I am scared. The images of my mother and father will never leave me as long as I live. When Kimberley tells me to go to sleep I think how can I? The images are still fresh in my head and my whole body hurt from running and being strangled by my father. I was tired but didn’t want to fall asleep. Kimberley stared out the window as we drove on. I could only imagine what she was thinking. Logan seemed nice, but still, I didn’t know how much I could trust him. My mother always told me not to trust anybody you don’t know, but what other choice did we have. We were lost, cast out and abandoned if we kept running we would have been killed or died of hunger or hypothermia.
I look out the window just to see the car zoom by the sign that says Welcome to Pure Michigan. It isn't really a sign though. It projects the words across both streets so when you drove across the border you drive into the words and it counts how many people were in each car and it has the number of people to the side of it. Once we pass it I look back and it reads Welcome to Ohio. Population 1,987,546 and the number keeps going up as each person passed by or went out. I look back and watch the cars go by in front of us.
“Michigan huh,” I hear Kimberley say.
“Yeah, Michigan." Logan answers. "It was one of the first states to get hit by Union’s bombs and it hasn’t been the same ever since. Our home is up near the top of the State.”
“What’s it called?” I ask eagerly in my little child voice.
“Platinum Mountain. Our shelter is the grand lodge near the Mountain’s base. It’s been closed for years but it’s big so the outcasts hide out there. It’s no longer on the map so nobody can find us. It used to be a ski mountain lodge but that all changed when, again, The Unions bombed us. The resort, however, managed to hold out though; it’s still unbelievably in one piece.”
“Is it safe?” Kimberley asks him. I can hear him laugh a little, he smiles back at us.
“Yes, it’s very safe, I give you my word.” Kimberly crosses her arms in front of her chest and leans back, not convinced. Lights on the streets can finally make me see her body covered in dirt and mud with scratches up and down her arms, which were bare because of her ripped shirt and short sleeves. I know Kimberley thought our father was the greatest father in the world, every kids believes that, but after the murder she must feel like somebody stuck a sword down her throat.
I see her eyes stare over to me, when I smile back she turns away. I remember when we used to play on a lake called Baskin Lake. We were born swimmers and skiers. Kimberley loved going snow skiing and I loved going water skiing. Both of us were skiers and excelled at both sports, but tonight when we were done with dinner, and my mother put us to bed, as I dozed off Kimberley shook me awake and I heard the sound of a death scream. We both rushed downstairs to find our mother was kicking our father. Both had kitchen knives in their hands. “Join me or die a slow painful death!” Our father spat as he raised his knife and it glistened off the light in the room.
“Over my dead body!” my mother scowled. I screamed out in horror as my father slammed his sword in my mom’s side. She sunk to the ground holding onto the newly made wound.
“Mom!” Kimberley screamed. Both of our parents turned towards us, one’s eyes filled with hatred and anger and the others were filled with pain and sorrow. One word formed on her lips as she mouthed it, “Run.” That’s when our father picked up my mom by the neck and strangled her till she was collapsed on the floor, dying.
I curl up more into a ball, trying to get the horrible memory out of my head. “How much longer?” I ask. It comes out shaky. Guess because I am scared.
“About a few more hours, don’t worry, try to sleep.” I didn’t answer to that. I can’t sleep, but I was exhausted and soon found my eyes getting heavier and heavier as we drove on. Soon my head falls and my body goes limp and I fall asleep.
When the car finally comes to stop I feel someone shaking me. My eyes slowly open and I yawn. I look up Logan’s green eyes and he smiles back at me. “Wake up sleepy head,” he moves to one side and I can see Kimberley already awake. I stretch and get out of the jeep. The place looks vacant. It looks huge and we were under an awning that is made out of logs. I shiver because snow covers the ground and I just realized something, can dad follow our tracks? Hope not, the doors that seal the entrance were lazars connecting from one side to the other. Logan presses his figure down on a pad and a keyboard pops up. He types in something that is seven symbols long.
The lasers shut off and the doors open. “Come on in.” Logan says allowing us to go through first. Once we stepped in a lobby stood before us with a wood ceiling and a stone floor. A hallway leads down each way where you walk in. A statue of a bald eagle stood in the middle of the lobby and a desk is on the right of it. The lobby is mostly empty, except for about 3 or four people and us.
“Where is everyone?” Kimberley asks.
“Well it is five in the morning, probably still sleeping,” Logan says crossing his arms looking around, “it is Friday, so people will be going to school today.” Logan drops his arms to his side and walks more into the lobby.
“Outcasts go to school? Do people know?” I ask. Kimberley looks at me sternly saying, shut up, but Logan just laughs again.
“Yes, they’re allowed, but we don’t go around boasting out ‘hey I’m an Outcast.’ We try to keep it on the down low around other people.” He swipes his hand a little to the side of his body as he says that. “I would like you two to meet someone.” He walks over behind the bear where a high ceiling was and furniture like couches and chairs were set around the windows facing outside at a huge mountain. Someone was sitting in a chair staring at the fire burning in the fire place to the left of the windows.
“Hello Sargent McCarthy,” Logan says. The figure turns around. It is a woman. Her hair is short, dark brown and changes to red when it comes to the ends. Her eyes were grey color, but what really scared me is she has a long scar running from the top of her eyebrow to the bottom of her cheek. I flinch a little but Kimberley looks at it in awe. I crouch behind my sister afraid of the woman. She looks older than Logan but seems just as tough.
“Commander Logan,” she stands up looking straight at him. She is as tall as Logan and looks about in her early 20’s. She wears a black leather jacket with a belt the same as Logan’s. A gun was swung around her back and she wore leather boots. Weapons were hanging around her hips and I knew one thing from the start, I wouldn’t want to get into a fight with her. She then shoots her eyes down at us. “What have we here, couple of runaways?”
“No, a couple survivors.” She shifted her eyes back at Logan in shock as he says that. “Their father is a Union soldier; he murdered their mother who was an American. They are also Americans who survived. I found them on the border of Illinois and Indiana. I almost hit them, luckily they scared me half to death I stopped in my tracks. I decided they needed a home.”
“Commander Logan I need soldiers, not small mouths to feed. They are no use to me.” Her voice was hurtful and I felt Kimberly tense up, were we going to have to become runaway, living on the streets begging for food, just waiting for someone to say come in and stay. No, we would die first, but Logan steps in front of us, almost protecting us by his body.
“They will grow; we have kids younger than them. Why can’t we have two more?” Logan demands.
“They have already started their training, these two don’t even know what we are or what we do, and they don’t know how to fight.” Sergeant McCarthy hissess. “I don’t need more children I need men who will fight.”
“Then teach us,” Kimberley blurts out. I look up at her with surprise. She has a lot of guts to say that as a nine year old, but I know she would say something like that. After everything we’ve been through tonight I highly doubt anything scares her anymore, let alone some lady.
“Your training will take years to complete,” she spats in her face leaning down. “Who will train you all of our men are either training themselves or training younguns like you-“
“I will train them, Carson.” Logan interrupts. She pauses and stands up having her eyes harden on his.
“You, shall train them into fighters?” She repeats slowly and steadily so he hears it all. “You already have three others you have to train.”
“One is almost done and he will be moving on to the junior class, another has decided he wants to become a program manager. I can train two more . . . let me rephrase that, I want to train these two. They have potential and I have a feeling they will become great soldiers.”
Sergeant McCarthy looks at him then down at us. I step out from behind Kimberley and stand up straight, showing her I’m not afraid. Carson’s expression softens a little and she sighs, “Alright, I’ll take two more, because they have had a rough night, and they also survived a murder attack. That has to count for something. Show them to their room and come back down.” She turns to sit back down but stops, “We have to talk.”