Lost Mind

Possible Freedom

I look through the one window left uncracked in the back of the house to see if anything is nearby. So far nothing, but anything can happen. I crack the back door open slightly and dash towards the fence. So far nothing chases me. I hop over the fence half-heartedly and rip my pants a little. I knew I had no other pairs so I had to be careful on the way down. I jump down the rest of it and it shakes my bag. The puppies start making noise and I make a terrible attempt at quieting them down before I hear something rustling in the bushes nearby.

A rough-bearded homeless-looking man jumps toward me, almost making me trip on a trash can behind me. His voice is cracking and very dry as if he hasn't had water in a long time. "Hello, Stranger!" "Ugh....." "Well that's no way to introduce yourself now, is it? My name is Sam, and you are?" "Uhm, I'm Jake." "Well nice to meet you Jake, what are you doing out here by yourself?" I almost answer him truthfully before realizing that I don't know this man at all. "Ugh, you know, just looting and such, what about you?" "Oh, me? Well, same except I'm not having as much of luck as you are friend. Say, you want shelter don't you?" "Absolutely," I blurt out loud before realizing my mistake.

This might be my chance at meeting with Julia again. "Well you're in luck because I happen to know of such a place. The only thing is, before I tell you, you must agree to help me get in as well." "Why can't you get in yourself?" "Oh, well they kicked out little 'ol me, said I was breaking some silly old rules of theirs." I stared at him blankly, what kind of rules did he break? "Oh don't be worried boy, it was nothing serious. It was something along the lines of not helping others." That calmed me a little, but not much. "Where might we find this shelter?" "Well, it's at the community center in town, dummy! The only place to be able to fit over 70 people at once." That's way too many people in one place, what if something bad happens? Maybe this place isn't as great as I imagined it to be. "Here, let's go over there now, boy. Remember your promise though..."

As we walk along the back streets and alleys of the town, I start to remember the hectic morning a few hours before. Why were they making so much noise when they were leaving? Were they trying to kill me? And why did Julia cry when they left? Does she actually care about me? What if she's dead? What if she is the next one pushed into an alien by Jack. Jack.... "What ya thinkin' about there buddy?" "Oh, uh, just some friends I was with a while back, they..." " Oh, you don't need to explain it to me bud, I understand completely. I had some friends of mine that died right in my face. Terrible moment there." We walked in silence for the next minute or so until we finally got there. As we turn the corner, I can see a huge building with a curved roof with windows on all sides. Thankfully, they're all boarded up. As we start to get to the entrance, I realize that Sam is no longer behind me. I turn around to find him right as someone yells down at me, "Stop, right now!"

I hear a gun cock behind me and I instantly throw my hands up in the air. "Drop everything!" I start to lower my bag slowly as to not wake the puppies. I then grab my bat and toss it over to him. I reach down for the pocket knife in my shoe but stop halfway. It's my only line of defense at this point. I crouch down and start to untie and tie my shoe. "Hands up!" I slowly raise myself back to standing position. "Are you alone?" I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. " I said, are you alone?" "Yes..." I fake a tear in hopes of them going easy on me. " Okay, stay right there!" I do exactly what he says. I hear metal doors open and people sprinting towards me. I stay still bracing myself for anything. They slow down and grab my bat and bag before the puppies start crying. "What the hell?" "Look, he's got dogs with him." "Rush them inside now, they need food." I hear them sprinting back and finally, the metal doors shut. "Sorry about that, protocol and all." What kind of protocol was that? "My name's Richard, and I'm assuming you want into our fine establishment. It's your lucky day though because I happen to be one of the leaders here. With your puppies, they'll definitely put smiles back on people's faces. Oops, I guess I'm getting sidetracked, what's your name?" "Uh, it's Jake." "Well nice to meet ya Jake, how about you follow me in and I'll introduce you to the group."

I sit there for a second in disbelieve that I was so easily able to get in the building. "Are you comin' or ya wanna just sit there daydreaming?" "Oh, sorry. I'm coming." I better not mess this up. Who knows where I would go if I got kicked out of here. Kicked out of here... Sam! I completely forgot about him. Would they have shot him if he revealed himself? Would they have shot me? I better not care about that now. I have more important things to focus on like the dogs and meeting this group.

I walk over to Richard and wait for him to open the large metal doors that secure the building. He motions me in, so I take one step and look around. It's dark in here. Maybe some sort of camouflage? I squint my eyes to look around. There are a lot of people looking at me it seems. Richard taps me on the back. "Follow me Jake." I wait for a second before following behind him closely. It seems these people don't really trust me. There are many empty "camps" around and I narrowly miss a few of them.

Richard starts walking on the stage at the very back of the community center. I am reluctant at first to go up, but after some nudging from some of the soldiers, I slowly walk up onto the stage. "Hello, everyone! Isn't it a beautiful morning today? Anyways I just want to introduce you to Jake." Everyone is very silent as he waits for some response. "A fun fact about Jake here, he is the one that brought those puppies in!" Murmurs begin as people whisper to each other things like, "Is that really the guy?" and "Those puppies are so cute!" I think me, or I guess those puppies, really made a good influence on these people. " If you haven't gotten to pet them or hear their beautiful voices, they will be in the kitchen for the time being. I may need some of the kids here to help me take care of them." A lot of the children get excited as he says that.

"Follow me." I start to follow Richard off the stage and as I walk to what looks like his office a lot of people we pass start praising me and compliment how nice the dogs look. Once we get to his "office", Richard sits me down with a smile on his face. "It seems you've made a good impression on them." "Yeah, I hope so." "It's a good thing too because I've been looking for a vice-president in here for quite a time now." "Didn't you say you were one of the leaders here?" "Well sure, there are leaders for the cooking and cleaning, but I am the main guy around here. I'm thinking you might be the right guy for this. We'll tell everyone tomorrow. For now, go and introduce yourself to everyone and try to help out around here. We have some older folks that need help from time to time." I walk out and look around and see what my new life looks like. I take a deep breath and head to the nearest person.