Chapter 1

School was finally out and I can't wait to play all summer. It was like any other day, getting dressed, eating breakfast and doing my chores. Well let's say I took a couple of shortcuts. "I'm done with my chores, mom," I said, " I'm going out to play be back for lunch." " Okay but don't forget your jacket," she yelled out from her room. Of course I wasn't going to forget my lucky green jacket. It was made of heavy fabric that seem to dampen the punches from the bullies also it has a secret pocket that protects my lunch money. As quickly as I could, I grabbed my jacket, my bicycle and headed toward the fields just outside of town. The field was the greatest playground ever with old houses and cool stuff inside of them. it used to be part of the town but for some reason it was abandoned.

As I went through town, there was an eerie feeling in the air and by the looks I got from people, I wasn't the only one who felt it. I guess it's because the town borders the largest country in the world, Oceania. I don't know why but people have been talking about it lately. They haven't been saying anything nice about it or its people.

I was getting close to Pete's electronic store when I saw a group of people in front of it. They were all crowded by the TVs displayed in the window. I stopped and stared at the monitors, there were news channels on all of them. The guy doing the broadcast was talking in a nervous worried sort of tone. Did he felt the same eerie feeling too? Behind the guy were many tanks passing by and then trucks filled with soldiers. "More and more military convoys are present here in the border city of Ori, as the country prepares for the worst." the worst? What was the worst? I wondered will they send soldiers here. All I knew was that Ori was a big border city just a couple miles north of here. Oh well it's their problem, I thought. I grabbed my bike and continued on. All I care about was meeting her in the fields. I glanced at my watch, I was already late.

I had no choice but to take the secret underground path. It was just an old unused sewer system for the houses in the field to the town. It was close by so I think it would be best if I use it. I quickly found the small alley where the entrance was hidden by a bunch of old boxes. I quickly opened the door and ran down the stairs to a sealed door. The door was made out of pure metal with nothing but a keypad on it. Now if only I could remember that code, well I don't have to because I wrote it on my jacket. I rolled up my left sleeve to reveal a four digit code. I quickly typed it and the door hissed open, I don't know why the sewer never smelled or why it was sealed with a code.

As always, the lights on the ceiling came on, lighting one after another straight to the other side. I looked at my watch, I'm late for sure. I began running down the tunnel as fast as I could. It wasn't long until I reached stairs going up and then nothing but sunlight. The tunnel had led me into the middle of a field with empty houses.

I quickly looked around but didn't see a single person anywhere except for a pink mountain bike next to a crumbling house and I instantly knew; she was here.

Before I took a step I heard a loud bang right behind me that made me jump up. I quickly turned around and saw her standing there laughing loudly. "Damn you Deliah, you scared the crap out of me," I yelled."Well that's what you get for making me wait," she responded. Deliah and I were close friends and neighbors, we practically grew up together. As far as I can remember she had always been playing tricks on me.

She was the same age I was and same height too. She always wore some short jeans that did not cover here ankles and a blue sleeveless t-shirt. Her hair was short and seemed to hover over her shoulder. She wore these orange glasses that weren't completely rounded or squared. "What took you so long?" "I had to do my chores before I could leave." "Maybe if you would have gotten up at six you could have finished your chores quickly, anyways enough of your problems what are we going to play today," she said in a nagging tone. Ever since she found out that she was the smartest kid in the school, she had become even bossier. Every time she would nag me I would just laugh at her until she realized how dumb she was acting. "Want to play hand ball by the big house," I said pulling out a ball from my jacket. "Sounds good to me but it looks like we only got time for one game." she replied reaching down and picking up something off the ground. It was a weird looking book. Ever since I had met her, she had always had a book with her, but this book seemed odd. "Where did you get that book," "I found it in one of those houses but I'm not sure it is a book, it seems to be made of meta..." just then a loud explosion went off, shaking the ground and houses around us," what was that," I yelled. "I don't know, but it sounded close."

Chapter 2

She had stopped talking and was now staring towards the town. I quickly turned around to see black smoke rising from the direction of town. More and more explosions began to shake the ground around us. Suddenly there was a loud shrieking noise coming from behind me. I quickly turned around to see two fighter planes coming low enough to cause a dust storm. For a split second, as they past us I saw a picture of a wolf on their tail-wings then they quickly sped into the black clouds of smoke that now covered the sky. Deliah began to run toward the edge of the hill and I ran after her. As we both reached the edge and stood in shock.

The town seemed to be consumed by fire and smoke. The smoke seemed never ending. A loud explosion thundered from over the outskirts of the town. We both quickly turned to see dozens of tanks each with the flag of Oceania. I remembered about the soldiers on TVs. but I couldn't see any of Orin's soldiers here? Then we quickly turned back at the town as screams of people began to fill the air. Why was this happening?

. I began to feel the tears growing in my eyes just before they began to roll down my cheeks. What about mom and dad? That thought sent chills down my spine. I turned to see Deliah in a state of shock, as tears were rolling down her cheeks as well. "Deliah what do we do…" but before I could finish my sentence a big explosion rumbled behind us. We both quickly turn to see an old house blown to bits. "we have to get out of here," she yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me down hill. This all seemed like a bad dream, a nightmare that I knew I couldn't wake up. "come on, we have to get home." As soon as we hit the foot of the hill, we began running straight into town from a point where the tanks weren't hitting. I quickly glanced back to see the field now on fire, how many days we had played there, now all that will remain will be ashes.

As we entered the town, everything was on fire and most of the buildings were collapsing. Buildings laid crumbled every where, as we ran deeper into the town, ash was raining heavily that it started to get hard to breathe. All around me I could hear people screaming, kids crying, and explosions going off everywhere. There were jets flying low, their engines rumbling loudly as if they were inches off the ground. As we continued my legs felt like they where going to fall off. We finally reached Patrick street, we were close to getting home now but suddenly one of the buildings gave way and collapsed, crushing some people that were in the street. Our way home was blocked, we had to go around. "we have to find another way around," she said. I was stun looking at a pair of legs just sticking out of the building, thrashing about while the rest of the body lay on the other side of the building. I looked around but I didn't see anyone trying to help. "come on lets go," she said tugging on my shoulder. We ran to the next street and yes it was clear.

My legs couldn't go any further and I began to slow down, my hand began to slip out of hers. Suddenly I completely lost my balance and fell. She ran for a couple of feet before realizing I had fallen behind. She began to run back to help me when something sent me flying back a couple of feet. I slowly stood up dazed and confused looking around at a blurry world everything sounding distorted. All I could hear clearly was a loud ringing noise in my ears. I looked down and saw the weird book on the ground, it was badly burned. I quickly looked up looking around for Deliah but she was no where to be seen all I saw was a fiery crater and the building in front of me had blocked the road. "Deliah!" I yelled hoping to get a response but nothing I could hear or see. It must have been a bomb or something. I picked up the book holding it tight, I felt the tears fill my eyes and run down my cheeks. If I hadn't fallen we would have cleared the explosion and she would still be… now I had no way to get home and I was alone. I fell to my knees holding the book tightly as I began to cry.

My ears were still ringing but not as loudly as before. Gun fire, I could hear it getting closer and louder. "we have a survivor," I heard some one yell. I quickly turned around to see a soldier, he was wearing blue camouflage and I knew I was saved. He walked up and said "are you alone?" I just shook my head unable to speak. He began to check me out for any injuries until a blue Humvee with a soldier on the machine gun came up around the corner. "we got to leave now, come with me you'll be safe, I promise," the soldier told me as he tried to lead me to the Humvee. I didn't want to leave not without Deliah. I looked back at the ruble where she used to be. Another explosion rocked the buildings around us. "come on we have to go," I heard one of them say. The soldier quickly grabbed me and took me into the Humvee. I struggled to get out of his grasp kicking and screaming,but It was no use.

In side there were two other soldiers looking at me. Each with their own machine guns. I got seated in the middle of both of them. just before the soldier got back in, his head exploded covering us with his blood. Some one yelled out "man down, return fire frank," then loud blast could be heard from the machine gun on top. The soldier closes to him grabbed and pulled him inside. As bullet casings rain from the gun above I just stared at the motionless body looking down at his eyes. They seemed empty.

The humvee quickly sped off turning to an unblocked road. "all units were pulling out, there's nothing more we can do… rescue convoy what's your status..." the radio blared. "sergeant max is kia, we manage to find a survivor, a young boy he seems OK." "your mission now is to ensure the survival of that boy; he may be the last one left." What does he mean the last one left? I began to look out the windshield, nothing but fire and smoke everywhere. Then it hit me, I couldn't hear any screaming, or crying just gunshots. Was I really the last one, was Deliah, mom and dad really gone.

I began to cry, I was the only one left. The Humvee joined up with other ones as they left the town of Orin. I looked back to see the town one last time. All I saw was black smoke, just then a big fiery explosion filled the horizon. There was nothing left, everyone I knew were now …I held the book closer to my chest thinking about Deliah, it was my fault. I turned to look at the soldiers and something came over me; "this was all your fault, why didn't you save everyone, why did you leave them behind?" I yelled at them but none of them looked at me, I knew they had heard me but I guess they didn't have an answer, I just kept crying.

My eyes now burned from all the crying I had done, it seemed like an eternity before we reached our destination; wizard air force base. I knew it because my dad took us to this air show here, back in more happier days. The sun was now setting when I got off. The place was filled with more soldiers than last time. I followed them as they took me deeper into the base. As we got to the other side of the base, there were hundreds of people, a lot with torn dirty clothes and blacken faces; they were refugees like me. The soldier took me inside a tent where there were a lot of cots.

"you'll be sleeping in here tonight," he said, then he handed me a squared plastic bag and a water bottle, "have a turkey sandwich and try to forget what you saw today, if you need anything I will be outside," he said with a smile and walked outside. I ate the sandwich and drank the water before crying my self to sleep, i held the book tightly thinking of that moment I last saw Deliah.

to be continued...