Together

Chapter 1 – The twenty second floor

“Well, do you wanna come over?” I knew that that was Matt’s voice beside me and what I had also known was that he wanted me to come over his house this weekend. “Sure”, I replied, my voice being as enthusiastic as possible, “If I’m aloud.” “Like your dad will say ‘No’!” Matt was on the verge of hitting five foot two and his dirty blonde hair had grown over the summer. It now crept over his ears and the front nearly touched his eyes. He had always been short, but I had expected that this year was going to be his year. He had a joyful face and was always joking around. His personality could never get you down, even on your worst day. I, on the other hand had the exact same hairstyle as Matt, only my hair was a deep brown color. I was on the verge of hitting five foot seven and Matt was getting close to reaching my forehead now. Me and Matt were enjoying our day, but still waiting for two more people to arrive.

1

We were at the junkyard watching Mr. Kently pulling cars over our heads. It wasn’t what you would call fun, but it was the best two twelve year olds could think of. We talked about the cars that were being pulled over our heads. Every so often a brand new car would come into the lot and Mr. Kently would hoist it up and drop it in a big dog pile of rust. We were waiting for Donny and Brian to come meet us at the junkyard. They had not come yet, which got me kind of worried, considering that we live in New York. Donny was five foot exactly and his short black crew cut made him look like a midget army recruit. He was short and very easy to get along with. Brian was my height and had long white hair that he liked to keep long. He was very athletic and from the looks of it, looked like he was growing a six pack. We all lived in the crazy neighborhood of Manhattan, on the same block, and in the same stupid apartment building. “Jesus Mike, calm down!” Matt had been talking to me and his mouth was in a crooked smile as he shouted at me. He must’ve seen my worrying. “You get yourself all worked up just because their late. Just relax and collect your thoughts, and think happy thoughts.” He chuckled. “Do you use your right or left hand for that?” There was a second of silence and then we both busted out with laughter. He slapped me on the back which almost made me fall of the high beam that we were sitting on. Even though I had showed Matt that I was not worried I still was a little worried. We had told them to be here at around three, and it was already four. The thought of anything happening to them sent an uneasy twist of curiosity up my spine. I shivered as a 1960’s Corvette was smashed before us. The sun was still up and Mr. Kently told us that he was closing up for the night.

2

“So, you see the Jets game last night?” asked Matt, his crooked smile lingering on his face. “Naw”, I relied, “I follow the Steelers.” “You’re kidding”, he answered, looking at me with disbelief. “The Steelers! They suck!” “Suck what?” I replied sarcastically. He gave out a little chuckle and gave me a little punch in the arm. “C’mon there not that bad.” “Yea right, Ben gets a concussion or a sore arm every friggin’ game. “So”, I argued back, knowing that I was going to loose the fight. “Ben’s not the whole team!” “Forget it”, he said finally, kicking a trash can on our way down forty – second street. “They won’t even make the playoffs.” “Who? Jets or Steelers? “The Jets!” Matt answered, “They can’t even close a good game!” I think for once I had actually won a battle, and I was proud. Usually Matt boasts in my face when he wins, and yells idiotic things that only his small brain could think of. Matt didn’t care about school, and he really didn’t care about anything, because of his name. Or as I should put it his family history. His mother and father died in a car crash when Matt was only six years old. He now lived with his drunk of an uncle, and brother, ‘Anth’, also known as ‘Weasel’ in his gang. Everyone, including Matt knew that he was going to fail. I, on the other hand loved to write, hence this book. I could think up of almost anything I wanted to. School wasn’t one of my top priorities, but it all came natural to me. Matt needed someone to look after him, and if his uncle was too much of a drunk to

3

look after him then maybe I should. My parents didn’t like him that much, and complained that I was always with him because they thought that he was going to turn out the same way as his uncle and brother. We walked up the stairs to our apartment building where we lived. I was on the first floor and Matt was on the twenty - second floor. I’m so glad that they invented elevators. “See you tomorrow Matt.” I said holding my hand out palm side up. “See ya Mike” he quickly answered. Now what we did now was something we have been doing for a long time. With my hand palm side up, he would take his hand and run it over mine. Then he would flip his hand over and I would run my hand over his. For us it was called ‘Skinning It’ and it was the best shake in the world, well for us anyway. I watched him as he pressed the up button to go on the elevator, and I watched as the doors closed on him. He went up. All the way to the twenty – second floor. I walked down a long hallway, to my apartment that was number ‘12’, the same number as my age. I opened the door, and I entered an empty house. ‘Big Surprise!’ A note was on the fridge that read ‘Out with friends, be back at 11…Dad.’ I sighed, grabbed a coke, and stormed out the door. I walked toward another apartment that was labeled as ‘2’. It was Brian’s house. I knocked… and waited. I waited for a minute, but no one answered the door. Perhaps they were all out. I ran to the elevator and pressed the up button. When I got in the elevator I pressed the number ‘16’ and up I went. I got out to a familiar hallway. It was Donny’s hall. I walked up to Donny’s door that had a number ‘6’ on it. I pressed my knuckles on the cold door, and knocked three times. No answer! Jesus, I was going crazy, but why was I going crazy. My stomached dropped. I thought to myself ‘God, maybe Matt’s right…I need a psychiatrist’.

4

I hopped on the elevator, again, and rode it all the way to the twenty – second floor. As the elevator opened, I rushed out as soon as I could. I wonder what Matt would say. I usually only go to his apartment for emergencies, like when people die and all the crap. As I walked down the hall I thought up of reasons why Donny and Brian weren’t home. As I walked up to his door, I took a deep breath and then looked at the puke green door. The paint was chipping away at the door, and there was a huge wooden number ‘6’ on the door. Only four times have I been in this room, and I was about to make it five. I knocked, and it was opened from the inside. “Shit, who’s dead?” Matt looked worried. I chuckled but he didn’t seem amused. “Seriously what’s up, I thought you hated to come up to my place. “I do”, I answered, looking at him, “But this is important. “Yea, so was the time when the Steelers won the Super Bowl!” I frowned. “Ha, ok what is it?” “Brian and Donny aren’t home!” I sounded like an idiot. “So! Maybe they’re both out and forgot to tell us! Jeez and I thought I was the stupid one. “You are, but still, it’s not like them to not tell us.” “Holy crap Mike, you worry too much, you worry me!” He signaled for me to come in. “You serious?” “If out want to.” I walked in with Matt trailing behind me. It wasn’t very big, of course neither was mine. It was very dirty and the smell of cigarette smoke hung in the air. We both sat on an old vinyl couch, where a 1960s TV was showing Sports Center. I

5

was assuming that Matt’s uncle was out. But you know, even though Matt’s uncle was a drunk and all he still liked me and he seemed to be a pretty cool guy. Matt liked him though, and that was the reason everyone thought that Matt would end up the same way as his uncle, because he admired him. Matt got up to go to the bathroom. So I was alone for a minute or two. I sat there and listened as Neil Everett was announcing facts on sports. I herd the toilet flush and Matt was back on the couch sitting next to me. “So, you came up here just to tell me that?” “Yea, why not, I thought you should know.” He smiled and then gave me a little smack on the shoulder. You know I always wonder how Matt and I got to be such good friends. I mean in fourth grade when he first came to my school, Matt barley talked to anyone, maybe, except Brian a little. Fifth grade was alright. But they sixth grade it just sort of clicked and me and Matt were like Batman and Robin, ha, sort of. And now, I don’t know what I would do without Matt. “Jesus Mike, for all we’ve been friends, I’ve always thought that you were a little weird.” “Hey, everyone’s weird!” “Not me”, said Matt, a small smirk coming up on his face, “I like girls!” I burst into laughter, not catching the joke right away. Matt threw me off the couch, laughing while he did it. I hopped back on the couch still laughing to see Matt get up from the couch. “Where you goin’” I asked him. He was walking toward the kitchen. He went over to the microwave, and opened up the door.

6

“Corn dog Nuggets are done!” He chuckle, and I chuckled. He put the food down on the table by the couch and started up towards the kitchen again. I didn’t even have to as what he was about to do, because as soon as he started to head toward the back room I knew what was coming for me. I heard a door open in the back room, and a chain jingle, I thought to myself, ‘Here comes the Demon’.

7

Chapter 2 – Missing

“Bowser, Sick ‘em, good boy Bowser.” I heard those words and immediately a white lab came running toward me. “Bowser, Sick Balls! Haha!” Shut up….Haha….Matt, you’re a bad….Paha…..influence on your dog. I stuttered through those words as Matt’s enormous white lab Bowser licked every square inch of my Body, well not every part. “Ahaha, get your dog off me!” “Bowser, get off, go eat your dinner! I love him!” “Yea, I can see that!” Now Sports Center was cut off the air for a moment, which sent Matt in a fit of rage, and BREAKING NEWS came blaring across the screen.

Two Boys Missing Earlier this day. The whereabouts of the boys are unknown, but their parents have identified

8

their names. One is by the name of Chase Fisher, and the other by the name of Dylan Chance. If anyone has seen or spoken to the boys in the past 24 hours call 911 immediately. Thank you, back to you Charlotte

Our mouths hung wide open in disbelief. These two boys both went to school with us and were both our age. Now we really got to wonder where Brian and Donny were. Then I grabbed my cell phone and flipped up the contact list to where it said Brian. I clicked on that and it began to dial Brian’s number. He answered. “Hello”, Brian’s voice seemed muffled, “Mike, sorry I couldn’t come it’s my parents anniversary, I’ll see you tomorrow, bye.” “Well”, asked Matt, nearly falling off the couch, “Where is he.” “At an anniversary, he said he will see us tomorrow.” “Wait, Mike, what’s today.” “Umm...” I had to think for a moment, “Tuesday.” “Ok Donny won’t be home until Friday.” “Why”, I asked, thinking about the two boys. “Because he’s at his brother’s house in Pittsburgh…your favorite city.” I laughed a little and then Matt stared out the window. “You okay?” I asked feeling a little glum myself “Am I … ever…gonna get out…of this town Mike?” he started to cry a little. I went over to him and looked him in the eye.

9

“You can do anything you want Matt.” I whispered almost to sound like it was comforting. After that I had to go realizing that time had really flown by. It was already ten thirty, so my dad should be arriving home any minute now, and if he knew that I was at the Harper’s he’s kill me. I told him bye and he did the same, we shook, and then I was out the door already one the elevator down to the first floor. I walked in the door, Chinese food! Yes! I went up to hug my dad and he showed me the bag of my favorite food, General Tsos Chicken. I ate like a king. I think all I had today was a soda from the local store and a bag of chips that I had to share with Matt. My dad and I and a wonderful time and we watched a lot of great things on TV. Then I mentioned to him about Dylan and Chase. “Yea, I herd something like that on the radio on my way home, it’s a shame I hope they find the poor kids.” My dad actually sounded sympathetic. I told him that I was going to go upstairs for a while, just to hang out on the computer. I had a screen name, but Matt didn’t even own a computer. Just goes to show you. I went up to see if the story had made it to the internet and to my surprise almost one thousand entries had been added to the subject. One thousand! Wherever those kids were they were in for a big one when they got back. It was twelve now and there was pretty much nothing to do. I watched a few videos on Youtube. The internet was boring except for the story about the two boys who have been missing. It killed me that I had no one to talk to on a nice summer night. I walked into the living room. “Dad can Matt sleep over?” “Sure, but make sure that you hide all our valuable things somewhere!”

10

“Dad”, I replied, getting annoyed by the fact that he practically hated my best friend. “Matt isn’t that bad!? “I said he can come over didn’t I. So, go get him!” I called his number on my cell phone and he picked it up right away. “Hello?’ “Matt?” “Hey, what’s up?” “Nothin’, what do you want?” “Wanna sleep over?” “Sure I’ll be right down!” “Cool see ya!” I hung up the phone and walked outside of my apartment. I watched him get off the elevator. We said hi, skinned it, and then ran to my room. “So what‘s up?” asked Matt, who was already heading towards my TV to turn it on. “Nothing, can’t I ever have you down?” “I don’t know, can you?” I think he had intended it to be a joke. I noticed something about Matt this past day. He just wasn’t his same old self. I found myself cracking all the jokes when he was the one that usually told all the jokes. Maybe it was a phase. Do kids still have those? Huh, I’ll have to look it up! “Hey I’m kinda hungry”, complained Matt, “You hungry?” I’m assuming that he was talking to me, unless he had an imaginary friend. “Not really, I just ate.”

11

“Well then what can I eat.” He wasn’t getting annoying, but the way he put it sounded a little rude. “Well, you could cook your wiener, but it would be a very small meal!” I chuckled at my own joke, although chuckled wasn’t the right word to describe it. As the infamous words of AIM language put it, I laughed out loud. Matt didn’t seem to like the joke. “Haha, very funny!” “Matt, sorry man, I was just kidding. What’s wrong with you, you’ve been acting like your balls dropped off!” He looked at me with a sad look of grief in his eyes. “I…don’t…know where my…uncle is!” he leaned over on me and rested his head on my shoulder. Within a minute tears started running down his face, and I comforted him the best I could. I put my arm around him a sort of rocked him. God, I felt like his mother. “Hey, it’s alright. Look matt you know how everyone always says your not gonna go anywhere, because of your family.” He nodded his head slowly. “Matt, don’t you believe that for one second. You listen to me, you can do anything you want man, and don’t let anyone tell you different!” He sat up, wiping away what little tears were left on his face. “Thanks, at least I have someone who cares about me, ha!” “Any time, and I’m serious about that, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something not even me.” I sat up and walked out of the room, leaving Matt to collect his thoughts. I went into the family room, or living room, to see my dad knocked out on the couch. Figures! I went into the kitchen to grab some mini pizzas from the fridge. I

12

grabbed us two sodas, and some chips. I waited about three minutes for the pizzas to get done, and after they were I went back into my room. Matt was still watching a movie, but he still looked half- hearted. I sat down next to him and put my arm around him. “C’mon man, settle down!” “I’m fine, maybe if we were having a little fun I would be!” he smiled that crooked smile. “Awe, that’s it Harper, you’re a dead man!” I leaped on him with all my might and knocked him off the bed. We both laughed until our sides hurt. We watched a movie with Angelina Jolie; I think it was called ‘Wanted’ “Ok Matt, who would you rather do, Angelina Jolie or Jessica Simpson.?” “Ooo, tough one, tough one. I’m gonna have to go with Jolie, considering I just seen her butt.” We both laughed. I was about to open my mouth, “Hold on, hold on I got one for you!” ‘This should be good’ I thought to myself. “Who would you rather do; Queen Latifa”, I chuckled, “Or Rosie o’ Donnel?” “That’s easy; Queen Latifa! She has the package all set!” “Haha, whatever, lets play something else before I find more info about the world youngest sex offender.” Even I laughed as Matt insulted me. Of course we both knew that it wasn’t even close to an insult. The night faded into day, and neither of us caught one minute of sleep. Of course now and then I would look over to Matt and see him knocked out on the floor. I looked out the window and I could see a little glimpse of light creeping over the Empire State Building. New York had never looked so peaceful. It actually looked very beautiful. Time square was in plain sight, and different billboards were shining gracefully in this great

13

picture of New York. And then…it turned five a.m., and that’s when all hell broke loose. A fire truck came zooming up the street, and the sounds of cars rushed by the apartment like comets rushing by the earth. It was New York, so what could you do about it. Matt finally woke up; I mean how you couldn’t wake up with the busiest town right outside your window. “Well, look who finally got up.” “Did you ever go to sleep?” matt looked like a circus performer who had just finished his show. The kid had no shirt on, his hair was flying every which way, and he had bags under his eyes that were fatter than a Japanese phone book. “No, not really. I had too much on my mind. I mean with all that just happened I don’t think anyone who goes to our school had any sleep.” “Except me.” “Yea, except you!” Matt got up and pulled on his Yankees jersey that he had worn yesterday. I put on clean clothes and we both headed out the door. I did leave a note for my dad telling him that we were just going to Central Park. We walked for a while, past street names that I had no clue what they were, only I knew where I was going, I think. My sixth sense worked and we got to Central Park at around ten thirty. We didn’t do much; I mean what could you do at Central park? God, it was getting pretty boring, so we decided to head out of Central Park. I didn’t know where we were going and maybe that’s exactly what was so good about living in a big city.

14

Chapter 3 – A Plan

“Phantom of the Opera?” “Dumb!” “What do you mean dumb?’ I was horrified by what Matt had just said. He had degraded my very culture. “That’s like the best show on Broadway!’ “Well, maybe if is I see it, I could actually tell you!” We were in Time Square, just passing the time away. We had already eaten at a McDonalds, so he shouldn’t be hungry if he comes back to my house. My cell phone ‘buzzed’ in my pocket and I brought it out and looked at the front screen to see who it was. It was Brian, so I eagerly flipped it open. “Brian, hey!” “Hey, where are you guys?” “Where on Broadway, right in front of the ‘Wicked’ billboard.” “Ok, cool I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

15

“Ok, see ya in twenty!” Before I hung up the phone I looked at what time it was. It was around three. I put the phone back into my pocket, not hearing Matt screaming in my ears. “So what did he say”, asked Matt in an eager voice. I had an insult, but I held it in. “Is he coming?” “Yea, he said he’d be here in about twenty minutes.” Then Matt just suddenly turned and speed walked right off the road. I looked at him with a weird look that said, ‘Ok just walk away!’ He was walking right across the street. I was standing in the middle of the alley way, and he just kept walking. “Hey, where are you going!” I thought it was a joke. “Mike!!! Get off the road!!!” Matt was shouting “Why?” “Mike, get the hell of the road NOW!!” Matt ran up to me. I turned around to see a black limo coming at me at full speed. When I turned around Matt was up in my face. He grabbed my arm, and pulled me with all his might off the road. I couldn’t speak. I could only look Matt in the face with horror and thanks. “Are you trying to KILL YOURSELF!?!?” A tear buildup started in my eyes, but I forced to keep it back with all my might. I wouldn’t cry in public. All I could spurt out was a few words. “Thanks Matt, umm...ha...thanks for saving my life.” I gave him a punch to let him know that I was thankful. “Eh, what can I say, I have a ‘seventh’ sense!” I chuckled, but he remained quiet. Suddenly a tan mini – van came rushing towards the McDonalds, and came to a sudden halt right before my feet. The door swung open and Brian stepped out. His brother was

16

driving the car. He waved. Brian stepped out of the car, limping while he got out. His hair was messed up and his eye was black. “What happened to you?” I asked, horrified by the sight of him. His brother drove away, laughing in the car. “Nothing, I’ll tell you guys later, at the junkyard.” We walked for awhile without saying much. We headed up Time Square. It was August Second, and the story of the two missing boys still hung high in our heads. Wait! Did Brian know? “Brian”, I stuttered, “Did you hear about…?” “Yea, I heard on the news. Now can we please go to the junkyard? This is really important.” We jogged to the junkyard, since Brian couldn’t really run, where once again Mr. Kently was hoisting the cars over our heads. We sat on our usual beam that was about thirty feet above the ground. We all turned to Brian. “Well”, urged Matt, “What is it?” “Ok, well, for one thing I bet you guys already guessed that I wasn’t at an anniversary.” “You weren’t?” asked Matt. I think he was being serious too. “No Matt”, said Brain sarcastically, a smile drawing on his face, “I wasn’t!” “Go on!” I said in a loud voice, wanting to hear the rest of the story. “And please, no more interruptions!” I turned to Matt and gave him a small smile. “Ok, well I was in my room playing a game when my brother brought Matt’s brother over to the apartment. They went into the computer room.” Brian’s computer room is right next to his bedroom. “I didn’t hear the whole thing, but I heard about how

17

they needed two boys for the job. I didn’t hear who, but they’re planning on robbing something. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, so you guys really have to keep it a secret” “Ok, you got it.” I said. I didn’t have to guess where Brian got the black eye. His brother must’ve found out that he was listening, and ‘pow’. “God Matt, it looks like your brother is going to jail!” “How”, replied Matt, his voice cracked, “No one’s gonna catch him. He’s the fastest kid I ever knew.” “We’ll catch him!” Everyone turned and looked and looked at me. I had a plan and a good plan too. “Look if we catch them, we’ll be the most famous kids in New York. Every one will know us.” “So, you got a plan?” Matt liked the idea, and I could tell by the way he was smiling. “Wait!” Brian yelled. “If we catch them and sneak up on them, they’re gonna know I told you guys, and I’ll be dead.” “C’mon”, I sounded like an army general, “Look, they’re not gonna care, they’ll be too busy making ash trays in jail, while we’ll have our pictures in the paper.” “Ok, so what do we tell our parents?” asked Brian. I think he was starting to like the idea, because he was on the edge of the metal beam, and cracking his knuckles furiously. “Hmm.., well me and Matt could tell our parents that we are sleeping over your house, and you tell your mom that you’re sleeping over mine. It’s simple, but all we have to do is pray that none of are parents try to contact the other one.”

18

“Ha, yea!” Matt got a kick out of that one. “I’ll do that. I don’t think my uncle will care anyway if he finds out that I’m not over Brian’s.” I knew what he meant. “And if people are after us my uncle can always hide us, and beat the crap out of Anthony.” “I don’t know about this.” Brian was trying to stall. I hated when people did that. “C’mon Brian, if we catch them, we could be famous. WAIT! Brian, ha, did you hear where they were going.” My voice was getting anxious. “Yea, Pennsylvania, in the Appalachian Mountains!” “Holy Crap! That’s a lot of money guys.” Matt seemed to be backing down. “I got about a hundred. Mike?” “I have at least a hundred fifty. Yea that seems right. Brian?” Brian looked up. “Umm, about two hundred.” A smile crept back onto Brian’s face. He was beginning to like the idea. “Perfect!” I screamed. Mr. Kently jumped in his machine, thinking that one of us fell off. “So we’ll go to the station tomorrow, get the tickets, and were off.” It really wasn’t a plan. And now come to think of it, it wasn’t a very good plan at all. But it was the best any of us could think of. “Ok”, stated Brian, “Call me tonight, so I can tell you about the tickets. I better get home, before my mom puts me on the news.” “See ya tomorrow then!” Matt said as Brian climbed the ladder down from the beam. He slowly walked in the direction of the apartments. Matt with a look of embarrassment and stupidity on his face turned to me. “Was that a joke, or are we really going!” “Haha, let’s go!” and we followed Brian to the apartments.

19

Chapter 4 – Tickets

Matt walked home with me, and we couldn’t catch up with Brian, he was too far ahead. We talked about tomorrow, and what would probably come of it. But then one thing struck my mind. Donny was goin to miss out on all the fun. Or maybe this shouldn’t be considered as ‘fun’. “I can’t believe were actually gonna do this!” Matt was loving the idea of getting out of town, let alone track down two teenagers trying to rob something, while holding two other twelve year olds hostage. And I had a pretty good idea who those twelve year olds were. When we finally reached our apartment, Matt took the elevator up, and I walked down the hall, prepared for another boring night. I couldn’t have Matt over again, and Brian had enough on him mind, so I would just sit on the couch with my dad watching movies all night. He would be my source of enjoyment of the night. I walked into my apartment, throwing myself down on the couch, and immediately shutting my eyes. I drifted away into a deep sleep.

20

…………………………
Me and Matt are sitting on the beam in the junkyard. It seems like normal, only it’s higher, much higher. The sun is shining in our eyes. I suppose Matt just told a joke, because he was cracking up, and so was I. Matt starts laughing way too hard, so hard that he leans backward, and starts to fall off the beam. I bend over holding on to his leg trying to pick him back up, but he is too heavy, and down he goes!

...................................
“Ahhh!” I woke up. It was around three when I had lay down and now it was almost five. The little bit of the dream that I remembered was horrible. Something that I would never do. I just hope that the dream wasn’t trying to tell me something about our trip. My dad eventually got home, but he was tired from work, so he went straight to bed. I didn’t mind I had a lot of planning to do. I went to the house phone to call Brian. I dialed his number carefully. “Hello?” “Brian?”

21

“Hey, thanks for calling. Look I can’t talk right now my brother just got home. Look, come over to my place, and I’ll give you the money for my ticket. You’ll have to have Matt go with you tonight.” “Ok I’ll be right over.” “Ok see ya.” I hung up the phone and ran out my door. I walked down the hall to Brian’s place, where I knocked on the door, slowly, hoping that Michael, Brian’s older brother wouldn’t answer. And what do you know, it was opened by Michael. Unlike Matt’s brother, Michael actually is pretty cool and doesn’t mind me. Maybe it’s because we have the same names. “Hey, what’s up”, he acted as though nothing was wrong, and as if I were stupid, “My brother’s upstairs.” “Thanks Mike!” I raced down the hall into Brian’s bedroom, where he had at least two hundred and fifty dollars spread out all over his bed. “Holy shit, are you takin’ all of this!” My voice held a slight bit of disbelief. On the bed he had laid out all of his money. Just spread out all over the bead. “Yea, think about it. A ticket is one thing. But then there is food, and all that other stuff.” Brian stacked the bills into a nice neat pile. “And besides I have more hidden somewhere. But look”, he gave me at least a hundred and thirty, “Here’s the money for the train. You and Matt go early in the morning, and I’ll meet you at the train station. Call me to let me know what time the train leaves.” “Why can’t you come with us?” I thought about going to the train station with Matt and trying to buy tickets. “This should be fun!” I thought.

22

“Because, my brother won’t be out of the house till eight, so if he’s sees me going out of the house, he’s gonna get it out of me. Oh shit here comes Michael.” He threw himself over the wad of money and threw it off of his bed, and slid it under the bed. I quickly slipped the money that I had in my hand in my pocket, and Michael barged in. “Hey Brian, you and Mike have to get out, I have to make an important phone call for a sec.” I was already out the door, but Brian stayed behind looking for a fight. “Why”, Brian’s voice sounded disgusted, “This is my room too!” “I said get…out…of…my…room…NOW!” Then Michael grabbed Brian by the arm and shoved him out of the room, where he fell on me, knocking me to the ground, and Michael shut the door on our faces. “C’mon lets go into my sister’s room!” Brian led the way to his sister’s room, and opened to door. The smell of oranges hit my nose, as I walked into a pink and purple room. Little porcelain dolls covered the shelves, and pictures of her high school graduation. On the bed were four pink pillows and about twenty stuffed animals were covering her bed. It was certainly not like my room; actually it was far from it. “Look, Brian, I think I’d better go tell Matt this. Look I’ll do what you said. I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Alright, see you tomorrow.” There was an uneasy tone to both of our voices that was saying… “Wow! Were actually gonna do this!” I walked out of his sister’s room coughing, and made my way for the door. I didn’t even want to go near Brian’s room. Michael has three ears. I walked out of Brian’s house heading toward the elevator. I pressed the up button, got in, and I was on my way to the twenty – second floor.

23

Now heading for the sixth time I had been in Matt’s apartment, I opened the door, which was surprisingly unlocked. The same old scent hit me of beer and cigarettes. The old couch had foam coming out of it, and there was a rip in the back. The 1960’s TV, which had bunny ears on it, was still showing Sports Center, but no sign of Matt. I called his name, loudly. “Mike is that you?” A voice came from the bathroom. It was muffled. I went up to the bathroom door where I could hear water running. He was probably taking a shower. “Yea, I gotta talk to you.” “Alright, I’m in the shower.” No crap! “Umm, make yourself at home; I should be out in like five minutes.” I walked back into the living room, where I now saw Bowser sitting on half of the couch. I went down and sat beside him, rubbing his stomach. I whispered to him. “You do know that your master is probably crazy don’t you?” He gave me a “No kidding!” look. I smiled at Bowser, laughing, and rubbed his back. In about exactly five minutes Matt came out of his room. He was wearing an Abercrombie shirt and jeans. He threw Bowser off the couch so he could sit down. “So, what’s up?” “Well, look, Brian isn’t gonna be able to come with us tomorrow to get the tickets, so we have to go get them ourselves. He gave me the money.” “Ok, that’s alright. Did he tell you why?” “Yea”, I wasn’t going to mention all the money, “His brother leaves at eight, and if his brother sees him going out, it might raise suspicion. Oh, and the other thing. We have to make sure not to get on the same train as Michael and your brother.”

24

“Yea, that would be fun! Listen Mike, I’m not trying to kick you out, but my uncle should be home any minute. And he doesn’t like when other people are in the house and he doesn’t know about it.” “Ok, look, I’ll call you tonight. See ya.” I got up from the couch and headed toward the door. I walked out and caught the elevator as it was just closing. I jumped on it and rode it all the way down.

..................................
The sheet was halfway over my body, and the fan was blowing in my face, cooling me from the summer heat. I clenched onto the sheet now, thinking about a rough climb up the Appalachian Mountains. I didn’t know what would come of it, but I would let nature make its decision. Later that evening I had told my dad that I was going over Brian’s to sleep over and then I didn’t know what I would do the next day. He agreed as usual, liking the idea of me going on some adventure around New York City. Thinking of tomorrow put me into a deep sleep, which I had no dreams.

………………………
My phone was buzzing on the table next to my bed. It was the alarm I had set to go off at six o’ clock. I got dressed as quick as I could. I gathered my money and Brian’s money and slipped it into my pocket. I packed two pairs of underwear, one pair of socks. I packed two shirts, and a pair of jeans. I traveled light. I threw them all into my gym bag,

25

grabbed a Coke from the fridge, and I was out the door, on my way up to the twenty – second floor.

………………………...
Now right about now I was ready to punch Matt right in the face. It wasn’t that he was scared or anything, but he wasn’t certain about going. He thought that because they saw him trying to buy tickets, maybe they thought he was trying to run away from trouble or the cops. He looked scared almost, maybe just a little hesitant. We stood at the ticket booth waiting to get our tickets. Matt had to stand on his tip toes to look old enough to pass as a thirteen year old. I walked up to the booth “Two tickets for Danville, Pennsylvania.” The lady looked at me and then peered behind me to notice Matt. “You boys going just for fun?” The lady was already starting to get suspicious. I just hope that she wouldn’t call the cops. “My parents are in Pennsylvania, and they want my friend to travel with me.” I thought of that as it came out of my mouth. It sounded good. She smiled and nodded her head. She handed me the ticket and I paid for my ticket and Brian’s. I slipped the rest of the money in my pocket, still having some money in my bag for later. All we could do now is hang out at the station until Brian came. It would be a long wait. But I could stand it. A lot of funny people come in and out of the station. Some people wear clothes that cover up their whole body except their eyes. Others look like geeky lawyers. Matt

26

pointed one out that had his left arm missing, and his right leg missing. I know we shouldn’t have laughed, but it was so hard not to. “Ok, its been twenty minutes since we bought the tickets. Where’s Brian?” Matt was fidgeting in his seat, bumping into me. He was getting tired of waiting. I looked up and down the station, but I could see Brian anywhere. “Ok, I’ll give him ten more minutes. If he’s not here by then, I’ll call his cell phone. I mean I bet Michael is still in the house. Brian’s probably just waiting for the right time.” For all I prayed, I hope Brian was alright and Michael hadn’t found out our plan. Five minutes went by, and Matt kept me alert of the time, every half minute. It was starting to bother me. “Two Minutes!” Matt was really anxious. I looked up the station and finally Brian came running toward us, two bags flaring in the air. I bet no one was even suspicious! “Did you get the tickets?” Brian was trying to catch his breathe. I handed him the ticket and a smile crept onto his face. He kissed the ticket and waved it in the air. “All aboard!” A cry came from the train that we were boarding. We all looked at each other with satisfaction knowing that a journey lay ahead of us. Matt looked excited again, and Brian looked eager. And I felt great, thinking that a terrific and dangerous hike up the Appalachians would do us good. We boarded the train, tickets in hand, to find two robbers and two missing kids!

27

Chapter 5 – The Holiday Inn

The whistle blew loudly and the train was racing into a dark tunnel, where everything turned black. Minutes passed by that soon turned into an hour. We didn’t speak much until I said the first word. “So, what are we gonna do when we get there?” “Well, when we arrive in Danville, the Mountains are supposed to be right there. So I guess we’ll go to a store and buy some stuff and just head out into the mountains.” It was Thursday, that meant that Donny came home tomorrow. “Wait a minute guys!” My mouth was curling in excitement. “Donny comes home tomorrow. Maybe we should stay somewhere tonight, and then tell Donny to come to Danville tomorrow.” “Ha, yea that’ll be the day!” Matt stating to cackle. “What?” I was disappointed by what he had just said. “Like his mom will drive all the way down to Pennsylvania. There’s no way!” It was true. I mean, can you imagine Donny asking his mom to drive him all the way down to Pennsylvania. There’s no way! 28

“Well, let’s just play it by ear.” We all nodded. Another hour passed and I looked beside me to see Matt sleeping. Trees and lakes filled with crystal blue water passed by us like painting a postcard of the Pennsylvania wilderness. Mountains rose above the tracks creating a shadow over the land. I wish I had my camera! I could send it in and tell the Art Museum that I painted it! Another hour and both of them were sleeping, except me. I have been one a train before so I wanted to take in the experience. It was very nice to see all the beautiful sights just pass right before your eyes. In about four hours into the ride the train came to a rushing stop which sent Matt flying out of his seat and into the air. “Hey Matt”, I said, “Were here!” Brian laughed as he got his bags from the overhead compartment. “No kidding”, Matt got up rubbing his head, and doing the same as Brian. I had my bag beside me the whole time, so all I did was grab it and head out of our cart. There was along line heading out of the train, so we had to wait for some time. By the time we got out, it was already dark, seven thirty to be exact. We better start finding a hotel soon!

………………………
All the rooms were painted with a puke brown color that made you want to throw up yourself just by looking at it. There were two beds to a room, so I ended up taking the floor on an air mattress. As I ended up blowing up the mattress we decided that we were really hungry, and we wanted something to eat.

29

“I think that there’s a small lunchroom at the bottom floor.” I was looking at a pamphlet when I said this, and they were already out the door. “C’mon, I can’t stand an empty stomach anymore!” Matt was running to the elevator yelling at me and Brian to hurry up. “Alright, alright we’ll be right there!” Brian had the same idea as I did. But Matt couldn’t wait one more minute. As me and Brian were walking towards the elevator, we noticed that it was already closed and Matt was on his way down, stuffing his face with food. I gave a little chuckle, but all Brian could let out was a small scowl. When the elevator finally opened, we hurried in and pressed the button that said 1, and down we went. “What do you think Matt’s doing?” My voice let out a slight laugh. “Probably stuffing his face with food!” I didn’t laugh, because it was probably true. When we reached the cafeteria, Matt was in line, waving for us to join him in a feast of food. There was everything you can imagine! There was beef, chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn. Matt was having a field day. I think that he must have put all the food on the table into his dish. He really had an appetite! “Can you believe all this food?” Matt jumped with joy, still putting a mound of potatoes and gravy on his plate. I looked at Brian, who now, seeing all this food lit up with delight, and sprang to the line next to Matt, already putting food on his plate. I was hysterical, that they were making all this fuss over something as simple as food. But as my stomach started to rumble I got the same exact feeling as they were starting to feel. I was really hungry!

30

“Ok let’s see what we got!” I said, as I stepped up in line next to Brian. Now I know as a kid you never have to worry about eating somewhere that’s not home and worrying about paying for it. But I remembered that the man at the desk in the front of the hotel had told us that the meals cost money. Realizing that Matt was ready to dig in I took a glance at the menu above the kitchen. From what I saw, and what Matt already had on his place, he better be ready to pay for a forty dollar meal. I screamed: “Matt, how much money you got?” “Umm, about a hundred. Why?” “That meal you have is forty dollars!” As soon as I said the word forty he rushed back in line pushing me right out of the way. He tossed half of the mashed potatoes off of his plate, and the second and third piece of steak. He looked at his plate, satisfied. “Umm, miss”, Matt was trying to put on the goody, goody act. I don’t think she thought that it was working. “How much would all this be?” “Umm”, the lady sounded really annoyed, “Twenty five!” “I’ll take it!” He sounded like he had just won an ancient artifact from King Tut’s tomb at an auction. Going once, the steak! Going twice, the steak! Sold, to the dork in the white shirt! After Matt recovered from his fest, he sat down with me and Brian where we ate our meal. We didn’t talk much; we were too concentrated on stuffing our faces with delicious food. “This is the best”! At least I think that’s what Matt said. I really couldn’t make it out from all the food that was stuffed into it.

31

“I don’t even know what I’m eating, but it’s good.” I didn’t feel like telling Brian that he was eating fried squid, because might end up ruining his appetite. Instead I told him that it was a certain kind of onion ring. I just hope that it was good squid, or else he would be in the bathroom at nigh puking his guts out. After clearing my plate I said: “So when are we gonna call Donny?” They all stared up at me, Matt having a piece of lettuce hanging half out of his mouth. Brian was the one who spoke. I think that Matt was too occupied with eating. “Umm, probably in the morning, yea that sounds good! Maybe we’ll tell his to ask hid Brother. I’m sure Bobby will do it. My phone buzzed. The name Julia McKently appeared on the screen. “Who is it?” Matt had suddenly put his fork down to examine the caller on my cell phone. “Julia!” “Why would Julia be calling?” Brian suddenly burst into the conversation. “Should I answer it?” I was beginning to open up the phone. “No”, Brian answered quicker than I expected, “What for? She’s probably calling to know what day that picnic for school is.” I nodded, taking Brian’s words to mind. I opened up the phone, as quick as I could, and then hung it back up. Matt went on finishing the last bit of his meal. After scraping up the last bits of mashed potatoes, he laid his fork down on the table, where his stomach made an after dinner conversation. “I’ll be right back!” He got up from his seat, and raced to a door that was labeled as the boy’s bathroom. Brian and I started cracking up from the way he was running. He wasn’t going to be right back.

32

“So”, Brian tried to start a small conversation, “How long do you think the walk in the mountains will be?” “You’re askin the wrong person. I’ve never even walked the Appalachian Trail, let alone, go off the trail. Did you see where your brother was going?” “Yea, they’re going into Somerset. They’re gonna rob a bank!” It was on the tip of my tongue to mention the two boys that they needed. I already had a slight guess of who those two boys were, considering that a missing person report was filed out only a couple days earlier, about the same time Brian had told us this wild story. Wow, could you imagine what a pisser this would be if Brian was making this all up! Ten minutes was up and Matt still hadn’t come back from the bathroom. He’s probably flooding the whole toilet with dog piles of crap. Suddenly after fifteen minutes of sheer silence had passed between me and Brian, Matt stormed out of the bathroom, looking like Obama after winning the election. It took him a while to sit down, and when he did he let out a small sigh of relief. Brian yawned, “I’m kinda tired. Anyone else?” We all nodded our heads while looking at each other. We could see that every one of us was completely tired. We all got up from our seats, leaving our empty dishes where they were, and picked up to leave. When we reached our room, Matt and Brian flung themselves on their separate beads, and I gently got down on the air mattress pulling the covers over my shoulders. “So”, Brian said, getting in to bed and yawning at the same time, “Tomorrow we’ll call Donny and see if he’s able to come.” “Yep!” Matt was already started to doze off in the sleeping stage, where at any minute you would hear a snore slip from his mouth.

33

“Can’t wait!” I tried to sound excited, but I was too tired to worry about pleasing anyone with kind gestures, and make them feel good. I put my head down on the soft pillow. It was a feather pillow so my head sunk right into it. I let out a small sigh, finally being able to relax at once without worrying about having to start a conversation. I listened to the crickets chirping outside the window, and Matt’s radio, that he had turned on to help himself to fall asleep. I slowly fell asleep, preparing myself for the journey that I’ll never forget.

Chapter 6 – Pure Instinct

34

“Mike, get up!” I grunted and turned over. “Mike, get up!” I sighed and still remained still. “MIKE, get the hell up. NOW!” Matt suddenly threw himself with all his might on me, grabbed me, and pushed me off the air mattress. “Jesus Christ Matt, you could’ve told me it was you. Christ, I thought it was still a dream!” Matt was off of me now, and it seemed to me that he was already dressed. The whereabouts of Brian I couldn’t make out. “Well c’mon get up and get dressed!” “Where’s Brian?” I was still tired and really didn’t fell like getting up at all. “He’s in the bathroom relieving his morning stress!” Tired and all I had to laugh at that one. “He’s outside trying to get in touch with Donny.” I was up now and grabbing the shirt and pants that I had worn yesterday. I slipped them on and was really ready to go. I mean I guess you could say that boys can care less if you wear the same clothes for a week. “How long has he been trying to reach him?”

35

“Since about six!” I looked at the clock and it was already seven thirty. Before we all dozed off last night we had made it clear that we wanted to be on the road by eight thirty or nine. “Did you bring any snacks in your bag Mike?” “Yes, there’s some Twinkies.” Matt went over to my bag and found a two pack of Twinkies. He opened them and threw one at me. “Thanks!” I said when he threw me the other one. We ate our small morning meal without saying a word to each other about anything that was about to go on. After the delightful meal, Brian came rushing in, out of breath. “You guys aren’t gonna believe this, but Donny’s brother can drive him to Somerset tomorrow!” “Tomorrow!” Matt said, he was a little disappointed, but still his face was lit up with delight. “That means we really have to pick up speed today.” “Damn right we have to.” Brian wasn’t kidding either. If we wanted to make it to Somerset by tomorrow, we really had to pick up some miles today. After we had our bag packed, we paid our rent which wasn’t too much, and we still had a good bit of money left for other things. “Ok”, Matt was ready and was looking out at the mountains, a little shakiness in his voice, “You guys ready?” “Yea!” I was ready for this, putting my right foot forward as a start to a great trip. “Let’s go.” Brian started walking, Matt was about a half step behind him falling to the right, and I was on Brian’s left, my bag was banging up against the middle section of my back. We walked down the road where we passed several buildings such as Target and

36

a huge Wal – Mart. It was eight thirty, and we had a lot of time ahead of us. The sun was already stating to beat down on our heads, frying our brains on the inside. At the end of the road we could see the woods, and we were getting close. We walked for five minutes and then we reached the end of the road, where we all stared up at the mountain that was towering over us. “Gentleman”, I sounded like one of those idiotic tour guides, who never shut up when your trying to walk around a museum, “I give you the Appalachians!” We stood there with our mouths hung open with awe, and admired the sight of this new adventure. A huge hill stood above us. It was covered with trees so high that you couldn’t see about ten feet in front of you. “Well, I guess we should start walking!” Matt made a little bit of a sarcastic laugh and started climbing the hill. Up and up and up we climbed. It had been five minutes since we put our first step up the hill, and it was already tough. It was very muddy and our shoes were slipping on the hill which made it hard to walk up. Matt was having a real hard time getting up the hill and he slid quite a few times. “Matt, you ok?” My voice was shaky considering that I was having a tough time getting up the hill. He was strutting very carefully in front of me. “Yea…I’m…whoa….fine!” He tripped again which wasn’t unusual. It might have bothered some people that you had someone like this in front of you, but I really didn’t mind. We were doing well, and were reaching the top of the hill, when Matt’s foot hit a rock and the rock slipped from under him. He would’ve been alright he stuck out his

37

hand and grabbed the branch that was hanging just ahead of him. Matt usually doesn’t think like that. The mud sloshed under his foot, spraying a coat of mud all over my face. His leg twisted, not making a snap; it sent my heart into leaps. It was as if my heart jumped so high into my throat that I thought that it I stuck my hand in my mouth I might have been able to touch it. His back stuck out immensely, and his second foot gave from under him. It was like he just fell off a balcony, or a hill, or something along the lines of that. His back sunk in the way he was falling, and his arms stuck out like needles on a tree. He fell hard and fast. Now we were all spaced out pretty well, so he was about ten feet ahead of me. Watching Matt fall was like watching a car come straight at you head. I acted on pure reflex. As soon as he was in my sight I stuck out my hand, and the next was something that made you think that there has to be a God. I reached out and caught him by the stomach, my fingers wrapping tightly around his abdomen. For about a second I thought I had him, and his screaming had stopped for a while. For the second I thought I had him, he lay there looking up at me with tears streaming down his face. HE was covered with mud, and my hands were sweating immensely, but I had no intention on letting him go. The weight of him was unbearable, even thought he only weighed a good hundred pounds at that. Even at that much weight, he still was pretty heavy. You think it’s easy? Try holding that much weight on a huge slope of mud. We both fell. Only this time I made sure we didn’t fall through the air like Matt had been falling. I fell on my butt, which was really going to hurt when this was all done. Matt was on top of me crushing me stomach, and nearly almost crushing a rib. We flew down the hill at a fast speed that was killing me. It was like being on a sled only I was the sled and Matt was the rider. The

38

force of the ride pulled up my shirt, and nearly cut a whole in my back from all the jagged rocks. I couldn’t see Brian’s face. He was probably still turning his head to see what all the noise was. It had only been about five seconds since Matt had fallen, but it felt longer, considering that I was in excruciating pain. Blood from my back mixed from water and mud from the slope which sent a sting up my back, and through my whole body. About fifteen seconds had passed and my back was pretty much torn up to no end. Matt was dodging stick and from the looks of it is his was bleeding on my shirt. I could see the end of the slope. It was about two seconds away. One! And Matt tumbled off me, doing a summersault in the air. I did the same landing on me stomach, giving my back a break from all the pain it already had. After that I could hear the muffled cry of Matt, and the screams of Brian, who at this point had figured out what had happened and was now racing down the hill. “Mike, you saved me life!” Matt’s voice rung in my hear, “Thanks!” He cried, and I could feel his head touch my cheek. I passed out, feeling the sweat of our bodies meet.

……………………..
A warm hand touched the back of my neck. My face was lying sideways in the dirt, and the other side was destroyed by dirt. It felt like I was ready to throw up, and it also felt like someone had ripped a layer of skin off my back. “Is he dead?” Matt’s voice sounded a little sarcastic, from what part of my mind was still working. But for all I knew he might’ve been serious.

39

“Course not dumbass, he just fainted.” Brian was sounding like the leader, and I had finally been able to decipher that it was Brian’s hand that had been on my neck. “Mike you ok?” I squirmed. I blinked. I tried to let them know that I was still on earth. “Just give him some room!” Matt and Brian walked away from me. I tried to gather all my information about what we were just doing. Once I had that settled, I looked up at the sun. It was yellow, and it was hot. I picked myself up, sitting on my butt with my legs bent and my arms hanging over them. “Hey I think we should go back.” Matt’s voice sounded sympathetic. I think he was talking to Brian. “Oh my god, what, you turnin’ pussy?!?” Brian had a fist clenched, and his face was red. “He’s cut up bad Bri!” Just to let you know. How Matt said “Bri” isn’t the way a girl says it. The way Matt intended it to sound was (Bry.) Matt was starting to get angry too. “What are you, his mother?” “Eat shit!” Matt threw himself at Brian. “You eat shit!” Brian threw Matt back too. Brian over powered Matt, which sent Matt flying back ward. Brian got close enough to almost hit Matt, but Matt kicked his foot up, and his foot hit Brian right in the balls. Brian fell backwards. “HEY!!” I screamed as loud as I could, not caring if anyone besides us three heard. “STOP IT!” My voice growled.

40

They both stopped and looked at me. I had recollected myself, and my shirt was back on my back. The bleeding had stopped but the pain stayed with me, and blood soaked through my shirt. “I’m not goin back!” I got up and made my way toward the mountain. At this point I didn’t care if the other two followed me. I needed to keep going. For some reason, it started to be an obsession. An obsession to what? Whatever it was, I needed to see it. I needed to keep going.

Chapter 7 – Hunting
41

We walked. We made it up the slope, and now we were keeping on a flat path. Brain and Matt weren’t talking. I wasn’t talking. No one had been talking for about a half hour. It was eleven o’ clock in the morning. Too much had already happened, and we weren’t nearly halfway there. “Is anyone gonna talk?” My voice was sort of demanding. If there is anything I hate, its silence. Especially long silence. “Why should I talk to this fag?” Brian looked at me, but he pointed to Matt. I scowled and looked over at Matt. He swiped his arm over his eyes before Brian turned around to look at him. Was he crying? “C’mon you guys, its over. Cant you guys just forget about it?!?!” I was starting to get annoyed of this, and my voice was rising quite a bit. “Why should I”, Brian was getting red. He turned to Matt, “Shouldn’t I just eat shit?!?” “Oh my god Brian!” I shouted this time, “You two are like six year old GIRLS! Just c’mon, peace, ok?!?” Brian looked at me and then at Matt. I turned to Matt. “Matt ok?” “Ok!” Matt looked at Brian. They skinned it. After they looked at each other in a sort of satisfied way. “There, now was that so hard?” I laughed!

42

“Shut up you morphodite!” Brian laughed and slapped me on the back. Matt joined in on the laughter. For once in was good, everyone knew who he was and exactly what they were doing. It was cool. It was twelve thirty and our stomachs made a conversation with each other. “Hey who’s got the food, I’m kinda hungry?” Matt not only sounded hungry, but he looked hungry too. “Shit, Matt you at all the Twinkies at the hotel!” God why did I let him have the Twinkies? “Oh, great”, Brian was at it again. There goes the minutes of peace. “Now what do we do, kill a deer?” I turned to Matt grinning. He grinned back at me. We both had the same thoughts on our minds. “Kill a deer!” “Hey I was just kidding!” I think Brian must’ve seen the expressions on our faces. “Besides, what will we use, sticks?” “Actually”, Matt pulled open that blue gym bag that he had with him, “I think I have that covered!” Matt reached into his bag and pulled out a black pistol. Like the ones James Bond uses. It looked just like the ones on TV. “Anyone ever been hunting? Ha!” Matt laughed still holding the gun close to his chest. “What the…!” “Holy…!” “Oh my….!” Words splurged out of me and Brian’s mouth. Matt stared at us, smiling. He probably felt like the all powerful at this moment.

43

“Holy Mary Mother of God! Where did you get this?” I signaled for the gun and he forced it over to me. It felt great holding it in my hand. I, myself, felt all powerful. “I found it in my uncle’s bedroom. Under his bed!” He laughed and we all joined in. Only neither mine nor Brian’s laugh was a laugh because something was funny. It was more of a horrified laugh. “Your uncle is gonna KILL you when he finds out that you did that.” Brian was sweating, and you could see a red vain popping out of his forehead. “He ain’t gonna find out nothin! You hear me, NOTHIN! That is as long as you two keep your mouths shut!” Matt wasn’t kidding either. If Matt’s uncle found out that he had took his gun, I would probably never see Matt again, or his uncle. We both said we swore on our lives that we wouldn’t tell anyone. And we meant it too. With all our heart. “So what is it?” Is asked, still balancing the gun in my hand. “I don’t know!” Matt chuckled “How the hell don’t you know, you took it!” “So, I ‘took it’! Just cause I took it doesn’t mean I have to know what type of gun it is.” He had a point. I guess I was just anxious. I mean, WE HAD A GUN. WE HAD A FRIGGIN’ GUN! “So, are we gonna go kill a deer or what?” Brian actually looked anxious now. He was ready to do some serious damage to some poor animal. Awe, who gives a crap about the animals anyway! Ha! “I really don’t care; I took all the shells, so we should be covered. I’m ready when you guys are!”

44

We all said ‘LETS GO NOW!’ so Matt being the top dog now, led the group with the gun tucked in his pocket. Matt sung a song that I didn’t know. He skipped like some gay guy that was about to get married. “Hey Matt!” I called, “I heard only fairies jump like that!” He was up in the air when I said that, and as soon as he heard me he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach with laughter. Brain fell over, and I just stood there chuckling. I had knocked them out cold.

………………………
We walked for some time, maybe about twenty minutes, when in the woods we heard a stick crack just a few feet ahead of us. It was a small deer. “There’s our sucker! Haha!” My voice was in a giddy whisper, “Matt, go ahead pull the trigger, he’s right there!” “Ok, here goes nothin!” Matt put his hand on the trigger. He held it there. He was sweating hard, and his front lip was curled over his bottom lip. The veins in his neck stuck out nuts in a Snicker Bar. He twitched, and a single tear streamed down his face. He didn’t want to do this at all. “Matt you gonna do it?” Brian seemed to get impatient. “Matt, are you alright?” I tried to be a little more comforting. “Yea!” His voice squeaked. It went up high. The deer looked this way.

45

“Matt give me the gun!” I started to lean on Matt, my hand reaching for the gun. “No!” “Matt give me the gun. You wanna starve?” My voice raised a little. “NO” “Matt GIVE ME THE GUN GODDAMMIT!” I ripped the gun from his hand. By this time the deer had realized what was going on, and started to run away. “Just like shootin’ targets in the junkyard!” I was sure I could do this. I pointed the gun at the deer and pulled the trigger.

KA- BLAM!

The gun shuttered in my hand. I thought my wrist had just been broken. About ten feet away, a small deer fell hard to the ground, blood oozing from its stomach. Me and Brian ran over to the deer, screaming, and cursing that we were the champions of the world. Matt wasn’t so happy. He is really on the whole idea to save the planet, and the wildlife, so he wasn’t too thrilled on the killing of a young and innocent deer. Matt eventually walked over, and we told him to grab the front set of legs on the deer. He did it, but he didn’t like it. We brought the deer over to a clearing, where the trail rand just above it. But no one could see us, which was good. By the time we got the deer cleaned out, which made us throw up quite a few times, it was around six, so we decided to call it a day. The organs of the deer, and the guts, and all that stuff, had been thrown into the lake that was just about twenty yards from our campsite. So even though it was the

46

beginning of August, sometimes with the breeze it felt like a early October. Everything was good. There was a deer roasting over the fire, and we were swapping jokes, and playing truth or dare, except without the dare part. So it would be like, who do u like? What is your biggest secret? All that stuff. But all of is, well the three of us, swore to tell no one of our secrets. Which by the end of seventh grade, everything would probably end up getting out anyway. We put on the radio, ate our deer meat, and watched the sun set over the trees. It was nice. It was nice to be with my friends, which I would never forget.

Chapter 8 – Thanks

47

Matt had his first experience of almost swallowing a bullet as he took one of his last bites of meat. I mean, he nearly choked. He got it out, but I thought to myself that it was pretty hilarious that he was choking on a bullet. The gun was put away in Matt’s bag, but I mean who would see it anyway. We weren’t near the trail enough for anyone really to see us. Were we? It was dark now but the moon kept our faces still lit in the cold night air. Brian looked cold. His ears and his cheeks were beet red and his ears look pale. His arms are buried in his shirt and his legs are in the sleeping bag he had with him. Matt’s nose was red but his ears were fine, and so was his whole body. He was lying on his stomach, staring out into the trees like he had just seen the ghost of that deer walking. My phone gave a little vibrate in my pocket, and I took it out to see who it was. The others didn’t see it, and obviously didn’t hear the buzzing noise it had made. I flipped it open real quick to see who it was, the light illuminating my face with multicolored lights. It was Julia again. God, why did she keep calling me? What did she want to know? I did what Brian told me to do the last time and just hang it up. I did it, and then slipped it back in my pocket, and then changed the subject, “What time is it Brian?” I was starting to get kinda tired. “Ummm, it’s almost two.” He yawned while saying this. “I’m kinda tired!” Yawning is contagious so I started to yawn too. “Yea, but if we go to sleep, what happens if a bare comes and were asleep?” Matt eyes got very wide as he said this. I could sense fear in him.

48

“Why don’t we just all stand guard?” I was getting this idea from a lot of movies and a lot of books. I like the idea. It made me and I bet the other two all powerful. “Good idea!” Brian was walking over towards me and was signaling me for the gun, “I’ll take the first watch!” We didn’t argue with him. Matt actually dropped right into his sleeping bag sending a wave of dirt on me as he hit the ground. I did the same. I watched Brian walk up to a tree and lean up against it. For all I know he could fall asleep right then and there. Although, maybe not. I was determined to keep my eyes on him, but I slowly faded away into a deep sleep.

…………………………..

My leg was being shaken, and my arms were hitting a leg. It was Brian. “It’s your turn to watch, I’m going to bed!” “Goodnight! Ha!” Brian took his sleeping bag at the far end of the fire. I grabbed the gun from Brian’s hand before he had gone over, and now I was making my way to the spot where Brian had been. Within about fifteen minutes of listening to the crickets chirp, and the water below me move, I was actually bored. I wasn’t tired anymore. I decided to go over to the fire and make it much bigger again. I grabbed some sticks nearby and threw them in the fire. I got up and looked around for a bigger one to poke at the fire with. I found a decent one, and got the fire to become bigger.

49

“Ooooo! Mpf! Ahhh!” Matt was making noises beside me. I looked over his eyes were closed and he was sweating like crazy. He fidgeted in his sleeping bag some more, and then stopped the noises. I went back at poking the fire. About two minutes later he started again. It sounded like someone was making him cry, or he was scared of something. He obviously was dreaming. I wondered how Brian couldn’t here this. “AHHHHH!” He bolted upright with such a force that it sent me tumbling backwards. When I finally collected myself I looked at him. Sweat was rolling down his face, and the rim of his shirt was dark from the sweat. He was trembling, and his hands were shaking. “Where is he? I’m gonna kill him! I’M GONNA KILL HIM!!!!” “Who? Hold up matt, what’s wrong? I put my hand on his shoulder to try to calm his down, but he shook it off. He got up and started to head toward the river. He tiptoed to the edge of the river, and was rolling his shoulders up. He threw his back out, and was about to jump. I sprung up and ran over, pushing his out of the way. “NO, NO, NO, I’M GONNA KILL HIM!!!!” “Matt what’s wrong? He kept shaking in my hands “No, no, no, no, no!” His voice grew fainter, until it was just a soft whisper. The shaking in his hands settled, and he stopped sweating. He looked up at me, pure fear in his eyes, and rested his head on my shoulder. The sweat from his head dripped on my shoulder and ran down my chest. Within minutes I was as wet as he was. He finally straitened up. “Matt what happened?”

50

“I dreamed”, started matt, a little stutter in his voice, “That Anthony found us here in the woods. He…he…he killed you and Brian, and was about to almost kill me! Oh, it was horrible!” “But it was just a dream Matt. Anthony is probably way ahead of us, he doesn’t know that were coming.” I stood up and so did Matt. He looked me in the eye. “Look Mike, I never got to thank you for saving my life. I mean if it wasn’t for you, I would probably be dead. So…um, thanks!” He put both hands on my shoulders, and then he put his head close to mine, and threw his arms around me. “I don’t know… what…I…would do…without out you!” I sighed. “Look Matt”, I put my hands on his shoulders, “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Ok? Not even me. You can do anything you want. You can even take you SAT’s, go to college and get a great job!” Matt looked up at me “No one has ever said anything like that before. Well not to me at least!” I looked at him, and smiled. Then I yawned a long, long yawn. It was late and dark. The crickets were still chirping, and you could hear not the river below us, churning peacefully. “It’s late Matt; I think we ought to go to bed.” “Yea, your right. I am sorta tired.” He yawned too and looked me in the eye. I know he wanted to say ‘thank you’ a million times. But he didn’t. He went back into his sleeping bag and soon I followed him. There was no need to keep guard. Nothing was coming. I went and crept into my sleeping bag. I laid on my back looking up at the stars. Everything was right! Everything was good.

51

Chapter 9 – Story

52

I rustled in my sheet, and turned over on my back. The bright rays of light hit my eyes. I threw the sheet of me and gathered it up in a small ball. I picked up the small comforter that I was laying on, and I rolled it up in a ball as well. I stuffed it inside my bag. No one was up yet so I decided to do some exploring. I checked my watch that I had gotten for my eighth birthday. It was about five o’ clock. The other two wouldn’t be up till about seven, maybe eight. The grass made a “crunch” noise as I walked across it. It was dry and brown. The wind was making an unusual noise though. The trees were tall here, so sometimes they make weird noises. These trees were giant, but I never heard this noise before, that is not by any trees. I suddenly stood still. I could feel my heart pumping, and my stomach felt like it was about to be ripped out. Something was out there. Then I relaxed. I figured out what the noise was. It sounded like someone’s voice. “MATT?” I called out. “BRIAN?” I turned in circles, “WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? WHOSE THERE?!?!” I started to sweat, heavily. My breathing quickened. This was one of my weaknesses, always getting worked up! Then after about ten more seconds of listening, I deciphered what the words were saying. “HELP!” It was a small voice. It sounded like a boy’s voice, but maybe a boy about the age of nine. “HELP!” It called again. I thought that maybe Brian or Matt was in trouble.

53

Then it happened. I kept walking, which was a bad mistake, and I saw a small ditch. A foot was hanging out of the ditch, and onto the level gravel. The voice had stopped. “Hello?” I said. The foot twitched. “Shh!” The voice said, “He’ll see you!” “What are you talking about?” My voice trembled. I wish I would’ve just stayed at the camp. “Get Down!” He said in a hoarse whisper. I kneeled down. I sat there on my stomach, for about ten minutes, with this boy I didn’t even know. Or wait, I could see his face now. It was a face I knew. Small nose, very short crew – cut. “Chase? Chase is that you?” “Ya. Is he gone?” “Is who gone?” It was Chase. Chase goes to my school; he is a grade lower than me. He’s only about ten or eleven. I looked at him. His eyes were filled with tears, and a look of horror was on his face. Blood was running down his left leg. “Mike”, said Chase, “Look up over the ditch. Is anyone there?” I got up and looked. It was silent and clear. “Naw!” Chase got up, grasping his knee. “Chase what happened?” “It’s….it’s… a really long story. Just take me back to where you are staying.” That’s all he said. He passed out on the ground. I went over to Chase and picked him up, and put him in my arms. He was very, very light. I carried him all the way back to the camp where Matt and Brian were still sleeping. “Matt get up!” I nudged Matt. “NOW!”

54

“Uggh, no not now!” Matt turned over in his sheet. “Get up now, Chase is here, he’s hurt real bad!” “Ya, ya, ya!” Matt was being very stubborn. “Matt, where’s Brian?” “He’s over by the river.” He closed his eyes again. I gave up on him. I looked over at Chase who was still out, and hurried over up the hill to where I saw Brian standing. I ran over to Brian. “Brian, you gotta come back now!” My voice was shaky. “Why?” “It’s Chase, he’s hurt real bad. Please!” My voice cracked. “Ok, c’mon let’s go!” We ran all the way back to the sight were Chase was just starting to wake up, and where Matt was still sleeping. I looked at Chase. He isn’t too tall, maybe a little shorter than Donny. He has a small face, small body, and small hair. He was really dirty at the moment, and blood was all over his left leg. “Here he is.” I said, sounding like an auctioneer showing the audience the next item up for bid. Brian stood there in horror. Chase was finally up now, and was moaning, grasping his left leg. “Chase?” Brian muttered under his breath. “Chase what happened?” “It’s your brother Brian! Your brother!” Chase was leaning over grasping his head, and had one hand over his eyes. “I told him…that I wouldn’t scream….I said I wouldn’t…I said….but I did….Oh God I DID!” He fell in Brian’s arms, Brian’s hands quickly covered with blood. “What do you mean?” I asked, still trying to discover what he was talking about.

55

“Then Anthony…” began Chase. “Matt’s brother?” Asked Brian, still holding him. “Yea. I screamed…and then…then…he shot me…he…he….he shot me!” He cried holding his left knee. By know his whole body was shaking, and the blood was coming out of his leg like water, still. “Brian we gotta bandage him up now.” I said heading for Matt’s bag, where I knew he brought some bandages. Thankfully there were two rolls and Brian had a roll as well. We got right to it, and bandaged him up in a heartbeat. By now he had fallen unconscious again, and was lying on his side on the ground. It was about six thirty now, and Matt started to rustle in his sheets. He finally got up. “So, anything exciting happen? Ha!” Brian went over to him and swung his fist toward his face. It connected. The force of the punch sent Matt flying back, and out of his sleeping bag. He lay on the ground, and Brian still had his fist clenched, and tears were coming out of his eyes. I never had seen Brian cry until then. Matt got up, blood coming out of his nose and mouth. Tears were coming out of his eyes as well, and a shade of red covered his whole face. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?” Cried Matt, still grasping his left side of his face. “Didn’t you hear Mike call you in the morning?” Asked Brian, still holding his fist. “Ya! So what, I needed more sleep!” Matt was angry now. Brian had never done something like this before. I decided to stay out of this one, and let them fight it on there own.

56

“Did you have any idea why he called you?” Brian was practically on the verge of foaming at the mouth. “No, it couldn’t be that important if he called me.” I was ready to punch him to. “Your fag of a brother shot Chase, you bastard, and you didn’t even care!” “Chase? Fisher? Anthony? Where?” Matt slurred the words out of his mouth then fell to his knees “Is Chase dead?” “No!” screamed Brian, “We got him bandaged up. That’s more that you’ll ever do!” “Shut up, I didn’t know, it’s not like it’s my fault my brother did it. It’s always Matthew!” Matt put his head down. “Oh shut up Matt”, I started, “I said Chase was hear, and all you did was moan and grown and bitch, and then you turned back over in your sheets like a preppy little asshole!” “Well, well, well, just shut up I’m sorry, what else do you want me to say?” Matt had tears building up in his eyes, and Brian had already walked away in disgust with him. I felt bad for what I just said to him, so I went and sat next to him, and put my arm around him. He rested his head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry!” he cried, “I didn’t know what was going on. I…I… oh Mike please forgive me!” I turned and looked at him. “Matt, look, you always know I’m gonna forgive ya, but next time please be more vigilant of what’s going on. Ok?” I gave him a good shake, and then we both stood up. He dried his eyes off, and I took him over to see Chase, who was now up and probably wondering what all the screaming was about.

57

“Matt, is that you?” Chase’s voice was raspy, and the bleeding had stopped. I guess it was because of the bandage. Duh! He still looked bad though. “Chase I’m so, so, so, so, so sorry! Please forgive me. Look I care about you man, I just didn’t know what was going on!” Matt shook Chase, while Chase just laid there wondering what the heck Matt was talking about. “Huh?” Chase muttered. I gave a little snicker, and Brian gave out a chortle. “I’m fine, I really am. But we have to get out of here we really do, they’re probably following me, and when the find me, they’ll find you.” “Look Chase”, said Brian, “before we move, tell us the story please.” We all looked at Chase. Chase was on the spotlight, and all eyes were on him. “Well, I guess I’ll start at the beginning. I’m sure you guys saw that news report on the TV about us?” We all nodded, listening inventively. “Well listen, Brian, your brother, and Matt, your brother, they needed us for their job. They were planning on robbing the biggest bank in Pittsburgh City. And they needed some small kids to do the job. I guess a cop wouldn’t expect a small kid or something like that.” We were still looking at him. It was his story, and he was telling it with passion, and tears swelled in his eyes as he said more and more. He stopped when he saw Matt’s mouth wide open. “Keep going.” I said. I needed to hear more. I was sure that this story soon enough would be on all the papers in New York. Probably the biggest story in a while. “But I soon found out”, continued Chase, “That that’s exactly what they wanted. They needed two kids to get caught instead of them. They said that if we said anything, even made a sound while we were out with them, they would kill us. Dylan and I didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t breathe, and we couldn’t speak. We were petrified. We

58

spent about three days with them, in this abandoned shack on the far side of town. They kept us in the back room, but we could still hear every…every word they said.” He started to cry now, and it became exhilarating just to hear the words. “It’s ok, just go on, and try to remember the best you can.” Matt hadn’t really said anything this whole time. He stared at Chase with his mouth open and his eyes wide. He was as petrified and as terrified as Chase was. “So then”, continued Chase, “Like I was saying I heard every word. They said that they would use us for the job, and then kill us, just to make sure that we wouldn’t squeal. We kept so quiet for the longest time just listening to their ideas. They were gonna steal from Mellon Bank. They said that they would take all the money, and run. Well actually we had to take all the money and run. They needed us also to slip through the small places. I guess they needed me especially, because I’m so small. So we got on the train, and went into Pittsburgh. Tomorrows the day and I was getting scared. They had us locked up in this hotel they rented in the South Side. I got scared, and I found that the window was broken and one side. So I hitchhiked all the way to the mountains, but Matt your brother caught up with me, and he said that he would kill me if I screamed. So what do you think I did? Well, I screamed. I screamed “HELP! HELP!” and he shot me in the leg. I fell in the ditch, and that’s when Mike found me. I was scared; I didn’t know what to do. I mean, what would you have done? They wanted me and Dylan to kill some of the guards. And well, I don’t wanna go to hell for killing anyone. Well, I guess that’s…it.” He put his head down in his hands and started to cry. The three of us (Matt, Brian, and Me) didn’t know what to do. We just sat there, and tried to take in what Chase had just said.

59

We looked at Chase, who was still crying. This was real. It wasn’t a movie. We were in real life here. This was a matter between life and death. We had to fight this. We had to make sure that those bastards got what they deserved. We couldn’t do anything but wait, at least for a while anything. “Look Chase, what do you want to do it’s up to you man?” I gave him an opportunity. I mean that’s better than the other three were doing. I thought for a while, about what he had said. He didn’t want to go to hell for killing guards, I mean who would. This boy was scared, scared out of his mind. I thought also about what would I do if I was in Chase’s shoes? “Maybe we should give him some time.” Matt spoke for the second time. It was actually a good idea. We left Chase where he was to gather his thoughts and settle down, and we went over and sat under a large oak tree. “Look guys”, started Brian, “I guess it’s up to Chase now. I mean if he wants to go back, I think we should. It would be better for all of us. “I’m not going back. Ha! After all we’ve gone through, you just wanna turn around.” Matt was getting mad; he had ‘sorta’ a point, but not a real good one. “C’mon guys, we’ve already fought about this once. Let’s not do it again.” It was true what I said. Way back when we fell down the hill, Brian offered to go back, and Matt and he had there fight about it. I really didn’t want to start another fight. “Look Matt, I agree with Brian”, I started, “It really is up to Chase. Wanna go ask him?” I wasn’t even waiting for Matt to battle back. The three of us walked back to Chase, who by now was ready to talk again. His eyes were deadly red, and you could see the stains that the tears had left on his cheeks.

60

“Well, Chase…” Began Brian, “What do you…?” “I say we go! I’m not gonna turn around now. After all the pain we’ve been through, I can’t turn back now. I say we go, find them. We either shoot them when we get the chance, or catch them and report them!” We all looked at him, smiles drawn on our faces. We went over a patted Chase on the back. We were just about to start down the hill when I remembered something really important. I mean, how could I have forgotten? I looked at Brian: “Brian, holy crap, HOLY CRAP! WE FORGOT DONNY!”

Chapter 10 – Operation

61

We walked for about two hours, after Chase told the excruciating tale of how he came to be in our presence. It was hot, but you couldn’t see the sun, for there was a lot of fog that stifled the sunlight. In fact, it wasn’t just hot, but it was humid, which always makes it feel much hotter than it should be. We were entering a new part of the mountains. The hills weren’t that high here, and the trees tended to stay on the small scale. But that didn’t do much. It didn’t protect us from the sun. The only thing that the trees did protect us from were the boys who were out to find us. So we forgot Donny! Ha! Well, I think really anyone would, I mean after all that had happened. We were so transfixed in Chase’s story that we had forgotten. It was a mistake that anyone would make. Thoughts kept racing through my mind, still, about what Chase had said. They were out to kill people. What kind of TEENAGERS were theses people. And since when, is actually the right thing to say. Ok, sure, Matt’s brother Anthony has always been sort of what you would call a hothead, but KILLING, someone, or at least threatening to kill someone. It wasn’t really right. The same thing I wondered with Brian’s brother Michael, who was really always pretty nice. I mean he was always joking, with us that is, with Brian he like to joke around a lot, but I mean what brother doesn’t. I just doesn’t make sense! It doesn’t make sense at all, and it’s not like them. But whatever the reason was I guess we were going to find out, and try, try, to stop it.

62

Chase looked worse that ever. We took turns letting him hang on our shoulders, which only made the three of us more tired. Chase now had his whole shirt tied around his leg, which looked like a huge ball of red around his leg. When he walked with you, you could feel the dampness on your leg, but you had to keep telling yourself that it wasn’t a big great ball of blood. Besides from the leg, he was white in the face, and sweating immensely. I knew what we had to do and we had to do it quick. I think Brian knew too, maybe Matt, but I think everyone was afraid to say it. If Chase went on this way, his leg would become infected, and later in his life, he would have to get it removed, which would be horribly painful. So, I mean I had a knife; we had to remove it and fast. Possibly now, before we took another step. I had Chase on my shoulder now, and I stopped, and Chase looked up at me. His face was white than ever now, and he was breathing heavily. He was dirty, and large dark circles were hanging under his eyes. Besides from the shadows, his eyes were red and puffy; probably strained from all the crying and staying awake all night. I got the courage to finally stand up and talk “Guys”, I started, a bit of pity in my face, since I was looking at Chase’s leg, praying I didn’t have to say this next part, “I know you’re all thinking the same thing I am. Well, actually I hope your not.” “Ya! We need to take a rest!” Matt hurled his pack on the ground, and he too, threw himself on the ground with a loud thud. “No Matt” I said looking sort of annoyed. Couldn’t Matt see at all what was happening? I mean did he only think about himself? Whatever, I guess I’m gonna have to say this. “We have to get that bullet out of Chase’s leg.” Now throughout this whole time

63

Chase had really remained quiet. In fact he hadn’t spoken at all. But now as I said this he looked up with shock, as if he was completely petrified by what I had just said. But still he didn’t say anything, just stared at me with this horrified eyes that were trying to tell me, “What, not me, you crazy!” “Ha, yea, you go ahead and do that Dr. Zak. Ha, can you believe him Bri!” Matt was rocking back and forth with the greatest of care. He took this all as a joke, which it was clearly not! “Yea I can”, piped up Brian. He, also, had kept quiet throughout the past two hours, “He’s right Matt, and it’s what we have to do.” He was suddenly showing a brave stage, and he came over and stood next to Chase. “But we don’t even know…!” “Matt! Listen to me!” I had enough with this kid. He was really starting to get annoying, and now, at this moment, it would have probably have been better if he wasn’t here. It’s funny what walking for a while could do to a person. “If we don’t do something now, IT COULD GET INFECTED! Have any idea what that means?” “Ya!” said Matt, a smile etching on his dull face. “It will get all red and itchy!” “ARGHH!” I leapt toward Matt thinking of nothing but hitting him straight in the face. I forgot about Chase who was now thrown on the ground, squirming with pain. Matt back peddled on his feet, a look of horror on his face. If this was a cartoon, smoke would’ve been coming out of my ears and nose. I was up in Matt’s face now – clenching my knuckles – I was ready to throw an almighty blow at his head. My fist was raised in the air…but it stayed there. It didn’t connect with Matt’s face. I lowered my hand to my sides, and my face eased back, my

64

eyebrows rising up, and my chin dropped to its normal length. Why hadn’t I hit him? Why on earth did I pity him at this moment? I grabbed both of his shoulders tightly and looked him straight in the eye. “You need to listen to me right now, ok?” He nodded. “We need your help Matt. If we don’t remove the bullet from Chase’s leg, the leg will have to go sooner or later! Now please Matt! No more jokes, no more funny business” His arms flung around me, and he pressed his face on my chest. Little dabs of wetness began to appear on my shirt. Matt took large breaths, and shook in my arms. “I’m…sorry…its…it’s…just….” He pulled his head up and looked me in the eye. His eyes were beet red, and his cheeks were livid, and lines were running down his face. I didn’t want this to look like it was a mother and son moment so I pushed him away from me. “I don’t want an excuse, I just want a promise. What do you say?” He looked at me still, but he was shaking less, and the redness had gone down in his eyes. “I promise.” His face was stern, and his jaw clenched. He looked brave now, like that whole crying scene had never happened. “Ok, then lets get to work. Chase, get down on the ground.” I went over to my bag, grabbed it, and then went back over to crouch next to Chase. “Brian unravel those bandages.” Brian unraveled the shirt, where you could see a disgusting sight. The whole leg was swollen, and very discolored. It took on kind of a yellowish color. Also it was very red, with bits of dried blood peeling off of the skin. There was also a sort of a fluid, which was not blood, coming out of the hole. It was horrible sight. I gave a little flinch, and turned my head in a frightening way. Brian just kept looking at it, his face tight with detest. Matt looked away the whole time, not being able to bear the sight.

65

“Well, here goes nothing!” My voice cracked, and we started. I opened the bag and pulled out a knife, tweezers, bandages, and a bottle of peroxide. I went to find a thick twig that Chase could bit on. I put the knife up to the hole, I paused. My hands shook with fright. I was sweating really hard now, and I could feel my heartbeat increasing tremendously. I made a small cut right near the end of hole. Blood came out like water; I knew it wasn’t that bad. As soon as the cut was made, Chase shoved the twig in his mouth. His face got red, groaning, he squirmed and twitched. I hurried and got the tweezers and stuck them in the hole. They soon hit something, which had to be the bullet. I moved the tweezers around a little more and then pulled. Chase almost flew up in the air. A loud muffles cry pierced the sky, and tears were gushing out of his eyes. He squirmed now more than ever, but I knew that I had it. It was almost over, I pulled a little more and the bullet shot out of the hole with a good hard pull. Chase screamed now, and his body twitched now. He rocked his whole body sideways. I hurried and got out the peroxide, and dabbed it on the cloth. I prepared myself. “ARGHH!!!!!!!” Chase let out a scream so high and loud, that the bugs in the ground below us probably got scared. He kicked his legs and punched the air. Yelling in pain, he tried to relax. I hurried and wrapped the bandages around his leg and telling him that it was all over. And it was, so far. I sat back relaxing, trying so hard to block out what I had just done. Chase was lying on the ground he was out cold, mat was huddled up in a ball, rocking, and Brian was still in the same spot he had been the whole time, now looking at really the ground. It was over. I was sweating. I put my head on the ground

66

looking sideways at the woods. I closed me eyes, trying to calm myself. I opened my eyes and saw two pairs of shoes right in front of my face. They weren’t Chase’s. They weren’t Brian’s. They weren’t even Matt’s. The shoe came up and crushed my nose, I was knocked out cold.

Chapter 11 – Caged

67

Darkness. I was lying on my back on a cold wet floor. I couldn’t see out in front of me so I knew it must have been night time outside. The smell of raw fish filled my nose with utter disgust, taking that I didn’t like fish. Hold on, it wasn’t fish, no, it was something much, much fowler than that. I couldn’t see, but I could feel. I tried to see if both of my legs were still working. They were, so I stood up. I was in some kind of small room. It was pitch black, so there must’ve been no windows, because even windows show moonlight. I decided to start making some noise to see if anyone else was in the room with me. I yelled not too loud. A hand grabbed onto my foot and dragged me to the ground. “Shut up!” It was Matt’s voice. “They were already in here once. Don’t make them come in here again!” “Who?” I asked, thinking of there being no one else around. “My brother and Brian’s!” Matt had a certain edge to his voice when he said ‘brother’ as if he didn’t even want to call him that anymore. “And exactly where are we?” I asked, now starting to come to my senses. We were definitely being held hostage by the two brothers.

68

“Some sorta shack by the looks of it – watch out – yea, ha, it’s small!” I had just run into the sides of the shack. It was very small, and was lucky that it was fitting me and Matt. I sat down on the ground again, trying to feel where Matt was. I found him sitting right in front of me. An uneasy wave of nausea flowed throughout my whole body. It made me terrified, and it made me feel sick. I didn’t want to speak. Speaking only made it worse. But I had to find out more. I had to know what was going on, even if Matt couldn’t talk himself. “Wait so what happened?” I asked, and I wanted him to answer me. If he didn’t I would’ve have been really upset. He cleared his throat “Well, when we were all done with the operation, you sorta fell back on the ground. It was kinda scary. We thought that you were gonna pass out or somethin. So anyway – Anthony- he just sorta came out of nowhere, and well, he kicked you right in the nose. After that you hit the ground, and we knew you were out.” I felt his hand on my arm. I guess he was still making sure that I was sitting down. “Keep going”, I urged, wanting to know more, “Then what?” “Well, me and Brian tried to fight back, but Anthony was too strong and he sorta overpowered us. Considering that Chase was lying unconscious on the ground. So anyway, he ended up knocking Brian out and then he came over to me and just stared at me for the longest time.” Matt stopped again. He took a deep breath in and then let it out again. When it came out it was kind of in a shudder, like it was having trouble coming out. He cleared his throat once more

69

“Then”, he started again, “He looked at me and said “Well, I guess this is where your little adventure ends!” and then I guess he knocked me out, cause that’s all I remember. Some adventure this turned out to be, huh? “But Matt, where the hell are we?” “Well if I knew I would’ve told you, would I?” True. I was certain Matt probably didn’t know where we were either. God, you know, this all happens to us. I mean take this year at school. We were in Science class, and me and Matt sat next to this girl named Grace. Anyway, Grace would always love to get us into trouble, and I mean serious trouble. So our teacher is droning on and on about this thing called Mitosis, when Grace pulls a pen cap out of her pencil case. The she reached into her folder and grabs a black piece of paper. On the piece of paper she write “Shut up! Your Sooooooo Boring!” She then crumples up the piece of paper. She throws the pen cap! It ends up hitting our teacher right in the back of the head. Before our teacher can even turn around she throws the paper, and hits our teacher right in the butt. Or teacher turns around looking as if she is about to rip our heads off. She grabs the piece of paper, unfolds it, and then shouts “ALRIGHT WHO DID THIS!” And can you guess what she did, Grace? She pointed right at me and Matt. I mean seriously, the nerve on that girl. So, we got sent to the office, and got a detention. So when I say that it seems that me and Matt are like ‘bad magnets’, I mean it! “So when did you wake up?” I asked, since he had heard me scream and obviously didn’t want me making any noise.

70

“Oh, I never fell asleep. I mean when Anthony threw me on the ground I woke up. I didn’t think it wise to fall asleep. I’d say it’s been maybe four hours or so. Yea, about that.” “And where’s Brian?” At this moment I had noticed that Brian was nowhere in sight. Another wave of nausea flowed through my body. “And once again Mike, I have no clue. But I will tell you this, I heard him screaming in the next room. So my sick and twisted brother,” he shuddered at the word ‘brother’, “must be doing some serious shit in the next room!” I didn’t know what to say. Matt was right though, he had a very sick and twisted brother. If, if, we ever get out of here alive, I’ll kill Anthony. And now, come to think of it, we never really had a plan on what to do. I mean when we caught them, we never really thought about what we were going to do after that. “Matt, what were we gonna do if we caught them.” I let him know my thoughts. “Well, we were gonna knock them out, and then use your cell phone to call the cops. And I guess we would be heroes. Oh, and by the way I have no idea where Chase is either?” He read my thoughts, because that’s exactly what I was just about to ask him. “Matt, this is horrible! Everything is going wrong. Why did we even do this?” “I don’t….” But Matt’s voice was cut of. The door of our cage flew open, and there in the doorway stood a girl. A girl with blonde hair, and a mean expression on her face. A girl in my class to be exact. And to even more clearer. A girl who had called me two times during this trip. “JULIA!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Oh, Julia am I glad to see you. Listen you gotta get us out of here. Matt’s brother is…!”

71

“I know.” She replied, a vacant expression on her face. It was almost scary the way she looked. She was looking directly toward me and Matt. At this moment I looked over at Matt to finally see him in the light. He lower face was covered in dried blood, and his left eye was red and puffy. It was starting to close and looked like it hurt a lot. “What do you mean you know?” Matt asked, a little curiosity in his voice. But this wasn’t the normal curiosity, it was as if he knew exactly what she was about to say next. I hope he did, because I didn’t have a clue! “What! You didn’t actually think that I has gonna help you did you? Haha!” She looked at me. Her eyes crinkled up, so she was scowling at me. “That’s exactly what I thought you were gonna do!” I said. I was in shock. Could she be in cahoots with Anth and Mike? “I mean, what were all those phone calls for?” “A diversion naturally!” She smirked! “But precious Brian knew too well. Where you two be without him. Dead probably! Dead in the woods somewhere.” I wanted to literally kill her right now. I didn’t care if she was a girl. Right now I could’ve gone up to her and punched her right in the nose. And I wouldn’t even lose a night of sleep over it. Not after this. She betrayed us. “Julia what’s wrong with you?” My face was red now, and I was ready to spring. “What have you done Julz?!?!” “Oh shut up you big baby! You should’ve seen this coming. Didn’t you realize after this year. All you and Matt did was spend time with Grace and Haley and all the other losers. When me, the one who has always been your friend, you left. Just completely forgot about me!” She started to get choked up.

72

“I was seriously hurt. You were the ones who betrayed me. So naturally I had to find some other boys to hang around with. And naturally I wanted more mature boys. Boys who you to buffoon could never live up to. “I started spending time with your brother Matt. And after a while he let me in on the big job they were planning. So naturally I wanted in, and they said that they would split the money three ways. Besides they needed a smart and brilliant girl to do the entire Math for them.” “Wow! You are really full of yourself! You haven’t changed at all! Grow up Julia!” She came over toward me and slapped me right in the face. A surge of pain waved throughout the left side of my face. It was as if twenty needles had just been lodged in. I sprawled out on the floor, whimpering like a dog. She bent down and whispered in me ear, “Who needs to grow up?” She let out an evil laugh, and then straightened back up and looked towards Matt. “What’s wrong Matty?” She teased, “Cat got your tongue. Your usually filled with talk. Well C’mon TALK!” “You Bitch!” Matt let out in a horse whisper. She stared at him, her eyes glowing red. She turned on her heels and stormed out the door. She also slammed the door behind her as well, sucking all the light out of the room until once again I couldn’t see Matt in front of me. I heard him crying. I went over to him and put my arm around him. “She’s gonna kill you, you know that right?”

73

“How…could she Mike? I mean… I thought… I thought…..I thought that she was our friend?” He let out a cry that sounded like a cough, and he put his head far in my chest. I let out a long sigh “I don’t know Matt, this is all really screwed up. Come to think of it, Julia is just as screwed up as you brothers. But Matt listen to me!” He turned his head, “Listen to me Matt. Were gonna get out of this. Were gonna get out of this together.” He sat up, and I guess what would have looked like a smile, since I couldn’t see, looked me in the eye. “Thanks Mike, I don’t know what I would do without you.” “Ok, ok, don’t get too mushy. Ha! Ok now listen, she’s bound to come back anytime now, and when she does we have to be ready, ok? So maybe when she comes back in we should act like we are sleeping to, you know, maybe she’ll go easy on us.” “Mike,” Matt started, “Ummm, well I’m actually kinda tired now that you mention it. Maybe we could for like an hour or so.” “Ok.” I said, “That actually sounds like a good idea.” And without another word to each other we put our backs to each other. Matt was out before I could say another word. I decided to do some heavy duty thinking. How come I didn’t see it before. I mean I should’ve known what Julia was doing all that time. I mean how could I have been so foolish? And also, another question that really filled my head was, where was Brian? I mean Julia did mention him when she was ranting on, but none of it made any sense. And also all this talk about….. But I quickly fell asleep.

74

...........................
The door swung open. I opened my eyes, and Matt flinched beside me. My stomach dropped so bad I thought that I was about to be sick, literally! To no real surprise it was Julia, now even madder than ever. There wasn’t much we could do, we were caged. Caged like animals “Don’t move!” I whispered to Matt. He kept absolutely still. She stood in the doorway for a second, turned around and shut it. It had worked. I heard Matt let out a long sigh of relief. But, no, that was too easy. It wasn’t over, not by a long shot. Suddenly the door swung open again, and this time not just Julia, but another boy stood in the doorway. He was tall, about maybe fight foot seven, and had jet black hair that was very untidy. He had long skinny legs, and long skinny arms. One arm he had around Julia stroking her long blonde hair. The other hand was wrapped around a boy. A boy my age too. A boy who was about five foot exact, and had a black crew cut that made him look like a midget army recruit. He was holding Donny. “Well look what we’ve got here!” Anthony let out a sharp laugh as he threw Donny on the ground. Donny let out a whimper as he hit the ground. “Enjoy your new roommate. You’ll be spending the next two days with him. See ya later girls Haha!” Anthony now brought out of his pocket a big large candle. Julia also had two large electric lanterns, and about a weeks supply of batteries and matches. “Here,” said Anthony, “Have fun!” He threw the stuff on the ground and he turned and shut the door.

75

I grabbed the candle and the match. I lit the match and put it to the candle and suddenly the whole room was filled with light. Sudden warmth filled the room, and the smell of vanilla also came with the candle, getting rid of that fowl stench of fish. We now all turned and looked at Donny. Donny was lying on the floor, hand over his face, crying. I went over to him and knelt down beside him. “Donny?” I asked in a hush voice. He didn’t respond so I tried again. “Donny, are you okay?” “Okay?” Donny began, in a horse voice. He was trembling. “You guys call me to come out for some great adventure. I get here walk a little in Somerset, and then get caught by Anthony and almost killed! And you have the nerve to ask me if I’m alright!” He bottom lip was trembling, and tears were swelling up in his eyes. “Donny,” began Matt, who actually talked for once now, “we didn’t know this was gonna happen. Were as shocked as you are!” “Oh YA!” He screamed. “I thought this was gonna be all fun. And at first I even thought that Anthony was playing a joke on me. But then he actually punched me in the nose so hard that I thought it was broken. And then they told me that I was going to come and help them with a little job. Ya, I didn’t know I was gonna be playing prisoner!” He stopped and then looked down at the ground. He was right! It was our fault. We dragged him into this. If we hadn’t asked him to come, he would never be in this mess. I now felt really bad and really sorry for him. “I’m sorry,” began Donny, “I know you guys didn’t know this was gonna happen, but I wasn’t really expecting this. I mean some way to end the summer vacation!”

76

We all looked at him. It was all true. And to make matters worse we were stuck in here for two whole days according to Anthony. Fantastic! “Okay,” began Donny once more, “You have to tell me all what happened!” I looked at Matt who laughed. Matt eyes me, telling me that I was the one who had to tell the story. I began telling Donny about the news report and then about how Brian overhearing his brother. I told him about the cliff Matt and I almost died on. I told Donny about the deer, and the gun. I then told Donny about Chase, which then he finally spoke. “Chase? Fisher? Where is he?” “We don’t know?” said Matt. “But let Mike finish the story. I then told Donny about the operation, which Donny twitched and jerked his head a few times when I told him about what I had to do. Then I told him about the shoe and about how I woke up and Matt told me what happened. I even told him about Julia and what her role in the plan was. When I finished he stared at me mouth hung open in amazement. “Some three days huh?” Donny said, laughing a little, “Who would’ve ever thought?” No one knew what to say. There wasn’t much too say now. Matt told Donny a little about the plan, if we ever got to the plan, and just about the mysterious phone calls Julia kept making on my phone. We just sat there for about ten minutes staring into space, out minds racing at about a hundred miles an hour. Finally Donny spoke, “Are you sure you guys don’t know where Brian is?” We turned our heads

77

“Julia mentioned him,” I began, “But she never really told us where he was. And Matt said he heard him screaming in the next room. So they must’ve done something to him. I just hope he’s alright.” There was a soft buzzing noise. I looked around the room to see what it was. I was prepared for the worst. I thought that at any second something lethal was going to pop out and kill us all. But Donny casually reached into his pocket and pulled out a black Motorola cell phone. “You have a cell phone!” Screamed Matt. He said what I would’ve said in about another five seconds. All this time, he could’ve been calling someone for help. For anything. “Yea.” Replied Donny, “But I already checked. I don’t get any bars in here, and my battery is very low. I’m surprised it’s still running.” My heart dropped, and there was a pit at the bottom of my stomach that was very empty now. Someone had taken my cell phone, probably Julia or Anthony, and now I didn’t have one either. So we were out of luck. “Do you have anything in your pocket Donny?” began Matt, “A knife, rope, anything?” Donny shook his head, “No!” I looked down at the floor. It was useless. There was nothing we could do now but wait. There was a knock on the door now, and it opened and a tray was shoved in. On the tray were three plates with two slices of pizza on it. I had to hand it to them. They were being pretty generous to us. The door hadn’t closed yet so I yelled, “Wait! Where’s Brian!”

78

An evil voice came from behind the door, “All in good time!” And the door was shut. I recognized the voice. It was Michael, Brian’s older brother’s voice. We all sat down and stared at the pizza. “All right who wants to go first.” Matt wasn’t taking any chances. He was probably thinking the same think I was. The pizza’s had something in them that wasn’t just cheese. “I don’t care, I’ll go!” And Donny took a huge bite out of his pizza. He began to chew and chew and then he swallowed. He took another piece, swallowed, and then did the same again. Within a minute he had his first pizza completely demolished. Seeing nothing wrong with them, I took a bite myself. It tasted incredible. After seeing us eat ours, Matt took a bit out of his pizza as well, and soon, it was a regular cafeteria. But by the time we were done, I knew it was just not some random act of kindness. I was beginning to get very tired, and before I knew it, I was out like I light.

…………………….
Lightness. For some odd reason, every time I opened my eyes, I saw light. I must’ve died. Ya, that’s it. There was poison in the pizzas so I died, and now I’m in heaven. Then I noticed that the door was wide open. As a matter of fact the door seemed quite inviting. I was though, having trouble deciding whether or not I should step into the light, after being in the dark. I also thought about waking Matt and Donny for this new

79

and joyous moment. Wouldn’t they want to experience this. Even though it had only been about one day of darkness it felt as though it had been a year. And of course, I was very eager to find out where Brian was. I decided the best thing to do was to leave. I took one look at Matt and Donny, just in case, and then quietly tiptoed out of the room. I came into a long narrow hallway that had three other doors to it. One on the right side of me and two on the left. The one on the right was open, and there was no noise coming from inside, so I decided to see what it was. It was a room all in white. White chairs, white furniture, even white drapes to match the white windows. The room had an awkwardness to it though, and then I realized why. Behind a table (white) with four legs, there was another table that was silver. It looked like that table that you see in the dentist’s office that hold all those weird looking tools. This was the same kind of table. Only this table didn’t have little picks, and mechanical toothbrushes. This table held a long row of sharp pointed knives. Each knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade so sharp that you might not have even noticed that you had been cut, not immediately anyway. I shuddered I looked around to see if anything else in this room was out of place. To my surprise there was. A small black Styrofoam board was lying on the soft cushioned white couch. It had two large newspaper clippings on it that read:

TWO BOYS MISSING EARLIER THIS WEEK. THE WHEARABOUTS OF THESE BOYS ARE UNKONWS BUT PLEASE IF YOU HAVE SEEN THEM, REPORT THEM

80

TO THE NEAREST POLICE STATION NEAR YOU! So people were still trying to figure out where they all were. Wait a minute! We found Chase. Dylan was still missing, or maybe he’s suffering as much as we are. I can’t believe I had forgotten about the other one. I was enthralled in my thoughts that I did not hear the door close behind me. When I turned around Anthony was looking right into my eyes. “Been wonderin’ around I see!”

81

Chapter 12 – Jobs

“So, you thought that you could just escape!” Anthony’s voice was mean and cruel. It felt like knives cutting all your flesh away. “You wanted to kill us didn’t you? Well, DIDN’T YOU?!?” He now screamed at the top of my lungs, which sent me on heart attack heaven. “After we spared your lives, and gave you food…” “That was poisoned!” I screamed. I couldn’t take this anymore. This had gone too far. They were holding three of us hostage. One they already shot. One they did something horrible too, and the other, I just hope wasn’t already dead. “How DARE you yell at me you…you…!” He made a sudden lunge at me but I duck out of the way and Anthony went sailing down to the ground. I hurried over to the table with all the knives and picked the biggest and sharpest one out of the holder. It was time to put this at an end. And if we couldn’t call the cops to come and help I guess we had to take matters into our own hands. When Anthony saw the knife in my hand he stood up laughing. “Are you going to kill me Michael? Huh? Are you going to kill me? I must say my brother really does find some courageous friends. Young Brian didn’t shed one tear when we tortured him. Even after…” 82

“Shut up!” And I lunged forward at him, knife in my hand, ready to strike. He made a sudden jerk of his wrist, and the knife was knocked out of my hand without me even noticing that it had been done. I tried to fight back, but now, he had me pinned to the ground, the knife on my throat. “Now, I’m gonna ask you this,” started Anthony, he voice was trembling, “Are you gonna wander anymore. Cause if you do, you’ll leave me no choice but to kill you and you must understand I do not want to do that. I always like you.” I struggled and squirmed, trying to get free. But it was no use, he was much stronger than me, and I was beyond the point of scared. “Answer me!” He said in a loud voice. His left eye twitched, and he shook his head violently. “I didn’t want to!” He screamed, “I DIDN’T WANT THIS! HE MADE ME! IT’S NOT MY FAUL!” He cried, eyes red, and looking as if he was about to kill me. I jumped back for he had now let go of me, and he was backing toward the door. “Here, here’s your friend! Have fun!” He reached out from the hall, and threw Brian in the room with me. He locked the door behind him, and me and Brian were alone in the room. Brian was covered in dirt, and a huge cut was on his left cheek. He arm was bleeding, and his right eye was completely black. He looked horrible, and when he talked, in was in a quiet whisper. “Hey!” He said to me as he limped over to where I was standing, beside the white couch. “What…happened?” And he fell on the couch. He didn’t pass out, but it was as if he couldn’t even stand up. Whatever they did to him they really did something bad.

83

“Brian, what the…” I was lost with words. The sight of him was unbearable. “Listen, I don’t wanna talk about what they did ok? All I’m gonna tell you is that we are dealing with some serious people who really want this money bad!” “Wait Brian, do you know what they’re planning now. I mean, I’m guessing five dollars that they didn’t plan on this happening, not in a million years!” Brian looked at me, his arms shaking; it was as if he couldn’t say anything. “Look I’m not supposed to say anything, but I guess I can tell you. Look they say the more kids they have the better. All they wanna do is rob a bank, and they guess that they can just blame it on us. I mean they’re just gonna make us do it, grab the money, tie us up, and then call the cops. They run away, and they have loads of money, while were in jail.” He knew exactly what he was talking about, so I believed him. “When are they planning to do all this?” I asked, feeling anxious to start thinking of a plan on how to get out. Brian stood still. He let out a small sigh. “Tomorrow” said Brian. He dropped his head, and shook his head with fury. “And it’s my brother too. MY BROTHER! How could he do this? I mean I thought we were family, you know?” His face was livid and his hands were shaking. “Now I say we get our act of vengeance, and put my brother and Matt’s behind bars for good!” He had a satisfying look on his face. He looked as he had just been elected president of the United States and made his inauguration speech. “So, you gotta plan?” My mind was racing with all different things to do, but where to start where to begin.

84

I didn’t have time to think because our door was burst open and a tall boy with a short dirty blonde crew cut stood in the door way. He was wearing a Nike T- shirt, and black gym shorts. He sniggered, “You girls had enough time to talk? Good! Now, time to go!” “Where?” I asked, I just hope that he didn’t mean the bank. “Shut up!” He said and was about to hit me in the face, but caught his hand in midair. “Don’t ask question, just do what you’re told!” I did what I was told. I was not giving my self a death wish at this moment. Not after all I’d been through. We were now brought into a room that looked like a rather large family room. Inside was the worst furniture I had ever laid my eyes on. It gave the impression that an old, cat loving lady lived in here. But instead of a little lady stood Julia McKently, Anthony Harper, Michael Ludwig, Dylan Patterson, Chase Fisher, Donny Muholland, Brian Ludwig, Matthew Harper, and now me, Michael. It was like a little school reunion, only not a fun one. Julia stepped forward. “Well,” she began, “How’s everyone doing?” No one spoke, everyone was too afraid to. “No Volunteers?” She looked around the room, her dark eyes scanning us with the most horrible stare that had ever come across a living human being’s eyes. She singled me out, and came to stand right up in my face. “Hello Michael, look I am truly sorry about that slap I gave you, I really do like you!” She gave a fowl chuckle and then turned around to face Anthony.

85

“What would you do if you didn’t like me?” I asked, hoping to get a smart remark. “Well…” She started. She turned to Chase and smiled. She kicked him in his bad knee and he went plummeting to the floor, cowering, and shouting for help. “I’ll take care of him!” Anthony shouted as he reached down to grab Chase’s throat. “Don’t you touch him!” Yelled Matt, jumping forward at Anthony. I midair Anthony grabbed Matt and flew him to the floor next to Chase. Matt looked up at his brother, or as he referred to him now ‘My Mother’s Other Son’, and begged him to stop. “Get up!” Yelled Anthony, grabbing Matt’s arm and yanking him upward. If we would’ve pulled him any harder, he might’ve pulled Matt’s arm out of its socket. “Grab them!” Julia yelled and she grabbed Chase off the ground and put her arm around his neck. Michael grabbed his brother Brian up and put his arm around his neck. Anthony did the same to Matt and also to Dylan. The just left me and Donny standing there with no one holding on to us. Donny and I stared at each other, praying that we weren’t the ‘Chosen Ones’ to do the main job. “Now,” began Julia, “You two. You two are our lucky break. Mike, I hear your good with computers, are you not?” She was looking at me with a look of curiousness on her face, even though she already knew the answers. We sat next to each other in computer class almost for four years now. “Yes.” I replied, my teeth clenched.

86

“And Donny,” she said now turning her head toward Donny, “I hear your really good with breaking codes. You know, secret stuff!” She gave a snigger, and turned to Anthony. She must have said something but I didn’t catch what it was. “Yes I am! What’s it to you though?” “Ooo, now we must not be feisty!” She gave another laugh and then turned to Anthony again. This time she spoke out loud. “Tell them Anth!” Anthony stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Ok listen hear. Mike, when we get to the bank, your gonna go in on the computers, you know turn in on and such. Get the file that says “Access All Vaults”, then click on it. Sound easy?” I nodded my head. “Good, now, Donny, what you’re gonna do is shut down all the cameras and find out the secret code to access the vault information. When you do that tell it to Mike. Then Mike will enter the code, and then,” he turned to face the others, “Here is where you guys come in!” He now went up in Matt’s face. “Now Matty, what your gonna do is make sure that we are not seen. So that means, go to the security guard center, and well, make something up!” “Tell them there’s been an accident outside!” Suggested Michael, Brian’s brother, who was now smiling at the plan being told. “Now Brian and Chase! Since you two are scrawny, you will be the ones to slip through the vaults and open the doors. Easy?” They nodded too, not daring to say no.

87

“And that just leaves you.” Anthony said looking at Dylan. I had not spoken to Dylan at all since I arrived here. He looked pretty bad though, even worse than Brian. His upper lip was fat and bleeding, and both of his eyes were black, and the left one was on the verge of closing. “Since you look like you’re pretty strong you will be the one to carry all the money bags out of the bank. Get it?” Again Dylan just nodded, to frightened to say anything else. Anthony looked around at us, satisfied. He now turned to me again, and smiled that horrible Anthony Harper smile that I had gotten all through my childhood when he would threaten me if I didn’t go and get him a soda. But now, the threat was real, and the smile really was as evil as a smile could possibly be. “Ok, look me and Mike have to leave now, to you know, set everything up!” He grabbed my arm, and gave it a good yank, and then before I knew it we were out the door, leaving Brian and Matt and Donny and the rest behind. We stopped in the hall, and he pushed me up against a wall and looked me straight in the eye. “Now look, you know I always liked you. So look, all you gotta do is access the vaults and you’re good.” “Anthony, can I ask you something?” I asked, a slight quiver in my voice. “Just one question.” He replied. “Why do you want this money so bad?” His face went blank, and he stared at me with wide eyes. I hope I hadn’t gone too far. After about twenty seconds, his face seemed to loosen up, and his eyes went back to their normal length. “Look,” he started, “You think I like living up to my uncle’s expectations? I wanna get out of New York. Me and Mike wanna leave!”

88

“Why Mike?” I asked, “He has a pretty nice life, doesn’t he?” Why Mike wanted in on this plan was beyond and idea. It seemed like an obvious way to get in trouble, and if it was me I would want to stay away from it if I could. “I don’t know! Because me and him are friends, I guess, and if I do something exciting, I guess he really doesn’t want to miss out.” Anthony’s face seemed to lighten up a bit. Now I caught a glimpse of the Anthony I used to know, the Anthony who was always funny and playful. Now, after all that happened, I had to feel sorry for him. All he wants to do is get out, and if I was living a life like his, I would go to any extreme to. But he didn’t have to be this cruel to us, he could’ve asked us. I mean, we might’ve said yes. “So I just wanna get out, and be free. I hate walking into a store and someone is always muttering stuff about me. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy. “But I gotta do this! If I get this money I can finally be free, and not just dream it. So you gotta help…” “Anthony, your story is really touching, but you don’t have to do anything. You can forget all about this and just go home, and we can forget it ever happened. Maybe your uncle has a secret stash of money you don’t know about. I bet when he’s out, and if you search pretty good, you might be able to find it.” “DON’T YOU THINK I ALREADY TRIED THAT!” He screamed, and I heard several voices coming from down the hall which probably meant that the others had heard Anthony screaming too. “Look, please, just….C’Mon!” And that was the end of the discussion. He now had me by the arm again and was pulling me out of the hall. We opened the end door, and now I saw where we were. We were at the Holiday Inn. The

89

exact one we had been before. All this time, all this TIME, and they were right under our noses. I didn’t say anything though, and we just kept walking down flights of steps. After twenty steps, Anthony flattened his hair, let go of my arm, and walked out of the stairwell. Sudden warmth spread throughout my entire body. We were in a bright pink carpeted lobby with matching pink furniture to go with it. I had forgotten that it looked like this. It had only been about two and a half days, maybe three, but it felt like weeks had passed, maybe months. A small corner shop that sold candy and chocolate was to my left, and to my right was a huge black, grand piano. I didn’t have to much time to glare at it, because Anthony tugged me harder, said sorry for tugging to hard, and then we were out the door. The smell of fresh air hit my nose, and I breathed it in as fast as I could. It felt like years since I had ever breathed in fresh air, and it smelled deliciously cool and refreshing. “Anthony, why are we still in Danville?” I asked, knowing that the bank was in Pittsburgh. “Wanted to keep a low profile.” He replied, not even looking at me. “I mean wouldn’t it look suspicious if two, high school boys, were just walking around in downtown Pittsburgh unaccompanied.” He did have a point, it would’ve looked very strange. “So what are we going to take to get there?” I asked as we stopped at a corner about fifty feet away from the Holiday Inn. Cars were rushing past our faces, leaving the smell of exhaust pipe in the air. I like the smell. For some reason, ever since I was a little kid, I like the smell of exhaust pipe. I think I know why too. When I was younger, my

90

Mema (that’s my mother’s mother) used to own a cabin in Butler, PA. And when we would go there, they only let you drive around in golf carts. So, I guess you could say that I grew up on the smell of exhaust pipe. “Bus.” Anthony replied and I could now see a long white bus now coming towards us. Anthony flagged it down, and it came to a halt at the corner we were standing on. “Where to?” A small man in a little white uniform asked. The man was very old and had a silver or gray mustache. My first thought was that this guy better be able to see well, or I wasn’t going to get on. “Pittsburgh.” Anthony replied, in a low husky voice. “How many?” The old man’s voice was high and unusually squeaky. I had to struggle not to laugh. “Two.” Anthony replied to the old man. Anth spotted my red face, and gave me a quick elbow in the ribs and said, “I know he’s funny, but be polite!” “That’ll be one hundred and sixty seven dollars young man!” The man said in his squeaky voice. I peered to see what his badge read, and it turned out that his name was Francis. Anthony pulled out a leather wallet, and handed the man two one hundred dollar bills. The man did something when he turned his back to us our thirty three dollars in change back. “Welcome Aboard!” The man shouted with delight, and at this even Anthony seemed to snigger.

91

We took a seat in the back, far from the crowd. Everyone was in the front of the bus, except a man, who was sitting in the isle across from us. He was a big beefy man, who looked like that if he sat on you, you might’ve not get the chance to say ‘get off!’ Although he looked like he would squash you, by his physical state that is, he had a sad expression on his face, and he was muttering something to himself. I really didn’t pay much mind to him, although on occasion I did look over and still I saw that he was muttering to himself. The train sped onward. And I knew that as the train grew nearer and nearer to Pittsburgh, the worst was yet to come.

92

Chapter 13 – Grille on seventh

I guess that I must’ve fallen asleep, because before I knew it, I opened my eyes and we, the whole bus, was inside a tunnel. The orange lights lit up the whole bus in the darkness, and I pressed my face against the cold glass of the window. The tunnel was drawing to a close, and I had a hunch about what was on the other side. I was right. Coming into view now was the beautiful Pittsburgh City, with its tall triangular skyscraper, and also a skyscraper that looked like a glass castle. Another skyscraper looked as though it had three building connected with it, and then, almost unmistakably, there were the three rivers. The Monongahela, the Allegheny, and those two connected to form the Ohio River. It was a sight to see. The bus traveled on a bunch of roads when it finally reached our destination; right in front of the US Steel Building.

93

“What are we doing here?” I asked, getting out of the bus. Anthony stepped out too behind me, and we were standing right in front of the building. “Don’t ask questions…yet!” Said Anthony, turning around and walking away from the building. “Where are you going?” I screamed across the street that he was now crossing. “Come on! Cross the Street!” I ran across the street avoiding innumerable cars flashing past me. “Whew! That was a close one!” “Shut up,” said Anthony, looking across another lane of cars. “C’mon, we need to get to that other side.” He pointed across the lane to a small building called ‘Grille on Seventh’, and I noticed that it looked like a cheap restaurant. He ran across the second lane, again avoiding a huge amount of cars that nearly missed us. When we were at the other side Anthony grabbed a hold of the collar of my shirt and pushed me inside the restaurant. ‘Grille on Seventh’ was a medium sized restaurant with tiled linoleum floor and padded cushion booths. In the far right corner was a small bar where about seven TV’s were hung up on the wall. A small stout lady with long silver hair came toward us, smiling, and said, “How may I help you two young men?” “Anthony spoke, “Ummm… could you get us a booth, and two cokes, please.” He added. “Certainly!” She said with a jump. Wow! This lady was just full of enthusiasm. She led us to a small booth, with black tabletops and the booths with scratchy leather with squiggly lines that ran around the border. Within a minute the lady came out with

94

our cokes, set them down on the table, and then said, “Now what can I get you boys to eat?” “I’ll take the Classic Club with French fries.” Said Anthony. “Ok!” The Waitress replied. “And you?” “Ummm…” I stared at the menu, “I’ll just take a bacon burger with fries.” I replied. “Coming right up!” She said with a smile, and took our menus away from us. Anthony was looking out of the window and I stared at him, wondering what the hell he was up to. I mean all this; I thought we were supposed to be hostages, or whatever. ‘Crime Helpers’ is the better word to use. “Anthony what are you doing?” I asked. He head jerked back to me. “Looking out the window.” He replied, dryly. “No, I mean about all this. Why are you being so nice to me? I thought I was your hostage or something along the lines of that.” “Why, what’s it to you? Just be thankful I’m doing this for you!” He turned his head back to look out the window some more. “I am!” I replied quickly. I didn’t want anything going wrong that would cause Anthony not to…use me! “But what’s going on. Why all this.” “NOTHING!” He screamed, and the waitress turned to look at him in shock. I stared down into my pants, trying to avoid eye contact with him. “Bullshit.” I muttered under my breath. “What did you say?!?” He screamed, even a little louder than before. Luckily out waitress was in the kitchen, so she didn’t hear him yell.

95

“Nothing!” I said, my voice raising a little too. I suddenly became worried about this. I didn’t want Anthony to get mad at me, at all. “Then just eat your food!” He said. At that moment our waitress came toward us with our plates, that same smile still on her face. She set the plates down on the black table and said, “Now if you boys need anything else, you just let me know.” And she went back into the kitchen, not even hearing my plea for ketchup. I was starving. That last bit of food I last had was pizza, and that had actually knocked me out. So to make a long story short, I wolfed the whole bacon burger down in about three minutes, which usually isn’t like me at all. I usually take about ten minutes to eat a burger. It was very good though. Next I started on my fries, which were crisp, salty, and fresh from the greaser; just how I loved them. Anthony took a little longer to finish his meal, and when he did he laid fifteen dollars on the table, and an extra five for the tip. When we walked out of the building the sun was begging to go down, and I knew that at any moment Matt, Donny, Brian, Dylan, and Chase would be arriving with Julia and Mike to start the job.

96

Chapter 14 – trait or

A black van pulled around the corner; a van with no windows. It looked twenty years old because the paint was chipping off the doors, and the brakes squeaked as it came to a halt in front of me and Anthony. I looked up at the huge green sign that read ‘Mellon Bank’ and my legs were aching tremendously, considering that I had just walked the perimeter of Downtown Pittsburgh. The door of the van opened and out of it came Brian, Donny, Chase, Dylan, and Julia. Where was Matt? The passenger side opened and Matt stepped out looking pale and unhealthy. He had a new bruise on his cheek and a bit of dried blood was hanging on his upper lip, which was also swollen. From my guess, Matt had probably put up a fight saying that he wasn’t going to go and he wasn’t going to rob a bank. When he got out of the car he ran up to me and threw his arms around me. He was shaking very hard, and his shirt was wet.

97

“I TOLD YOU NO!” Yelled Julia and she pulled Matt off of me and threw him on the ground. Tears were streaming down his face and his arms were covering up his mouth. “DON’T GO NEAR ANYONE!” What did Julia mean? Why couldn’t Matt go near anyone? And then it hit me. He needed to look like an outsider so the guards didn’t suspect that he wasn’t with anyone. “Please Julia…” He whimpered, “Don’t do this. PLEASE! Let me do something else. What if I get caught?” “Then we’ll pray for you, kay? Now SHUTUP and MOVE!” She grabbed Matt by the shoulder and forced him up. When he was up she kicked him in the behind, and he staggered forward. The front doors were held open, and I stepped inside. ‘This was it!’ I thought. It all came down to this. I started to think back to the journey we went on to try to stop them. I never thought that that journey led to this. It now seems that it was never even worth it. All the trouble we went through, the near death experiences. It wasn’t even worth it. The floor was made of glistening marble that twinkled under the crystal chandeliers hanging above our heads. There were about forty booths where, during the day, people would sit behind them and do their jobs. The ceiling was very high; a huge chandelier with about fifty lights shone from the very top. “MIKE! COMPUTER! NOW!” This time Julia grabbed my arm and forced me into one of the booths. The computer was still on. Was someone still here? I couldn’t stop and think because Julia was now hitting me in the back of the head telling me to hurry up and access the files.

98

“What do you mean ‘Access the files’?” I asked, “I don’t know what that is.” “You.Don’t.Know?!?” Her face was livid and she was actually starting to cry, “What the hell do you mean you don’t know?!?” I opened my mouth, but she cut me off. “Just open the goddamn files now, before I rip your goddamn HEAD OFF!” My fingers flew down on the keys as fast as they could. I put my right hand on the mouse and looked up at the monitor. Ha! There was a big button that said ‘Access all Files.’ I clicked on it and a tiny window popped up. “That’s it!” Julia said in a hushed tone. At this I noticed that everyone was watching me now, and I twitched as a long bead of sweat rolled down my back. I had to put in a special code of some sort. I didn’t know what the code was, but I guess that’s what Donny was for. Everyone was watching me, praying that I wouldn’t mess up, and well, I didn’t want to mess up either. I got up and let Donny take the stand where his fingers flew across the keyboard and within minutes he had shut all the monitors in the bank down. No one would ever see us do anything. Now that the monitors were down, he went to work on getting all the vaults open. He did that also in about five minutes. When he was all finished he let out a long sigh and so did Julia, and she straightened up and took her mean, slim posture once more. “Listen up!” Julia shouted, “Here’s what’s going to happen!” She was looking at all of us with very malicious eyes and her hands were balled up into a tight fist. “Michael and Donny, you two are just going to sit back, relax and watch the show. And don’t even

99

think about running off to the cops, because we will find you, and when we do you’ll wish that you had never been born.” I gulped. “Now Matt,” she turned to face Matt who was leaning up against one of the desks, “You go, NOW, and look for the security center. Think of something that will distract the guards.” Matt stood where he was. “GO!” And he jumped, like coming out of a daydream, and sped out of the room his feet clambering in distant halls. Julia turned to Dylan, Brian, and Chase, who were all huddled up in one group looking petrified. “Now, you three,” she gave a cruel laugh, “You three will go with Michael and me to the vaults where all the real action will take place. If anyone of you do anything wrong…what’s this?” She grabbed Matt’s brown knapsack on the ground started rummaging through it. My bag was still back at the Holiday Inn. “Ooo, what’s this?” I knew from the moment she said ‘ooo’ that she had found it; the gun. “This could really come in handy.” She said, as she rested the gun in her hand admiring the weight. “Now, as I was saying,” she was now pointing the gun toward Brian, “If anyone of you say anything, my finger might just slip! Now let’s GO!” Julia grabbed Brian’s arm and Mike grabbed Dylan and Chase, and they yanked them out of sight. It was just me, Anthony, and Donny. Anthony turned to say something, but then he turned around and walked to the other side of the room. I guess he was giving us the freedom to talk, but why? What if we were planning on how to knock him over the head with something, go get the cops, and then catch the three of them red handed? Still, he walked away leaving me and Donny to talk.

100

“So what are we going to do?” asked Donny, his eyes bloodshot. “If I knew I think I would’ve told you already.” “Well, I mean, were not just gonna sit here and watch them steal all of this are we?” “Course not!” I exclaimed. At that moment Anthony came over to us and his hands were shaking madly. “What’s wrong?” I asked. Anthony reached down into his pant’s pocket and withdrew a cell phone. He threw it into my lap. “What’s this for?” I asked holding the phone. “Call the cops.” Anthony replied. I stared at him, flabbergasted, as he stared right back at me. A melancholy smile was drawn across his face and he just stood there staring at me. “Are you serious?” Donny asked, feeling as dumbstruck as I was. “Yea.” Said Anthony in an exhausted voice. Me and Donny both looked at each other, afraid to do anything. Then Donny gave a dry laugh and said, “Well do it!” I flipped open the phone and stared at the illuminated letters on the key pad. I dialed 911 and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?” said a woman’s voice. “Yes is this the Pittsburgh City Police?” I asked. “Yes, how can I help you?” “I would like to report a robbery in Mellon Bank. It’s still going on now. Please hurry!” “Mellon Bank!” exclaimed the lady, “Are you sure?”

101

“Positive!” “Ok I’ll send my team there right away!” “Ok thank you!” And I hung up the phone. Anthony grabbed the phone from my hand and threw it on the ground. Then he raised his leg and, with all his might, stomped his foot on the ground and the phone crashed hard beneath it. “What was that all about?!?” Donny exclaimed. “Shh!” Anthony hissed, “Look I can’t stand it no more, I just want this to be over. By the time they come back from their little robbery, everything will be over.” “But you’ll go to jail,” I said, “You can’t do this; it really isn’t your fault. Actually if you just stay here with us, you could say that you were being held against your will. It would all work out. Only Mike and Julia would go to jail. And then….” But I was cut off. Running footsteps could be heard coming down the long hallways. In ten seconds Julia and Mike burst from a door behind us and Chase and Brian came with them. “I said GET BACK THERE AND HELP!” Julia was screaming. She had an accomplished look on her face. Chase and Brian went scurrying back into the door and soon came out with two trolley’s full of sacks of many. Once they were out of the door they threw them on the ground and went back for more. After three trips they threw the trolley on the floor for the last time and sat down on the cold marble floor. The last person to emerge from the door was Dylan, and he was carrying two trolleys and had four sacks of money flung over his back. When he was out of the door he threw both trolleys on the ground and threw the sacks of money on the ground. “Well, how did the seedlings behave while we were gone?” Julia laughed.

102

“Where’s my brother?” Anthony said, looking around with a look of panic in his eyes. “Who cares?” Mike said, and he threw an arm around Julia and they gave each other a perverted kiss. “I do, he’s just a kid.” Anthony exclaimed. “Awe, boohoo!” Julia laughed again. “Ah, speaking of the devil!” Julia turned her head toward the long hallway that lead to the vaults and Matt was running toward us. His left cheek was red and his eyes looked even more swollen than they did before. “What’s wrong?” asked Dylan. “The cops!” panted Matt, “I knocked them out with a lamp, but that was about ten minutes ago. Look, we gotta hurry up, they’re bound to wake up really soon.” “OK, LISTEN UP! THE SAME PEOPLE WHO CARRIED THE MONEY IN HERE, GETS THE PRIVALEGE OF TAKING IT OUT TO THE VAN! NOW MOVE!” Brian, Chase, and Dylan went over and grabbed their heavy load again. Julia and Mike formed a barrier around them to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid, and they forced them out of the doors. The only thought in my mind was ‘where were the cops?’ Anthony went over to Matt and put an arm around him. If I was shocked it was in no comparison to the way Matt looked. He looked up at his brother who didn’t look at him, but gave him a little nudge to move forward, and they too went out the front doors. The only ones left were me and Donny. We both looked at each other and exchanged the same look of apprehension. Where were the cops? We both walked out of the bank.

103

The cold night air hit my face and the street lamps illuminated everyone else’s and I could see that everyone, including Julia and Mike’s, looked scares. The only one missing was Dylan, and I made sure Julia knew it too. “Oh, he had to take a pee! He’s right over there if you two want to have a fun fest!” She gave another harsh laugh and turned around and waited by the curb. Michael was getting the van out of the parking lot. I turned and looked to see where Dylan was, and he was hunched over, doing his business. I let his have his privacy, and when he came back he looked both scared and worried. Julia didn’t miss this expression either. “What’s up with you?” she asked. “Nothin.” He replied. Suddenly sirens filled the silent night air and Mike who had just pulled up with the van, got out and looked at Julia with a horrified look on his face. In a flash they hurried up and opened the trunk. When the truck was open they forced Dylan to help them load the trunk with the sacks of money. When all the money was loaded Julia kicked each one of us into the van where there was clearly no room. Once we were all in the van, Mike put his foot on the accelerator and we were off, flying through the city of Pittsburgh. I couldn’t see any cop cars but I could hear the sirens, even out of the windows, which were rolled up. We passed many tall skyscrapers and even went through some small neighborhoods. Mike turned on the Pennsylvania turnpike and now I could see red and blue lights in the rear view mirror.

104

Mike sped up to about ninety, and soon cars were pulling out of the way to let us by. As he pulled around a bend to start his climb up a steep hill, he hit a small red Subaru that swerved and hit one of the two cop cars that was chasing us. The cop car swerved out of the way like the Subaru had done, but the other car still stayed on course. Now, instead of backing out of the way, the cars in front of us were realizing what was going on and were now starting to close in one us. But it didn’t seem to bother Mike at all. Two red and blue cars formed a barrier ahead of us, blocking the road ahead. Mike sped up even more and crashed right through them sending both cars crashing into others and nearly hitting the second cop car, for that was what Mike was planning to do. Getting nearer to an exit, Mike took it, and we were now heading into the woodsy area of the Pennsylvania countryside. Trees flew passed us while the one cop car still stayed on our tail making sure that we stayed with in shooting range, even though he had not fired his gun once. Next, Mike tried a trick that was dangerous for us and the cop car behind us. In a quick two minutes Anthony swerved to the right and to the left, knocking two cars out of the way and making the chasing cop car swerve and fly off the road. We drove on, picking up speed, and pulled into a clearing of trees where there was a small little pond. The trees were very tall here and you could barely see the road from which we had come. Mike and Julia got out of their seats, out of the car, and pulled open the out doors and screamed for us to get out. While, one by one, we sulked out of the car, Anthony stayed in his seat, head looking down at the floor. Dylan was ahead of me and as he was stepping out of the car Mike grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him out of the car and threw him on the ground.

105

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?!” screamed Mike, his face boiling with anger. “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO PULL?!?! HUH!?!” Dylan looked up and Mike, his face blank with uncertainty. I, for one, didn’t have a clue what Mike was talking about. What did Dylan do?” “W-w-what do y-you m-m-mean?” stammered Dylan. “What do I mean?” whispered Mike in outrage, “What the hell do you think. You called the freakin’ cops, that’s what I mean!” “I-I don’t k-k-know w-w-what you’re t-t-talking about?” Mike stomped over to Dylan, balled up his fists, and swung his fist at Dylan’s face. When it connected Dylan fell to the ground, but got right back up again like it didn’t even hurt. “While you were takin’ your charity piss, you grabbed a cell phone and called the cops, didn’t you? Well, DIDN’T YOU?” Screamed Mike. “N-n-no I s-swear I d-d-didn’t!” stammered Dylan, tears now starting to build up in his eyes. He looked toward me for some help, but it was as if adhesive glue was keeping my mouth shut, and no words could escape it. He then looked toward Anthony and Julia, who were also keeping quiet as well; especially Julia, which surprised me. The sound of sirens filled the air once more, and they were very, very close. Mike turned with an enraged look on his face. “YOU SON OF A BITCH! DON’T YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE? AHHH!” Mike screamed. Mike turned to look at all of us, gave Julia a smile and a small wink that Julia didn’t return, and he turned around to face Dylan once more. I looked over at Julia who was trembling and crying. Matt’s bag was still in her hands and her right hand was thrust inside of it. Matt was beside her, and he was trembling also. Julia

106

had Matt’s gun, so if any of us put a toe out of line she’d shoot us all; maybe that’s why Matt was trembling. Mike turned to look at Dylan who was on his legs and dirt covered his face with blood. “NOW YOU LITTLE TWERP, YOU WANNA JUST TELL ME YOU DID IT? CUZ IF YOU DO THE CONSEQUENCE WILL BE MUCH FAIRER THAN IF YOU DON’T! WELL?!?” “B-b-but I-I-I d-d-didn’t!” stammered Dylan now falling to the ground. “THAT”S IT! I’VE HAD ENOUGH!” Mike pulled of his black sweater and reached inside his belt and pulled out a sleek black gun. “YOU FINISHED YOU LITTLE TWERP!” He kicked Dylan in the ribs so that Dylan rolled over and was now looking up and Mike with terrified eyes. Mike pointed the gun at Dylan’s head, cocked the back of the gun, and put his hand on the trigger. I closed my eyes; I couldn’t bear to watch this. It would be too painful. Julia screamed. The shot! The thud! I opened my eyes. And I seen Mike lying on the ground, a pool of blood gathering around his stomach. Julia was standing where she was with Matt’s gun in her hand, smoke issuing from the barrel.

107

She stood there, tears streaming from her eyes, and she lowered the gun and through it at Mike’s head. “What did you do?” Anthony asked, looking at Julia with his mouth hung open in both disbelief and surprise. “You…you killed him!” “Of course I killed him,” spat Julia, “He was gonna kill Dylan. W-w-what did you expect m-m-me to d-do!” She was now shaking all over and I understood why. The sound of sirens now filled the air again, and Julia and Anthony hunched up together behind a tree. “Shit!” spat Anthony, “Their gonna find us and then w-we’ll all go t-to j-j-jail! What do we do?” “GUYS!” I shouted. “Shh!” hissed Anthony. “Look I have an idea. How ‘bout you guys just make a run for it, and we’ll tell them that you threw us out, killed him, and drove off. They don’t know what you look like so you guys will be ok!” “You know what,” began Matt, “That’s really not a bad idea. Yea, it actually might work. And it’s true, they don’t have a clue what you look like, so it’s not like they’ll be able to ever find you again. What’ya say?” Julia looked at Anthony who was grinning slightly and then she spoke, “Ok. Besides it’s the best plan we got. You wanna do this?” She turned to look at Anthony who just nodded. I guessed that he was thinking of the route they were going to take home to New York City. It was a very long way home.

108

Julia looked at me and threw her arms around me and said “Sorry” in my ear. Then she moved to Matt, then to Brian, then Donny, then Chase, and finally Dylan, and she did the same to all of them. Then Antony looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a hard shake. Then he turned to Matt and threw his arms around him to, it was the first time I had ever seen it happen. “Ok look,” I began, “When we get back to New York we’ll call you and see where you guys are.” “Wait!” exclaimed Dylan, “What about all the money?” “Umm,” I started, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take some!” “No, I mean it’s going to be pretty hard to tell them that they drove off when the car is right here!” “Ooo, good point.” I said, “Well we could just say that they held a gun to our heads and ran across the road and down that hill.” “Ok, ok, ok!” Exclaimed Julia, “Let’s just go before they actually get here. Look we don’t need any money, you guys are gonna need it for tickets, so just take it. Now we gotta go!” We just stood there for about thirty minutes more and there was that strange feeling in my stomach. The kind of feeling when you’ve spent all weekend with someone and then on the last day you know that you’re going home. It’s kind of like that there is a whole in the bottom of your stomach. It’s a weird feeling and just something that is very hard to explain. “Kay, see ya guys.” I said with a little laugh, because despite all the things that have happened over the last four days, or maybe five, we all knew no that about five

109

years from now we would all look back and laugh; and that is the best thing about these kind of things. Julia and Anthony took one last look at us, and then turned around and walked away, slowly descending deep into the forest until they were out of sight. As if luck was on out side, the cops came as soon as they entered the woods, and we all lay down on the ground, pretending to be beaten up pretty badly. “What’s going on over here?” shouted the officer, and I now seen him coming down the path and walking over to Brian who was leaning sideways on his left elbow. “Sir…” stammered Brian, “Robbers…they ran that w-way!” Brian pointed in the exact different direction that Anthony and Julia had run. “Thanks son!” The policeman ran in the way that Brian pointed him and the officer waddled out of sight. “Ok?” I said, “He’s not gonna even ask if we’re all right?” “Pittsburgh!” stated Matt, “They don’t have any common courtesy.” “Ha!” scoffed Brian, “And New York does!” “Ha, ha, right! Well…what a day, what a day!” Donny chuckled. “What’re we gonna do know?” “Whatever we wanna do!” laughed Chase. “Ha, I’m fine with that!” said Dylan, laughing in unison with Chase. “I agree with Donny,” I began, “can you BELIEVE these last few days. I can’t believe it’s been only just days. HA! Feels like it’s been weeks!” “Ya,” stated Matt, “I feel the same way. But, like Donny said, what are we gonna do now?”

110

“Well, we could just walk home…I mean well we have the money, we could take the train back. You know, walk to Danville, and then take the train back home!” Brian looked around at all of us, looking like the superior of the whole world. Come to think about it, it actually wasn’t that bad of an idea. “Hey, hey,” I said, “I actually think that’s a brilliant idea. Everybody up for it?” Brian’s face lit up when I said that, but everyone else just sat with their heads hung, looking as if it their way, they would just sit around on a side road of a highway until someone comes and finds them. I wasn’t going to do that and I told them so. “Look,” began Matt, “Can’t we just take a rest already! I mean we’ve been through a hell of a lot of shit these past few days, so I don’t know about you, but I’m perfectly comfortable where I am now.” “Well fine, look here’s what we’ll do,” I began and shot a look at Brian and gave him a small and quick wink, “Me and Brian will go back home, get police, and then come back for you guys. Right.” I turned around and grabbed Brian by his shoulder and said, “Ready?” He gave me a nod and we walked, very slowly, into the woods. “Alright, alright, hold up!” Matt shouted, and he got up from where he was sitting, grabbed his bag which Julia had been carrying, and slung it over his shoulders. “We’ll come.” Donny, Chase, and Dylan got up, stretched their arms over their heads, and then stood there looking at me and Brian. “Well?” Asked Chase, “What’s the plan?”

111

“What we’ve been sayin’ we’re gonna do!” said Brian. “We’ll walk to Danville, which won’t take long at all; we’ll get on a train and ride it all the way into New York. Everybody up for that?” Everyone nodded, “Good.” I said, “Well, let’s shove off!” Brian and Donny paired up with each other and started first into the woods. Next came Dylan and Chase who paired up and they went behind Brian and Donny. I looked back at the body of Mike, which we had all hidden when the police officer had come. He was dead, and now Brian wouldn’t have a brother to hang out with anymore. Even Matt had Anthony who would have to lay low for a year. Even Julia probably wouldn’t be back for the start of the seventh grade year. I turned to look at Matt, who was also looking at Mike’s body. I really hadn’t spoken to Matt since we were back at the Holiday Inn, captured and being held hostage, but even then we were to terrified to talk about anything important. I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder and gave him a little shake. He turned around to look at me. “Told you that you can to anything!” I said, giving him a smile. He chuckled and gave me a small nudge in the stomach, and he turned and started walking. I went up next to him and we both started off into the woods. I could just make out the silhouette of Chase and Dylan in the dark shadows of the woods. The trees started to glow, and a small light lit our feet and the land all around us. Over the mountain the sun was creeping over the jagged edges, spilling light onto the valley below it. It was the most beautiful sight that I have ever seen. “Well,” began Matt, “Do you still wanna come over when we get back home!”

112

We both looked at each other and started howling with laughter. I’m not even sure if it was that funny. Very slowly Matt and I walked into the woods; ahead of us were Brian, Donny, Chase, and Dylan. After five minutes we all caught up with each other and we all walked in a horizontal line. And then picking up speed, me and my friends walked back through the Appalachian Mountains, together.

113

EPILOUGE

It was about twelve o’ clock midnight, and by now all the people in Glendale Apartments were asleep. The moon shone in through the snow – capped window as I made my way through the hall of the twenty- second floor. I walked up to the puke green door with the paint chipping off the door; the wooden number six had been taken down and now was replaced by a shiny sliver six. I hope I didn’t wake Uncle Bobby or Uncle Booby. I pressed my knuckled on the cold door and knocked three times. Excitement rushed through my whole body as I waited. I knew that Matt wouldn’t really care what I was about to say, but I had to say it and get back to Brian’s party.

114

I heard scrambling behind the door and it sounded as if someone had tripped of Demon. The person was coming nearer to the door and then suddenly the door was swung open and Matt stood in the doorway with nothing on but boxers. His eyes had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was sticking every which way. He had a bit of dried drool on the left side of his lip right under the lump, which the doctors said would be there forever. “What!” said Matt, looking like a bear getting woken a month early from hibernation, “It’s twelve at night and you just woke up Demon so that means he and I will both be up all night!” I didn’t say anything. I just stood outside his door with a huge smile on my face. “WHAT!” he shouted, but careful enough not to wake his uncle. “Guess what?” I laughed. “WHAT!” “The Steelers just WON THE SUPERBOWL WOOO!” He looked at me for two more seconds and then shut the door in my face. I laughed to myself and then turned on my heels and walked back down the hall and into the elevator. As I went down the elevator thoughts of the past five months raced through my mind. Anthony and Julia were still in hiding, but they would be back next year. Matt’s uncle realized that he actually depended on his sons, so, for the love of God, he gave up drinking. Donny was still the same, so was Brian and so was I. School starts back up in about more days, so the terror of homework and teachers chilled my body. But for now I just focused on the five pieces of pizza I was about to chow down on.

115

Dylan and Chase are also the same, and we see them from time to time. I do keep getting text messages from Julia telling me where she is and currently they are in North Carolina; Julia always liked the Tarhills. No more robberies were reported in Pittsburgh, and no one will ever know what happened that night when we all decided to be heroes. Everyone is doing fine and life is going smoothly and uneventful, which is really just the way I like it. All was well.

116

117