“Officer down….cshhh.. Officer….. !”, the last words heard from that tiny little black box the side of mom’s bed, followed by loud booming gun shots and men and women screaming the sound of death. Mom looked straight at me and told me to run and grab my gun and bag field with food and large boxes of ammo.

“It’s here” she said with a slight hint of fear.

I knew she was afraid of what has come and is coming, but as all mothers should do she knew she had to stay calm to keep my brother and sister from being scared. When everyone was finished grabbing what they could, we met at the back door. Mom looked at the two kids and strictly enforced that they would stay right behind her at all times no matter what. She then looked at me with her fear filled eyes and spoke in a demanding voice.

“Do not let a second go by that you let your guard down. If anything happens to me no matter what you must be here for your brother and sister.”

I nodded my head to insure her. After she made sure we had everything we needed she opened the door and proceeded out it with caution. With all the havoc on the streets, men fight over working cars, women fighting for food to keep the family feed. Complete and utter unexplainable disaster, no law would be accepted and those who tried to enforce it soon found out that there was no hope.

I thought to myself “how could a world so peaceful, so helpful just unfold and become so helpless.” getting lost in my thoughts I could hear the faint sound of my mother calling my name. “John.. John… there is someone behind us.”She said in a whispering faint voice. I paused for a split second, close sounds of women screaming and men yelling, but no one behind us. I looked back at my mom and asked her what she had seen she gave me a blank look like she had seen a ghost or something. I had begun wondering what she could have seen but I tried not to sit there too long in case there was something coming. “Mom start walking I will be right behind you.”As they left I sat there and waited for a few seconds and after I knew the cost was clear I ran to catch up with them.

We walked for a couple of miles and then eventually ended up on the river inside the forest. It was about midnight and I had to stop my mom and tell her that we have to stop and rest for my brother and sister. She paused and looked at me and hesitated, I knew she didn’t want to but she knew I was right. I told her I would stay up all night with the gun in my lap and keep watch. She struggled but accepted the fact. “Fine we will stay for the night, but we have to leave first thing in the morning.”

Finding myself with nothing to do except to stare into pitch black. No fire because we didn’t want to get seen. Waiting with nothing to do so I thought, the worst thing you could do at a time like this. I thought about how it used to be when I was younger. I loved spending time with my dad, I was defiantly a daddies boy. He would always take me hunting and fishing, when we would sit in a blind being as quiet as we could, waiting, hoping to see something. Sometimes, I would day dream, always about the strangest things. But that one time I remember most clearly was when I had looked up just to check things out and there it was, a bright, elegant, golden shade Texas bred deer. “John, take the shot, take it!” he started to say but right before he could finish I shot, squeezed the shimmering, chilled, rough trigger , leading with a load boom and the thud of the deer dropping to the ground. I could hear “John, john!” getting louder and louder coming from a distance. As I looked around to see what or where it was coming from my vision started to fade as I came out of it. As it started to clear I could see my mom, sister, and brother being dragged away from the camp. I started to reach for my gun but before I could stand fully something pushed me down and stood on top of me. Before I realized what was going on there was a girl on top of me pointing a pistol at me holding on of her fingers to her mouth telling me to be quiet. I struggled, pushing and pulling trying to get her off of me but she insisted that I stay and be quiet or I’d die. I nodded, as she looked up at the men taking them, I quickly pushed her off of me and grabbed my gun and ran and shot one guy and started fighting the other guy. Yelling at my family to run and fighting off the other man I would see them untie themselves I pushed him off. As I went to draw my gun I heard a loud boom from behind me and a sharp burning pain in my side. Io turned to see what it was but before I could fully see another shot was fired. My vision started to blur and go black. But before I I fully went under I reached for my gun and.” hhhhhhh.” “Coughing”.. It was just a dream, looking over at my brother with a sigh of relief. “Hhh .“ It’s over.