Aftermath

Chapter 5

Iwoke up dizzy. I couldn't feel my body. When I opened my eyes, Iwas in a dark room. I looked to my sides, and saw Sam, Sara, and myMom. A man walked up to us in a chair. "You have been injected withAcidtomine. It makes you paralyzed for about three hours. It alsomakes you resist harm from radiation, or the black rain. Developed bymyself." He said with pride. "Where are we?" I said in a soft,exhausted voice. The others had not woken up yet. "You're inD.C." he proclaimed in response. 'Why on earth were we acrossstates?' I thought to myself.

"Youmay be wondering why you're here. Well, yesterday while on yourcountry's soil, we released one of our generally mutated bears. Itscented you out when you left your little bunker shelter. We are inone of the very few areas where crops are still growable. We plan tomake you useful." he announced. "And if you don't oblige,well.." he said, pointing a gun to my neck. "You don't wannafind out."

Hedragged the gun across my neck. With his chair, he got up and left. Ipeered over to my sides, and the others were finally waking up.Thinking about how we were on the last survivable place on earth, Idon't want to let some invaders take our territory. "Sam.." Icalled, in a faint voice. He turned over. "We were drugged.." Itold him. "What do we do now?" He replied anxiously. "We dowhat they say. Gain their trust. Then we strike." Sara called outfrom the left. "We can try to-" my Mother was interrupted by thesudden lighting in the room. All of the lights came on and other mencame into the room.

Ifelt exhausted. I could barely speak at the moment. I wondered howanything in this damn world could get any worse. The men picked us upwith their bulky arms and carried us to some sort of bedroom. "Sleeptight, you're gonna need the energy tomorrow." They dimmed thelights and shut the door. I heard a faint metal bolt being closed.They locked the door. "Anne, we need to get out of here."Sam announced. Regaining my ability to move, I slowly walked to thecenter of the bed I was on. "We need to take this place over." Isaid. "We can't let them take the land that is ours. We need tohatch a plan to fight them. Even if it means we kill them." Icontinued. "Like I said. They won't just let us get away withanything. We need to gain their trust, or else they won't keep theireyes off of us." Sara explained, with a serious tone. "What'sthe point.." my Mother said with a discouraged voice. "We'vealready lost almost everything we have. We lost our phones, guns,equipment, everything. And now, they are offering to NOT kill us. Whywould we fight them?" she continued. "Because this land does notbelong to them!"

Changing thesubject, Sarah got up and walked over to the door. She pulled the pinthat Sam gave her out of her pocket and started to look at thedoorknob. "Mom, I thought you said we had to gain their trust."Sam complained. "Just in case.." she said while picking the lock.*Clink*. The door unlocked. "Nice." Sara said. She reached on theoutside of the door and locked it again. "Now that we have a wayout if things go sideways, it seems we're safe." Sara continued.

"Well,I guess we have a long day tomorrow. Better get some rest." Iannounced. In annoyance, and a bit of anger, I laid down on the bedthat I was on, but I didn't go to sleep. I was thinking abouteverything that has happened in the past three weeks. The missiles,dad, the people at the door, the bear. I still feel the guilt of notletting those people in the bunker. It hurt. It hurt badly. Not tomention the physical pain that I still felt from the radiation burns.It felt like a thousand knives stabbing me all over. I tried to hidethe pain. I bet Sam felt the same way about my safety. He doeseverything he can to protect me.

Eventually, I letmyself go, and I fell into a deep sleep. It wouldn't last longthough. About an hour and a half after our planning discussion, Ikept getting woken up by some loud jack hammers outside of thebuilding. I still had no Idea what building we were actually in. Iwas able to find myself dozing off again.

Thenext morning, we were woken up by four men walking into the room. Oneof them sat down, while the others stayed by the door. He woke us upand Introduced himself. "Hi, Anne. I'm Sargent Pike." I backedaway in fear. "How do you know my name??!" I asked in confusionand fear. "Don't be worried, we have the names of everyone whoenters the district." He said, smiling. He turned away. "You guysmust be.." He looked at his wooden clipboard. "Sam, Sarah, andBrylee.. Correct?" he continued. Everyone nodded with doubt."Great." he said.