I have been working on a story for some time now, though I'm afraid I've come to a bit of a writer's block, and was wondering if anybody here could help. Basically, the protagonist and his father live in a forested town and cut wood for a living. Every year, a group called the Traders come and sell their merchandise. This year, one of the men offers the protagonist a job in his caravan. Thrilled at the prospect of raising enough money for himself and his father to move away from their small town, the protagonist leaves with the Traders to their next stop. On their way there, however, the Traders are ambushed by a thieving group of bandits who take the whole of their supplies. (The leader of these bandits will later become a significant character.) Dissapointed and without a stock, the group heads back to the town they originated in. They realise that the only way they would be continue in this year's endeavors is if someone was to enter the quarantined city of Sessadan and retrieve some stock from their previous headquarters. The protagonist volunteers to do so and enters the town from the sewers. (The city was quarantined after a plague was released, causing those in the city to become vampire-like creatures. The government then blew up the two bridges that lead to and from the city. Similar to I Am Legend, I suppose.) After a long journey in, our hero follows a map made for him to the Traders' headquarters. He takes with him as much as he can carry, but on his way out is ambushed and kidnapped by one of the few human survivors left in the city, a military man called Doakes. Doakes demands the protagonist to show him how to get out of the city. Obviously the hero has no qualms in helping this man, and does so without hesitation. Now I don't know where to go next. The two get out of the city, but I need a hook to get the hero to not go back to the Traders and instead go with Doakes back to the capital. I considered making Doakes a villain (but I'd rather not) or having the heroes hometown burn down, but both seemed a bit cliche to me. If anyone has any ideas, please share them.
Maybe one of the bandits overheard the Traders' conversation and the leader of the bandits sent two of his (her?) men to follow the MC. When he entered the quarantined city they waited outside, and when Doakes and the MC got out the two bandits ambushed them (Both the MC and Doakes were famished and fatigued because they barely escaped the city, because they were being followed). They are then taken to the leader of the bandits, and something happens that they swear service to the bandit for a year and a day (woohoo! The jack-pot number). That's all that comes to my mind.
Maybe Doakes is a villain. Perhaps he convinces the MC to take the stuff and sell it himself; split the profits between the two of them. The capital probably has a good market to sell in. Maybe Doakes is a bandit and takes the MC back to the other bandits who originally took the stuff. Just as they're about to execute the MC, Doakes has a change of heart and they both bust out of there together. Maybe the Traders have gone on, assuming the MC was killed inside the quarantined city. The capital seems like as good a place as any to begin a search for them. (Perhaps they never find the Traders again.) Maybe aliens land, Jesus comes back, and all hell breaks loose.
