Chapter 1

I wake up dazed and in pain, tied to a chair in a dark room. My wrists were bleeding from being tied up, my stomach bruised and in front of me, there sits the outline of a man at a table. He looked at me and pushed a button on the radio in his right hand…

***Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? For anyone listening, this is a call to arms. We are a resistance group fighting to take back our land, our homes, our country… join us in our fight to freedom… we are the…***

"Did you say this?" The man asked stopping the recording. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name…" I whisper as he slams my head on the table. "Do you think this is a game? Tell me what I need to know!" He yelled. "Do you even know my name?" I asked spitting blood on the table. "I don't care…" he said as he hit the light on the table shining directly in my eyes.

—Two Years Before…

—

"ARCHIE" I hear my name yelled as I open my eyes and see the sun shining bright. I sit up and look at the rolling mountain hills around me. I then look over and see a girl, with long brown hair, and ocean blue eyes. "Come on" she yells at me. "Okay Tabitha!" I shout as I get up and run over to her passing trees and rocks on the way. When I get there, someone jumps out from behind a tree and grabs me from behind in a hug. I tense up and turn around and see a girl with Short dirty blond hair, "BETTY" I yell as I turn to her. "What are you doing here?" I ask with a smile on my face.

"I just thought I would spend the weekend with you guys!" She said looking at me with her chocolate eyes. "That's fine with me" I said as we run over to meet up with the others. Were at the edge of a water quarry where Tabitha is going to jump in. "WAIT!" Jughead shouted as he ran past all of us and jumped in first. We all followed just having a good time. The feeling that nothing could touch us… nothing could go wrong was something none of us wanted to lose. We eventually dried off and sat by the quarry admiring the mountain views… Jugheads phone was blowing us with newsletters. "This war is getting out of hand; this is saying they sent jets headed to America last night!" Jughead said with a worried tone. "Bro that's not going to happen, they can't fight us."

Then I thought I heard something else above us and as I looked up I saw plane fly right over us, that's when the running began. First out of panic was Jughead, then behind Tabitha and after, Betty and I followed.

We ran and ran until we couldn't run anymore. Flying by what seemed to be hundreds of trees until we reached the cul-de-sac. Going by homes and other people trying to figure out what to do, running past yelling, trying to find out what was going on.

By the time we stopped we were nearly to our cabin when a jet flew over and blew up the cabin. Pieces of wood and glass flew all around as the rest of it was engulfed in flames.

The shock wave from the missile knocked us to the ground. I immediately got up and looked around. Next to me Jughead was staring at the house while behind me I saw Betty kneeling next to Tabitha who was sitting down, crying. I ran over to check if they were ok and found they only had a couple of scratches and bruises. I turned to look back at the house, still on fire. As I starred at it Jughead turned around and looked at me. "We need to go." He said. "Go! We can't go anywhere!" Tabitha yelled, still in shock. "He's right, we need to get out of the open. But where should we go?" I asked. For a few minutes, we talked about a safe place to stay nearby. Our homes were too far away and were probably overrun by planes or soldiers.

"I think I know a place we can go." Jughead said. I nod my head and we all turn to look at the home which was now just a pile of burning wood and ashes.

"What if someone was in there?" Tabitha said, reminding us of our family that was with us. None of us said a word for a minute, each of us processing what had just happened.

"If someone was in there then they're… then they're dead." Jughead said. Tabitha burst out in tears again as I look at the ground silently praying that they weren't in that house. I look up to I see a tear roll slowly down Betty's cheek. She looked over at me and quickly wiped it away then turned back to Tabitha. "Let's go." She said as she helped Tabitha up get on her feet.

We walked out of the cul-de-sac and onto the streets of the small mountain town nearby as we see people looking around, screaming, or crying because of the tragedy that had just occurred.

As we are walking past an old pawn shop, I hear someone yell to watch out. I could hardly think straight. I grab the person closest to me and put them behind me as we all duck on the sides of the alleyway. I began to hear ringing in my ears, and I turn my head hoping everyone is alright only to find I'm wrong. A homemade firebomb was dropped on us.

Once I see what was going on I turned around to see Tabitha sitting there with burns all over her arms and Jughead with burns down his leg. Then I become aware of an intense source of heat hitting my backside.

As the pain set in, I cried out and turned away as the burning pain spread across my back. I see the person still beside me was Betty who I must have shielded from the fire because she seemed fine, only pain crept in her eyes as she watched me crying, repeating "Hold on hold on…. Oh my god…" Then I hear shrilling screams and focus as hard as I can to turn and feel the heat only grow more powerful on my face and sides as I watch Jughead move to Tabitha to try and protect her. My vision began to blur, and I believed it would be all over for us. I hear Betty yelling to someone for help. After that, I remember falling over and everything went black...