In New America, chosen children are taken to be soldiers at the age of 10. They are given guns and treated mercilessly. So who are Zana Carmichael and her five companions? They are The Chosens on the run.

Chapter 3

"There they are!" one guard yelled. Suddenly, a fist connected with the side of his head and the guard dropped to the ground. Ana was cradling her hand. Guess the guard had a really hard head. A second later, two large, hairy arms grabbed me and pushed me to the ground. The guard who had attacked me had my thin body pinned to the ground with his knees on my elbows. Gosh, it hurt. Another guard was repeatedly kicking the side of my head with his shiny black boot. My vision was blurring when the knees on my elbows released. After that, the guard kicking my head crumbled to the ground. I saw Harris and Andrew totally kicking butt, each taking on a guard. I scrambled up and started helping Ana. She was trying to fight off two guards and a third was about to pounce on her. I roundhouse-kicked one guard and knocked another unconscious with a fast punch. "Come on!" Harris yelled. We all took off running through the forest. I never realized how shaky my steps were.

            Andrew was the first to notice that I wasn't well. "Zana, are you alright?" he asked as I stumbled for the fifth time.

"Yeah," I mumbled. My legs felt wobbly.

"You sure? You don't look good."

"I'm fine," I insisted. "Why are you so pushy?"

"I'm worried. Maybe you should rest for a while."

Ana glanced back at me. "She looks fine," she stated firmly, but Ana looked like she could care less. We kept walking but I was getting really tired. What's wrong with me? I thought. Maybe I was sick or something.

I was really getting annoyed with myself after tripping and falling yet again. I could tell that Ana was getting pretty angry too. She would scowl and sigh every time she had to stop and wait for Andrew to help me up. I could see that both Andrew and Harris were worried. I guess they didn't want a sick girl on their hands.

Finally, Andrew said that I looked too tired to walk and started carrying me. I slowly became more and more tired until I didn't feel like I could move a muscle. "She looks really bad," Andrew told Ana in a worried tone.

"Shut up," Ana replied, glaring at him, "She looks alright."

"She is right here and she agrees with Ana," I lied, "I'm fine, Andrew, seriously." All of a sudden, my vision started to blur and my eyelids started closing. The last thing I saw was how I was shaking before I fainted in Andrew's grasp.