The Highway

written when I was 12 or 13

It was a long time ago when oil companies ruled the world. Some people can remember it with every vivid detail. Others wish to block it out of their minds. We, those who remember, chose to fight and we remember it all. This is my story.

I used to live on a beach, and I remember the ocean waves smashing against the earth as it shook with power and might. I used to have the sea. That was when “the mother” was alive in me. I had a family: A mom, brother, and a sister. When I was young, days seemed to stretch out for hours across the sea; it was only because of “the mother”  I ever made it.

One day, a beautiful spring day, we were all sitting down to lunch. Bobby was clattering the silverware, mom fixing the plates, and me filling the cups.
We were just about to sit down for dinner, when a strange car pulled up to our driveway. I remember some odd looking men talking to my mother about some card that was to be pledged, the supposed growing economy, and something about a failure to participate. I remember the huge battle between us and them: The crying and the scattering glass. The forks my brother tried to fight the men with.

 However, they took him away, and my sister and I were forced to watch him go as the last time I would ever see him again.

The economy did grow. And growth brought new changes. There were new laws to be established. Three years after my brother was stolen, it was our turn. Mother told us we were going to have to leave. One way or another we would say goodbye forever. The choice was between either being taken to a place where we would be trained and used as soldiers for battle, or take the even scarier choice to leave the permanent settlements of our home as outcasts and flee as far as we could in hopes of finding a better place.

All the roads starting the highway or “big travel” as they called it were expensive, and meant only for the higher class and strictly for the labor workers. If you could not get a job you were not aloud on the road. That’s just how the system worked. Outside you had to farm and eat whatever you could
find in order to live.

That’s why my mother joined the once new town of Meridia. Outcasts there form a society where we could work and fish and where we made up our own money. Instead of paper, we would use dye that you earned from different jobs. With the dye we would paint rocks in different neat designs to give to the
fishermen in exchange for fish.   The world I would see was not at all like my homeland. I had only seen a car once.

*We chose to run away. Of course my mother was unable to bear us leaving. Just after we had packed our bags and made a map, tied our shoes and said goodbye, she gave us a hug, and the hug wouldn’t let go, but we had to go. She ran to her bedroom and locked herself in. We could hear the crying wails that
came from the window. She was never very good at goodbyes.

It was pitch black when we headed the trail through the woods because we were afraid of being caught in the daylight. The air was chill, but our fear and constant moving blocked the cold and muffled our tears. We had to keep on moving, farther and farther away from our mother.

The hope that “the mother” was still striving within us, while the beat of our hearts hit the beat of the ocean. Crash, crash, crunch, crunch, thump, thump. We were were carried like baby crabs out into the threatening sea.

If we had known quicker, we would have had a head start. But, news reaches slowly on the outskirts of Meridia. The men coming, and to here of all places. This time, in search for young girls.

"It was high time the woman’s organization had given their consent.
Now men and women have equal military rights."

This was the big headline all over the news. It had been a law for years since that because it was only woman that could bear children, they had to take up their responsibilities and leave the worker life to take care of their sons and daughters. After they were well taught, the boys “young adults” would be sent off to work and the mothers would spend the rest of the time finding a suitable home for their sons to marry in. The mother would then, stay with her son for the child's birth before he would go back out to work. The wife then, would take care of the kids and so on and so on. The problem was most men in those days were finding it too inconvenient to marry and since less men were making
children, less soldiers were out on the battlefields protecting their precious oil. That was when some “genius” thought up a solution to all their problems.

“ It’s brilliance, pure brilliance,” said senator J Broke,

“Long ago there was a God who created two separate bodies to live together in the goodness of the garden. And through the great fruit of knowledge we obtained the greatness of creation. Long since has man forgotten to share the fruit of our knowledge with the female kind.We declare that from this day
foreword, all woman will have all the rights of men! Every single law shall be amended for girls and boys. No longer will a man be forced to leave his wife for battle or leave his mom or sisters at birth. Together we will march, side by side, men and woman, sons and daughters armed with love and passion. Our females beside us will join our great victory. When the evil world has died, our bonds will not be broken.”

Most of the night we were guided by the moon and stars, but when the moon went down we were forced to stop and sleep awhile. Early we woke and got out two pieces of crusty bread each. The hard bread was meant to last. Two small bites and off we went. There was no sun yet.

The coolness was comforting and we did cry that night before, but somehow waking up like that left us feeling so empty and so lost and gonelike abandoned sea shells. Where was that creature inside of us?  

It had been swept off in the storm.

We were so hopeless and we started running again. We ran a mile, than walked three, and by half a mile made it to  the highway. It wasn’t likely they would fancy us here. You had to be crazy traveling without a license, but where else would we go? We wanted to make it out as far as we could from where they would find us.

El Salvador was the place to go. By now they had torn down most of the forests. All the fruit plants had died long ago in a chemical war. U.S killed the whole land and in vain search finding nothing, left it to the remains of the poor farmers. That’s where we were going. To the last surviving free settlement. There, we would be safe. Or at least we hoped. Back then we didn’t know all  this, of course. We had a map and the words, flee or die, still fresh in our minds.

“How much further do we have to the nearest gas station?”

“Seven miles!”

Gas stations were huge. There were even gas station cities. Molly, was my sister. She was a little younger than me, with short blond hair. My hair was darker and a bit longer.

“ When are we going to see mommy again,” she asked a lot.

“Soon,” I would say, “As soon as we can.”

But I knew inside, even she knew deep down that there was barely a chance of ever seeing her again. No one caught us from the time we left to the gas station, but where those go and linger there’s too much lingering in evil ways.  

The trucks were lined up and the men were unpacking. Molly and I were to try and get into one going south. But Molly insisted on going to the bathroom. I admit, my bladder was about to burst. Molly did well slipping in and out, but my darker features were easily caught and a man behind the counter took me back for questioning. This is it, I thought, there was no way I could make it out of this one. I said I was dropped off. The gas station owner seemed very nice and said he would take me under his own wing in exchange for me being the first girl ever to work at a gas station. I had to go along, feeling dizzy to my stomach. Where was Molly?

I secretly hoped she  would wait for me. But every time I kept trying to go out he wouldn’t let me go. I had to work if I was to live. And if I didn’t he would send me to prison. I became a slave to him. I had to work all day and half a night. No one else had to work as much as I did, for I had “special privileges.”

 I would cry, at first, every night. Thinking of my sister, Molly.  She was my only relation I had left on this cold faced planet. My kin, my family no longer. She was gone. I was scared and so, so alone. I spent my days working with ingredients. Mixing and pouring chemicals. Operating their new highly technological machines. Into the every day basis I weaved my lonely days
with smells from the sea substituting the smells of fumes and smoke.

One day I got a chance to stock the shelves and I secretly held the seashore freshener close to my nose. It smelled fake and made me nauseas, but I craved the smell so much that I applied for more work as the shop stocker.

Soon, I had a full time degree and even as a young girl I had a full time job as a desk person. When the boss was out working and had his full responsibly on me, I would pull out the air freshener from under the cash register and silently daydream of the sea.

 I had gotten so used to the patterns of work and the shifts, but most of all I think the fumes really got to my head. I began to forget nearly everything about my home and my past life. I just knew that I really like that smell.
I longed for it and craved it.

But one day I woke up and the smell was gone. I searched in vain for anything recognizable. But I had lost all sense of taste and smell. My mind was blank of all things, save my orders. I had to get out. The fear of losing my smell had woken me up. I hadn’t known how long I had been there but I knew I had to get out.

 I walked out the door of my bedroom, into the office, told my boss I was leaving, and stood for awhile in the middle of the parking lot till I remembered it was inside. All the answers were inside those doors. The truck doors. Right than a car full of teenagers told me to get in fast. I climbed into the back seat . I was cramped with two girls and in the front were two men. The girls were much older than me and kept asking me questions.

“Who are you,” they asked, “where did you come from?”

I didn’t remember. They were iffy and unsure. They didn’t trust me and thought I was rude. But, when the guy in the front asked me how long I had been at that place and I had said, as long as yesterday, they knew I had been there for much longer. They gave me some candy.

“And it’s good for you,” they said.

I got really happy and soon we were laughing and talking together. We were all high, but I slept most of the way, and when we stopped again I was awake and feeling sick. But I was better, they told me, and sure enough I could remember everything.

“It’s the laughter,” they said. “ It’s good for the soul.”

I had had enough of that stuff after that, and when I had a drink of a nice something or another, my sister was all that popped into my head. Where was she? How did she escape? Could she have been caught ,but, Oh where was she?

So than, after awhile,  I got up my courage to ask if they could help me find her. They agreed. It took a lot of conflict, but finally they agreed that we would have to find my little sister.

“She could be anywhere though, and the chances of finding her are slim to one,” said the other man up front.

We spent two whole weeks looking for her, but by Monday our spirits were getting soar. If only I hadn’t been captured. The one thing that did make us stop was when we reached an unexpected checking area. No one had a card so no one could go through.

“You have to get out!”

 They said to run or the men would catch me. I didn’t know where to go and I knew the officers wouldn’t let me escape. They approached on either sides of the doors. The driver of the truck locked the doors. Get out! He yelled. I finally figured out what he meant.

The window, through the window he meant. It was small, meant for air, but I was able to fit right through. I slid onto the cargo area, then just enough time to leap off there and I ran and ran in the opposite direction.

As far as I could get from the hundreds of booths. Booths with men. Men who would find me. Men without souls but armed with guns. Men who were officers, but who were they protecting? “Toll booths had to be more efficient”, so instead of having them spread apart. “We” decided to put them all in one big line. Hundreds upon thousands of toll booth rows. Cars blankly waiting for hours at times. When would it be their turn? That’s all they ever worried about, or cared anyways.

But so many pills and so many drugs were made to keep them happy It was the way the system worked. They all chose, of course, to buy them. But the warnings were off the labels. It was simply how you did things. I didn’t understand any of it. How nobody saw me. At first I caught a glimpse of what
appeared to be a man in the window. But his eyes were so fixed. His stare so focused  and resolute.

 I kept going until I realized there was no way left to go. The traffic and the noise set me off in a hurry and the flashing lights made me nauseous. I could go to the right and follow the line all the way to the end, but would it ever end? Where was the end? I kept turning around in circles. Cars were
on every side. Honking, tires screaming. I got nauseous ..sweat rolled down my face. The fear pulled me off the floor and the ground collapsed beneath me in a big jolt.
 For awhile I lay there, in between the lines, until by some strange coincidence or awesome luck..an old run down ambulance truck, with the head nurse and driver ,Anna, at the wheel, saw me. They quickly grabbed me and drove me in through the tollbooths.

I was laid on a bench in the back, and when I woke up I saw even more benches filled up with people. Some sick children and some who looked perfectly fine. This was a rescue truck! I was being rescued and all these people were some how connected to me. We didn’t talk much though…at least
after they had all introduced themselves and told their stories of how they got there.
 My story, I found out, was not quite so harsh as most of the others. It made me feel different and somewhat guilty. They seemed to like me less for it. So how could I possibly ask about my sister, the question was like a hole eating away at my insides. Deep down, it was sucking my life away. Too much fear, too much sickness. It left me colder and I just couldn’t feel like I used to..not for anyone. I was alone, yes still alive..always so alone.

“Where are we going,” I asked.

“Where we can be free,” was the nurses reply. “ A long time ago we doctors were free to roam the roads in search to save and heal the hurt and dieing. All you had to do was press the red button and we would be able to find you. That was when ambulances had all the same rights as the police did.


Save and protect. That was our motto. Half the roads were blocked off for safety travel. Signals connected to our vehicles would trace us through the shortcuts to the easiest way to an emergency.

That was really the only way we could do it. If we didn’t have those roads we couldn’t reach anyone in time through the traffic. Sadly there isn’t even a point for the safety roads for us anymore. All the doctors have been called to the war to save the soldiers. People are sick but there’s no one left to help them. That’s why we are fleeing to El Salvador, the wasteland.”

“But why are you leaving? We have to stay and help all those people you were talking about!”

“Even if we tried there is no chance,” she replied. “The roads have been blocked off from us since we were called away years ago. Let’s just hope America can help itself.”

The words shot like bullets into my chest. America couldn’t help itself and we were going to El Salvador to find my sister. If this was the only place to go than no matter what we were going to El Salvador..and if my sister knew than she would be trying just as hard as me to get there.

How to find each other was a horrible question that I just realized.. “how big is El Salvador anyways” I asked.

The thought of finding my sister brought hope and life back into me. I was feeling less nauseous as I was before and I realized I needed to stop denying myself. No one hated me, or liked me less for that matter. I was lucky..my brother was not so lucky.

I had also been thinking about my brother a lot. What were the chances of meeting him in El Salvador? None. He was taken to war like a slave. I knew it. He could be dead by now. But the thought almost ripped out my insides! I had to be calm and be happy to be alive. When you lose hope you lose all chances of surviving. Hope is what keeps us alive. As long as I knew I had a chance I kept myself alive.

I was an escaping former hostage to the end of the world and I wasn’t about to give up. Fleeing in a lost vessel with lost souls who also would never give up. But unlike the others I knew exactly who I was looking for. Unlike the
others my vessel was my family. Even if I couldn’t find them, they were still all the great part of me that was destined to be mine.



Whether across the sea, behind prison bars, outside of the city, inside the country, all I wanted was my family back. To hold them, to love them. I knew them and knew they all loved me back. My soul would be healed by the sound of their voices. Like a lullaby in a storm, a kiss goodnight. Not a kiss goodbye.

 * Forever we traveled and we hid when we stopped. Flowing on the current of desperation. We were not all hopeless, we talked and joked. I met this one boy, we would talk about everything. Our hopes and fears. He would say the nicest reassuring things to me. I would be sad and he’d make me feel better. When we would have to stop for supplies, he would always hold my hand because I used to be so afraid of getting caught.

 His hands were so warm. It felt like I was being pulled into rays of sunlight when I was next to him. He never left my side. We both knew how much we loved each other, but we never said it. Maybe it was because we were surrounded by people, or maybe it was one of those things that goes without saying. I love you was in his eyes. It was written in his posture and singing in his voice. The end of the world couldn’t tear us apart, but sadly enough it did.

We had reached the end of the third of our long journey so we found a safe place to park and ran around these long deserted fields in so much happiness. Three months since I had been outside!    The air was clear and
perfect. This was a small taste of freedom! So we ran in our bare feet as far as we could. The ocean was becoming faintly alive in me. So we kept running. As if God had decided to greet us and I think God also was hoping we’d find what we did. At first I thought it was the ocean.

“ The sea! The sea!” I cried. As we came to the bank we cried out for joy while Jess, who was the boy, picked me up and swung me in his arms.

“ This isn’t a sea!” Someone exclaimed, “This is a river!”

 “It’s a sea today,” said Jess, “now lets start swimming!”

Before I knew it I was being drenched in sea water with Jess pulling me under. We laughed and we played until we all had to come in before we would get sick. Everything was fine, we thought, until we reached the truck. Inside, someone was crying. We found Laura and she’d hurt her leg really badly.

She had broken her leg on a rock and we hadn’t seen her in the dark because someone had already brought her in. Laura had passed out from the sight of the blood though.


It was the nurse who was crying because she had sold all her leftover supplies to get food for everyone. Laura’s knee was bleeding really badly. Everyone was scared and didn’t know what to do. Were we going to have to go
back the whole halfway to try and get some bandages? All the boys took off their shirts and the girls brought their blankets. We poured cold river water on it and held it with the shirts. It was all we had and it helped a small bit.

The thing that scared us most was her unconsciousness. Her limp body
just laying there as if she was dead. We had been so happy and careless that we hadn’t expected anything this bad. Where was God now. Surely he hadn’t planned this had he? We decided to go back and try to get supplies. Laura woke up within the hour and was screaming in pain.

 When we had reached the place she was silent. It was so dark outside and the sight of the place sent me shaking. This time I knew I was ready to throw up. Jess tried to comfort me, but I could see the fear in his eyes. The nurse got out and ran into the gas station while Laura was laying half  unconscious and really pale. The nurse took forever in coming back. I wondered why it was taking so long.

Someone said, “they are probably questioning her about needing bandages at so late at night and why she wasn’t at home with her children.”

“They could be arresting her,” this kid said. “Maybe they know she is an escaping nurse from the war.”

Nobody spoke after that. Even after it was said the words echoed in the engine. Finally the silence broke, but not by Anna.

“Please get out of the ambulance! All passengers are under arrest for trespassing and violation of safety codes. Get out now! No one will get hurt!”

None moved a muscle. We were all so scared. What now? We couldn’t die! I ran up and opened the doors. Suddenly streams of men came charging in with electric clubs. They cuffed our hands together and pulled us separately away from each other. We were told not to speak and were threatened with
weapons.

 I couldn’t say goodbye to Jess but I saw a longing in his eyes. A tear rolled down his face. Was he longing for me? I was quickly jerked away as he was being shoved into the back of a police car.

I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I kicked the man right where it hurts most. Then I ran. I was running with the beat of the ocean crashing behind me. This baby crab is going home.


The cars were zooming almost as fast as the men who were chasing me in the opposite direction. They could never catch me. No! I had life inside of me. I had visions of sunlight and wet sand, not dark streets and flashing lights. Not of screaming headlights and honking horns pounding themselves in your eardrums, or zooming past sending fear to the very insides of you. Beware of us! We are mad! That was their language.


I wasn’t angry, but crazy with fear. I knew I couldn’t possibly outrun those men. They were going almost three times as fast as I was. I kept looking forward but all I could see was the continuing outstretch of road.

Then, I spotted a clearing. From there it looked like I would be able to climb into the woods. I focused all my energy on that clearing and ran with the force of desperation mixed with hope.

 Suddenly, a car just swung to the side and a man yelled out the window to “Get in!” I immediately recognized his voice as the one who had saved me once before. I hurried up but the men were so close behind me. I was afraid of them but I hurried enough to make it right as he was forced to slam the door and swerved to the right.

All the police cars were gathering up on us. We sped forward zooming as fast as we could, stalked by our predators like fresh meat. The police were good at keeping up but it would be impossible for them to stop us in the moving traffic.

We swerved to the left and again to the right but something was jamming the traffic. We looked up to realize the police cars had closed in on us and the men were getting out!

The two other girls got out and and started running but the traffic was starting up again! They wanted us to get out and run only to crush us! I yelled to the girls to get back in but they wouldn’t listen. I climbed on the back of the truck through the window and yelled to them but they were already dodging away. I felt a jerk and everything was moving again.

I held on tight but I flew off the back and landed on another car. The guy in the truck yelled to me. “Sarah what are you doing! Come back! This is not safe!”

I couldn’t listen this time though. It was the best for all of us. The traffic jammed again and I leaped onto another truck and it honked so loudly I couldn’t hear.
 The traffic moved and all I knew was to jump again. This time I landed on a red truck. The truck sped up so fast that there was no possible way for me to jump off. It went like this for about five miles until the traffic stopped and the  man yelled back if I was an escape artist. I said that I needed to get to El Salvador. He told me to stay low and he would take me there. Finally he got out and took me into his truck.

The large sun was melting away at the danger and I felt free again and relaxed. It seemed it was forever that I traveled with that man I thought I could trust but when the time came that we were to get out, I already realized what had happened. I knew it by the sign of the security guards waiting outside a large fence and doors closing behind us.

We were greeted by some people and
taken into a building where people started taking records of my behavior. They eventually led me to a room with nothing but blinding white lights covering the walls and the floor and the ceiling. I have to admit that there was something refreshing yet brainwashing about the lights that made me forget who I was for a minute. But my mind came back sharply and I began to fight the corrupting lights.  
“We can see inside your mind!” came a voice from inside. Inside me yet not my own! It was a loud commanding voice. It started to ask me questions about my whole life. Everything from my relationships to my work at the gas station which was one of the voice’s extreme concerns. It told me that I had been taken to a place for the mentally insane.

 I wouldn’t be needing a straight jacket though because by the time they
were through with me I would have no desire to leave. It said this with a sort of detectable hidden humor. A wicked evil humor that was trying to destroy me. I quickly sat down and started concentrating on what I knew. I tried to resolve what to do but the voice inside was counteracting everything I thought.

The strange thing about this voice was that it sounded exactly like mine. It felt like it was stronger too. Like it was healthier and better for me. That’s how it was trying to tap in. It wanted to take over my thoughts to completely drown them until my mind was dissolved. Than the program would turn off and I would be left with no inner voice to control my own actions. I somehow knew this.
Deep down I don’t know how but I could feel the reason. I decided to save my thoughts. I would be a patient listener. I sat all day while it lectured and brought truth into my mind about things. I don’t know how long I was in there. It felt like a whole year or a lifetime but, I remember the glorious day when the program succeeded. Suddenly I was told to stand up and walk forward.

The wall slid down and opening up was a control panel of all the different memories and lives of me. It had buttons for choices and answers for questions. It was the computer version of myself. The voice in me would tell
me to go to it and control my destiny. To use it to unlock my inner self. It was a program that would make you think you were free. But it would really only run a series of tests on you putting you through imaginary worlds and brilliant landscapes. What was the point of this? The answer is simple.

Once you make the mental choice to enter the dream world where the subconscious mind makes all the choices you lose the control panel. The controls are used by a group of imaginary scientists. Who let your mind make up another world where everything is how you planned. The panel is made up of each button that is pressed when you start to question it.

The emergency switch deletes your made up world when somehow you realize it’s fake and lets your mind create another till eventually you are nothing but a slave in a continuous trial of imaginary events that your inner mind creates.

They had much success with this before, but it was only new and tested on three people. Making me the fourth. The scientists based the free will on the fact that the mind chooses what to do and if it wanted to it could take away the control panel. This is where the irony lies. The mind does not agree
with the panel that tries to control it. When I refused to play with the panel I refused to let my mind take control. I knew the panel was a subconscious jail yet my mind was forced not to make contact in order to destroy it. I sat back down and the world began to change.

The white lights become a faint life and this continued on for what seemed one million lifetimes for the mind can created faster images than a mind perceives them. My life was in there for three days and what I saw can be left to your own imagination. What I will tell is that the scientists were dumb in their beliefs that their little virtual prison destroys you mentally. For the dreams were made clearer and I tapped into the very inner being of myself. I became stronger mentally in ways you could never imagine. My senses seemed to reach a level far beyond a sixth or even a seventh. It so happens that the others were also as lucky as me.

~ When the program was over they stuck me in a metal room with the four others where we were to be forgotten about because the test was over.

I found out that the others had also been smart enough to play along. The control panel had been destroyed in them too and we were all related by our hardships. We quickly set to work on our escape plans. No matter how hard our minds thought there was no escape unless they let us go.
Than, as if our prayers had been answered, our problem was solved. We were used and mindless, the only thing left for them to do with us was to dump us in the river and let us drown ourselves. As horrific as it seems, that was the plan for us. They were going to throw us out like garbage because that was how you were treated then.

If you didn’t contribute to the economy in any way you were treated as well as dogs and forced to live as complete outcasts. It wasn’t that simple to even be an outcast though because America had all the money. We were treated like celebrities even in our own jail cells of cities. No complete “citizen” in America could not afford food. All the money was distributed equally with only the cost of you spending your money on all of their products. It ran like a circuit. Consumers were satisfied with their brainwashing products, and company owners were always fifteen steps ahead in society than the workers.

So here we were in this horrific position with a plan. We figured since they thought we were like vegetables they wouldn’t try very hard to contain us. The men came in one day and escorted us out of the cell through hundreds of other people. The people were looking with disgust as they pushed us and tied up our hands.

One of the officers made a comment, “ Don’t waste your rope on those, men! You won’t even need them.”

The guards shrugged and with mocking laughter untied our hands. Then we were forced into some sort of big metal cage inside a hole in the wall. Once the wall started closing we started to panic. We figured no one could hear us now so we began to discuss what we thought we should do. The two boys
thought we were done for. The other girl and I decided they were planning on drowning us here first just to make sure we couldn’t survive and get out in the open.

It was pretty easy to tell this was true by the fact that there was water dripping from the walls and the giant pipe behind and in front of us. It was horrible though because we realized that there was no way for us to escape. The pipeline in front of us that we were sure led to the river they were talking
about was barred over. The other pipe which we figured was where the water would come from was also barred off.


There was one alternative. One boy was very skinny and looked like he could fit ,with some work, into the exit pipe. We decided to try to fit him through. He didn’t wan’t to go in of course and thought it was a bad idea, but it was the only way.
We thought that if somehow he could get to the other side, he might be able to open up the bars so we could escape. It was so dark that it was too hard to tell where anything was. The plan was so foolish at the time, but our insane desperation was what was driving us. It took a lot of twisting and turning and help before he got in.

 He searched forever but never could find anything that would somehow assist in our escape. Our last decision was for him to go ahead and escape, than somehow sneak in to turn the water off. He slid down the pipe, but all of the  sudden we heard this big bump.

 He yelled that the opening was sealed up and he was stuck inside. We screamed and yelled to him. Just our luck, suddenly the pipe behind us began to stir. With a huge gush water blasted out it went strait through the cage into the sealed pipe where we knew our friend would drown.

“No!” I screamed.


 I was not about to lose another. It seemed that every friend I ever made I was forced to lose. I just couldn’t. I began shaking the cage. I kept shaking it and shaking it. Screaming and crying all at once. My friend was going to die! We were going to die! It was all over. We all grabbed on to the top of the cage and helped each others feet up so that we were the highest possible.

The water filled up to the very top of the cage where we were, but than it stopped. The cage bars lifted and the water rushed us into the pipe. We fell down a long dark tunnel and eventually flew out into a giant river where we were rushed by a heavy current downstream. Water was pulling me under and pushing forward at an intense speed.

 I was worried for my life just as much as I was worried about my new friend’s lives. The thought of me once again losing my only companions was also just too much to bare.  Bits of debree flowed everywhere. The river was disgustingly brown in color.

My arm got slashed by some tiny shiny sharp object than, I was caught and nearly stabbed to death by something triangular in shape. It was a large pointy piece of rusted metal that was partly underground. I had ran straight into it, while the current was still pushing me forwards I tried to get a grip but it was too slippery. I fell directly on to the top point of the triangle and could feel it pierce into my stomach.



It was immense horrible incredible pain. It was like a giant needle that was feasting on me for dinner. The blood poured out and all I could think of was the horrible pain. Finally, I managed enough strength to pull myself off of the point and hold myself in front of the object so I couldn’t be rushed away. I waited there, for what seems like hours. Waiting for the end. I figured I was going to eventually bleed to death.

My friends were already dead by now unless they had found some way to safety, and even if they had they would never find a way to me so in a sense they were dead no matter what.

All my hope seemed to be carried like the blood from my cut, by the current. Far far away. My tears began to pour out. Pitiful horrible sobs began to break free from my troubled mind. Thoughts of nothing but despair and sadness filled me. Dark dark shadows clouded my mind. I could almost feel the
empty roads, the dirty streets, the mindless people. I could almost sense the dying lives of all who rebelled. Of all who tried to stop it.  I felt the pain as the last light in me flickered out.

The rebel me vanishing into a wild dream where I was walking for miles on a long desolate plain called earth. People cried out to me in all directions.  
Hungry people. Starving people. People who were alone just like me. Finally I came to a giant cliff. I began to climb it. With each step regaining more of myself. I began to feel lighter too. The air began to smell cleaner. As I turned to the sky I noticed it had no longer looked black, but grey and as I kept climbing it eventually turned to a clear crisp blue. Bluer than any sky I had ever seen.

 I finally reached the last rock hold of my climb. I focused so much on the cliff that when I finally stepped up to the top I was taken aghast by what
I saw: Valleys and valleys of beautiful flowers and hills of greenest grass. Giant trees of all colors bearing fruits of all colors. Everything beautiful on earth was definitely there. Feeling laughter flow in my face I smiled. A beautiful glorious thing I had done so long ago.

But this was only the beginning. There, sitting in a patch of daisies was Molly! I tried to call to her but she didn’t seem to hear me. Finally she did and turned surprised smiling and waving, but suddenly the whole place began to
disappear.
 I cried out to her and she cried out to me but it was no use. We both watched each other silently as she faded into nothing. The sky grew dark again and the horrible world returned. I was so confused and full of disbelief. I wondered if I was really dead or in some sort of dream I could not wake up from. Was I doomed to wait on this cliff for eternity?

 Eventually I decided I should try to climb down, but the world below instantly turned to darkness. On every side of me was black dark space and I was left there alone and trapped. Eventually I began hallucinating.

Out of the darkness came dreams of adventure and dreams of despair. My dreams always seemed to have a moral though, and the more I dreamed the more I understood. I began to think that the cliff was talking to me and was alive like myself. I thought I was its child and it was my own parent.

 After that I never dared leave its side. It was protecting me from the outside as it would say. Eventually the cliff started being particularly mean by ignoring everything I would say. Then it stopped talking to me and I became full of sorrow.

I tried to ask it questions but its only reply was not to think such things and to only listen to it. Soon, I uncovered the truth. I figured out that the cliff must have been some sort of backup world for the brainwashing the scientists had put in me.

 I jumped off into the space even despite my fear. It felt endless. Like I would remain floating the dark space forever. Eventually I began to hear words. Mocking words of others who could see me. They told me it was my stupidity that brought me there. My foolishness and failure to cooperate. I told them I wasn’t theirs to control. I told them to be afraid.

 Suddenly a violent shot of red came out of me aiming the darkness into light I felt more alive than ever. Hope and faith returned once again as the voices turned into nothingness. I felt so grateful to the red light for saving me, yet suddenly, my power backfired. It began hurting me instead as my senses become sharper I suddenly woke up with a start to realize blood was still flowing from my chest. At my side stood my friends and at my right stood Molly.

“Molly!”

She looked so little with her hair slightly tangled and her face so childish unlike mine. She didn’t speak to me. Her face turned slightly red.

“Why did you leave me!?”

Her face looked as though it had been holding back tears for a long time.

“I didn’t leave you. I was trapped”

She looked at me not believing.

Molly spoke, “I waited for you forever until it became dark. I thought you would come back. I started crying and was confused. I decided my last hope was to get into the right truck, but I wasn’t sure which one. I finally saw the name that you had mentioned and tried to get in but the man caught me. He tied me up in a bag and threw me into this river. Somehow my bonds got loose probably from the debree and I found myself here.”


“I wandered everywhere in search of food thinking I was going to die of starvation until I reached a village. The whole place is stocked with canned food and anything people could contribute. I learned the customs of the people. Today I was to look for pieces of metal that are big enough for using.
Since no one dares to come this close to the institution I volunteered, hoping I might also find some signs of where you might be on an impulse.
Than I spotted a boy stuck in between some rocks and realized I needed to carry him back to the village. Once he was revived he told us how there were more people needing to be rescued so me and him went searching for more people. That is how we found you and we found everyone else. We found you right before we found the other boy," She let out a sigh of relief.


“The other boy!” I exclaimed. You mean he is still alive?”


“Yes,” she replied “and the healthiest out of all of you. He says he managed to breathe through a tiny hole which he made by pulling out a loose nail on the side. As impossible as it seems it is completely true according to him”

Despite Molly’s young appearance there was definitely something much more wise and grown up about her. She seemed to avoid talking about the day I got trapped because she found it too hard to believe me. Eventually I believe she did understand. We walked for a little while down the river.

“We were looking for you here before,” I said.

“Were you on the road side?” asked my sister.

“I think so! That must have been why we never saw you.”

When we arrived we were greeted by a small boy carrying a bundle and I was so amazed at how these people were surviving. There was a big group of African Americans and others from different parts of the world. We were able to eat a salad of different herbs and spices and roots.
Obviously with the variety of cultures it was easy to discover new kinds of foods and methods.The villagers were very friendly, yet somehow I couldn’t seem to shake the thoughts of my dream away.

These people seemed to me more like the people in my dream in so many ways.I got to meet the main mother of the children and they took me to their grave place.I said a prayer for the souls to have gone to heaven safely. I was home and had found my sister at last.