Diverging
Chapter 1
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1," the sound of a train fills the air, "Called it!" I yell to my friends. The train tracks were always my favorite part of the town, although my older brother was always scared that I would hurt myself there. "Come on Violet!" Justin yells to me over the sound of the train, turning around and looking back upon my friends Joy, Justin, and Achak. We always came to the train tracks every time we could, it being one of the few places we could be alone and talk without the threat of being overheard or run into other people in our school. We started to walk back toward Justin's jalopy worth of a car, as we all climb in Achak remarks, "we are going to be late, again." "Does it really matter Achak, we have coming here since eighth grade," Joy snaps, Justin puts on the radio to change the subject. We usually are all happy until Achak says something about school or government and Joy snaps back and ruins the mood horribly.
When we drove into the parking lot at school and if as planned Mr. Becker, our ap history and American government teacher, comes around the side of the high school, "late again I see," he says with distaste. Although being only in his late forties he looks and acts like an old man with thinning and graying hair, arthritis ridden arms and hands, accompanying too many lines and wrinkles on his face to count. He then starts on a lecture about punctuality being important, which of course I don't listen to. "Spacing out again," he directs toward me to grab my attention. "As of now Mr. Becker you are the only reason we are late," Achak concludes, Mr. Becker slowly looks down at his watch which is enough time for Justin to step on the gas enough to get into a spot, and park, we got out and sprinted into the school. We always did that because he was on bus duty which means he has to stay out there and by the time he comes in he has forgotten the about the whole thing. Just one of the many tricks we use to keep the teachers off our back. We weren't always such a team, back in the eighth grade Justin was a jock that cared only for sports and training. Achak was a antisocial nobody that has some anger issues, but always had huge ideas. I was and still a slacker, Joy changed all of that when she moved in from New York City. She some how brought us together with her rebellious attitude, yet she still gets hostile when someone mentions something about school because the reasons why she moved is her rebellious side. Snapping back to reality I walk into homeroom in the midst of attendance, our homeroom teacher didn't hear me I walk to the back of the room as quickly as I could, "Violet!," she says in her scratchy voice, "Here," I call back. She starts to look up, but I was already in my seat.
Chapter 2
As I walked out of the school noticed Achak talking to the a bunch of the jocks and for once they seemed interested. I started to walk over when my brother drove up. "Violet, hurry up!" He shouts out the open window, "coming Richard," I say back as I climb into the car, "you shouldn't be hanging out with him," he says to me as he drives past, "Do you mean Achak?" I say back, "yes, he isn't a good guy, I have heard what he thinks about," he fires back. " I'm sixteen I can take care of myself and what if I like what he thinks about?" I ask back mockingly, " He's an anarchist and a psychopath," he says as we turn into the the parking lot of our house. Before I could say anything back my dad came out, "Hey, Richard make sure you don't forget to drop off the report to Mrs. Yacht before Friday!" He yelled over the car engine to my brother, "Okay, I will do it tomorrow," he yells back. It has always seems weird that how the rest of my family were on time, neat, and responsible, while I wasn't. After I got out of the car, I walked to the door saying a brief hello and went straight into the house. My dad and I didn't get along well ever since I heard him from my room talking about how better we would be without me to mother. Falling onto my bed I slowly feel sleep coming, before I fully fall asleep I realize tomorrow is Saturday. As the mourning came I looked over to my window a note was posted on my window, on it was written meet at the train station soon. I jump out of bed walked into the shower, grabbing my jacket and black boots as I walked out. "Where do you think your going," the familiar voice of my dad. Turning around I find my dad seating in the chair that usually is aimed at the T.V., he was watching the news which was about some more minor terrorist attacks. "I'm just heading out for a small walk," I reply, "Are you sure your not heading to that deathtrap worth of a train station," he starts angrily, "I know about your little excursions that you have been taking, and you know that I don't like those kids you hang with. I have half the mind to ground you now just to save you from yourself," He finishes with almost a yell. without answering him I turn and walk out of the door, I could hear him yelling after me probably waking my brother and mother. I slowly walk towards to the train tracks which about a ten minute walk from where I live. As I come up to where we usually meet I just see Joy and Achak, and Joy was crying, "where's Justin," I ask with concern towards Achak. "Justin was drafted into the military because of the pushing terrorist threat, and wont be back for years," He says with some sadness in his voice. Joy didn't seem to be able to speak with grief, it felt like a part of us was gone. We stayed there for about an hour before deciding to leave, we all made the decision of not coming to the train tracks anymore. The shock held for most of the day instead of going back home I walked with Achak towards his house, "This is horribly they shouldn't be able to do this," Achak said, "We don't have much of a choice," I felt myself saying back in response. We walked in silence for a while, " what if we Took over the government," he said in his sarcastic voice, "There wouldn't be any fighting," I said back. From there we again walked again in silence until I spoke to him about something which was bothering me, "By the way what were you talking to those jocks about after school?" I ask in loud voice." He turns towards me and answers, "Did you about the terrorist threats," "yes the small ones, but what does that have to do with jocks?" I ask again, "well those terrorist attacks are getting bigger and the government is slowly being weathered down by them," He says with a hint of anger, "This means most of the jocks will probably be drafted like Justin," he adds. "But we don't have to worry right?" I start to say. Achak didn't answer he just looked ahead spellbound, I look ahead to see the remains of houses still burning, with police, firefighters, and ambulances. Timed seemed to slow down as I realized that one of the houses that was in ruins was Achak's.
Chapter 3
Three months later
Thinking about it just made it harder to forget, no matter what I couldn't forget that day when Achak's life seemed to end his parents didn't make it nor did his siblings. He himself disappear when the police went on search parties they couldn't go far because of the government's shut down. Now the government seems to be in fury about the terrorist bombing a large part of Springfield. Still the government now is in a almost complete shutdown the only really branch of government that is working is the military, as for us, all people have to wear gray pants shirts, shorts, socks, and shoes to help with the financial crisis. This also means that we all have to eat tasteless canned food, we all had to have papers on us at all times to verify that we are american. we had schedules where we had to be at times with us too, every two blocks if you were walking you were stopped and checked. Cars weren't allowed on the roads, the train system was extended to go through towns to pick us up and drop us off, this all changed when Achak came back. I woke up to find the mourning as it usually is now, quiet, that's when I looked up to my clock and noticed that it was flickering which meant the power went out, I quickly look down to my watch. 7:50 a.m. "Shit!" I nearly yell as I rip myself out of bed to grab my gray clothes as I run into the shower, stumbling into the bathroom taking a quick shower running out of the house with my gray pack I started into a sprint, I was at least twenty minute walk from school. Seeing a checking station up ahead i realize that i didn't grab my papers