Morning comes. Last night, we agreed that the first of us to wake up has to wake the rest. In the fight, we lost 4 soldiers, and one died because he was radioactive. All of them were a loss.

But I can't dwell on that. I am the first awake. I grab a nearby fallen branch and smash a nearby tree. A loud crack rises into the air, and the soldiers wake slowly.

We keep moving. The morning sun guides us through the forest. Slowly, I become more awake, more alert. My whole body is still in pain. Still radioactive. But that will get better, as long as I ignore it and keep moving.

We walk for hours, eating nothing and drinking only a small, small amount of water. When I say small, I mean small. A couple sips over the past many hours. I've been worse. I have a small fire burning in my heart, one that is keeping me going, keeping me strong. I'm free.

We still have to get out of Syria. If we can make it to Europe, we will be fine. We can take a plane back to the USA. If we don't die first.

"ISIS base up ahead! Everybody in the woods, sneak past 'em!" One soldier spoke.

My main rifle was damaged during the escape fight. I grab my pistol and load some new ammo into it, then load it. We take to the woods. My eyes burn, I'm so tired. But I can't rest. I won't fall asleep.

We sneak through the woods. Our American suits stand out in the trees, so it's pretty hard. But I have been in hard situations. I won't let them know where I am.

We take a peek into the base, and font a soldier getting beat. We can't see their faces. They have no shirts, and the ones that do, the shirts are all ripped up. No signs of radiation sickness shows on these soldiers, and they appear to be in much better shape. Still, they look rough.

"American soldiers. I think." I whisper.

"Are we gonna break them out?" One soldier asks.

"How? Electric fence, stupid."

"Don't let them know we're breaking in. We have gear, right?"

"Half of it was destroyed in the fight."

"Can we shoot something?"

"That would give away our position! Any other ideas?"

A long conversation breaks out. I can't see how we can break them out. But when we take a look at one man's face, he's Chinese. He is on a different side. The Chinese even bombed a town in the States.

"Guys, they're Chinese! How did we think they were American?"

"They're still in a Syrian ISIS camp."

There are three sides in this war. The Chinese aren't on our side or with ISIS.

"Leave them." I say. We'd be doing them a favor, and they owe us one: stop killing us.

"We still have to sneak past." Says one man. The rest of us nod in agreement.

We head over to a nearby pool of water and try to rub off all of the red, white and blue paint. A small amount comes off.

This isn't working. I go over to the bank of the river and grab some mud and silt. The others see what I'm doing, and join me. I rum some on my face, not only my clothes. I'd say I'm fairly camouflaged.

"Let's get going," I remind everyone.

Please, get by. Don't let them know we're coming. I silently wish.

So far good progress. We dash through bushes. One guard looks near us, and we duck down in the bushes. I grip my pistol, finger on the trigger. If he does spot me, I have 8 rounds. I'm gripping a Tokarev TT-33.

The man looks away. We all get down on our stomachs and continue through the woods, crawling.

One guard is around the outside of the fence. He spots us.

"Get up. Who are you?" He asks. None of us get up. He repeats himself, louder. Still none of us rise. He rushes over, a 9A-91 in his hands.

He glares at me, raising his hands. I do the same, ready to shoot. I rise to my feet. The rest rise, too. The ones that still have guns hold them at him. He frowns, then calls out.

"Here!" He fires, hitting someone to my right in the chest. I knock him out, then we run. We haven't been noticed. These guards will see a knocked out soldier, then they'll be hunting us down. I break into a run, but I'm still crouched down. We could still catch us.

Up ahead is a road. We make a dash. I'm going to get away, and nobody will know. I can't blame them. I was the fastest, the strongest, the best when I was young. We reach the road. The camp is hundreds upon hundreds of yards behind us. We got away.

A man walks up to us after about 30 minutes.

"Where are you coming from?" He asks. I don't have to lie. He has the same black and white symbol on his jacket as on those dreadful flags. He carries an AK-47, grasping it as if he's worried it'll fall out. His mouth and nose are covered by a black scarf, and he wears tan camo clothing.

I raise my pistol. "Who are you?" I ask, but it comes out as a hoarse croak. I vomit on the floor, and he kicks me. I shoot him.

We keep moving, sprinting. We run for miles. The sun sits in the middle of the sky. We near a city. From there, we can contact someone, or get on a train to Europe.

But that isn't what happens. A group of ISIS soldiers attempt to capture us. The people on the street flee. I pull out my pistol and shoot one, then take a blow in the back. I stumble forwards. When I turn, I take another blow, this time to the face. Someone fires a gun. I see one of my own soldiers fall to the ground lifeless. I turn and shoot randomly, hitting only the cement floor. I have one more shot left. I aim at someone's head, but get shoved. I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder as I hear a gun fire. I look, and a bullet has grazed my shoulder, barely even in my skin. It's in there, though, and the torn skin bleeds, staining my ship qrt and getting my arm messy, soaked in the warm, thick liquid.

I put my hand over it to try to stop the blood, and fire my last bullet into someone's lower abdomen. The man stumbles to the ground, and I kick him. His body falls, and we keep running.

We sneak through alleys to avoid more soldiers. We pass multiple groups, and they never see us. We move all day and night.

I think of my brother. He has autism. Although he didn't always understand everything that was happening, and sometimes he freaked out, he was my brother. We still did stuff together. I put him in my head, and I lift my head up. All the others are resting.

"Reynolds!" Someone whispers. "Get some rust, kid. Long day tomorrow."

I drift off, and my dream is filled of horrible images of people with radiation sickness vomiting, their backs sloughing, awful lip ulcers, dark circles under their eyes as they slowly die.

But I also dream of people like my family. My parents weren't there for me much, but my brother was. I also dream of this one girl I like. She was in my sophomore and junior years.

I want to see these people again.

The next morning, we let the sun guide us. We travel, still using the alleys as concealment. Hours and hours pass. We even travel on the back of a truck for a few days. We used to be a good 20 soldiers. Now we've lost 6. We have 14 left.

We get off of the truck. We have arrived in Europe. It's evening, day later. It took us days to get here. A few day ago, I was dying in an ISIS camp. Now I'm on my way home to America, where I can get healed. But we're not there yet. We're in Romania.

We go around asking for money to get to the US. We raise a few hundred Euros.

When we got to the airport, we didn't have enough money. All we had was money for 3 people.

We left. None of us have time to get jobs, or raise money. I want to leave tomorrow morning if not today.

Syrian soldiers come. They attempt to bomb an entire square. I watch as a young man runs in with a gun, shooting people. I try to shoot. But there isn't any ammunition in my pistol.

I throw it to the ground and run at him. He fires. Nothing hits. I start attacking him, trying to wrestle the gun out of his hands. He shoots three of the soldiers that escaped with me. They all die instantly. I knee him multiple times, and manage to take his gun. I quickly shoot him in the chest. Other soldiers are fighting other ISIS troops. We get away, saving the Romanians and quickly boarding a plane to New York. Nobody complains.

Lyrics to "Tiptoe" by Imagine Dragons

In the morning light, let my roots take flight, watch me fall above, like a vicious dove.

They don't see me come, who can blame them?

They never seem to catch my eye, but I never wondered why.

I won't fall asleep, I won't fall asleep.

Hey, yeah. Don't let them know we're coming, hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

Take some time to, simmer down, keep your head down low. Hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

From your slanted view, see the morning dew, sink into the soil, watch the water boil.

They don't see me run, who can blame them?

They never seem to see me fly, so I never had to lie.

I won't fall asleep, I won't fall asleep.

Hey yeah. Don't let them know we're coming, hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

Take some time to, simmer down, keep your head down low. Hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

Nobody else. Nobody else. Nobody else, can take me higher, nobody else, can take me higher, nobody else, can take me higher, nobody else!

Hey yeah. Don't let them know we're coming, hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

Take some time to, simmer down, keep your head down low. Hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

Hey yeah. Don't let them know we're coming, hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

Take some time to, simmer down, keep your head down low. Hey yeah, tiptoe higher!

So I want you guys to understand that this takes me a while to do. I have to listen to the song many times, and think a lot about how I want to turn it into a chapter. I'm also still a kid, so I'm not, like, Rick Riordan or something. Don't expect me to write that amazing. Hope you guys really like this. I know I do. Listen to any songs you haven't heard of. It says the lyrics above, but the songs are really good. I know that many people haven't heard of many of the songs on Night Visions.

Also a little side note: I want to use all the bonus tracks, meaning I won't stop at Rocks. I want to use Working Man, and America, and Cha-Ching, those songs as well. They're still part of the album, just only included in the deluxe edition.