There was a huge destruction in "Freedonia" by their enemies, which left nothing but the unpleasant air and dry lands with buildings that showed no sign of relief. Everyone scattered around searching for their family members with hope filled eyes.
I was all alone in those calm and disturbed streets until one of our enemy soldiers dragged me fiercely from my mom. she came running behind us, but the man shot her on the spot with the pistol in his hand. My mom fell down with an unsatisfied expression on her face. Her eyes were filled with tears however only one drop of tear managed to come out of her left eye which was an unsettling vision for my eye. I shut my eyes tightly out of fear but then I was overcome with shock and was stunned. I didn't take a step forward; the soldier pulled me by holding my hair in his hands. he didn't even care that the shattered glass pieces on the ground were hurting me. Meanwhile the soldiers of Freedonia came running towards us. Seeing that the enemy got frightened and ran away leaving me on the ground with scratches and few burns. I didn't want to be noticed by our soldier's coz they were taking each and every child into their custody and turned them into soldiers or nurses to help them in the war. only the children of higher officials were left out. Before any of the soldiers noticed me, I managed to hide myself under the staircase of a building near to the spot where my mom was shot to death. I looked around to make myself feel better and tried to forget the incident; but I couldn't so, I just temporarily stored somewhere deep inside my brain and kept a smile on my face hoping everything will be back to normal one day. The air around us was totally polluted and filled with dust, metallic powder due to the explosions.
I saw Valerie Scott and her father on the staircase of the nearby building and waved my hand excitedly. Mr. Richard glanced at me, then looked away and grunted something. Val noticed me and waved her hand to come near but her father pulled her hand down and they both got into an argument about something. I tried to reach them, but I heard the sound of an explosion, my legs shivered as the sound was scary and frightened me So, I cowered on the spot, putting my head down. I was sniveling, unable to understand the situation and feeling tired.
few moments later I heard a familiar voice near me. It said, "here take my hand, I will take u to safety." I slowly raised my head and could see a hand reaching out to me but the picture of who it was; was blur but I could recognize it as a man. I was struggling as my body got paralyzed. without even thinking the man lifted me and started walking, with the last ounce of energy I had; I saw him and fainted trying to say "thank you Mr. stranger ...................!
Few Hours later ...!
I woke up on a bed and Val was sitting beside me lost in her own thoughts. I called her 'Val.......Val....! as soon as she heard my voice, she threw her arms around me and squeezed me saying "thank god at least Ur okay." Then she asked me how I was feeling. I put my arm on her shoulder and said "super, nothing could happen to me when Ur near me" with a bright smile and glow on my face. Like I said before she was dreaming again. Suddenly she stood up and started walking towards the edge of the floor which seemed like a suicide mission to me. I stopped her before she could take the last step to fall down and break her legs. I asked her "What happened Val, r u okay!?". She responded "nothing". In order to make her smile and laugh I told her we would walk backwards, we giggled and started walking backwards. While we were walking backwards, she suddenly hit the nightstand placed beside the bed and fell down. I spontaneously lifted her and made her sit on the bed. but the bottle of water on nightstand fell down and shattered into pieces which made a huge sound. As soon as the sound reached her father he came running and started scolding her like he does all the time without even caring about her mental health. But usually, her mom would butt in and stop him from throwing tantrums at her generally her mom used to stop her father from hitting, but this time was different coz her mother was nowhere to be seen. I realized it was my time to save her this time. I stopped him before he could hit her with his hand. I told him "She wasn't feeling better Mr. Richard, I will find out what happened." after a huge request he left. as soon as he left, I asked her "what happened", she didn't respond rather was looking around cautiously, like father like daughter after a huge request she agreed to tell me. She told me that she had to see her mother die in her arms and the last words her mom said to her were "Be careful, your father is not what u think he is" Val added "Am unable to understand anything going on around me, I hope this situation ends soon." I supported her by saying "don't worry everything will be back to normal". Those last words her mother told her were disturbing her a lot. I looked at her and said "Val, we'll figure this out. don't take much stress."
We had to travel to a new hiding place every night and rest throughout the day because there were more explosions in night than in day. Sometimes we had to keep our lives at risk in order to survive for the future. One night while we were traveling, we found another survivor who was hiding from our soldiers as he had stolen some of their food hence, they were searching for him. he hid behind the tree beside us. our soldiers asked us Abt him, Val's father had pointed towards the opposite direction. Our soldiers went running in that path saying, "You brat just wait there we'll teach u a lesson." The boy peeped out of the corner of the tree and thanked Mr. Richard who then offered him to join us. since that day he's been traveling along with us but most of the times he's seen helping Mr. Richard or talking to him about something, we never asked him which country he belonged to [Freedonia or its enemy] but we just accepted him into our small group. the other day we found one of our friends Peter O'Brien he said, "I guess it's been 10 days since I last saw my parents, am hiding here since then hoping they would return for me one day." me and Val looked at each other with a concernable expression on our faces then we both together asked him "What was the date you last time saw them?" he responded, " 6th May 2004" me and Val once again looked at each other and I said, "he has to know" Val nodded her head in response then we both put our hands on Pete and said "that would make it nearly one month ago Pete." Val added "You have a lot to catch up Pete, you lost track of time" and we decided he is going to come with us, but he had to change his clothing coz he looked like a beggar jk not so much like a beggar but somewhat a lil bit. Then we gave him jake's clothes. jake had a lot of good clothes as Mr. Richard liked him a lot and bought him new clothes every now and then. Pete wore Jake's clothes; they were a perfect fit for him. Just then Jake entered the cave and was shocked seeing peter in his clothes, he said "you look better than me in my clothes." Jake asked us to come out as it was time to move and left the cave. We all looked at each other and said at the same time "Let's go" and we started to walk towards a nearby hiding place but since we've been walking for a long time, we had to take a break, so we stopped, and we set up a camp. Me and Val collected few fruits and edible stuff from the trees and bushed around us. We all sat down to eat and kept the food in middle and tied them up in a cloth while Mr. Richard and jake were searching around for something I kept my hand inside the food bag and felt like an insect crawling on my hand. I tilted my head to see another hand grabbing the bag of food but with a rapid moment it disappeared with just one fruit in its hand I couldn't point out the person, but I was shocked to see its fast moment. and I thought I was hallucinating and started to eat casually, Pete and Val were in their own world enjoying each other's company. I wished I had a company like that. After a while they came to eat something and fill their empty stomach's but as soon Pete kept his hand in the food bag there was nothing in it except stones, they both shouted "Saaaaaammmm!!, stop messing around with us and give us the food." I was stunned at their yelling they were like small kids who haven't eaten a thing since a day, I rolled my eyes and went out to bring some food for them while they were chitchatting then all of a sudden, I saw an unexpected scene it was a beautiful view of fireflies in the forest around me, it was a fascinating view.
It was getting dark, and I sat there amidst the fireflies in the meadow, and I got reminded of my mother who always used to take me to a fireflies show near my home, and we used to have fun and it was like a mother-daughter date. I slowly tried to take a firefly into my hand, but no luck and I started to cry because I got reminded of the incident in which my mom died in front of me with an unsatisfied expression on her face.
Just then Val called out to me "Sam where r u, what are you planning this time" I snapped out of my sadness and went back to them with some food in hand Pete joked with exclamation that "wow you were so hungry before, that you completed our Both's share of food.??" both giggled and we sat to eat, this time I didn't let my hallucinations take me away and I was keeping a close eye on the food bag and luckily for me Pete and Val were also onto it. This time we all three of them saw the hand. I didn't give it a chance to escape I grabbed it immediately and pulled it. we all were shocked to see boy who came out of bushes and fall at our feet with a thud. Peter joked again saying "If u wanted to touch my feet you would've told me, I would've lifted my leg." I and Val were shocked by looking at them both. The boy got up and hugged Peter and cried saying "No one's left brother, everyone is dead." Seeing our faces Peter told us "The boy is my cousin brother." Peter took the boy aside, consoled him and gave him clothes. After the boy was calm, they both came to us and the boy introduced himself saying "Antony O'Brien, Nice to meet you to beautiful ladies" we all hugged and laughed. After a while we asked tony how did he end up here. He told us that there was an explosion in his home, and he was the only survivor, since then he has been hiding in these bushes robbing the soldiers for food and clothes. I was excited to see tony because Peter and Val were in their own world, I would have Tony's company. Since tony had joined us, we have been helping out Mr. Richard with handing clothes and stuff to the other survivors and people have been talking about us and gossiping about us, the gossip spread soon, and we became popular. The gossips reached my ear. There was this old woman who told me "Do you know there is this "gang of four" who help out ppl and take care of them I wish they'd come here to this town and help us too. Am so excited to meet them, do you know them by any chance? can u take me to them? I don't have anyone to take care of me and I heard they take care of their fellow survivors; I would be the luckiest to have met them." after that the old woman went away saying "take me to them". So, I understood that we became the famous "gang of four" but actually we were six members including jake and Mr. Scott. I shared the news with the rest of my friends and requested them to go to that old woman's place. My friends agreed and Val sad she'll convince Richard by tomorrow morning, and we'll depart to that village first thing the morning.