Heartless

Summer 1868, the time it started. I was 14 and still pretty naive. Every day I would bike down to the tree house by the river with my freinds Mary, Charlotte, Ronald, Max, Samuel, John, and my younger brother and sister; Rosie and Paeter.

Today was one if those days.

"Paeter get a move on! I want to beat Mary there!" That was me yelling that, eldest sibling and I ALWAYS had to drag these two wherever I went.

"I'll be there soon, you go ahead and I'll bring Rosie with me." That was good enough for me.

I grabbed my bike and sped off down the hill away from my farm cottage and down to the village of Sweenytown. I rode past Mary's house on the way but she wasn't in the garden so I kept in going down to the river.

When I arrived, I found I was the first one there for the first time ever, even Ron wasn't there yet! I couldn't decide what to do while I was waiting so I decided to clean up the old clubhouse a bit. I was down in my hands and knees scrubbing the floor when it happened. The ground started to rumble, then shake, then the wide blue sky was filled with darkness. The huge iron sky monster was overhead. I was terrified, But that didn't matter because by the time I realised what was happening; I had blacked out.

I woke up to see eight worried faces surrounding me. I sat up and they asked me what was wrong, but when I told them they didn't beleive me; "heat must be getting to ya Kristy."

That night was the night me and my gang decided to camp out my the scrooms: A swampy area that if you werent careful and slipped, It would swallow you whole. We set up camp and then went to sleep so we would be enrgised to play games and pack up in the morning.

About 4 hours later, I woke up to the sound of a distant rumbling. Oh no not again! I started shaking Samuel, he'd know what to do. When he wouldnt wake I looked around for my next most trusted person. The rumbling got louder. Thats when I saw Rosie. She was standing up to the sky, arms in the air and a wicked grin on her face. The ground started to shake and the stars were blocked out by one of the huge iron sky monsters. Everyone started to wake up. I gasped and fell back onto Samuel, who was luckily now awake and managed to catch me. I heard a blood curdeling scream, Then every thing went dark.

By the time I woke up, I was one of the last ones to wake from the strange unconsciousness. The only two people other than me who were still asleep were Rosie who was sleeping soundly, and Max who was currently asleep on his face. Seeing Rosie sleeping strangely peacefully made me remember what I had seen last night. I shuddered and tried to forget. I turned around to see how badly injured everyone was, but only fell back down from the pain in my head. Strong hands slowly lifted me up to a sitting position. I looked into the face of Samuel. He had a split lip and a black eye. '' Jesus Samuel! Are you okay?'' I panicked seeing him in such a state and stood up abruptly, ignoring the pain. '' The question is are YOU okay?" he replied as he slowly stood up. I grabbed a large peice of glass from Johns shattered milk bottle and stared at my reflection. My braids were a mess; burnt from the heat of the strange sky monsters, I also had a split lip, Black eye, and a deep gash wandering from the top corner of my forehead, across my nose, where my lip was split, and ended just below my chin. I looked around and realised that I had the worst injuries of all of the people still ALIVE. Everyone including Rosie were now awake and helping eachother tend to their battlescar except for the still asleep Max. I walked over to him and turned him over to see if he was really asleep. He wasn't, well not the dormant kind of sleep. I fell backwards with horror. Maxs face was no longer his, instead it was replaced with a distorted expression, an eternal scream as we now call it. I saw blood on his chest so I ripped his shirt open, expecting the worst. The worst was ready for me. On the left side of his chest was a gaping hole leading straight to his hearts chambers, But they had taken it. Max Mahhew was now one of the Heartless.

Charlotte screamed at the sight of her older brother. " Max! No!" she screamed. She stood up and John and Ronald tried to grab her but she was too strong for them. She tore herself from their grasp and ran off into the forrest. Nobody dared to go after her because the woods is a dark and terrible place where the Jempens, Lurkers and who knew what else roamed. Thanks to the Vitanics, We had lost Charlotte Lily Mahhew and Max Fredrick Mahhew.

We decided that we would leave for Sweeneytown as soon as we had our gear sorted. We arrived back in town just before that evening. As soon as we got there we knew without even searching for bodies, we were all orphans along with the other 50-60 survivors. No adults had survived and now the closest thing we had to an adult was 19 year old Kerin Flaxmere. All us chilrdren dragged the dead to the streets then stood silently as Kerin lit a match after pouring alchol over the bodies, and dropped it onto the pile. As everything we knew slowly burnt away with the smell of cooking human flesh, We all saluted and sung the National anthem of Glantom. That night was a scavenger hunt for our lives, literally. We all stole what we could find, but only things to help us survive out all alone. I managed to find enough food to fill a pack, several boxes of matches, a flint and steel, medicine of all kinds, a first aid kit, a tarpauling, rope, and my survival kit.

Our gang all met up at the clubhouse, the only building we could find that was still safe from harm. First there was Mary, Then Paeter Rosie and I, Then Ronald, and Lastly Samuel and John. We were all amazed at what Samuel and John and bought. A donkey and a Pony all equipt with the gear they would need to carry at least two riders and luggage. " Kristeva! Are you impressed!!" John shouted from the ladder of the treehouse. I jumped down and hugged him. " stole it from Old man Hithers place." Said John. This made me happy until I remembered why we were doing this. " Load them up!" I ordered. When we were all saddled up, We set off. Rosie and Charlotte were on the donkey, and Paeter and John were on the horse. Samuel, Ronald, and I all walked. Samuel lead the donkey since Charlotte didnt know how to ride and Rosie was obviously too young. I walked alongside Sam while Ron took up the back of the gang, " Do you think we will last very long?" he asked me. " I dont know" I said, " considering we have little Rosie, john, and Paeter , with us we might not last too long; the only people who would really be able to put up a fight would be you, me, and maybe not even Ronald!" i said. We took a glance over at Ronald who was sweating and wheezing from exhaustion. Mary wouldn't be able to fight for her life, she is basically our only one to keep us sane. Sam walked over and got Ron to jump on his back to take the weight from his feet. ron was clearly embarrased as his face turned red as a beetroot as he pushed his wide glasses up his dented nose. We walked for hours until we found a good place to camp.