Devon Simpson: Across The Beach
Across The Beach
Operation Overlord
June 6, 1944
Omaha Beach
D-Day
June 6, 1944 Omaha Beach, Normandy France, Operation Overlord
I could see the beach. Men dropping, guys getting blown to bits; it was horrible. When the ramp dropped, I nearly got a bullet to my head, it hit the guy behind me, so I went over the side. It was deep. I thought we would be closer to the shore. When I got on shore, the Higgins boat I was in seconds ago exploded into a billion inch long shards ready to kill someone, thirsty for blood. The sand was dancing up around me from the mighty bullets of the German MG 42 machine guns nested in the bunkers housed right above the sea wall. I fell from a concussion blast from a nearby mortar explosion, I got picked up by the arm straps and ran, ran through the ear ringing, through the hailstorm of lead. When I got to the sea wall, I looked back to see the guy who saved my life. But he was lying there, surrounded by a pool of blood. I just can’t write anymore.
March 3, 1943
“... Charlie Nowakowski!!!” said the principal as I walked up the steps to receive my high school diploma. After the graduation, I went home to talk to my parents about volunteering for the Army.
“No, you will not end up like your father!” yelled my mom. My dad was a Lieutenant in the Navy and died at Pearl Harbor, almost 3 years earlier. “I can’t have another dead man in the family, Charlie!” she started crying. “I won’t mom, I won’t get hurt.” I went over and hugged her. “No Charlie. Don’t you think your father promised that?” “Yes, he promised, but Mom, that was a SURPRISE attack, we are going to be the one surprising THEM this time, I, heard a rumor from my friend whose dad is in the Army about an invasion that is going to take place next year, I want to be a part of it.” “Fine Charlie, go serve.” said my mom. “Thank you mom.” I said and hugged her. As I went down the stairs and across the path, my mom and baby sister, Aspen, waved and yelled “ Be careful Charlie!!” “ I will!” I yelled back.
As I walked in the recruiting station, the recruiting Sergeant was sitting at his desk reading the newspaper. He noticed me and said “Well hello there, son. Are you here to volunteer?” “Why else would I be here?” “Well then, how old are you?” “Eighteen sir.” “Well then, here you go.” He handed me a clipboard with recruiting papers on it, I sat down on one of the chairs against the walls, and then I realized how empty the recruiting station was. It looked like a normal waiting room. Once I finished, I handed the papers to the recruiting Sergeant and he said that I needed to come back in a month to take my physical.
April 3, 1943
After my physical, which went REALLY well eyesight 20/20, and perfectly healthy, I have to report to training at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. On the train, (where I am right now) we are making a lot of stops and picking up new recruits, I met a lot of new people. I sat down, and across from me was a guy named Ciao, he said we was Italian, and next to him was another guy named Ada, Ciao’s brother. They said their parents came to America in 1936, after their country leader, Mussolini, allied with Hitler, the German Nazi leader. And then, Ciao and Ada heard about Hitler's siege of Poland. Their aunt lived in Poland so they wanted to fight back and therefore they both enlisted for the U.S. Army, 29th infantry division
and were assigned to the 116th infantry regiment, Easy company, my company. A tall guy walked up to us and said “Can I sit here?” “Sure, I’m Charlie,” “I’m Ciao,” “And I’m Ada, Ciao’s brother.” “I’m Tim, nice to meet you guys, are you guys going to Fort Belvoir?” “Yep, 29th division, 116th Regiment, Easy company.” I said, “I’m in the same company” Tim said, “Awesome.” I said.
April 4, 1943
After the train ride, we had to make a stop in Lexington. Tim and I went to the Lexington battlefield where the revolutionary war started, since there was a delay at the train station. ¨So this is where it all started.If it wasn’t for this place, we wouldn’t be here.” I said “Yeah, where the first shot was fired. The shot heard around the world.” Tim responded
As we got back to the train station, Ciao and Ada were waiting for us.They said the train was coming in five minutes, so to be ready. Once the train came and everyone got on, we had dinner, amazing food, all around. After dinner, we went back to our cars and slept. Ciao, Ada, Tim and I were all in the same car, so we stayed up for a while. Ciao and Ada fell asleep pretty quick, so Tim and I just stayed up talking. “Did you ever hunt?” I asked “Of course, I grew up in Colorado Springs.” Tim responded, “I once spent an entire three days tracking down a herd of deer.” “You ever hunt turkeys?” I asked him. “Nope, usually only deer and elk.” he said, “I once was out camping, and a wild turkey walked right up to me. We forgot to bring up food, so I figured, ‘why not hunt?’
That was actually my first hunting kill, I was 12 at the time.” “So what do you think it's going to be like over there?” “Worse than here.”
April 5, 1943, Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Once we got off the train at Fort Belvoir, a Sergeant started yelling at us to unload some supplies. Sergeants just aren’t happy if they aren’t yelling at someone. After we unloaded everything, we marched to nowhere in particular, just around the square in the middle of the base until everyone was soaking, like we just ran through a heavy rain while playing football in the shower. Finally, they marched us to the mess hall. I took some of everything. Even the white stuff they call grits. Once we were done, the Sergeant marched us to our barracks and showed us how to store stuff in the locker we were each assigned. We also had to make our beds the right way. At each of our beds, there were sheets for making our beds.
April 6, 1943
After the first day of training, they woke us up at 5:00 am and made us stand at attention in front of a truck. “AHEM! I am Sergeant Adrian, you will call me SGT, not sir, not Adrian, not sarge, just SGT. And this…” he pointed at the Corporal that was walking back and forth looking at us. “...is Corporal Adam. The same goes for him, you will call him CPL and only CPL.” “YES SIR!” We all yelled. After that, we went to a big building where we received our uniforms, dog tags, boots, and everything else. We also got our packs which we packed everything into (except our dog tags, uniforms, and boots) and then we took a five mile run. Once we got back to the barracks, we all looked like we ran through a heavy rain because we were sweating so much. Once we got back, we went to the mess hall for lunch. After lunch, we stood at attention out in the middle of the courtyard, they marched us into a barber shop, which seemed weird right in the middle of an Army base. Once everyone was done with our haircuts, it was around 7:00, so we stood at attention some more, looking like real soldiers. Sergeant Adrian came around and said we looked like real soldiers now and that tomorrow, and for the next 9 weeks, we would be getting our rifles and doing drills with them. And on the last week, we were going to fire our rifles. Anyone that says “gun” instead of rifle, gets yelled at immediately.
April 7, 1943
We got our rifles today, pretty cool for our first rifles. We were issued m1903 Springfield bolt action rifles. My father said these rifles were pretty good. They barely ever ever jammed, they held a pretty powerful round, and were pretty accurate. We started off with bayonet drills. Along with our rifles, we were issued M1905 bayonets. They are probably the longest bayonets I have EVER seen. They are long swords kinda, they look like swords anyway. We started with the bayonet drills, long thrust, short thrust, parry left, parry right, guard, high port, butt stroke, smash, that sort of stuff. After that, we crawled through the mud under barbed wire, stood at attention, and the rest of the day went by like a blur, I don’t really remember much, but I know that after all of that, we went back to the barracks and everyone passed out.
April 12, 1943
I haven’t been writing for a while, probably because we have been doing a bunch of training and by the time we were done and got back to our barracks, we were so tired we fell asleep the second our heads touched the pillow. So after our physical training, we moved on to firing our rifles. At the firing range, we were finally issued M1 Garand rifles. Right in front of each target is a little trench called a “butte,” in this butte, there are soldiers that hold up flags depending on where you hit the target. On my first shot, when the drill Sergeant yelled “FIRE!” the recoil threw me off aim and I ended up getting “Maggie’s Drawers,” which means you missed the target completely.
June 28, 1943
Ok, I haven’t written one word for 8 weeks, but today is our last day of training, and we are going to the firing range now, so I have to go.
June 29, 1943
We all got 48 hour passes, sure signs we are going to be shipping out. Me and Ciao went down to the train station in our uniforms. We went to see his family, who lived up in Parkersburg. Once we got back to the base, Ada was wondering where we went. We told him we went to see an old friend of mine, so we wouldn’t flip out that we went to see his parents, because he never got to say goodbye to his mom, he volunteered immediately after a school day.
July 3, 1943
Just arrived in Great Britain. Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and we are supposed to get a fireworks show. I saw General Eisenhower, he was about 55 feet in front of me, he saw me and I waved. He waved back. It was awesome.
July 4, 1943
Someone woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to come outside. So I did, and all we saw, was color in the sky. I have no other words but AWESOME, red white blue and green lights lighting up the sky, like I said, AWESOME!
November 4, 1943
Man, I REALLY need to write in this thing more, I haven’t written for FOUR MONTHS! Mainly because I lost this for a little while, but eventually Ada found it in our little shack we are using for Barracks. It was under a FLOORBOARD. No idea how he found it though, but I’m happy. I have been looking for it for FOUR MONTHS. Anyway, the past four months have been kinda boring, except for about last week when some guy said he spotted a U boat, a German Submarine, but it was just a whale.
December 31, 1943
Ok, I lost my journal again and didn’t write in it for another month, but this is New Year's Eve, and everyone is partying.
January 7, 1944
The partying lasted for a whole eight days, and we were told about an invasion that is happening in a couple of months. It is called “Operation Overlord” taking place in June, we will be invading Normandy France, the Germans have set up defences there, and it is our job to eradicate them. Ada said that the waters were really choppy because of all the storms that were going on over the ocean. We loaded into the LCVPs’ a.k.a. Landing Craft Personnel, or Higgins Boat, to practice the invasion.
June 5, 1944
Lost the journal, ONCE AGAIN, for some months, and guess what, the invasion is tomorrow! I better get some sleep. Yeah, sleep sounds good.
June 6, 1944, Omaha Beach
I could see the beach, men dropping, guys getting blown to bits, it was horrible. When I got out, I nearly got a bullet to my head, so I went over the side. It was deeper, I thought we would be closer to the shore. When I got on shore, my carrier exploded. The sand was dancing up around me from the mighty bullets of the German machine guns. I fell from a concussion blast from a mortar, I got picked up by the arm straps and ran. Just kept running. When I got to the sea wall, I looked back to see the guy who saved my life. But he was lying there, surrounded by a pool of blood. I just can’t write anymore.
June 20, 1944
Got hit in the arm by a mortar today. Still hurts like no other. A medic from another company put a bandage on it, it was about an inch deep.
June 25, 1944
I can’t really write a lot, mostly because we are coming under a lot of morta-
Sorry, under mortar attack. Uh oh, here we g-
September 10, 1944
Apparently, I’m wounded, bad. A mortar shell landed right on top of the truck Ada Ciao and I were taking cover under. I got injured, with some shrapnel about an inch from my heart. Ciao and Ada were killed, and I’m going home. It should have been me. What is there more to say?
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Beau Sera: Surviving the Night
Kade started to panic.
It was dangerous to be alone in the Amazon rainforest alone, at night. Jaguars, anacondas, rattlesnakes, brazilian wandering spiders, and many others roamed the forest at night. If he didn’t get back to his camp soon he would be an animal's midnight snack.
The air smelled of animal carcass which meant something sinister was lurking nearby. Mosquitoes were eating him alive, as he scratched his face. His thoughts were like a tornado, he couldn’t concentrate on what he was doing. He quickly went over his options, should he try to build a shelter and a fire, or should he try to reach camp in the dark?
Earlier in the day Kade had been so eager to test his new hunting bow, that he wandered off far from camp, looking for big game. He thought of how foolish he had been to not bring a torch. The young survivor silently cursed himself.
Kade heard a branch snap and quickly turned around. What could it have been? He recoiled in horror as he heard the air blow by next to him. Then he saw it. The jaguar had bright blood red eyes, muscular hunches, and a savage bite. The jaguar circled around him getting ready to pounce. The jaguar’s sharp claws gleamed in the moonlight. His fingers shaking Kade pulled an arrow from his pouch. He fumbled as he was trying to load the arrow. Suddenly and unexpectedly the jaguar let loose a terrifying roar, that sounded like a deep chesty cough. Kade stumbled backwards in the black darkness and tripped over a branch of a Kapok tree. Luckily the loud snap breaking from under Kade scared the jaguar. The jaguar jumped away like a scared pussycat.
Kade decided it would be a good time to start a fire and camp for the night. The fire illuminated Kade’s features. Kade had a round face with a slightly pointed chin with a hidden crease in the middle. nHis ungroomed dirty blonde hair hung shaggy over his arched eyebrows. His turquoise eyes glinted in the moonlight. Kade’s cheekbones stuck out from lack of food. Despite his skinniness over the months he produced well defined muscles all around. He wore an animal fur coat with some parts covered with piranha scales to protect him from getting scrapes, bruises, and gashes. From his back pocket a flint knife gleamed in the light of the fire. He used the flint knife both for starting fires and self defense. His hands were covered with scars from earlier encounters in the rainforest.
Sitting by the fire he reflected on Hota his young nomadic tribe friend. He remembered several months ago he was fishing for dinner and he stumbled across an unconscious young boy laying down on the shoreline, with a scar right across where his eye once was. Kade pulled him in and started doing CPR on the young boy. Several dreadful minutes passed before the boy snapped back to reality. For several hours the boy could not move any of his limbs and could barely talk. The boy spoke a different language and it took many hours of translation to understand what he was saying. Kade fed him nuts that were protein rich, and safe berries. The boy revealed that his name was Hota. Hota only remembered his name, his tribe and their cultures. His father was the leader of the nomadic tribe. He had no memory of what happened to him and how he lost his eye. Hota was probably very worried by now and searching for him. Kade put his pack of arrows down on the ground and plopped his head on it. Animals usually avoid fires but Kade kept his flint knife firmly gripped in his scarred hand.
After a sleepless night the sun produced a warm glow. The Amazon is a beautiful but dangerous place. Mostly located in Brazil, it is home to the world's largest rainforest. The Amazon also receives the most rain. Trees and vines were visible in every nook and cranny of the jungle. The air was humid and warm. Water dripped off of a leaf plopping on Kade’s nose.
Kade awoke to see smoke signals. His mind went off like a firecracker. “Hota!” he yelled. He sprinted across the dangerous rainforest with astonishing speed. The leaves crunched under his boots made of reeds and mud. In his earlier months Kade had boiled mud and reeds to make a hard substance. He formed the hardened material into boots. Rather uncomfortable by itself he used snakeskin as foot padding.The same material also created a hard and durable hut. Kade slowed down his sprint to a jog as he knew sprinting in the Amazon is a foolish move.
A couple of minutes later Kade arrived at the camp. Hota rarely smiled, but he was overjoyed to see Kade. Hota slowly approached Kade and then suddenly put Kade in a massive bear hug knocking him to the ground. The friends both started laughing. Hota was about a head shorter than Kade but was as strong as an ox. The two boys wrestled around for a while before finally talking. “Where are you?!” Hota’s English was a little rough. (He also had a strong accent.) Kade laughed, “ Hota how many times have I told you? It’s “Where were you”, not are you.”
Suddenly Kade heard a loud, deep, howl. For second Kade almost forgot about his basset hound named Moose. The basset hound ran with it’s tiny legs and plopped himself down on Kade’s feet. Kade scratched the hounds giant floppy ears. Moose had splotches of brown and white that looked like paint. His droopy lips and mouth portrayed a sad look even though Moose was energetic and and extremely happy. Looking at his black eyes and facial expression for the first time might make you sad. He had a short pointed tail that wagged constantly. His wet rubbery nose could almost track anything in the Amazon. His short stubby legs surprisingly were fast and had a lot of stamina. His mouth drooled because of the humid air. His nose sniffed ferociously around Kade’s body. Kade smelled of sap from running through the leaves. Kade rubbed the wetness from Moose off his body, and walked over to Hota’s mini archery range, which consisted of several aligned trees with hand carved targets.
Kade grabbed his bow and joined Hota. Kade pulled back, aiming as best as he could and shot. The custom flint arrow zoomed through the air puncturing the 3rd target away from bullseye. Hota grabbed his powerful longbow, that consisted of a 50 pound pull weight. He loaded his bow, took a deep breath, waiting for the perfect aim, and released the arrow. The arrow struck through the air like a speeding bullet, enough power to kill a bear. The arrow shot halfway through the tree on the bullseye, Hota possessed extreme power and precision. Unlike Kade, Hota was a master of the bow. When Hota and him went fishing, Hota used his longbow to catch fish. His arrows catch the fish full in the head with so much much speed, the fish often barely feel any pain. Of course Hota also uses his bow to hunt on land, just like Kade. Perhaps Hota’s missing eye allowed him to concentrate more deeply.
The young nomadic boy had a rock hard stare and jawline. His dark skin also wore a tribal tattoo, a jaguar with a snake as a tongue. He had no memory of when he received the tattoo. Like Kade he wore a animal skin coat, and he wore piranha scale boots because piranhas have some of the toughest scales in the Amazon. His kept his hair at a length of a few centimeters because of bloodsucking bugs and annoying gnats. Who would want their hair to be a bug’s nest? It seemed every member of Kade’s gang had a special talent. Moose could almost smell and track anything in the rainforest with a little training. Hota was a master of the bow and hunting. Kade himself was a builder and a problem solver. Together they were the dream team for a 3 year old Basset hound, a 14 year old native tribe member, and a 16 year old- former city boy. Which leads to Kade’s dark past.
***
13 year old Kade sits in a car reading a explorer's journal. His parents Clea and Mark Sandler have binoculars enjoying the wonders of the Amazon. They are on a vacation that they have been planning for over a year. The tour guide drives a topless Dune buggy on a dirt road. Young Kade passes a few glances at the rainforest. Scenery is not one of his top interests. His brand new puppy Moose is laying over his lap hoping to get a few pats. The tour guide points at a few animals such as rattlesnakes. Kade boredly rolls his eyes and directs them back to the journal.
The Dune buggy approaches a dangerous road with ditches next to it and potholes all around. The buggy goes quiet and the tour guide is using great caution. Suddenly and unexpectedly a fast slender animal runs across the road. The dune buggy swerves, the tires scraping against the road, the car would've been fine, if there wasn’t a nasty pothole ahead, the pothole that ruined Kade’s life. It all happens in slow motion, the buggy rolling over, the screams from his parents, the buggy crashing into the ditch.
Young Kade crawls out from the crashed car and crawls back in. In a trembling voice he croaks “Mom, Dad are you there?” Tears stain his face. Only one voice responds, his mother. Her face is covered with blood and glass. She gently strokes his face. She kisses his forehead and says her last words “I love you, go find shelter my child.” Kade never even thought of erasing that precious kiss from his forehead. Kade heard a miserable whimper. Moose was lying down down on the ground his back legs sprained, possibly broken. Clutching him tight, Kade had never been so frightened in his life. He remembered from the explorer’s journal to follow the river because a river eventually leads to a settlement. But the only river was in the jungle. A jungle filled with dangerous animals and venomous ones.
It was only the jungle and him, the jungle and him, the jungle and him.
Agent 47
The General (Part 2)
By: Vernon Adler
The search was finally over. The long journey had finally come to an end. Just beyond the rainforest covered in trees, there were guards protecting a building which had to be the Vietnamese embassy due to the high security. Agent 47 had been looking for the Vietnamese general. He began to scout the perimeter with binoculars. When he put down the binoculars, the last thing he saw was the but of a rifle ramming into him before he was knocked unconscious.
Hours later, 47 awoke in a dim room strapped into a chair and tied down in rope. Agent 47 looked around and noticed the tears in the walls and ceiling, the place must have been an old interrogation room. Agent 47 watched as a man came from out of the darkness and was looking at the table full of tools and weapons. “Hello, I see you have been snooping around my embassy. Care to tell me why?” Agent 47 stared blankly at the man and realized that he was the general. “You have no identity, no records, even no fingerprints! Who are you?” He grabbed a cattle prod from the table. “Not a talker eh? No matter, i will make you talk”. The general changed the vaults on the cattle prod to the medium amount and rammed it into 47. He felt no pain and showed no emotion. The general was soon furious and put the cattle prod to the highest setting. The general crammed the cattle prod into him once again but only noticed a slight change in his breathing, but still no pain.
Finally, he rushed to the table and grabbed a knife. He lunged at 47 and pointed the blade to his throat. In a flash, 47 grabbed the knife and cut off the rope which had previously bounded his hands together. He hurled the general across the room. The general trembled in fear as he watched 47 untie himself and start toward him. He reached for his gun in his holster and pointed it at 47. Before he could pull the trigger, the gun was kicked out of his hands. 47 angrily crushed the general’s hand with his boots. Every bone in his hand snapped and crackled. He cried out in pain. “GUARDS! GET HIM”. Moments later, a crowd of men busted through the door only to find the general dead and Agent 47 gone.
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The Theft
Sebastian Vasiliev
This is a heist story featuring Sebastian, Justin, Evan,and Vincent. We stole money from a Las Vegas Casino. I watched a movie called the Italian Job and that’s where I got the inspiration for writing this piece. We are in our earlier twenties in this piece
After months of hard work and planning, Justin, Evan, and I stole $10 million from a Las Vegas hotel. Our tracks were completely covered, and we were in a far-off, foreign country in an apartment we hastily bought in cash under false identities. I was laying in my bed, dreaming about what to spend the money on, when there was a knocking on our door.
That's odd, I thought. Who would be knocking now? We just got this apartment. My two roommates, Justin and Evan, stood up in equal confusion. Evan was eating some jalapeno Cheetos while watching an episode of Friends, and Justin was just surfing the web on the computer. We opened the door to a pizza delivery man, and all sighed in relief.
“Who ordered this?” I asked.
“Me,” Evan said excitedly grabbing the pizza and handing the money to the delivery man. He eagerly tore open the pizza box and set it on the table.
I rolled my eyes, turning to the delivery man and said, “Thank you.” As I shut the door, I started yelling at Evan.
“Dude you need to learn some man-” Before I could finish my sentence, he stuffed a slice in my mouth. Tasting the delicious pizza, I forgot my rant. As we sat down around the shabby kitchen table, we all took a slice of pizza. For the next few minutes we sat around trying not to burn our tongues, and attempting to have a conversation .
“So what do you guys want to spend the money on?” I asked. Before they could answer, we heard pounding on the door.
“EVAN, WHAT DID YOU ORDER THIS TIME?!” we cried simultaneously.
He looked at us and said, “I didn't order anything.”
The pounding on the door gradually grew louder and louder. As we opened the door, we saw Vincent standing in the doorway. He was a small man and a really good friend of mine, and he was standing in his leather jacket with a cigarette in his mouth. He just lit it and put the lighter in his pocket as he walked in, saying, “Where's my cut?”
Evan didn’t miss a beat, and responded shoving a pizza slice his way, “Here you go.”
“No the money you idiot. The money,” he said as he walked in the room.
“Okay, fine.”
I took out a suitcase filled to the brim with 100 dollar bills. He eagerly grabbed for it, but I pulled it back, pushed it against his chest. For effect to show him who’s the real boss. The screeching sound of a microphone being touched could be heard, and we all jumped to our feet as a wire dropped out of his shirt, clanging against the ground in a grand spectacle of metal and wire. We all scurried after the wire. As we pushed him to the ground, he cried out in pain.
“I was framed I swear.” At this point I was almost in tears. Vincent was one my closest friends. As we pushed him against the wall, demanding who he was working for. After a lot of pounding and struggling we eventually subdued him to the ground tieing him up to the chairs we were just relaxing on and questioned him. After awhile of getting nothing out of him, we gave up and locked him in the bathroom.
“What are we gonna do?” I complained to Justin and Evan, “If we keep him with us the police here will find out and do a missing person search, but if we leave him here the police will find him eventually and he will spill the beans and we obviously can't trust him. He proved this seconds ago.”
“Any chance he’ll take a bribe?” Evan asked.
“Yeah, bribes always work,” Justin chimed in.
“It wouldn't work since Vince is not the most trustworthy person”.
“So what are we gonna do then?” Evan replied with annoyance.
“We're gonna take him with us, I guess.”
“That is by far the worst idea I ever heard,” Justin said.
“And it's the only one we have, so suck it up.
As I finished my sentence we heard police sirens wailing - there was banshee wail coming at us. We jumped up and down and cursed ourselves for being so foolish, for not moving earlier, for staying here waiting for police to track us down, Evan and Justin went to secure the money as always, and I went to the bathroom to grab Vincent and he was gone, a window shattered, blood on the floor and no Vincent. At this point half the words I was saying were curse words.
I lept out of the bathroom, proclaiming to everyone around me that Vincent was gone. Evan and Justin did not even give me a sideways glance not caring about Vincent or me, just the money. We quickly changed clothing, not wanting to give the police a single chance to notice us. As we did this, Evan ran downstairs having been changed already to wave a taxi. Justin and I feverishly dressed ourselves, and then I noticed something odd: a bulge in Justin’s shirt. I saw at once what he meant to do even before he reached for the pistol in his shirt. I cried out and charged him trying bash the gun out of his hand. I heard a shot and the last thing remember was me waking up in an hospital with nurse staff scrambling around me like ants, trying desperately to keep me alive.
After a while I passed out and woke up again to my chest feeling like I just got shot and realized I just did. I jumped in my bed looking for Justin and Evan to see if they were here too or if they made out with the money. After a while my conscious faded. The police rammed the door breaking it down, pushing aside the startled hospital staff. They insisted that I was not ready to leave the hospital as I was still hooked up to an IV. I recognized these officers and the chief was not there, but Vincent was. I looked around in confusion waiting for the guards to notice that the chief had been replaced, but they didn’t seem to care; I listened to Vincent's every word, and I responded with rough grunts to his, “check him for weapons and unplug that IV.” I could barely stand having to lean on the guards for support. He backed away, but I just smiled and used him for support. I saw what game they were playing - they needed me alive. I leaned on the guard pretending to grab at him as I fake stumbled. It would be minutes even hours before he noticed his pass card missing, a Herodion Matteo.
Starter mistake wearing it on the outside of your shirt. This was not a team of seasoned well trained cops, but a gang of rookies: Following the leadership of Vincent. I thought as a I read the pass card. As we walked to an elevator the guards were eyeing me like I would try to make a break for it at any moment.
Which I was but still people were so suspicious with highly dangerous mastermind criminals these days. C'mon. Stereotyping was supposed to be done with. It was 2016 for crying out loud.
I tried to make small talk to the guards next to me. As the one on the right pushed the lobby button I saw this as my only chance. I pushed the second guard outside of the door the elevator ripping his shirt while the other guard was seeing if his friend was ok, I grabbed the pistol from his coat and pointed at him.
He put his hands up, begging for his life. “Please don't kill me I have a family please I will do anything”
I looked at him and said, “Anything?”
“YES ANYTHING!” he said, tears in his eyes.
“Well then give me your suit, tie, shoes everything glasses and even that nice hat”
Calling it a nice hat was an understatement. It was a Stetson Temple. Worth easily a 100 dollars. He was desperate to complete the command, giving me all of his clothes. I had the gun locked on him in one hand and the clothes in the other making me feel really snazzy. After I finished putting the outfit on and plopped that 100 dollar hat on top of my head. I walked to the elevator, and pressed the down button patiently waiting for it to come down I looked at the man and smiled.
“Well good day. Don’t get into any trouble, now,” I said as I stepped in the elevator putting the gun back into the sleeve of my shirt pocket.
I tried my best to look business-like and a cop. It wasn’t hard. At this point, I was sweating like a pig. All I needed to do was add some fake gasping and I was set. The elevator dinged down, then 12 guns were pointed at me. I said in ragged breaths, “He punched HUUU and HUUU ran HUUU off.”
The cops rushed passed me patting me on the back asking what direction he went in. I gave a feeble thumb to the left and they were the only ones left were me and Vincent. He just smiled and at me and said, “So where are we going now Sebi?”
I responded with an even bigger smile and said, “Wherever you want to go Captain Vincent.”
He chuckled as we both walked out of the door and stepped outside into the sunlight. Then climbing into his car, a Jaguar F type, I called driving and he obliged and let me into the driver's seat. I gunned the engine and we were off speeding through traffic hoping that our disappearance would not be noticed by the cops.
Vincent rolled up the windows and said, “Sooooooo where's my cut?”
I laughed but Vincent looked at me deadly serious. “Just as soon as we find out where Evan and Justin, are and some bandages and some painkillers,” I said as I remembered the bullet wound in my chest.
“Well of course,” Vincent replied, “but where are they going to?”
“I have a feeling just let me drive.” Then Vincent closed his eyes and fell asleep.
I sighed and shook myself awake. I need to think where would Justin and Evan go and I wondered if Vincet only tried getting Justin and Evan arrested. I don't really want to talk about his betrayal, but was it possible he was trying to get me to betray Justin and Evan. I would like to say that thought had never crossed my mind but that was not the truth.
I had thought it over many many times, restless nights sleeping with eyes opening waiting for the dagger in the back from my trustworthy companions, but we still needed each other to get out of this. After a while I decided we were far enough from the cops and we rolled up in a car dealership. I explained to the bewildered assistant that the passed out man in the shotgun seat was asleep and not dead, after that he was quite happy to help us do a brand new paint job painting our car a metallic white. He was also very happy to empty our wallets, as I did not try to negotiate with him.
After a while of searching, I found a hotel, parked and checked in under fake identities explaining we need a place to sleep. After showing the manager our badges and a couple of causal threats to put this place under quarantine for “Sanitary Issues” they gladly gave us the suite. I smiled and woke up Vincent from his nap and we groggily got out of his car and walked up the stairs. I collapsed in the bed as Vincent was in the next room over watching a movie I fell asleep to the prerecorded laughter of sitcoms.
I woke up to the smell of bacon and pancakes, and looked around wildly forgetting where I was. Then, realizing I was still in the apartment with Vincent who had apparently ordered room service. I got out of the bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I walked towards the smell of pancakes covered with syrup and bacon. I walked into the room to see Vincent still on the couch watching a sitcom with a huge stack of pancakes drowned in syrup and several strands of crispy bacon.
My stomach grumbled at that and I realized that last time I ate was at the apartment that Justin, Evan and I had rented. Vincent barely acknowledged me with a nod then I realized his mouth was full and he was nodding towards my very own stack of pancakes and bacon. I jumped in triumph and dug into my pancakes rejoicing gluttony.
I grabbed the controller wanting to change the channel, but before I could, the channel switched to a breaking news report. The newscaster was spitting words, talking about how one of the wildest chase scenes in the country had just occurred.
“Two young men assumed, 21-22, just out drove police and helicopters. The last place we they were seen was in Paris france ,” the newscaster prompted us. “If you see a black BMW e95 5m please report it to the nearest police station immediately.”
I looked at Vincent his eyes wide and mumbled through a mouth full of pancakes, “There's your cut.”
The Theft Volume Two
Vincent startled upward spilling his 200$ dollar meal,considering this was a high-end hotel. On the perfect and pristine carpet that I know some poor staff member will spend his time scrubbing will have the clean up after us. I set down my food on the table swallowing the unchewed portion down my throat and coughing afterwards. My throat, rough and gravely. I grabbed my coat and ran downstairs disappointed about the fact that I failed to bring the hat down with me. His now silver jaguar f type, he climbed into the driver seat being the superior driver of us I slid over the hood movie style and climbed into shotgun smiling.
”I’ve always wanted to do that.”
I told Vincent as he reared the engine and started to speed out of the hotels parking lot. They were in Paris, I thought to myself why what's so special about Paris, they ran off in Versailles. While Vince was driving I wanted to find out how long it will take us to get the Paris, France. I whipped my smartphone out of my pockets “Hey Siri How long is to get to Paris from Versailles “Did you mean find romantic hotel” “Finding nearest romantic hotel” NO NO NO STOP! But it was too late my phone was already flooded with images ad directions to a romantic hotel I sighed and tried again. And again, and again, and again. Until finally before I knew it, my phone's battery was gone as well as my will to live. Without directions we have no place to stop for the night so seeing a gas station was a godsend.
“Vincent I’m gonna go get some snacks “
“But were broke or did you forgot,you always have to have the flashiest cars.”
“Sorry but i'm not gonna drive a prius”.
“Well how about not a 100,000 dollar sports car”
“Well how about yes”
By this time the only employee was opening the door and asked
“Welcome to Dave's gas and food if you are not purchasing anything I have to ask you to leave the premises”.
“Oh no we're buying something down worry”
“Vincent rolled his eyes at me and mutters something”
“This is not going to go well for us”
“When does it go well.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
Fallout
I was looking in the mirror, saw my wife coming in the bathroom. She was wearing her favorite blouse, blue with polka dots that were crisp white. She put her small hand on my shoulder. She gave me a smile and hugged me.
“Sorry, but I need the mirror,” She said in a soft soothing voice, then pushed me aside. I heard Codsworth float on by.
“Mr. Burke, I need to refill my oil.” That British robot was something, with three bent spokes coming out of his body. Those spokes held his eyes. His body was just a big sphere. He had a tiny box under it held his tiny little arms, one had a flamethrower attached to it, one had a spinning saw to cut grass, and one had a little grabber claw.
“Codsworth, we can refill it in a minute,” I replied back. I walked out of the bathroom. I went to the closet and grabbed a can of oil, until I heard Codsworth laugh.
“Oh Mr. Burke, you should know I joke around like this in April Fools,” Codsworth remarked.
“Codsworth, it’s October 29, 2076. We really need to reprogram your dates,”
“I can't believe you fell for that. Codsworth was always a joker,” My wife joined the conversation. I decided to give a chuckle and started to go get my coffee. I heard Shuan cry. I started to walk to his room.
“Shhh shhh shh, it's going to be okay,” I tried to comfort him. Then he stopped. My wife walked in.
“I was thinking of us going to to the park,” My wife said.
“Sure,” I replied.
“Ok sound good,” She said.
DING DONG! The doorbell rang. A strange man was there in a trench coat. I opened the door.
“Hello, would you take some time to answer questions?” The trench coat guy asked. I hesitated to say something, I looked at his car, it said Vault Tech. It was a big blue van, must be holding all of his paperwork.
“Uh, sure. What are you selling today Mr…”
“Edwards!” I'm glad he cut me off, I didn't want to be rude guessing his name.
“What’s your name sir?”
“My name is Burke Simpson,”
“Wonderful, first question. In atomic annihilation would you like to be inside of a vault or try to survive the nuclear blast?
“I guess i'd be in a vault. But why did you come to us?”
“Well since you were in the military, you get first pick to join a vault,”
“Ok where is the vault?”
“Where the park used to be,”
“Oh, so they tore that down…”
“Well, I will be on my way,”
I guess my family will be in a vault some day. I decided to turn on the TV.
“Since North Korea is sick of our McDonalds they decided to drop bombs. If you're part of a vault you should head there immediately!!!” The TV was telling us where to go and what to do.
“Natalie grab Shaun and let's go!” She ran to go get Shaun. I opened the door and let them go out. We started to run for our lives.
“Natalie, follow me!” I started to run ahead up a hill to a gate. The trench coat guy was yelling at a man in a blue suit.
“Step aside,” The guy in the blue suit told the trench coat guy. I walked up to him and gave a short cough.
“One adult male, one adult female, and an infant. You're good to go,” He let us through. “Just step on the platform and it will be okay,” We ran towards the gear shaped platform with the other people who live in sanctuary hills. We started to lower, but I saw a ball shaped object drop to the ground as a fiery mushroom sprouted in the sky. A huge cloud of dust and debris come flying towards us. Luckily the elevator gear thing lowered just in time. Once we got there it was like a whole new world.
The gate in front of us opened and we walked through. Everybody who was down here wore a lab coat or a blue and yellow jumpsuit. I started to walk out of the gear thing area. Everyone was greeting us.
“Go get your vault 111 jumpsuit and then we can start the cryo tamination,” a scientist said. I'm just trying to process on how strange this is. I followed the scientist to the suit area. I walked up to the guy with them, he gave it to me so I went to the changing room and got it on. I walked out to see my wife and it turns out she was done before me. The scientist lead the way to the cryo tubes, I gave one last good bye to my wife and son and got in the cryo tube. It closed and all I saw was blue…
Of course the vault didn't succeed, every body died of radiation, or got killed by raiders. Everyone in a cryotube lost oxygen flow and we all suffocated. This vault was a mistake, probably because our overseer was abusive and drunk all the time. That was the end of vault 111. Good thing there was one person who survived...
-Anonymous
Appointment with a Witch
Erin Allen (Creative Writing Teacher)
Emma Wildes was not always the way her parents described her in their correspondence with Dr. Edmonds (Dr. Harold Edmonds was the local therapist of the small seaside town of Irondale, WA). Emma was always a little eccentric, of course, but it wouldn’t have been common practice to describe her as violent, angry, or withdrawn. This change had occurred slowly over her twelve years of life. Her adopted parents couldn’t say exactly when her behavior started to turn strange - just that it very obviously had. Her parents had assumptions, but no proof of any of the accusations they strung together in their communication with Dr. Edmonds. One thing was very clear, however; they sounded desperate for his help.
“You’re five minutes late,” Dr. Edmonds said almost hesitantly, his kind eyes and quivering smile not quite masking the apprehension he was obviously feeling. To the average patient, the quiver would have gone unnoticed. But he had heard that she was anything but average, and he was self conscious that she had noticed. He didn’t want her to feel like she had the upper hand, especially on their first meeting together. He was, however, slightly nervous about what he had heard about her from her parents, from the strange and puzzling information listed in her file. I am in charge, I am in control, I have the authority, he told himself as he stood to welcome her into his office, placing her thick file down on his desk.
Emma walked slowly into the room as if purposefully ingesting every morsel of the office, smelling it, tasting it, savoring it, digesting it. A bookcase, custom built, encased the room, a delicate cocoon; all four walls weaving together the literature of law, science, truth and imagination. Framed pictures, diplomas, and various medical awards hung on the wall, and vases and other decorative pottery settled comfortably between them. The walls above the bookcase were moss colored. Strategically placed around the room, the rustic lamps emitted a soft orange glow like a setting sun. There was the sweet, comforting smell of lavender hovering in the air. Dr. Edmonds had a diffuser on his desk emitting the potent fragrance; he felt strongly that lavender settled the nerves.
She stopped walking. Then moved a bit further into the room. She stopped at the dark green velvety couch directly across from Dr. Edmonds’ desk.The eggplant and cream colored pillows displayed against their backdrop of soft moss provided an elegant appearance. She had her back to him, and her cinnamon colored hair fountained out and splashed across her shoulders. She had a slight hunch to her posture seeming as if there was an imaginary string connected from her forehead to the ground that was keeping her from standing tall.
Strange, Dr. Edmonds thought. But most children that visited his office were a bit strange. She stayed there with her back to Dr. Edmonds for what seemed like an eternity, the click, click, click of metronome on his desk the only sound. In fact, Dr. Edmonds caught himself holding his breath, waiting for her to make a move. She finally swiveled, jumping childishly, and plopped down on the couch. See that, Dr. Edmonds thought to himself. She is just a child after all.
As Dr. Edmonds took in the scene before him, he relaxed a bit. Emma appeared angelic - her elfin face glowing from the paleness of her skin under the lamp light. Fire-red freckles peppered her face and and her hair appeared like flames burning with intensity. She wore denim leggings tucked stylishly in a pair of authentic cowboy boots. Her steel blue sweater, fit her petite frame perfectly and he would have said it mirrored the color in her eyes, but he had never seen such a color as the color of her eyes. Steel was definitely the dominant color, but the steel was blended with specks of gold and orange with a circle of black around the irises. Dr. Edmonds had never seen anything like it, and he had seen a lot of eyes.
He looked down at his desk, and picked up the patient’s file. There were various photographs - Emma’s family home (a beautiful two story cottage nestled in a grove of towering pines near Irondale Beach Park), her adopted parents, Beatrice and John, wearing warm smiles, their pet cat and two dogs (a Siberian Husky, and German Shepherd mix) lounging on their wrap around covered porch), and Emma. If it wasn’t for the picture of Emma, the family’s photos would come across as warm and loving - a picture of serenity. It was the picture of Emma that troubled him. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because the Emma sitting across from him was different than the image in the picture. She stared through the picture straight at him, the blue of her eyes a dark bottomless sea. Dr. Edmonds couldn’t clearly read her expression, but he recognized hints of disappointment, resentment, sadness, longing. Her dress was dramatically different from her modern attire of today.
In the photograph she wore a lace dress (possibly a hand-me-down). It appeared clean and in good condition, but obviously not something new. Her hair lacked the style of modern-day American girls and was a flat rusty color. She looked completely different today as she sat confidently on the velvet couch. He looked up from the file.
“Oh, excuse me, Harold,” she finally managed to say. “My apologies.” Her tone was lacking all sincerity and cut through the still room like a machete, thin, razor sharp, deadly. She smiled.
“Ahem,” Dr. Edmonds cleared his throat and adjusted himself in his chair. What had he said to her when she first walked in? He couldn’t remember. “Emma.” He paused a moment. “I want to be clear that I want to talk with you, to have this conversation. Even though I haven’t had correspondence from your parents in the past week, I still kept our appointment.”
“And I want this opportunity to talk with you as well,” she said very surely.
“You must be aware that anything discussed within these four walls is required by law to stay within these walls. I will not discuss our conversation with your parents.”
“Oh, I’m not too concerned with that anymore, Harold.” She relaxed, sat back against the couch, and crossed her legs.
Dr. Edmonds stopped for a moment and wrote something in his notebook. “I’m anxious to hear your side of the story Emma. I’ve been in correspondence with your parents for the past few weeks, and they seem very concerned about you,” he treaded lightly to start
“Oh, I am not sure it was concern that they felt. They had discovered my secret, and I think they were scared...and, well, maybe they should have been,” her was voice matter-of-fact as she shrugged nonchalantly.
Dr. Edmonds took a sip of his coffee. “Secret?” he asked taking another sip.
“Oh, yes...you know...that I’m a witch.” Dr. Edmonds sputtered and a trickle of coffee escaped and dribbled down his chin. His fingers danced uncoordinatedly to the handkerchief in the pocket of his shirt as he slowly looked up at Emma. “Don’t be afraid,” she said, clearly recognizing the discomfort that suddenly crept in, a dense fog settling throughout the room.
Dr. Edmonds cleared his throat, thinking about his words carefully. This was uncharted territory. A witch? Could it be? His thoughts left the room and travelled down the halls of his past. In all his time at the University, through all the pages of the literature he had poured over, he’d only experienced patients who thought they were witches. But, in truth, these patients turned out only to be sick, attempting an escape from their disappointing reality. He was always discouraged to discover that it was simply their mental illness. They possessed no other worldly powers - none that they could prove anyway. He felt an excitement burning within as he toyed with the idea of having an actual witch in his office. This is how it always started for him; he would find himself bubbling with exhilaration of a new discovery, only to be disappointed when it proved false.
“You must have known something was different about me. I mean...my parents always knew I wasn’t quite normal. No, not normal like their precious, perfect Rebecca,” She scoffed with the last comment and pursed her lips.
“Tell me about your relationship with your parents. They spoke to me about how they gave you everything, loved you like their own child. Is this not true?” he asked.
“Oh, they gave me things. Just not the things I was looking for. Open the file,” she nodded in the direction of his desk where he had laid down the file.
He reached for the file, but before he was able to open it, the manila cover flung open to the precise picture he had been looking at earlier. He gasped. Could it be true?
“You see that dress I’m wearing in that picture? That was Rebecca’s. It was already twenty years old by the time they gave it me. Do you know what time does to clothing that is two decades old?” she smirked.
“I see,” he said, dismissing the last comment. “And what happened to your family pets? Your parents were concerned that you might have harmed them in some way. They said they had gone missing?”
She was quick to respond. “My adopted parents. And if they truly understood me, they would know that I would never hurt them. Our family pets recognized what I was, and they served me well. They were devoted to me. So...I set them free.”
“I see,” he said again. He dismissed this as well. He was finding it difficult to concentrate and withhold his excitement. All the possibilities! Fame! Fortune! Immortalized in literature! The Nobel Prize! He couldn’t contain himself.
“So...you mentioned earlier that you were a witch. What do mean by that?” He straightened his posture and moved to the edge of his chair.
“Is that all you care about, Harold?” Her expression turned to one of intense disappointment. “Aren’t you supposed to be understanding who I am, where I come from, what has made me the way I am...emotionally?” She referenced the diplomas hanging on the walls with a wave of her arm.
“Isn’t that what I’m doing, Emma? I need to know why you refer to yourself as a witch. What leads you to believe this? How can you be sure?”
As if the file folder opening on its own wasn’t enough, he was intent to witness something else. He watched as she stared at the unlit candle on his desk intently for a moment. He could feel the heat rising in the room, and tiny beads of sweat began to seep from his pores. The candle’s wick burst into a blue-red flame. Dr. Edmond’s eyes opened wide.
“Very nice, Emma, very nice,” he said excitedly. “What else can you do?”
Emma sighed. “Harold, could we return for the moment to my story? I truly want you to see why I had to do what I did.”
“But, this is so exciting, Emma! A witch - you are truly a witch! What could possibly be more interesting than this? Forget your file! What could you have possibly done that needs forgiving? You said yourself that you set your family pets free. Everything else your parents mentioned was just odd behavior. But - we have an explanation for that. You’re a witch!” He hadn’t meant to, but he almost screamed that last statement. “We can fix your relationship with your parents. I just need to know more about your powers first. This is fantastic!”
“No. We can’t fix the situation with my adopted p.”
“Of course we can. Don’t give up on them yet.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I’ve already fixed things.”
Dr. Edmonds cocked his head. “Huh. What do you mean, Emma?” He looked for a minute back at her file. Something seemed to finally click in his mind, and his arms broke out in the tiny little chill bumps that rise at the very moment a feeling of foreboding sets in. “Your picture,” Dr. Edmonds said looking up at her. “It had me completely vexed when I looked at the first time. I could have sworn it was a different person. Not the person sitting right before me now.”
“Unfortunately, it’s me.”
“It’s such a dramatic change. If I didn’t know it to be true, I wouldn’t believe it was you.”
“It’s what happens when I don’t get what I want.”
“And what do you want, Emma?” he asked truly wanting the answer.
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Harold. It’s too late for that.” She wore a look of disappointment on her face. “I’ve failed,” she sighed, uncrossed her legs, and raised her eyes to meet his with a look of steel concentration. “I’ve completely failed...again.”
“You don’t understand what this information means to simple human beings like myself!” He argued desperately.
“Oh, I understand perfectly well. This conversation is over.”
“No…” Dr. Edmonds attempted to protest, but his voice slipped away from him as if on a current rushed by tumultuous rapids leading over a waterfall.
“My parents said the same thing when they realized it was too late. Before I burned their house to the ground with them trapped inside.”
Dr. Edmonds eyes widened for a second time. “No,” he gasped.
Her stare was hypnotizing, and met with his like two magnets of similar poles, repelling him, pushing him, forcing him to stand up from his desk, and the next thing he knew, he was actually moving across his office to the closed window, reaching for the window clasp, switching the clasp to the unlocked position, and pushing up the glass pane. All the while, he could feel her stare. He could see the landscape perfectly. The day was beginning to fade, and the sunset was on fire on the horizon, emitting hues of red, yellow, orange, purple, blue. Two Herring Gulls spiraled in the air over the parking lot, squabbling loudly over a scrap of food left behind on the pavement. He could feel the intensity of both the sunset and her stare. He never stopped moving. The wind rushed at him, howling in his ears as he plummeted to the ground.
Silent Yet strange
It was late in the night. It's always like that. In a town called Missile Brook, a young man named strange lived in that town. Strange had black hair that was combed back, beady black marble eyes filled with confusion mostly. He wore oldish and somewhat new fancy clothes. He didn't have a lot of friends, in fact he didn't have any friends. Just himself. He never talked to anyone, until one day…
Missile Brook was very old looking, everyday is always odd, it has grey/burnt trees in the early fog, people in that town were always suspicious now and then. The boy heard screams in the neighborhood now and then and was curious about why people were screaming. Missile brook was not a happy place because everyday sunlight would only come out at two but wouldn't show at other times. It looked like Missile brook went through a war and you can smell smoke no matter where you went. This world is very strange. You would think this place is easy to get to with no circumstances but it is hard. Not impossible. Just hard.
Remember that Missile Brook is odd, well one night a six year old girl stayed at her house, like she always does, her house was abandoned, very old looking and it looked haunted. The girl didn't come out until 2pm. Every now and then Strange would see her looking at him through the window as he walked by. One day Strange looked at the abandoned house, and the girl was not there. She was on the street. He thought it meant nothing so he fell asleep.
“ Ahhhhhhh!” Someone cried with a shriek of horror and worry. Strange woke up after hearing that scream and so did the rest of the neighborhood. Startled by the shriek of horror, Strange went down to check it out. He looked at the clock, 2pm. He looked at where the girl was before 2, but he didn’t see a girl. Standing where she was, was a monster. Only you couldn’t see it as well. It looked to be a shadow of a figure, a werewolf? But strange thought it looked like it was more than a werewolf. He could tell that the figure had fangs, three sharp long claws on both hands, three long like spider legs, and the longest tongue Strange has ever seen.
“ Is it a werewolf?” Someone cried.
“ No, It looks more like a spider.” Someone answered.
“ Are you sure?”
“ No. but i’m not going to stay here longer just to see!” The other person cried running off.
Strange didn’t know what to think. So he went home thinking, this is just a dream. That girl will be the same. It is just an imagination. It’s just a dream. And thinking with that he dozed off hopeful that it was a dream. When he woke up, he heard a knock on the door. That's odd. he thought. As he walked closer to his door, he saw a figure of a man. Letting the man in, Strange had a very bad feeling that this is going to be a bad idea. The man had a long black cloak, brown hair combed back, and his dark brown eyes dazzled in the light of the Strange’s lantern.
“ Hello.” The man said with a smile. “You must be strange?”
“ Yeah.” Strange said with a shrug.
“ My name is Eam.” Eam said holding a hand out to meet Strange’s.
“ I’d rather not shake someone's hand that I just met.” Strange said pushing the hand away.
“ Anyway,” Eam continued, “Do you know what’s going on around here?”
“ No, why?” Strange asked.
“ Well apparently every time it strikes 2pm, someone will mutate.” Eam said.
“ Is there a cure?” Strange asked.
“ There is a cure, but it’s hard to get. It might even be a suicidal mission just to get it. Only, it’s up to you. Decide wisely.” Eam said cautiously. At that point, Strange was out of his mind. He wasn’t ready for death. But said nothing.
“ Look all i’m saying is if you don’t find a cure, you will die.” Eam explained, “ You see this place is very unusual, always unusual, and the government wanted to make it even more unusual than it already is. The government made this potion to make people mutate so there is not a huge population here.”
Strange thought about the most important word he heard, unusual over and over again. Without hesitation, Strange was ready to leave and find the cure.
“ So how do you get a cure?” Strange asked curiously.
“ You have to get mutated blood from a mutated thing.” Eam said.
“ How do I do that?”
“ You will figure it out.” Eam said with a confident smile as he and Strange went into the helicopter. In the helicopter, Strange and Eam didn’t talk much on the way, which made strange more uncomfortable. Although Strange liked quiet, this silent was more silent. It was as though Strange was deaf or had earmuffs that he couldn’t hear through.
“ Well this is YOUR stop. Good luck!” Eam said breaking the silence.
“ Wait you're just going to leave me here?!?! Where do I go?”
“ Figure it out!” Eam shouted carelessly. As his shadow disappeared between the fog.
Strange followed what seemed to be left of a road. He followed it until he saw a sign that said, “ Welcome to golden town!”.” Well I don’t see the golden in this place”. Strange thought.
“ I heard something over here!” Shouted a man
“ I see him! Get him!” Shouted another. The men pounced straight onto Strange, holding him down like he was a prisoner who just did a jailbreak. Strange got free from the iron fists and slowly started to back up.
“ Hey Hey Hey!” Strange said cautiously moving back.
“ He’s just a human. He isn’t one of them. Let’s leave him alone.” A boy shouted. The boy looked like he was the same age as Strange. He had blonde hair, light blue eyes as if the sea were in them, he was wearing an army suit which looked like it had a gun hidden in it.
“ Hey are you alright? I’m Siege. “Sorry about all those guys back there. We don’t know who is good or who is bad.So what’s your name?” Siege said.
“ I’m Strange. I’m from Missile Brook.”
“ Missile brook? Pardon me for asking but, where is that?” Siege asked.
“ I think it’s far from here. I can’t really remember.” Strange answered.
“ Well if you need help around here. Ask me.” Siege said with a confident and kind smile.
“ Who is this, Strange?” A dark figure asked. Eam, Strange thought.
“ This is Siege. I think he will be a great help in my adventure.” Strange said.
“ Adventure?” Siege asked hoping to help.
“ One moment please, Strange a word.” Eam said angrily. He lead Strange into a small room that had paintings from long ago, artifacts that looked like they were abandoned. But there was this one artifact that caught Strange’s attention, a silver coin. The coin looked as though it was speaking to Strange saying, “ Come take me i’m worth a lot”. Strange couldn’t resist. Until…
“ Strange focus. Look I know you just met this kid but you shouldn’t trust anyone, besides you have a mission to do. Also I forgot to tell you DO NOT I repeat DO NOT go out into the woods at 2pm.” Eam said with caution.
“ Why?” Strange asked suspiciously.
“ No reason. But I must ask you, do you trust that boy over there to help you? You did just meet him. I think you should ask him questions and decide.”
Strange began to sweat like he just finished a race that took forever. Strange felt like he was going to collapse. It felt as though the walls were walking towards him. Strange didn’t hesitate about leaving this room. Leaving Eam in the middle of the conversation, Strange ran as fast as he could. He ran and dashed like he was a new Flash. Strange ran to Siege and asked,” Are you good?”
“ What do you mean am I good?” Siege asked.
“ I mean will you help me in my quest?”
“ Sure. you can trust me. I’ll be by your side.” Siege said “When do we leave?”
“ Tomorrow meet at the woods at 2pm. Ok?
“ Ok!” Siege said. And with that Strange was ready to go on his mission. He was very nervous in the morning. His heart was beating twice as fast as a normal heartbeat. Forgetting about Eam’s warning, he went outside to go to the woods. But when he got there, he saw Siege running from it.
“ What are you doing?!” Strange yelled as Siege flew past him as though he was a terrified chicken that was about to be fried.
“ You can’t believe what I saw. I saw one of them. A mutated thing.” Siege said terrified.
“ I need to check this out.” Strange said as he walked into the big green leaves of the trees. As he walked farther and farther away, it started to get cold, the clouds began to become more greyer, and he could see the heat of his breathe become more visible and more cloud like.
“ Strange?” A dark figure appeared from the shadows of the trees. It was Strange’s father.
“ Dad? Why are you here? There are mutated things out there.” Strange said.
“ I was here for the same reason as you.”
“ Was?” Strange asked while backing up very slowly.
“ I am one of them.” Strange’s dad said. “You should come with me. Become one of us. Don’t get a cure.” His dad said.
“ Sorry but I want to live.” Strange said.
“ Well I tried.” His dad said. Strange was ready to pounce at his father like his dad was his prey. All of the sudden he saw his dad grow those three long sharp claws and swiped at him like he was in fruit ninja only Strange was the fruit. His father swiped at Strange but he missed by an inch. After that, knowing that his dad was not going to come back, Strange pulled out a knife and charged. He closed his eyes and swung at the beast. He felt the knife dive into the monster and heard a loud “ THUD”. He also felt a knife dive into him. He looked at himself then at the beast who he no longer knew and who has struck him in the side of his limbs. And with that Strange could only see black. It was as though he was sealed in a black steel box that he had no key to let him out. Moments after he heard a voice that sounded very familiar,
“ Strange. Are you alright?” A figure appeared into Strange’s eyes. Siege. Sitting up, Strange asked, “ What happened?”
“ You got hurt remember. Your dad pounced at you and stabbed you with his claw while you struck a knife into his chest and-”
“ Let me guess I killed him.” Strange interrupted.
“ Bingo!” Siege said happily. “Don’t you have a cure now?”
“ Siege you have to look at this.” A doctor said.
“ Sorry. Be right back.” Siege said. After that everything was quiet except one thing. Something was wrong.
“ Siege something is wrong with your friend.” The doctor said. That’s weird. I can hear from far away. Strange thought as he listened more.
“ I’m sorry to say this but he has the virus. You either have to kill him or leave him. If you leave him he can come and hurt your family. What should we do captain?”
“ Let him go into the wild. If I must do business to protect my family then I will.” Siege said. Strange couldn’t breathe. Hearing that from his own and only friend made him angry. Angry to hurt. He needed to hurt.
_Hannah Law
_________________________________________________________________________________
Trees Can’t Turn People Invisible
Jake Davis
If a tree could make people invisible there would be so much possibility. Hide and seek would be impossible for the seeker unless people didn’t hide near trees. Trees would give a superpower always fantasized by many. But that wouldn’t happen because trees can not make people invisible. That is a fantasy, just like an actual racecar bed. The thing about fantasies, they’re always fun. Until it ends. Then reality crashes in. like a car crashes into another car. Something funny about dreams, they are shorter than fantasies. That’s why sleep exists. Everyone loves that fun though. Whatever it may be. Then it’s gone. A good life lesson. Things change, things have to change or one day be forgotten. Once there, now gone. Just like when trees turn people invisible. But again, can’t happen.
All trees can do is sit and wait. Get planted, age, grow, photosynthesize, create leaves, drop leaves. Be there. No one cares about trees. Only the leaves. Unless kids are involved. Kids love climbing on trees for those few years until that is just more to add to the past.
The past is telling, the future is secretive, the present is under the tree. The present is right now. Time tells. It favores math because all time has to show are shapes and numbers. Time is kind and cruel without ever changing attitude. Time sees all but doesn’t know all. Technology knows most. Always improving or fading away. Just like trees turning people invisible. Always there or once there now gone. All depends on a number of things. How many things? That depends on a number of things as well. Know what else has numbers?
Time. Time has numbers, only a limited few though. Yet it can make more numbers than even countable. Time can go everywhere. It never gets a break. Humans can go everywhere with some restrictions. Just like time, amino acids make thousands out of little. Few making up thousands. Another instance like that. Letters. Making up thousands of words with so few. Words are communication. Some strange people have even kicked communication up a tad by using strange noises instead of actual living, breathing words. Those noises are the best noises of our lives. Animals make noise, move around and are fun. Just like people. We can do so much yet so little. A lot is fun and yet at the same time, a lot isn’t fun. Just like the idea of trees turning people invisible.
It’s fun but it can not happen because that is not what trees do. They sit there and wait, wait to be climbed on, wait until the leaves fall, wait until snow covers the empty branches. Then the leaves grow back. Spreading their joy to those that care and just there for those that don’t care.
Just like weather. Some care, some don’t. To some, it matters if it’s warm, cold, raining, snowing or, some other thing. Others don’t care what it is like. They just keep living. Every living thing lives. Just some more than others. Just as some fantasize more than others. Fantasies of trees turning people invisible. Of finding the one thing they want more than everything else. Trees can not make people invisible because that is not science or logic. Trees only can do so much just like every other thing on earth before they fade away, unseen to the world. Just like when those trees turn people invisible.
Blue Eyes
Rylee Gee
Dark and cold, all I could hear were screams. No light flashed but I could feel the walls crumbling as bombs hid beneath their own feet. Life con-caving on itself. And then it was all gone.
78 years later
“Hey Charlie, I am going sneak into to the St. Adams mental hospital with some friends tonight do you want to join us?” Grayson whispered as he rushed to finish his math homework.
“Isn’t that also known as trespassing? I mean there is a reason that no one has been allowed there for over seventy years.” Charlie said with a sarcastic tone.
“If you want be a pansy, just say no. But we are going and it’s your choice if you want to come.” Grayson grumbled as he packed his backpack and walked out of study hall.
Charlie looked down at his phone, his thumbs raced as he texted his mom that he wouldn’t be home until later. He frantically shoved everything into his backpack and ran after Grayson.
“Hey wait!” he yelled down the empty hallway. Grayson turned from his path and looked back at Charlie. As they walked out of the school’s front doors, a group of teenagers appeared from around the corner. Grayson walked up to them and exchanged a handshake like Charlie had never seen. They ended with a big “Ayyyyyy!” and they man hugged each other. Grayson whispered into the kid's ear and then looked back at Charlie. Charlie’s eyes widened as the kid got closer and closer to him. His hand stuck out at him…
“Hey my name is Blake.” Charlie shook his large bony hand
“I’m --” he was interrupted
“Charlie? Yeah, Grayson has told me about you! You are wanting to join us on our ‘patrol’ of St. Adams?” Blake stared into Charlie's deep dark brown eyes as they stared back at his.
“Yeah, I want to go.” he said hesitantly.
“Okay we will head out right now.” He said while putting his hand on Charlie’s Back, pushing him forward to the rest of the group.
“Oh here let me introduce you. This is Noah” He signaled at a tall pale kid with piercings on his nose and lips. His eyes were outlined with eyeliner as thick as sharpie and his hair was as black as tar. His jeans ripped and torn, and his Metallica jacket covered in grey dust.
“This is Liam.” A kid raised his hand at the sound of the name. He had Handlebar sunglasses and a nirvana shirt. His bleach blonde hair was swept to the side and a beanie hat pulled it back to where you could barely see his black highlight tips. His pants were skin tight and charcoal. His shoes were leather converse with a small charm hooked to the lace. A silver skull with jeweled blood pouring from the eyes was the thick necklace hanging around his neck.
“Harper, is this spicy lady right here.” He said looking at the only girl in the whole group. Her hair was thick and curly It was brown with purple highlights. Her ‘Pierce the Veil’ tank top was ripped down both sides and her violet hoodie was on her arms but draped over the back of her shoulders, leaving them bare. Her head was down at first, but when he said her name she looked up at Charlie, her brown eyes almost distracted him from her broken nose and scarred lip.
“And you know Grayson.” he continued. Grayson looked at Charlie and smiled, he was the only one in the group without a suspicious tiny-devil feeling.
The kids grabbed their backpacks and started walking down the sidewalk. Charlie sped up just a bit to keep up with them. He might have been tall compared to the other kids in his class, but these kids made him look like a toddler. They continued through the neighborhood, and walked past Charlie’s street, his house right on the corner. He looked the other way as to hide just in case his mother saw him out the window. He knew she was home since she was the only one around the house anymore, and she only works the night shift. He was happy to be out and defying the rules, but he had an itching feeling that something was going to go wrong.
Charlie’s house was finally out of sight, when they turned off of the sidewalk onto a grassy path, fog filled the tree covered walk ahead. As they continued on the path, the air got colder and more dense. Fear filled Charlie's chest as it got harder to breathe.
Every once in awhile, I could actually feel something. But then I would notice
it wasn’t reality. It was just my brain getting used to the solitude.
They turned a corner and in front of them was a large building crippled by time. The wall to the left had completely fallen down where small doorways had lost a few bricks. Windows were either dusty and cracked or gone from existence. The friable barbed wire fence only ten feet in front of the group had been cut to make an opening. Blake walked up to the fence and lifted the few strands of barbed wire that were still there. They ducked under one by one. Liam being the first one went to check around the building to check for cameras, and in that time they all stared at the dark abandoned mess in front of them.
Charlie's dad had told him and his sister stories of this place. Lost soldiers from battle would come here if the scars were deeper than bone, so deep they reached thoughts. Widows gone mad and children that saw things would come here, thrown in rooms of pillowed walls. Their bodies were tied down with leather straps, and minds were tripped with drugs that were supposed to help, but just made it worse. Charlie didn’t believe those stories, they were just meant to give you the chills. And since the passing of his father and sister, he just tried to forget them. Liam finally showed up from around the other corner of the building.
“Alright everybody, you ready to go in?” Blake said rubbing his hands together.
“Yep!” Grayson said. Liam had already made his way up to the door and everyone else followed behind Blake. Charlie’s legs shook as he stepped over broken planks of wood and shard of glass. Grayson pulled a flashlight out of his left pocket, when he turned it on they could all see the same thing looming in front of them. A sheet of metal with rounded corners and bright red paint.
Warning:
Jklsnfninc-
-=/0-=/-=0-=/
-/-/-/-/-//-ppolp/;
The last part was scratched out and beside it said L.I.F.E. with an arrow pointing to the right. Harper snickered and walked towards the dark corridor, Grayson quickly pointed the flashlight toward her. Everyone followed.
It had been about 2 minutes of walking down this hallway when Grayson flashed the light on a metal hatch. Blake picked up a short cut off pole and tried to pry their way into it. It took him only a few seconds when it creaked open. A colorful control panel lay behind the small layer of shattered glass.
“Knife.” Blake said holding his hand back towards Noah. He pulled a large pocket knife from his pocket laying it in Blake’s palm. He flipped it open and cut a wire. He stripped the rubber lining on a black wire and twisted the metal together on a blue one. He then put the knife to his mouth holding it with his teeth. He laid his hand on a tan handle and pulled down. A whirring sound filled the air above us, a spark formed itself inside the panel. The lights flickered on.
“Nice job dude!” Grayson said giving him a high five. A large crash rattled the ground.
“It was probably just the generator.” Charlie was distracted by the sign above the double doors ahead of them, it was different than you would expect at a mental hospital. The large bold blue letters were all uppercase, corners were scratched to once again see L.I.F.E with an arrow pointing through the doors.
“Inter-Sophronia?” Charlie said, everyone looked back at him. Charlie’s mind led back to his sister in the hospital her poor brown eyes always wide open, teary and sad, for she was scared for what may come while they are closed. Her legs and hips were tied down because she would lose control of her limbs at random moments. Charlie’s dad would go and visit her every day, sometimes he would stay overnight at the hospital and sleep with his head laying on her bed. He could still hear his sister's voice say his name … Charlie, Charlie! CHARLIE!--
“Charlie! What's wrong!?” Grayson said shaking his shoulder, his mind was snapped back to reality.
“Oh, nothing, I’m fine.” Charlie responded “Lets keep going.”
“Okay, Hey guys, let’s keep going!” Blake said rounding everybody up.
They opening the squeaky swinging doors that led you down the Inter-Sophronia corridor. The second he walked through the door, a cold, thick air filled his lungs. A wave of unexplained fear rushed around the groups shaking bodies. The room of which they had just entered’ looked like a normal hospital check in. There was a reception desk with rocks piled on top. The sign above it said ‘Check-In’, but was broken in half so it would swing back and forth on its single string with the wind. The group started to slowly creep into the room. The lights flickered on and off as sparks fell from the ceiling. Chairs that would normally be lined up against the wall were either knocked over or torn to shreds in the middle of the room. Charlie started walking to one of the hospital rooms. A bed was against the wall the IV stand bent in half. He stepped out of the room and saw everyone else doing their exploring. He glanced down the hallway, when a tray fell from a pile of rubble. A shadow ran across into one of the rooms. Charlie yelled just enough to get everyone's attention. He stepped forward and felt the ground sink. The tile floor broke through and he fell through darkness.
“Charlie!” was the last thing he heard before the light faded to pitch black.
They heard an cut off scream choked out of the breath in Charlie's lungs.
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