1.

I got up with darkness flooding my room, I sleep in the basement, no windows, no light, all I have is my bed. Or at least that’s what most people think. The basement is a small room, and next to my bed there is stairs, my dad yells down to me, “get me some breakfast!”, and I walk upstairs and do so. I made pancakes, the kitchen smelled like smokes, like usual, me dad was in bed still, he won’t get out until 12. Once I baked the pancakes I placed them beside my fathers bed and went back down to my room.

Beside my bed, there was a picture of my mom, she had died went I was eight, it was taped flat down on the side table, it was some times slide off the table when it wasn’t taped, because my dad would slam the door after he went out. I walked over to the wall facing my bed, traced it with my fingers with a careful hand until I felt a dent, when I did I pulled the dent with all my might.
The door opened.

Light shined into my eyes, the room was all white, with clothes, weapons and words on the walls.
I put on a pair of shorts and a shirt with the sleeves ripped off. I am thirteen , and discovered this room when I was five, my mother showed it to me, never telling dad, it was our secret. At this time, you might and should be wondering, why does a thirteen year old girl have a secret room with guns in it? well, it’s a confusing story, but I could try to explain.

When I was five a sickness broke out, it made people go crazy, killing, eating, and attacking people, or sometimes they just stand around and do nothing, it’s like all the sane parts of their brain were erased and replaced with something horrible, sometimes the people who caught this flu would just die, right then and there, that’s what happened to my mom. Adults had a better chance of catching the flu then children. I don’t know how my dad had lasted this long, may be all the smokes and beer.

The streets weren’t safe anymore, no one would go on them with out a weapon, also less food, since most farmers died, so this caused fighting among people, killing, the children stayed away from this, but that’s how most people died too. We lived in the city, it wasn’t that hard to find food, but it was hard to keep it. I was skinny, so I could fit into small spaces and hide if any one were it come near, also when I was young, my father was a cop, he took me to the shooting range and I had found out I had pretty good aim. When ever I saw a adult with a gun, I would hide, when I saw a adult with the sickness, I would kill. I have been living like this for around six years.

I wasn’t planning on living in this house for any longer than I have to, and since now I have my guns, clothes, and bullets, I am ready to move out. I got my favourite guns, a knife and a sling shot, my clothes I’m wearing will last, but I added my favourite shirt, it was my favourite band, AC/DC, it was a black tank top with the High Voltage album cover on it, also some demin shorts with cartoon unicorns on them, they were ripped and were short shorts. I played along, like nothing was gonna happen all day, went to sleep early, and set my mind alarm clock to five o’clock in the morning.

I woke up, grabbed my bag with food and clothes in it, took my shot gun and pulled it over my shoulder (it had a strap) and my Smith and Wesson (model 3) and put it in my belt. My knife was already in my bag, I took off out the back door. The sun was down and it was quiet, my backyard had tall grass and you could hardly see my face, I climbed through it as stealthy as I could. This was going to be a great adventure.

My plan was to get out of the city, see the world, I was hidden in that old rust house for to long, I needed to see the world. No matter what. I hopped over a fence, and crawled in the backyard, a few bird flew above me, making a beautiful sight, I actually got a tattoo of birds, on my wrist, two doves, but instead of white, they were black, hey, it’s the end of the world, I can do what I want.

My loose curls were flying in my face, and my tan skin was almost burning under the sun, but my green eyes blended in with the surprisingly green grass, I jumped over another fence, behind my a heard a loud crack, I ran. I ran and found my self no longer on the ground, I was flying, right in to a pool.

Lovely, now I’m soaking wet, but I was smart enough to throw my gun and bag away before impact. I searched the perimeter before getting out of the pool, the crack was from a cat. I got up and got my guns and bag. I needed to find somewhere safe and were I can dry off. I walked out of the back yards, and onto the main street, I ran again, but this wasn’t from being chased, this was from freedom. I was always the fastest in my class, before the sickness struck, I took my shoes off too, so I could go faster and feel the cool ground on my feet.

I was heating up, it must be six now, and the sun was rising, I should go to the back yards soon, I was getting closer to the main part of the city, then there was the giant forests, where I wanted to go. I heard foot steps behind me, I kept my pace, jogging, but I was ready to sprint if the foot steps got any faster, I had it all planned out what I would do, but right now, I didn’t want to show a sign that I knew my follower was there. The foot steps did get faster and soon I could hear breathing, they got faster and faster, and the breathing got louder and louder. Soon the followed was so close, to close, I broke out into a sprint. Running as fast as I could, but the follower was gaining on me, I wanted to look back, to try to take my shot, but the follower was to fast and I had no time, I had to lose it. I ran down the allies, and took turns I didn’t know where to, I was sliding and climbing on bins and fences, but the follower was still there, behind me. We were in an ally, there was a big building beside me, I couldn’t find a door, I searched ans searched. Now I was sure, I would lose this fight, it was right behind me, I let out a kick, but I missed, I could take the chance of turning back to shoot, but I could miss and be even more behind. I knew I wasn’t gonna make it, but I still ran. There was a loud bang. following after, a another, but not as loud and near me, it was a drop, a drop of a body, hitting the ground.

2.

I looked back, and there it was, the dead body of the follower. It’s eyes wide and full of craze, it shook a couple time, no wanting to die. I took out my knife and stabbed it, but still it moved. There was a rustle behind a garbage bin, I got my gun ready to shoot, but no crazy sick person came out, it was a small little girl. She was about five or fix. She wore a pink tutu and a red shirt the stopped higher than her belly button because it got cut, half her head was shaved and the other have she had long straight black hair, her dark brown skin blended in with the background, and her big brown eyes shined more than anything should in this horrible messed up world. This little girl had a stuffed pink rabbit in one hand, she was holding on to it by the foot, and in the other hand she had an axe, larger than her body, she came up to the shaking body and chopped it’s head right off with one swift movement. “Dead.” she said and walked about two feet away and sat down. She didn’t look at me, acting like I wasn’t even there.

The door I couldn’t find swung open, an older boy, about 18 walked out, he too had big brown eyes and dark skin, like the little girl, but he didn’t look happy, and his eyes didn’t shine. He looked at me, his face didn’t have emotion, “what are you doing around here?”, he asked, and pulled his gun up. The little girl looked at him, then to me, she stood in front of me and wrapped around my legs, she looked up at me and smiled, one of her bottom teeth were gone, I smiled back. How could this girl be so happy? “I wanted to see the world”, was all I could say to the boy, that’s why I was here, right? Out in the world, and not in my house, stuck there making my father breakfast like the good girl I should be. He made a weird noise “what is there to see, people killing and eating others? Little children starved and dying on the streets? Yes that’s an amazing world to see”, he said, I don’t know why, but I got angry, very angry, what he said was true, but I wouldn’t stand for it. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to be trapped in a house for the rest of my life, ans what’s it to you?”, I said, the boy didn’t look happy, “nothing, I don’t care, just don’t come back again”.
“I won’t”.
I went to walk away, but the little girl held my hand, “don’t leave”, she said,
“I don’t want to leave you, but I have to”, I told her,
“no.” The little girl looked the boy dead in the eye, “she stay”. The boy looked at her, with sorrow in his eyes, “we can’t keep her”, he tried to explain, the girl gave him a dirty look, “she stay!”, she yelled, the boy looked like he was about to die, then he whispered “no yelling, don’t yell Blue”, he almost begged.
“ fine, but she stay”.

I ended up staying, even If I wanted to leave, Blue, the little girl, would make me stay, she was the one in charge here. They took my into the building, that actually was a hotel. The door was hidden, the same color as the bricks, no wonder I couldn’t see it.

In the lobby of the hotel, there was kids, like me. Many of them, all different colors, genders, ages, every thing, Blue wouldn’t let go of me, and the boy, Kase, lead the way into the front of the lobby. There was a group of kids that looked my age, mostly boys, he introduced me, and me to them then left. Blue followed Kase. “So, how’d you find us?”, one girl asked, I think her name was Kim, she had short black hair, she was a little taller than me, but just as skinny, she had small brown eyes and small lips. “Well, I was running away from a person who, I guess, caught the sickness, and I ran to here, I think Kase let off a shot and almost killed the guy, then Blue finished him, Blue made me stay”, I said. They all nodded and asked questions and I got to ask my questions too. There seemed to be two types of people in this group, the ones that want to have fun, and the ones that want to stay alive. Kim was one the people who wanted to stay alive. We hung around the lobby for a minute, then Kim showed me to my room.
There was eighteen floors, I was on the fourteenth, because that was my age, I was right beside Kim and some boy that seemed to be in the “wants to have fun” group. This hotel was fancy, a queen sized bed, a marble table and floor and shower bathroom, a walk in closet, and a little living room and kitchen. I put my clothes into the closet, which looked a bit funny because it was such a big space with so little clothes, and I put my shot gun in the living room under the couch and my hand gun beside my bed, I put my food in the kitchen and checked what I had to eat.

There was a knock on the door, it was the boy that lived beside me. “Hey”, he said, he had food in his hands, “I thought you might not have much”, and gave me the food, “oh thanks, come in”, I said and closed the door behind him, we walked in the kitchen. I put the food with the others, I still didn’t have a lot of food, but the boy was a big help. “So you’re....who are you?”, he asked, “my name is Dove”, I exclaimed, it wasn’t my real name, but that’s the name it is from now. “Dove”, he repeated, “I’m Luke”, he told me, “hi Luke”, I said awkwardly.

He walked around my room, then into my closet, “wow, you don’t have many clothes”, he said the obvious, “yeah, I guess so, well I packed light”, I explained, then he looked at me “your wet”, he said, again, saying the obvious “do you need some clothes?”, he asked, “um, well, I’m covered, expect for something to wear to bed, but that’s ok”, I turned down his offer, I wonder why he’s being so nice, around every one else he just joked around, and hardly even noticed I was there. “No, really, come on, I’ll get you something”, he took me to his room. There was his closet, although, it too didn’t have many clothes, he had a lot more than mine. He handed me a T-shirt, it was red, and had long sleeves, “yeah, it’s a bit warm, just cut the sleeves, it doesn’t fit me anymore”, he explained, and handed me some pants, they were black and red plaid “again, I think you might want to cut them, but they don’t look to bad”, he said.

We walked back to my room, where I cut the clothing with my knife. The shorts turned into short shorts because I was not that level one my cutting, and like my other tops, this shirt too, had no sleeves. I changed into the Pj’s and put my clothes on the balcony to dry, we looked out, to the city. It looked like a happy place, the sun was up, there was hardly any one on the streets, and it just wasn’t scary, being so far away from where any one could touch us. “I wish it felt like this all the time”, Luke said, “like what?”, I asked,
“Like there isn’t any thing to be afraid of, there’s nothing down there that will rip you to shreds and eat you alive”,
“Well that’s a good description, but I know what you mean, I wish it did too”.

3.

All the kids went down stairs for dinner, and it seemed like every one had a nickname.
I met a girl, she must’ve only been a couple years younger than me, her name was Fatts, she was pretty skinny, must’ve only weight about 60 pounds, and she wasn’t short or anything like that. Another, young girl, her name was Flower, she had a flower in her hair, it was plastic, and I guess she has it in there a lot. A boy in my ago group named Guns, and another girl named Sun. I guess I wasn’t the only one with a weird name.

While I was eating Blue came up to me, I was sitting with Kim, so Blue sat on the other side. Luke didn’t go any where near me now, I caught him looking a couple times, but mostly he was with Guns, Guns fit the name, her was very muscular and seemed to be good at shooting a gun, I but I could do better than him though. Blue looked up to me, she had corn all over her face “what are you doing, saving that for later?”, I laughed, she felt around her face, all the corn came streaming down, she looked at her lap, at all the corn, she giggled a bit, then started to eat it.

A group of people went out the door, most people didn’t even take a second look. The people who went out the door all had guns, or some kind of weapon and bags, what was it for? They all seemed to be older than me, Blue looked over at them too, then grabbed my hand and headed over to the door. There was always some one guarding the door, always, Blue went up to the guard, “I go with?”, she asked the guard, he looked down at her with a little smile “sorry Blue, no going out today”, he said, Blue didn’t look happy with this, “why not?”, she said, pouting, the guard sighed “Blue you know you can’t go out at night”, he explained, Blue sat down on the ground, “Froggy”, she said, looking serious “you have to let me out”. The guard, Froggy, smiled “why?”, he asked, wondering, then Blue went on explaining “because, you know I’m small and can help the most, all those people are old, and they could die! They aren’t fast!”. “Blue. All those people have been training for a long time, I’m sure they can handle themselves”.

There was a knock on the door, Froggy straightened up and aimed at the door, the knock got longer, it turned to thumps, bangs, no noises, but bangs at the door, it caught most peoples attention. “Froggy, what are you doing? That could be one of us!”, I whispered, “it’s not”, Froggy said, not even bothering to look at me, he kept looking at the door, “do my a favor, tell Kase to go in stage two”, he told Blue, she ran off, “go get another gun”, he ordered me, I ran up to my room and gun my shotgun from under the couch, and ran back down. I kept looking at the door, like Froggy.

“Ok, I’m gonna open to door, you have to shoot, right away”, Froggy commanded me, he went behind the door, and opened it. A body came flying in, I had to get a good shot, I focused. I looked at the chest, no, legs, no, arms, no, head, I slowed down my thoughts, you could say, and all I saw was his head. I took one bullet, a load bang came and the body banged against the ground, Blue came up and smashed his neck with her axe, and it was over. The door slammed shut and two older boys came and covered the body with a bag and took it away. “Stupid grumbs”, Froggy said and sat down against the wall.

Later that night I was in my room fiddling with my guns, I heard a knock on my door, it was Kim, I opened the door to let her in, she walked into the room and sat down on the couch. “I didn’t know you could shoot like that”, she said, “well it’s no biggie, any one here could do that”, shoot a “grumb” in the head with one shot when it was running it’s fastest speed, Kim snorted “yeah, even the kids who been training, guys like Froggy, couldn’t have that good of shot”. “well, thanks then, I guess”, I whispered, Kim nodded, she went into the kitchen and started digging in the food, she whistled “you just got here, how do you have so much food?”, she asked “I mean your supplies didn’t look like this when you were first here, which was today”, she went on. “Luke from next door gave me some”, I said, “ugh, Luke? I’m glad I’m not his neighbor. I mean he has no sense, and in training all he does is fool around. Doesn’t he get that this is now his home, his family? You have to protect it”, Kim grumbled, “why did he give you food?”, she asked, I don’t think Kim liked Luke, “I don’t know, he just walked in and gave me stuff”, I explained, “probably stole something”, she said.

Right then there was a knock on the door, I looked who it was, it was Luke, I looked back to Kim, “it’s him”, I said, then Kim walked up out the door, swung it open “we don’t want your free-bes you little Freefall!”, she yelled, then slammed the door in his face, “I didn’t come for you, Stiff”, he said, and stood there, Kim walked away, but came back with my shot gun, was just about to open the door when I stopped her “won’t you get in trouble?”, I asked, “I know we are a family, but it’s survival of the fittest”, then opened the door, not giving me a good answer. “Get away from the door Freefall”, she warned Luke pointing the gun at him, “will you stop this, I just want to talk to Dove”, he begged. “No. Get out of here”, Kim ordered, he looked at her, daring “I know you wouldn’t do that”, he said, gesturing to the gun. “You wanna bet. I don’t care for you. You do nothing here, and frankly I think this group would be better off without you”, Kim played with the trigger, squeezing it tighter, then looser, tighter then loser. Luke finally walked away, I had no doubt Kim would pull that trigger, she’s tuff and I wouldn’t want to mess with her.

Soon after that a boy tapped on all the doors, yelling “get to bed, 14's, get to bed!”. Kim walked out of my room, and probably did what she was told, but I wasn’t to sure.

I still had no idea what this place was, but I knew I liked it. So, I thought I might just stay, but not forever, the reason I risked my life and went out of my house was to see the world, wasn’t it? so I got ready for bed, but once I got in bed, I couldn’t sleep.

I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I walked walking down stairs, with my hand gun, I took a guess and ended up in the training room. There was a couple targets, I shot them, getting a bulleye every time. I think I did this all night. I was getting into it right when Kase came down.
“What are you doing up so late?”, he asked me, I didn’t know what to say, I couldn’t sleep, was that so bad? But I might get in trouble, so I should just leave “I-I couldn’t sleep”, I stuttered.
Kase laughed a bit “and you think shooting a gun will help?”, he said, “no, but it’s all I could think to do”, I explained. He grabbed a gun and begun to shoot too, after a while he looked at me and said “you know, you got a pretty good shot”. “thanks, I have been training”, I took the compliment. “You weren’t that bad at diner either”, Kase complimented again, “thanks”, I said.

Soon Kase was gone, and I went to sleep, but I couldn’t help but wonder, what’s with all these boys and hiding their niceness?

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 10.07.2012

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