I woke up in the middle of a desert. How did I get here? I wondered. Slowly, it all comes back to me. Everything was crashing down around my house, buildings were crumbling, foreign objects were raining down, everyone was running and yelling in pandemonium; it was if the world was ending. Screaming, my mom searched for me, but she couldn’t find me because I was already gone. I was here, in this desolate place with no one in sight, or so I thought.
I walked around, aimlessly, not knowing where I was going. All I could see was the bright sun and miles upon miles of golden sand. There weren’t even any snakes, like you’d expect in a place like this. Hours later, I could see in the distance a faint wisp of smoke. Probably a mirage, I figured, but I stumbled towards it anyways, exhausted from the heat. As I neared the smoke, I could make out an entire city that accompanied it. Cautiously, I approached it, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, an entire squad of men dressed in thick black parkas armed with guns I’d never seen before jumped out of the sandy ground. I wasn’t scared of the fact that they had guns because I was too stunned that they could be wearing parkas in such heat! After seeing that I wasn’t armed and couldn’t do them any harm, they took me to their city. The dark, black city was a nice change from the glaring sun shining in my eyes all day. The men that found me guided towards the cafeteria where everyone stared at me. It was filled with more men wearing black parkas. What’s up with the parkas! I wanted to shout. Glaring, they cleared a spot for me to sit and one man shoved a bowl of soup on the table.
“Soup… who would eat soup in the desert? What type of a place is this?”
“A place where everyone’s thankful for what they have,” they all replied in unison.
“Well, I guess that’s a good moral,” I said as I downed my soup, not realizing how hungry or thirsty I’d been from wandering around in the desert for several hours.
“So… what’s it like here?”
“It’s a perfect place filled with perfect people and a perfect leader, so don’t step out of line,” they all replied in unison again.
Just then, the leader walked in, wearing a white parka. “What are you all still doing in here? Get moving!” He shouted. Immediately, in one swift movement everyone stood up, put their bowls away and walked outside, leaving me with the leader.
“Hello, you must be new here! We haven’t had a new inmate for a very long time!” He said pleasantly. Inmate? I wondered.
“I won’t make you wear a uniform yet as you’re probably still adjusting to the weather, but go on outside and help the others dig, please.” He said in a cloyingly sweet voice. Again as I walked outside, everyone glared at me. I grabbed a shovel; at least that’s what they called the dinky pieces of metal they used to dig.
“What’re we digging for?” I whispered to one of them.
“The leader says we’re digging for ‘treasure,’ but we all have our reasons.” He said, jerking his head and making some sort of signal to the men digging beside him. The men replied with a different hand signal and ten seconds later, jumped on me and pinned me to the ground. The other men casually began digging around us to block the view from the leader.
“Tell us the secret!” the men pinning me down yelled.
“What secret!” I cried.
“You know what we’re talking about.” they demanded.
“No, I don’t! I swear! I don’t even know where I am.” I yelled as they pulled out their foreign guns.
“Well, you got here somehow, so you must know how to get back. Tell us how to get back.” Beads of sweat poured down my face as they threatened my life. “Tell us, now.” Click. “Three, Two…” One. Wake up. Three, Two, One. Wake up. “Really? Right in the middle of a dream? I wanted to know what would happen! I hate mornings.”