The Chosen Ones (SHORT STORY)

The Chosen Ones

Has anyone actually stayed awake for a whole class of biology? I can never stay focused. I usually put my head down and take a nap. Our teacher, Mr. Simpson always talks about the same thing day after day. He never gives out assignments, never asks questions, or hands out quizzes. All we have to do is show up for class.  

The day was like every other. We showed up for class, he came in the classroom, took attendance, and he started talking about cell structure just like everyday. After he called “Jamie” and I responded “here.” I put my head down and I quickly fell asleep.

I woke up with a gasp, the bell was going off. I stood up and noticed that there was no one else in the classroom. Where did they all go? I thought to myself.

“Hello!” I called trying to get a response. All I received was silence. No one called back, so I started walking around the hallways. I didn’t see anyone, so I decided that maybe there was a fire drill or something.

I walked outside the building, and saw no one. Since there was no one at the school, I got on my bike and went home. While riding home I didn’t see any cars. When I reached my house I didn’t worry much. Both my parents were at their jobs and my little brother was at the baby sitters. So I went up into my room and I read a book.  

Hour and hour passed and there was no sign of anyone. No cars, no joggers jogging by, and my parents never came back from work. Now I was starting to freak out and I had no idea what I was going to do.

If most kids in my class were to wake up and find that everyone was gone, would be having a blast. They would eat tons of junk food, and would be running around town, but not me. I was worried. I worried around my family, my friends, and I was worrying if I was going to be alone forever.

I couldn’t stand the not knowing if I was alone; so I quickly ran downtown. I went into shop after shop looking for any signs of life. Each shop was the same, everything was in order but there was no people. Come to think of it, why is there no people but there are birds and other animals? I could hear birds still chirping in the distance and I saw a squirrel running across a street.

Since there were animals I could rule out that time froze. Although I still had no idea where everyone was. Since I saw that the town was empty, maybe what ever happened only happened here. Suddenly an idea struck me; I decided that I was going to go to the next town over and see if there were people there. It was clear to me that I needed to find out what happened right away. I ran back to my house and got into my parent’s car, only to find that there were no keys.

I was out of options and I knew that it would be after dark if I walked or biked the 10 miles to the next town over. So I did the only thing that I could think of; I went over to my friend’s house and quickly got her horse Rocky. Ever since Riley and I had become friends I would come over and she would teach me how to ride horses. Now I’m grateful Riley always made sure I could saddle and bridle my own horse. I swiftly saddled Rocky up and threw on a bridle.

Rocky didn’t even flinch when I hopped on her. She was used to being ridden and even thought she was older, she could still gallop and canter for a long time. Soon I was on my way to Brownfield.

On my way to Brownfield I didn’t see any signs of life just like in my town. Thus I knew that I had to keep going; I was depending on a sliver of hope that there might be other people.

It took me about 3 hours to get to Brownfield. Along the way I just kept wondering what the townspeople would say if I showed up on horseback saying that everyone in my town had disappeared. In addition I was thinking about how my town would react if someone was going to do the same thing that I was doing.

I think that if a stranger rode to our town on horseback, while claiming that everyone was gone, would be put into a jail cell. Along with being locked up I think that the police would claim that the person was crazy and was in need to be in a mental institution.