“Wake up!” I hear someone yell as I roll over, managing to fall off the couch. I groan as my father offers me his hand. I grab it and pull myself up off of the floor. It should be illegal to wake up this early.

“We have work today, get ready” he simply states as he turns around and leaves. I follow him down the hall and enter my room, walking towards my closet. Pushing clothes out of the way I find the familiar belt, navy blue jacket and slacks. Grabbing them I close the closet door and walk over to my desk. I run a hand through my hair and walk out of my room and into the bathroom. After washing my face I look in the mirror. I groan as I stare back at my reflection.

“I’m a mess.”

I quickly brush my teeth and with one last look in the mirror I leave the bathroom in search of my father. I walk into the living room and see him on the couch with the television on. He looks up upon my arrival.

"You look like a zombie." he says, focusing on the bags under my eyes.

"Thanks. That really brightens up my morning.”

“John, seriously, why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Do I honestly look that bad?"

He shakes his head and scowls.

“You ready?” he asks, changing the subject. I nod and he gets up off of the couch, turns off the television and heads toward the front door.

“Off to Mayridge”
* * *

My dad walks ahead of me and I try to keep up with his pace. He jogs through the entrance of the station and looks around anxiously.

“What’s the rush?” I ask. He turns around to look at me but says nothing. He enters the back room and looks around once more.

“They needed all the men at the station, something about a gang-” he stops as he spots a burly man with grey hair. He runs up to him and grabs his shoulder, pulling him aside from the people he was speaking with.

“Joe, where is everyone heading to?” my father demands. The man, Joe, gives my dad a dirty look, obviously annoyed he was pulled away from his conversation. He rolls his eyes and says,

“Some lady came in earlier to report a missing child, we caught the bastard at Crestdale and turns out he’s in a huge group. No leads as to where the rest of them are but we did see some suspicious activity at Crestdale.” Joe jerks his shoulder out of my fathers grip and walks over to the people he was talking to minutes ago. He turns around and looks at us, as if to say, "why are you still here?"

"So what should we do?"

“You both should get to work, we need all the help we can get. Take a drive down to Crestdale, meet with the others at 45th street.” he says.
* * *

We waste no time heading out to Crestdale, my dad driving over the speed limit the whole way. I look out the window and watch the building pass as we drive. Crestdale is known for its abandoned warehouses, making it the perfect spot for druggies and alcoholics to seek shelter. I stare at all of the unfortunate people, choosing to abuse their bodies and drink until they can no longer control their life.

The car suddenly stops and my dad impatiently waits for the light to turn green. I rotate my head and face the window, staring at the many strange people walking around. There are some people on the corner, smoking and laughing, and others down the block by the drugstore. Though one lady caught my eye. She is using hand gestures and yelling, though there is nobody with her. I silently shake my head, amused at how foolish these people are. She gets slightly louder, and starts speaking in a language foreign to me, making the situation even more entertaining. My dad takes a quick glance out the window and curses under his breath, “f**kin’ druggies.” The light turns green and we speed ahead.
* * *

My dad parks the car and we both climb out. I can already smell the stench of the people who reside here. I take a moment to fully observe my surroundings. To my left there are some houses, though they are dilapidated and can’t possible house anyone. The right side of the street is where all of the warehouses are. Each one covered in a heavily layer of grime and graffiti. Looking around, I see a few other officers at the corner. Not nearly as many as I expected. If this group is as big as Joe says they are, then there would have been at least thirty officers here.

We both walk up to the officers, and when we reach them they fill us in on what happened.

"They arrested the guy wanted for kidnapping that child, but he escaped the prison a few days ago" one officer says.

The other officer tells us the rest.

"One officer who was patrolling the area found him today, and he was with a few other men here. They were heavily armed and we lost two officers, however we arrested quite a few of them. Of course we could only arrest so many, so there are still some out and about."

"So you gave up the search for them?"

"Well we figured they'd have fled the area by now, if you guys want to search for them be my guests" the first officer remarks as he and his buddy rudely turn around to leave.

"F**kin' idiots" my dad mutters. "Why weren't we called in earlier? Sounds to me like they really needed our help"

"Well, it's worth a shot to look around, might find some useful information."
* * *

It's been about 20 minutes of searching and we still didn't find anyone or anything for that matter. We checked 45th street for a while, but when we didn't find anything we moved on. Now we are on 30th street and my legs are killing me. How much longer are we going to search for?

"Are we done yet, I doubt there's anyone here and even if there are-."

"Shh" my dad whispers. He turns the corner of the block and peeks his head into an alleyway.

"Dad what are you-"

"Shut up for a second will you?"

He heads into the alleyway. I follow him, and as soon as I step into the alleyway an alarm goes off inside of me. This is dangerous. Why are you even here? Leave! I ignore my thoughts and try to shake off the eerie vibe of this alleyway. It's lined with dumpsters, though that isn't out of the ordinary. The strange part is that the dumpsters are in a perfect line, as if someone moved them.

I feel a hand yank my arm and I'm pulled against the brick walls of the buildings. My father looks straight into my eyes and motions for me to be quiet. I nod and he slowly reaches for his gun. I follow his actions and reach for my gun.



“POLICE!” he yells."STEP OUT FROM BEHIND THE DUMPSTERS"

Seconds later a few men start to run out from their hiding spots. They run down towards the end of the alleyway, but two of them stand still, looking clueless. Seconds later the others notice their slow friends. One looks back and shouts,

"STOP LOOKING STUPID AND RUN!"

"STOP! POLICE! my dad shouts as he follows them. As I start running, I hear a muffled sound. I instantly turn around. As my father chases the men I look around for what made that noise. I hear shuffling behind the dumpsters and I raise my weapon just in case. I inch forward and hear the noise again, only this time I can see what's making it.

"Are you okay?" I ask as I kneel down next to her. I pull the duct tape off of her mouth and she takes a deep breath. She tries to get up, but a rope connects her to the dumpster. I help her get her hands untied and she smiles at me.

"Thanks, I've been here like this quite a while" I reach for her hands and help her up. She pushes her hair away from her face and smiles again.

I clear my throat and ask her how she got tied to the dumpster in the first place.

“Well, I was driving through Crestdale to meet up with some college friends” her eyes dart from side to side, as if she's afraid to continue “My car ran out of gas and I was sort of stranded here. Some druggies showed up and they bound my wrists together with rope and tied me to the dumpster. They were so drunk I doubt they even knew what they were doing"

"I'll bring you back to the station to file a report-"

"No need, I saw your partner chase the men anyway. They are too drunk to make it far." She chuckles and begins to turn away.

"Wait" I reach for her shoulder. "I don't even know your name" I say, smiling.

"Diana" she says as she turns around and looks at me.

"Well Diana, the least I can do is give you a ride home."
* * *

While I was driving with Diana, I learned a lot about her, like she lives in Plainway like me, and she volunteers at the church up the block. I'm surprised I've never seen her before, as I go to the Church every Sunday. Though she's an amazing person. That night she thanked me and went inside, grateful to be safe. I told her that the group members would all be found soon, though the gave me a wary look.

The next day at work, we weren't sent out, so I was in the station all day. Diana showed up and we talked for a while. Later in the day she left and that would be that. For the next few weeks she would visit the station to hang out, and we would go grab coffee on my lunch breaks. We knew each other pretty well by then, and it was our routine, up until a few days ago. She just stopped coming to the station, and when I did see her she would ignore me. It was like we never met.

I shiver as I toss and turn, trying to get comfortable. It is surprisingly cold for a summer night. I roll over, clutching my pillow, and try to fall asleep. Something isn't right. My stomach feels With a sigh, I roll out of my bed and pull on a shirt and pants. Quietly, I leave my room. I walk to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water. I sip it as I walk to the living room. Sitting down, I placed the now empty glass on the coffee table in front of me. Hearing a door open, I shoot up and look towards the hallway.

"Just me" my father says.

"Couldn't sleep either?" I ask. He nods his head in response. I glance at the clock. 4:30 am.

“What time are we heading to the station today?”

“Maybe in an hour or so” he says as he sits down on the couch, “This time we’ll be out in East Bridgefield, Joe said they caught some guys there.”

"They did? What would some gang be doing in East Bridgefield? It's too rich of a neighborhood for one of them to even enter. They have gates all over that damn place"

"John, to tell you the truth, we've been chasing these guys for weeks, I doubt we'll see anything






“Look out!” someone yells. Gunshots could be heard as I tumble to the ground. I clutch my chest, smelling the coppery liquid pour out of me. Blood. The pain is unbearable. I start crawling, fully realizing the danger I put myself in by coming here. I make it to the door and just lay there, unable to move anymore. My body is slowly shutting down and I still haven’t found my father. I begin to pray for his safety.

I speak quietly, my words come out somewhat muffled because of my tears, “Dear God, please let my father live, he is a good man and doesn't deserve to die like this, in this… repulsive building. He deserves so much better. Please God he deserves to live..” This is ridiculous. If there is a God, it doesn’t matter. He never seems to hear my prayers. Either way, we are on our own, he could never help us anyway.
“What is this a pity party?”

I look up, wishing I hadn’t. It is Jason, only he isn’t alone. Diana is standing next to him, grinning from ear to ear. What is she doing here? Why isn’t she in safety with Joe?

“Diana? What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Just spending some quality time with my father” Diana says.

My mind begins to wander. Her father is Jason. They were working together, this whole time she was against us.

“Why would you turn against us?”

“I was never on your side, get that through your thick skull *sshole.”

Diana and Jason take turns walking around me, like a vulture circling its prey. To say I was scared was an understatement. I was beyond terrified, though I would never let them know. I had to be brave; “today would be the day I took them down” I say. “Or not” I say as my vision goes black.


Our hero would've lived happily ever after, but he was too busy being dead. The End