I sat in the cold, pitch black cell waiting to get out. I hadn’t done anything wrong I mean all I did was take a quick break that was only like what a minute long. Why do things have to be like this? Why can’t it be the way it used to be? I thought. The room was so quiet I could hear my heartbeat. I couldn’t take it anymore! “LET ME OUT OF HERE!” I banged on the door. “Please…” I fell to my knees and cried. The door creaked open while making a piercing screech. I ran towards the door. As I took my first step outside the cell, an uppercut to my chin with great force caused my head to fly back in a motion that caused me to lose my balance and fall and bang my head on the cold steel cell floor.
“Don’t come out unless ordered to!” the guard yelled. I spat blood and massaged the bump that had started forming on my head.
“Yes sir,” I answered weakly as I struggled to get up. I stood inside the cell awaiting further orders.
“Get out.” I hesitated to walk out. “Get to work!” the guard was becoming impatient and yanked my brownish-yellow, which was once white but hard to tell, tank top. I picked up my shovel and began to work. Hope I make it through the day.
I took a break from digging under the blazing hot sun to check the time. The holographic clock read July 25th 3017 12:33pm. I had been working since four in the morning and my mouth was as dry as the rigid, dry terrain of tresed. I tried to resume digging but, struggled to pick up the shovel full of dirt and threw the dirt onto the huge mound of dirt. As I swiveled I lost my balance and fell towards the massive sinkhole. I landed inches away from the edge of the cliff and quickly got up. I grabbed my shovel, but I was just too worn out and energy less that I couldn’t keep it sustained. Even standing up was a challenge
The guard came over, “get back to work!” he screeched with a vein popping out of his neck.
“Yes sir,” I responded. I picked up the shovel and managed to sustain it. The sun was blazing hot. I scanned the horizon. Nothing much to see here but sand, garbage, buildings and construction sites. I saw a few people drop to the ground. I knew there and then, that they were dead. The vultures flew down and started to begin their feast.
After 17 long hours of digging the work was done for that day. I looked at the clock, 10:03pm. I walked back home to my family’s shack. It shack was built from anything my family and I could get our hands on. Wood, metal, nails, cloth, tarps, bags, staples, paper, cans, etc. I looked at our home, all the nails sticking out, the torn plastic and tarps, the melting plastic bags, the rusted metal. I carefully opened and closed the door as I went inside. The shack shook a little but still stood up. In the living room sat my mom and dad. And in their arms were my brother and sister, they were asleep from the exhaustion. Good they survived another day. But for how much longer? My mom and dad looked at me and smiled that I had lived another day.
“There’s food on the table sweetie,” my mom motioned towards the old rusting yellow ironing board. I grabbed the metal trash can lid from the “table” that had 2 slices of bread, half of a potato, a carrot, and a slice of ham. I ate a bit of it and put it down.
“I’m not hungry.”
“But you have to eat sweetie. You need all the energy you can get.” I knew my mom was just looking out for me so I forced the food down to please her. I drank the cup of the tinted yellow water slowly, cherishing every bitter drop. I finished it leaving the cup completely dry. I frowned that I had finished it faster than I had expected. I went to sleep. My mom put a newspaper on me to keep me warm as I slept on the cold hard ground. This was one heck of a place, I thought, blazing hot during the day and freezing cold during the night.
I slowly opened my eyes. Agh my back. I looked through the rusted hole in the metal wall to check the time, 2:42am. I looked around. There was no one, I was all alone. They must have gone to work. I ate the good parts of a rotting apple. It had a revolting stench. I walked out the shack and headed to work with my group, group eleven. I stood at my groups designated door with all my other friends and co-workers. We waited for the 20ft, rusting steel door to open. I looked to see if my family was at their designated group. I saw my mom in group 32, my dad in group 40, my little brother in group 5 and my little sister in group 7.

The general came “can I have the following people to report to me, John and Chris Tay, Toby and Kate Stark, Jacob, Ashley, Dean, Mary, and Chase Jefferson,” the general announced. What’s going on! What’s this all about! Are we in trouble! What did we do wrong?! What’s going to happen to us!?I don’t want to die! All these thoughts flooded my head. We all walked to him and waited. “You all may be wondering why I have called you here today...”

“What’s going on here? Why are we here” What’s going to happen?” Everyone started to talk at the same time that it was hard to understand what they were asking.
“All your questions will be answered shortly, now if you all may please follow me.” We followed him into a jet. I walked in and was greeted by a cool refreshing gust of wind. This is nice. I sat in the back. I grew sleepy and didn’t realize I had fallen asleep. I managed to hear some of the answers to our questions like we are being taken to work for the rich, they choose us because we are the “hard” workers, and after that I dozed off into my own world full of dreams and no limits of what I can do.
I awoke from my slumber when we arrived at Chir. The program was interrupted by breaking news huge flat screen mounted on the wall. It talked about a priceless one of a kind watch that was stolen by the Quad bandits. I didn’t pay much attention to it.

We have been working for a week now. It was so much better compared to working back at Tresed. I heard something fall and break. I looked around the room, it was empty. Weird. I walked down the stairs to see my family getting taken away in a white van but before it left a white plastic bag fell out. I ran out and grabbed the bag. “Joe’s pawn Shop” was printed on it along with the address. I remembered seeing this pawn shop in town one day. I looked what was inside and there was the stolen watch, I shoved the watch into my left pocket. Oh crap! They stole my family I got to save them but towns a couple miles away. I started to jog to town. I arrived in 4 hours
I quietly entered the pawn shop. There were tons of merchandise, TV’s, watches, rings, jackets, and a lot more. There was a watch that looked exactly like the missing one except this one had a sticker on it that said “fake”. I took it just in case and took the sticker off and put it in my right pocket. I scanned the area in search of the door that lead to the basement. All the doors in the pawn shop lead somewhere but not the basement. Where the hell is the door! I punched the wall and it shook. What the hell? I pulled it open from the nail sticking out of the right side. There were stairs that were engulfed in darkness except for the faint glow of light coming from the far end of the basement.
I slowly crept my way down the stairs trying not to trip and fall to my death. I made down and saw the light creeping from underneath a closed door, shadows moved from side to side. I cautiously made my way to the door but stopped in search of a weapon. There was a metal pipe lying on a box. I grabbed it but it slipped out of my hands but, I caught it while it was inches away from the ground. My hand slowly made its way to the door knob while my other hand was above my head, holding on to the metal pipe. I turned the knob slowly and yanked the door open. Standing there was my mom, dad, little brother and sister.
“We were expecting you.” said my mom with an evil grin, her teeth all black and rotten. Eww. She sounded different, with a raspy voice.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“That’s none of your business,” my sister snapped. Her voice sounded like Justin Bieber going through puberty. This isn’t my family.
“Who are you guys!” I yelled. They all reached for their necks and pulled of the silicone masks they had on. It took me a couple of seconds to realize who they were. They were the Quad bandits.
“WHERE IS MY FAMILY? TELL ME BEFORE I KILL YOU!” I threatened.
“What damage can you possibly do!” They laughed.
“WHERE IS MY FAMILY!” I yelled.
“We have what you want and you have what we want.” I reached into my right pocket and took out the fake watch and threw it towards them. They caught it. “Here,” they threw me a key. “It’s the key to the warehouse on 5th Ave. I caught it and ran out of the room, up the stairs, and out the pawn shop. I ran as fast as I can to the warehouse. I was out of breath when I reached it and I inserted the key and ran in. There in the middle of the room was my family all tied up and chained to the floor. I ran to them, but I stopped. Standing on the opposite side of the room were the Quad bandits holding guns, and they didn’t look too happy. My eyes were widened at the sight of the guns, I ran back to the door. They ran after me.
“Help!” I yelled I felt a huge pain on my lower back. There were a couple of cops coming out of donut shop on the opposite side of the street and ran towards me. I passed out.
I woke up in a room. I couldn’t tell where I was, everything was blurry. As I looked around it became less blurry. I was in a hospital room. I tried sitting up but I stopped because of the pain at my lower back. I groaned. My family walked into the room talking to one another but the talking stopped as they saw that I was awake. They cheered and all hugged me but stopped because it was causing me pain. They explained to me that I’m a hero and that they captured the Quad bandits except for one of them because they got away. Also that the watch is now back in the museum all safe and sound. I smiled at the thought of me being a hero. They left so I can rest and to go eat lunch. After a few minutes my mom came back into the room and stayed facing the door. She locked the door.
“Hi mom. What are you doing?” I asked. She turned around.
She smiled. She had those rotten black teeth that I had seen in the basement. “Nothing sweetie.” Nooo!?! I thought.