelt down and picked up Forrest, his leg bleeding only a bit, but enough to cause excruciating pain. Gary turned to the front and set the boy down. "Can you deal with this, Agatha?"

"Sure thing," Agatha took the boy and set him on her lap in the passenger seat.

Kent honked the horn. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "I can see the opening now!"

"That doesn't matter," Talia replied, still shooting down Mutts. "They're still going to hunt us down."

"Not if we get out fast enough," Gary pointed out.

She shot a Mutt with large, sharp horns down. "Once again, you stupid ape, that's not going to matter. We're going to be the only humans out there; it'll be easy for them to trace our scent."

"We'll worry about that later!" Agatha screamed, stroking Forrest's brown hair to comfort him. "Let's just get out of this place."

"Hold on, everyone!" Kent called. He put all his weight into the gas pedal and the van sped by all the Mutts chasing them.

Gary frowned. "Oh no…"

The opening was closing; the light that filled the building was disappearing.

"No you don't!" Talia stood up and shot the Mutts controlling the door. They fell pathetically on their spiked-backs. Fortunately, the garage was only halfway closed, giving the van enough room to escape.

Everyone let out a scream of anticipation. With a screech of two metals colliding, the van escaped the building. There was a sudden rush of relief throughout the vehicle that Kent almost forgot that they were still being chased. "Where to now?" he screamed, flooring it.

"Fresh water," replied Kent's wife, Agatha. "We need to find a natural fresh water reserve."

"Why?" asked Gary.

"Folter, the corporation, had to create a weakness, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to control the Mutts. Fresh water covers less than three percent of the Earth's surface, so it can be concentrated and managed by Folter."

"Otherwise the Mutts could turn against them," Talia added.

Agatha nodded. "Precisely."

"But then why are we going toward the thing that Folter is controlling?" asked Gary.

"Folter can't possibly control every small stream of fresh water," Agatha stated. "If we stay the night at a small freshwater river we'll stay safe against the Mutts. It'll keep them away from us while we go to a reserve of fresh water."

"What about the people, though? Won't they just follow us and find where we are?"

Agatha shook her head at Gary's constant questions. "Weren't you paying attention? The building we were locked up in was controlled by the Mutts. Well, mainly controlled by them; there was probably only one human from Folter in there."

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"It means that the news of our escape will take a while to reach the head of the corporation. They won't take any immediate action until they inform the boss."

"So we won't be followed by them," Gary stated, eyeing Talia with a smirk.

"Whatever! Even if you had known that before then you wouldn't have tried as hard to get farther away," Talia replied.

Gary stayed quiet, knowing what she had said was true.

"So where's the closest fresh water reserve?" Kent asked, the van taking a sharp right.

Crash.

"I hate you, Kent."

He laughed. "Talia, I couldn't really care less."

"The Great Lakes," stated Agatha, her great blue eyes glaring back and forth at Talia and Kent.

"Where are we now?" Forrest asked, seemingly recovered from the Mutt attack. His brown hair was in disarray, but he paid no attention to it.

"I'd say where somewhere in…" she tapped her chin thoughtfully, "southern California."

"What?" Gary gaped. "That's a two day trip, non-stop."

"It's totally gonna be longer than that," Talia shook her head. "We're bound to meet more Mutts on the way there."

"But you just said - "

"Gary that doesn't mean there aren't going to be those few Mutts who think they can handle a situation like this on their own. This is probably the most excitement they've had in months, they're bound to jump on it," she explained.

Forrest squirmed a bit, obviously disturbed by his sister's pessimism. He looked down and saw that his leg stopped bleeding, leaving a stain on his grey sweatpants. Lifting up his pant leg, he found that blood coated his dark skin. Wincing, he put his pant leg back down and looked out the window at the trees passing by.

Gary glanced around at everyone's clothes; the grey sweatpants and shirt they all wore were torn and stained with blood. He turned his head and saw only an empty road behind them. "They aren't following us."

"Didn't we just go over this?" Talia closed her green eyes and crossed her arms. "It would be reckless for them to constantly chase us. They'll be back with a plan they can successfully execute."

"I know," he replied. "I just can't believe we're free."

"We're out of Folter…" came Forrest's high voice of realization.

A sudden breath of relief filled the van. Tears stung at Agatha's old eyes; Kent kept the vehicle at a high speed, but leaned back and put a hand through his grey hair; Forrest smiled and gazed longingly at the trees in the distance; Gary leaned his head back and sighed; and Talia, who rarely felt emotion at all, looked down and let the corner of her lip go up.

Though everyone wished that one moment of peace could last forever, it was Kent that brought everyone back to reality. "How long do you think till they catch up to us?"

"Not sure," Agatha responded. "But we shouldn't stop moving until we find a fresh water stream."

"What's the point of going to the Great Lakes if we could just stay by a stream forever?" asked Gary.

Talia glanced up and ruffled her bushy, red hair. "We need to stop them. We're the first people ever to escape Folter, and with this opportunity we need end this. If we get to their biggest freshwater reserve and destroy it we'll bring them down."

Gary furrowed his brow. "But how is that going to stop them?"

"Because, dumbass, once we get rid of the one thing Folter created to control the Mutts they'll be running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Without that weakness, the Mutts wouldn't know who to listen to; and it might make them turn on Folter if this was a perfect world."

"Talia's right," said Kent, surprisingly agreeing with her.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Agatha. "We're only five people. Do you really think that five people can take out a corporation like Folter?"

He veered the vehicle right towards the trees. "Are you kidding? You have me as the transporter. Plus, all of the plans you devise, Agatha, always work out. You led us to freedom, didn't you?"

Agatha blushed.

"Also, I'm the best shooter you guys could ever wish for," added Talia matter-of-factly. "And my little brother's traps are brilliant."

"Hey, don't forget about me," Gary pretended to sound offended. "I'm the greatest fighter in the world. All that time locked up really let me work on my muscles." He flexed to emphasize his statement.

"Well, you weren't that much help back there, were you?" Talia crossed her arms.

"You wouldn't give me a chance! You kept shooting all of the Mutts!"

"Not my problem," she shook her head.

"Can you guys stop bickering for a moment?" Kent called. "I can see a break in the trees. Do you think that's a stream?"

Surely enough there was a small break in the forest. Everybody looked ahead to see the haven they approached. They would be able to get some sleep; a night without constant interruptions of having to fulfill duties, or suffer an extreme torture that gave the Mutts pleasure. Forrest got up from Agatha's lap and smiled so big it seemed his face would be torn in half.

"Can you guys believe it?" he asked. "We can finally relax!"

"I'm not relaxing until those Mutts are good and dead," Talia snapped.

"Oh, come off it," said Gary. "We can just enjoy one night to ourselves, then we can stop them."

"You're three years my senior. You're supposed to be a little bit smarter than I am about this," she retorted.

"Well, I guess that's not the case. If you want to stress out and only keep your mind on killing fine with me."

"Can you guys stop?" Agatha looked back. "We can worry about everything later."

Talia opened her mouth to argue, but a question from Forrest silenced her. "Talia, can you do me a favor?"

"What, Forrest?"

"Can you stop killing? Please…?"

"You may only be eleven years old, little brother," she replied, "but you have to grow up soon and realize that all lives can't be saved."

"You're only saying that because you don't like them."

Talia scoffed. "And you do?"

"No…but that doesn't mean I want to kill them," Forrest pouted.

"Then you don't have to," she lifted her gun and cocked it. "Just leave that to me."

"Just give up," Gary interrupted once he saw Forrest's mouth open once more. "Look," he pointed. "I can already see the stream."

Forrest spun around and smiled at the upcoming stream. "What are we going to do once we get there?"

"Stay the night," Agatha shrugged. "We can figure out our next moves in the morning."

Everyone nodded in agreement except for Talia. She wished that everyone would realize that time was precious and that it shouldn't be wasted with relaxing, they had plenty of rest in Folter - sitting around, doing nothing…despite the constant torture they endured. Surely the endless pain they received should've made them stronger.

"Here we are," Kent stopped the van and parked it parallel with the stream. "How far away do you think we are from Folter?"

"I'd say a good fifty miles or so," Agatha shrugged. "You drove very fast."

"Alright," Gary got up and looked outside, running a hand through his spiky, black hair. "We should have someone look out for a couple hours while we sleep. Then someone can relieve them later on in the night."

"I'll do the first shift," Talia stood. "I could get some real training done."

"Don't make a lot of noise!" Kent called as she left the van. "Last thing we need is to get caught!"

With a flick of her wrist, Talia shut the back door.

"Don't worry," said Gary. "If some Mutts do come, then she'll just kill them on the spot."

"That's what I'm worried about," Kent sighed.

A small figure of a child with flaming red hair stood at the top of the stairs, staring at the couple fighting below.

"Owen, how long are you gonna keep this up?" a high voice echoed through the halls.

"There are rumors, Adena," a man's voice replied. "Rumors that something's coming and I just want the kids prepared."

"Prepared?" Mrs. Jones scoffed, her short, strawberry blonde hair pulled back. She rocked back and forth to calm the baby in her arms. "Talia is only ten years old! She has no business going out to the shooting range every afternoon and evening!"

Talia put a strand of her red hair behind her ear. Personally, she found those trips to the shooting range entertaining and incredibly rewarding. She had something against the boys in her class. Hopefully, Talia could deflate some of their big heads.

"But Adena," Mr. Jones's voice was pleading, "you have to understand - "

She narrowed her eyes. "Oh I understand all right. You're going to infect the kids with ideas of monsters and evils that don't exist! These rumors that you've heard are only the product of some lunatic who wants recognition before the world will supposedly end."

"Please, I've heard things, seen things that prove that something is coming," he kept his voice steady, though his eyes glistened with frustrated tears.

"Where have you heard and seen these things?"

"At work."

This was the wrong thing to say.

"At work?" shouted Mrs. Jones. "At work?"

"Yes at work," Mr. Jones replied, a little hurt. "What's wrong with work?"

"I don't think Folter is very reliable," she shook her head. "The whole company is going downhill."

He let out some frustration by ruffling his brown, messy hair. "Folter didn't tell me anything, Adena. I found everything out from my co-workers and myself."

Mrs. Jones thought about arguing back, but decided to humor him. "And what have you guys found?"

Mr. Jones sighed in relief at his wife's curiosity. "There's a whole part of the building underground."

"Like a basement?" she scoffed.

"No, not like a basement!" Mr. Jones shouted. "It was like another floor, another building under Folter."

"Well, how did you find this place?"

"We found it totally by accident," he continued. "Me and a few buddies of mine were taking the lift to the basement to move some stuff around, but the elevator got jammed and actually dropped a few feet. The doors were still open and we saw another part of the factory." Mr. Jones's green eyes looked dead for a second. "There were bodies," he choked out, "and vials of different colored liquids. It was…huge…like one hundred football fields. Maybe more."

Talia couldn't decide what was more surprising: The fact that her mother permitted her father to actually finish a story, or that her usually fearless father looked extremely frightened.

"And what do you think it is?" Mrs. Jones asked, trying to keep a calm façade.

"I think," he replied, "that Folter is planning an attack."

"Time to escape the clutches of a name. No this is not a game; it's just the beginning."

-Escape, 30 Seconds to Mars

Confused? Interested? Excited for the next chapter? The only way I can know what you think is if you review! So please do so!

I will try to update once a week, but with school and everything it'll be pretty hard to do that, so please be patient.

Well, until next time!

~Lynn Sorcha~