Three months after I turned 16, my whole life was turned upside down. You see, the people and Animals of Boondox are usually kind folk but poverty can drive anyone to do horrible things. After years of watching us live in relative comfort, the other townsfolk became jealous of our prosperity. To this day I don't know how long the act was planned for or who started the whole mess. All I know is we were no longer wanted.
Neither my father nor I saw it coming. We were on reasonably good terms with most of the villagers and even the ones who disliked us simply just avoided us. Besides, the harsh winters in Boondox typically prevent its residents from coming outside at night. The villagers could barely stay warm in their own homes, let alone outside. Yet an entire mob of animals braved the chill of the night.
My father and I both awoke to the smell of burning wood. We rushed downstairs to find the source of the problem only to see the front door as well as our living room up in flames. We grabbed what little drinking water we had collected in buckets and threw it on the flames in an attempt to put them out, but it was no use. The fire had grown too big for us to handle and we were already wheezing thanks to the smoke. The two of us had to leap out of a window to escape the fire.
While the fire consumed the rest of our home, we were cornered by the angry mob of animals. Their eyes glittered with hunger and greed as they closed in on us. While my father had managed to save my guitar from the flames, his fate was much less fortunate. The last thing I ever saw him do was charge straight at the mob while screaming at me to run away before it was too late.
Running as fast as my legs could carry me, I couldn't afford to look back. The roaring blaze that had been my only home kept producing smoke that choked my lungs. The dash through the mob left me bruised and beaten, but it was the smoke that nearly killed me. My whole chest seemed to burn hotter than the raging inferno behind me. I didn't dare stop running. I could hear the horrible bellowing of the mob not far behind me and even as young as I was, I was not crazy enough or stupid enough to slow down.
After what felt like hours, my body felt like it was giving out. My lungs were screaming, my bruised body was aching, and I had even ended up with cuts all over my legs caused by the thorns in the forest that were still oozing blood. I collapsed with a groan on top of the hill. Too tired to try and consider my surroundings, I passed out not long afterwards. It was only the next morning at the break of dawn that I got a chance to look down upon the bustling city not too far away.