+Escaping Utopia+

Chapter 1

What did I get myself into?! This shouldn't have happened...ever! Maybe I'm dreaming. Yeah, that's it...I'm dreaming.

Ouch. Never mind...sigh

Wait...what was that? Did I hear a noise? Approaching footsteps maybe?

...No, just silence. Maybe I'm going insane. Maybe I was already insane...hmm.

Earlier this afternoon seems so far away...I can't believe it's still the same day. Now that I think about it...what was I doing this afternoon? I don't even remember. Hmm...oh, yes, I remember now. I had talked to my mom earlier...

"Yes...uh-huh," I nodded impatiently. "Of course mom...no, I'll be alright. Okay...love you, too. Bye!" I hung up my pathetic piece of plastic otherwise known as my "cell phone" (cough-cough) and slipped it in my pocket. "Yes!" I cheered to myself. "Gone for the night! Oh, no!" I mocked. "Whatever will I do while mommy is gone?" I rolled my eyes. Psh...

Well, I guess that isn't quite fair. I really do love my mom. Just as much as any kid should, I suppose. But I still can't help but think that she's just a tad too overprotective. But then again, that's what everyone says about their parents these days. But I mean, come on. What all could happen in one night? She shouldn't be so worried.

I dropped my skateboard down to the concrete and hopped on, pushing myself across the ground. School had let out about ten minutes ago, and mom called me once she was sure it was out. As it turns out, she wouldn't be coming home tonight from Atlanta, her business meeting had taken longer than planned and the next plane wouldn't be leaving until early tomorrow morning.

Which was fine with me! I didn't mind one bit having the night to myself.

I stopped at one of the few stop lights our town has and looked around. Hmm...What do I want to do today? Taking a moment to reflect, I realized that that was one question I didn't get to ask often. What do I want to do today? My stomach growled just then. I guess I could stop by the apartment and have mom fix me up something real quick, I thought.

A moment later it came to me. Oh, yeah. Mom wasn't there. "Phooey!" I mumbled, my plan discarded.

(Yeah, you might as well get used to it...I'm a slow thinker. I might even go as far as to say that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, I'm not the...hmm...I can't think of another one. Oh, well. You get my point, right?)

I sighed heavily. I guess I should go get something to eat...maybe one of the local fast food places.

I scrounged in my pocket for what few dollars I had gotten last week raking leaves for some old lady down our street. After a moment I retrieved my hand and counted. Five dollars. That'll have to do I suppose, I shrugged. I could make it last, even though the restaurants around here were rip-offs, charging way more than they should. Stupid economy people.

"Ack!" I yelled suddenly, nearly running into a group of teenagers. I quickly hopped off my skate board, flipping it up into my hand. "Sorry about that," I mumbled, looking down at the ground as if there was something more interesting there. I politely tried to make my way around the group, who in the meantime had stopped walking, but I wasn't getting away that easily. Oh, no. They weren't done with me yet.

"What was that?!" One of them yelled, Daniel to be exact. The wide receiver for our school's football team, Daniel. One in the same.

He grabbed my arm, jerking me to a stop. I shuddered silently at his touch then turned to face him. This wasn't the first time we'd met up before. "You know one of these days you're going to run into the wrong person at the wrong time..." he warned darkly, giving one of his perverted grins.

"Let go of me," I said simply with as much force as I dared to use.

"I think you need to learn a lesson on courtesy, girly," he laughed, obviously having other plans besides letting me go so quickly. The group he happened to be walking with, the other jocks at the school to be more precise, laughed along with him, one of them whistling.

Don't call me girly. I’m not doing this today. "How's this for courtesy?" I smirked, kicking him swiftly in the groin. The moment he released his grip on my arm I tossed my skateboard back down to the ground and took off, leaving the entire group behind me.

I could hear his friends laughing, obviously amused at what I'd just done, while he cursed, doubled over on the sidewalk. "You'll pay for that one!" he called after me.

Jerk. Don't come near me again, I thought. Of course, I sounded tougher than I really was. Truthfully, that guy scares the ba-geebers outta me! But I'll never let him know that. Ha, that'd be a death wish in itself.

A couple minutes later I found myself walking into one of my favorite local fast food joints, the Burger Spot. If you ask me, they have some of the best food on this side of the border! I don't get to come here often for some strange reason...coughmomcough. (The lady is crazy, she's on some kind of no meat, no bread, no dairy products, no sugar, no any-normal-foods diet!)

But, seeing as she isn't here right now, I once again can return to my beloved greasy burgers! Haha, in your face. Justice shall prevail in the end! Ahem. Excuse my outbursts.

I made my way to the back of one of the lines, behind some woman tending to a crying baby. Most of the other people in here were from my school, as this place was a common after-school hangout. That is, until the manager comes out and makes them leave because they are too rowdy. Ah...brings back good memories.

Ever so slowly I made my way to the front of the line. Actually, it only took about two minutes, but when you're hungry, every second seems like forever. I looked up at the menu, trying to decide if I wanted a burger or chicken strips.

"What do you want?" the cashier muttered, obviously not too happy about being on shift at the moment. I looked at him, his voice startling me.

"Uh..." I said, suddenly losing my train of thought. "I'll just take a Burger Spot Burger and a drink," I answered after a moment.

"...whatever..." I heard him mumble under his breath as he punched in the items on the register. The cost showed on the screen and I handed him my five dollars. While I waited for my change I took a moment to look at him.

That's one of my kwirks. I tend to over-calculate the people I encounter, trying to see if I can guess what their life is like.

This guy didn't seem much older than me, maybe by a year or so? He was wearing a long sleeve black shirt under his uniform and was wearing a black choker with small metal spikes on it. He had what looked to be like a little eyeliner on and wore a wristband on one arm. He had messy black hair and cloudy light green eyes.

From the looks of it and the tone of his voice it seemed to me that he was a decent person, nice if I could even go that far. Being me, I wouldn't judge him just over the clothes he was wearing, although that usually was a good indicator. This guy seemed different though, despite his looks. It just seemed that at the moment he was upset for some reason beyond my knowledge.

"Hello?" I heard him say, looking at me, agitated.

Startled from my thoughts once again I looked at him dumbly. He motioned to his hand where he held my change, waiting to return it to me. "Oh, sorry," I said, blushing slightly. It's rude to stare.

I held out my hand and he dropped some coins into it then handed me my receipt. I stepped back from the counter so he could take the order of the next person in line. After a minute or so another worker passed me my food over the counter. I smiled a thanks and took my bag to an empty seat.
I had just sat down and taken a bite of my burger when a certain group of people walked in. Can you guess who...just take a wild guess. Yep, Daniel and his gang of jocks.

I choked on my bite and shrunk down in my seat. Did he follow me here or was it just coincidence? Arg...just leave me alone already! I thought desperately. Well, maybe he hasn't seen me yet, I thought hopefully, taking my bag and standing up. I thought maybe I could escape through the door on the other side of the small restaurant without him noticing.

Ah, but I'm not that lucky. Nope, once again I was forced to hear his unbearable voice, stopping me dead in my tracks.

"My, my!" I heard him say heartily. "If it isn't Mel..."

It's not, I thought to myself, answering him. It's Melanie...I clarified. I could hear his heavy footsteps heading in my general direction and that was all the motivation I needed. I made a run for the door, trying to avoid the other people crowding the small place.

But once again I wasn't that lucky. The moment my hand reached for the handle, startled screams filled the air and a window beside me shattered to pieces.

"What on earth?" I thought out loud, spinning around. I knew Daniel was strong, but he wouldn't bust a window! It took me a second or two to catch on to the scene before me. After the fact, I almost wish that it had been Daniel breaking the window.

But, sadly no.

"Get on the floor!" a gruff voice yelled impatiently. "Now! Everyone!" Another gunshot fired and one of the lights blew out.

Without another thought I fell to the floor, placing my hands over my head protectively. A moment of silence followed. I could hear my heart's every beat, echoing through my body and my breath was caught in surprise in my throat.

One beat, two, three, four, five... deathlike silence. I gathered the courage to peer around me, barely lifting my head, and could see that everyone was on the floor, most in the same position as me, including Daniel and his friends.

We were all cowering, half in shock and half in fear for our lives, wondering what was going to happen next. No one made a sound.

From somewhere behind me, the baby who was with the woman in line in front of me started fussing again, probably confused at the sudden silence and hostility. A wave of fear resounded through my body and I wondered how the intruder would react.

A moment later my thoughts were answered. A gunshot broke through the stark silence and another window shattered, this time behind me, from the direction of the baby. The baby wailed even louder.

"You!" I could hear the man's husky voice yell. "Take that kid and get out! Now!" he yelled, firing again at yet another window. He didn't sound too nice. But then again, he had a gun so I guess that's kinda obvious.

Well this is great, I thought to myself as the woman frantically hurried to get herself and the baby out of the restaurant. I finally get a chance to eat my favorite junk food and I end up in a hostage situation. Curse my luck.

But I shouldn't be thinking like this...I have much bigger issues than that at the moment. Such as getting out of here alive!

A minute passed and nothing more happened. The woman and her baby had left and everyone was still on the floor.

What was this guy doing? If he wanted to hold the place up, he could've already had his money and left. Why was he waiting?

Once again, the man's voice barked out some orders, this time without the aid of the gun. "I don't want to hurt any of you!" he said loudly, as if we weren't listening. "Just do what I say and I won't blow your brains out..."

I was taken aback. Sure his words sounded threatening...but his voice was anything but. He almost sounded nervous, as if he wasn't sure what he was doing. Like he wasn't comfortable here. He seemed oddly out of place...

But I figured that was just my overactive brain working its magic again.

"Listen to me carefully," he started. "You, stand up," he motioned. I managed a quick glance up towards the guy. He was motioning for Daniel to stand up. I held my breath. Don't shoot him... I found myself thinking. Daniel might not be exactly my best friend, but please, don't shoot him!

The man didn't but rather went on to point to more people, ordering them to stand up. From what I could tell there were a couple workers among the group, Daniel, and a couple of his friends not all of them though. There were also a couple of other people I didn't recognize.

"You, stand up," he continued. I glanced around nervously keeping my head to the ground, waiting to see who was next. When no one stood up after a moment, I looked up to see him pointing gravely at me. I just about had a heart attack.

Weakly, I climbed to my feet, staring down at the tiled floor.

"That's all." the man concluded. "I want all the ones standing up to go to the back room. The rest of you, don't move..." he threatened, motioning with his gun for the ones standing.

Yes, I remember it now. I remember it as if those few moments had been carved into my head. We had been shuffled to the back of the restaurant, then out the back door to a waiting van. I don't think any of us had been brave enough to even get a good look at the man. After all, I mean, he might kill us or something if we looked at him.

So, blinded by fear we had been led. The trip was a long one, and it didn't help when all of us were practically on top of each other trying to fit into the back of that van. It was dark, pitch black back there. None of us dared complain though, I'm surprised I even remembered to breathe.

Before we had left, the man had gone back inside the restaurant and fired a couple more shots. We could hear them from where we huddled. He had returned a few minutes later to the van and we left, probably never to see our homes again.

The thought hit me.

I'm never going to see my home again...

I'm never going back there am I? Just ripped from my home...my life, without reason or explanation. Only to be thrown here.

Here, in this dreadfully cold place. Here...would this be my new home?