The terror of WYD

Ch. 1 of Cass

Cass

Where did everyone go? One moment we were all together and then the next we were all split up in the chaos. I hope they are alright. It would be awful if something happened to them and I hate think like this, but what if we never got to see each other again. I don’t want to end our friendships off with just a memory of the chaos that happened at the final mass. That would just be awful.

But right now I need to focus on our problem now though. Someone found us while we were trying to move to a different building! I don’t know how we were always so careful, but I can worry about that later. What matters now is that one of the roaming firing squads that was working for the Brazilian government must have seen us while they were patrolling the area and now they know that we are hiding in the one of the abandoned restaurants. They must of heard us or something because they came rushing in here, I don’t know what to do. We are trapped in the back and the door is jammed, there is no way out from this end. To make things worse there are twelve of us and we are all going to be seen if something doesn’t get rid of the troops. We are all freaking out and I am trying to keep the younger kids calm, but it is progressively getting harder to do that. Russell is frantically arguing with Jade and I don’t know what it is about, but I hope it is to come up with a plan because if someone doesn’t do something soon we are all going to be screwed.

After a couple of minutes of intense waiting Russell came shuffling over to me just barely low enough to not be seen above the kitchen counters. He came up right next to me and leaned over to my ear and whispered “I’m going to distract them you have to sneak them past them when they come for me…okay.” “NO. I won’t do that…you know I can’t live without you…please don’t do this.” He leaned forward and kissed me and smiled. I started to cry and I reached out and tightly hugged him, trying desperately not to let him go. I could hear him crying as well and he hugged me back kissing me on the forehead telling me that he was doing this for me, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to let the one I love go, but he pushed his way through my arms, kissed me on my head one last time and turned away never looking back. I reached out to try and stop him, to try and pull him close to me again, but I was to slow and by the time my arm had fully extended, he had already jumped out one of the open windows. I could feel the tears stinging my cheeks with new found vigour as I watched longingly at Russell as he ran further and further away, but I had to be strong. I took a few cautious steps around the safety of the kitchen counters and headed for the kitchen doors and as I moved closer I was able to get a view of dining area. I watched as the soldiers saw Russell and all ran out after him. “Come on” I say and motioned for them to follow me and I tried to get us to move as quickly as possible. I pushed open the front door and I turned to watch as the four soldiers chased after him down an alley. I turned away and started running in the opposite direction, when I heard gun fire I faltered for a moment, slowing down. I started to cry even harder and began to frantically run, unable to control the motion of my legs, but I had to do everything in my power to make sure that we got away so that the kids we had with us could have a chance to live.

I lead us down far too many twisting and curving streets and down many dark and lonesome alleys trying so desperately to cover as much distance as physically possible. We kept running until the kids’ legs gave way and we only slowed down a little, just enough to quickly pick them up and carry them. We started running again, this time we were moving so quickly that it was all the signs and buildings were a blur. We only went to stop when the legs of the adults started to give way and even then we kept running until we were forced to stop from the exhaustion. I let the kid on my back climb off and that gave me a moment to sit down and look around trying to make out how far we had travelled. I couldn’t really tell until I started looking up into the sky and there I saw the cable cars swinging in the air. I followed the cables and just then realized that we had made it all the way to the cable cars docking that leads up to Sugar Loaf Mountain. Those were at least seven kilometres from where we started. I couldn’t believe that the cables were ridiculously intact, in a city where most of the buildings were blown in half there were still some things that remained untouched. “We should go up there we would be safe there, no one could reach us up at the top.” Jade said enthusiastically and I did think a little I about her suggestion. There were many benefits of going up there, we could avoid the firing squads and militia, but in the end I said “No it would be too easy for us to get trapped up there and also we would probably be seen if we went up in the cable cars. We should stay in the reception office though, we could probably salvage something from somewhere in there, but that is as far as we are going towards Sugar Loaf.” I was a little surprised that I could speak in a tone that left no room for argument and it surprised me how natural it felt to be in command.  It felt great that I was able to influence the people in my group with just a few simple words.