Core Narrative 4

## **The Survivalist Tribes: A Brief Peace by Alex Ruecker**

A young pregnant mother is about to give birth in the village and only a small group of survivalists are there with her. She gives birth to twins, and the first one that comes out is a beautiful baby boy. The second one appears to have some kind of deformity. The Child is thought to have some kind of powers, but some in the group are worried about the danger this child will bring to them. The Child is taken away from the mother by a man, and taken out into the fields and killed.

Years later, as the first child Bret grows up, he begins to learn the truth of the harsh reality of the wasteland. He hears stories of Evil groups of thugs who come through into towns and steal children they believe to have abilities as recruits. He grows up hearing about stories of children born with diseases and horrible deformities. He grows up hearing of the horrors of a great civil war taking place in the world, and places he should not go. Bret discovers or believes that he might be different as well, and that there may be a possibility he may have powers. He begins to fear of anyone else knowing about it, and worries about the effects of it, as he believes it to be a disease. The mother tells bret about his lost brother, and how dangerous the world can be for those who are different.

One day, the village is raided by a group of gangsters, coming to take whatever they want from the survivalist group, as they didn’t agree to band together with other survivalists due to the uncertainty of the mother, feeling that they would want to take bret away. Left with little defense, the raiders come in and take what they want, killing the boys mother and burning down the village. Bret does what he can to defend his home, but is no match for the groups of raiders. Their leader, Neris, stops the assault and has bret captured, as they found what they were looking for. This group of raiders came to antagonize the village and stress its inhabitants in their search of super powered people. Thus growing their ranks and potentially adding a Super weapon on their side against other tribes and giving them a leg up in the civil war.

As Bret is taken in, years pass. The group of raiders show themselves to be mere individuals and independent people, some whom are quite caring. Bret bonds with one of them in particular who has some visible deformities named Zayn. This man has a low level of powers but is a particularly skilled fighter and a brilliant strategist. The other raiders show him respect, and he shows a kindness to the boy out of empathy for the boys condition. He teaches him a bit about acceptance and how to use his powers. One night, when bret is about 13, a group of Mutants attack the settlement and battle the raiders, saving the boy in the process. Bret then grows up in this group of Heroes, and hones his powers over time, becoming a great and quite powerful Mutant. He dreams of going and stopping the civil war, and saving as many people as he can.

## Book 1 Synopsis

### Act 1

Bret grows up with his mother and small village, and the village is raided by anarchists, he is then taken and learns how to use his powers

### Act 2

Learning to survive in a group with killers and raiders, and how to develop powers.

### Act 3

The raiders come back to retrieve Bret for his powers, and a fight ensues that results in Bret using his powers to defeat a large group of raiders and fight for his freedom

## Book 2 Synopsis

### Act 1

Bret is now a young man, and is becoming more comfortable with his powers and living as part of a team. The team hears of a survivalist group that has a young boy with powers.

### Act 2

The heroes go to save the young Dark Child, and raiders beat them there, having their own powers to boot. Bret is separated from the group, and is saved by the bandit from the first book. Zayn tells him of how the civil war is affecting the larger US and how dire the situation is for the raiders.

### Act 3

The Dark Child is saved in a final showdown that wipes out the majority of the anarchist groups, and capture Neris

## Book 3 Synopsis

### Act 1

The heroes are now putting out fires here and there to wipe out the last of the anarchists, as well as Bret and Zayn

### Act 2

The heroes join the fight, and try to use their powers to stop the fighting

### Act 3

The Heroes battle and successfully defeat the leaders, achieving the first time of peace in years.

**Genre:** Young Adult Novels

## **Characters**

### **Protagonist:**

* Brett Mardock, a young boy at the start, but a powerful Darkchild by the end of the series. He

### **Antagonist:**

* Neris, The Leader of the Anarchist group who is a dark child himself. He has the ability to control the thoughts of others, which has led to him gaining control of hundreds of Survivalists, Anarchists, Traditionalists and Nationalists to create his own faction of Raiders.
* The outlaw groups, the Raiders who wage war on one another and forge anarchy on the rest of the people in the survivalist groups. They hope to gather enough darkchildren to take Texas and fight for the destruction of the Two main political groups.

### **Supporting Characters:**

* The Survivalist tribes, who fend for themselves and whom the protagonist has a great affinity for and wishes to save
* Zayn, who fights more for himself and his own survival, and is more of a rogue type (Wolverine, Punisher, Stryder) he finds the boy and cares about him deeply, and believes him to be dead until finding him later in the mutant hero group. Then deciding to leave the bandits and try to be a hero, although it doesn’t work out in the end.

## **Locations**

* Oklahoma (The Survivalist Nomadic Tribes)
* Texas and Oklahoma Border
* Las Vegas (The Raider Stronghold)

## **Additive Comprehension**

* "The Legend of Zayn" is an interactive Quest that appears in The Fire Inside MMO where characters learn more about the history of the character as well as his motivations
* Neris is ultimately defeated in the conclusion of the third book, but is able to sustain his life-force by living as an infectious dark personality and thought of various other characters. This darkness takes shape and impacts the decisions of Eli McClain, who ends up being a serious antagonist during the Chinese Civil War
* A small group of remnant anarchists during the USA and Chinese war worship Neris as being a god in a time without powers. This is explored in texts that can be found in The Fire Inside MMO.

## **Demographics**

### **Platform**

Young Adult Novels

The Young Adult Novelization market is a huge resource in 2018, and has been for years, producing such great hits as the Harry Potter, Twilight, Divergent and Hunger Games series’, each of which has managed to spawn billion dollar franchises. These novels help to diversify the market and get kids nad younger audiences invested in the storyworld and the gritty concepts that will be explored in more depth in the major films and other medium explorations. This helps funnel new audiences into the larger group of fans and can revitalize the market from standard demographics.

## See Also

**Core Narratives**

**Ancillary Narratives**

**Return To Micro-Stories**