Ian's+Short+Story

"Will you hurry up and kick it!" I asked Impatiently. ""You want me to do it right, don't you?" he replied. "NO! I don't care if you do it right, wrong or upside-down. JUST DO IT!!!" This was getting really annoying. "All-right, all-right. Keep your pants on." Especially annoying since he was staying so calm through my agony. He lined up, he ran at the ball and- he stopped. "Why'd you stop Tony?" He said something that I couldn't quite hear. "What did you sat?" I asked. Then, he practically screamed at me,"The bus is here Jacob. THE BUS IS HERE!!" Quickly, I turned and ran through my house, grabbed my back-pack, said bye to my parents for the week and ran out the door onto the bus. "Tony thinking of being on time one of these days?" the bus driver asked. "You thinking of listening to anything but reggae one of these days?"I responded. "No,' he said. "Bingo!" I said with a smile and patted him on the back and went down the aisle to find a seat for me and Tony.Once I found a seat, I thought about whether the school had gotten any more security because of the recent support to the city where getting. Most powerful of which is the LRA(Lord's Resistance Army). I'd heard that they had received 30 new members in the last month alone(18 of which where ex-cops). "Thanks buddy." Startled out of thought, I looked up and saw Tony sitting down beside me. "What took you so long?" I asked. "Nothing," He replied. "Oh come on." "Hey!" he said, "I don't ask about your life 24-7 do I?" "No, bu-" "Well then can we just change the subject?" "Sure. Fine. Whatever." This was getting suspicious. If he's late the the next time, it will mark his 10th time late in a row. He used to never be late. Then this new kid moved in called Micheal. After that, he started being late a lot. I assumed he had made friends with Micheal and was talking to him on the phone, but then Micheal was taken by the LRA and I thought would stop. On the contrary, it increased dramatically. Eventually, he just was late, pretty much every day. "We're here," he said sounding annoyed. That was happening a lot more often also. We got off the bus and started looking for our friend Paul.However, before we could find him the principal found us and told us to go to our dorms:"There will be a surprise waiting for you there, you'd better run along," he said. Once we got there, we found Paul there with a younger boy. "Oh, guys. There you are, finally." Paul sounded almost exited but also annoyed at the same time. "Who's this?" Tony asked gesturing to the kid. "This is Norman,"Paul replied. "Why is Norman Here?"I inquired. "Norman is a new kid who is quite smart therefore he has been sent here when he should be back in grade 7." "You misunderstand the question,"Tony stated."Why is Norman //here//, in our dorm, with you. That clear enough for you." "Ah," Paul said,"well, The principal brought him here to me while I was waiting for you guys and told me that we would be looking after Norman until he gets on his own two feet." "What?!" Tony exclaimed,"Us? Are you kidding me?" "You've got to be joking, right?"I couldn't believe this. "Nope,"he said,"we need to take care of **HIM** for at least the next month or two until he gets on his own to legs in this new environment. If we let him loose any time before he's comfortable, the principal will find him, bring him to us and bring with him a 2 weeks free detention card." Both Tony and I let out huge sighs and muttered some things that i Wouldn't repeat out loud "Whoops,"Paul said looking at his watch,"we got an assembly in 10 minutes." "We'd better get moving,"I said,"come on //Norman."//

//*//

"For the last time Norman,"I said face-down in my pillow,"I'm sure that it was just your imagination." "I'm telling you,"he persisted,"I heard men yelling downstairs." "Just go to sleep! Everyone else has."He was very very persistent, I'll give him that. "Okay,"Norman said in a particularly whiny tone. I would have told him to watch it but i didn't have the strength t-BAM! I sat bolt upright in bed. "What was that?"Paul asked. Now everyone was sitting bolt up in bed. BAM! BAM! BAM! "There it is again!"Paul sounded scared. "We can all hear it Paul!"Tony yelled. BAM! BAM! Each one was louder than the previous and each made us jump in the air. CRACK!! Splinters flew from the old wooden door like dust. CRACK!! and more splinters flew. Holes where now visible in the door and we could see movement through the door. (clink, clatter, clatter)"What was that?"Norman asked. I thought for a minute...."Oh my god,"I said Quietly. "What?" Tony asked. "**HIDE!!**"I yelled and everyone ducked behind their beds. "Everybody up!" someone yelled. Reluctantly, we all stood up and saw who was talking. "My name is Opiro and we are the LRA."he stood forward looking to inspect us."You will know me as your 'commander'. You will everything I say as soldiers of Christianity." Opiro continued to lecture us as he walked out to inspect each one of us. I noticed that he had two men with shotguns following him. One of them looked familiar.... "Hey, Kid" a voice from behind me asked. "What?" I asked as I started to turn and then bang! The last thing I heard before passing out was:"don't look, it's a sign of respect."
 * BLAM!!!**(clunk, clunk)Chunks of wood and shrapnel flew into the room and men with big guns replaced the old wooden door.



I woke up in an alley with a bunch of kids I didn't recognize leaning over me. I jumped up a little and they stood back a bit. I looked around for my friends to see if they could tell me what happened. I saw them in the distance hunched over something. I ran over to see what it was. They where opening up a hatch. "What's going on?"I asked. "We're going,"Tony said. "Going?"I questioned,"going where?" "Into the LRA lair,"Paul replied with a scared look on his face. The hatch opened up and everyone started climbing down. My friends went down and I followed suit. It was almost impossible to see other than a few fires of multiple colours and they weren't much either. However, where it lacked in visibility, it made up for in stench and noise. Those thing where so strong it could knock you over. "Everybody listen up!"Opiro's voice echoed through the sewer. "You're eyes will adjust to the light.You will be spending a lot of time here. "Each of you will be given a job. If you do well, you will get food. f you do poorly, you get this." he pulled up a girl that had her ears cut off. Everyone gasped and murmured. "Everyone go towards the blue fire to get your assigned job."Opiro called out. Once we got our jobs, we were told to go to the orange fire to get our equipment. When that was done they told us to get to work. Me and Paul where assigned kitchen duty. Tony was given guard duty and Norman was assigned cleaning duties. The next few weeks where absolutely grueling agony. The nights where no better. Everyone had to sleep on the sewer floor. One day, Norman didn't even say a word untill that night when he said:"I told you I heard something." Another day, I was serving food for the others and myself and I saw that guy I thought I recognized from the night of our capture. "Hey guys!" I said excited. "What do you want!"Tony said. He seemed to be more and more irritable lately. Maybe it was his bad sleep lately. "I think I know one of our captors. He's an old friend of mine." "Which one?" Paul asked. I pointed towards one of Opiro's Body guards and everyone started nodding and silently expressing their feelings...except for Tony who just looked and smiled dumbfounded. "Plus,"I said,"the waitress Hannah i-" "Wait,"Paul interrupted,"isn't Hannah the girl with no ears?" "Yes but I think she's looking to get out and since she serves the Commander's food,"I said enthusiastically,"she could gi-"I was interrupted again by Tony laughing. "What's so funny?"I asked. "I know your friend,"he said,"he's my friend." "What?"I asked,"you've never met." "Yes we have,"he said still wearing a huge smile,"that's Micheal. The Micheal that got captured." ""Well that's great!" I said,"you go talk to Micheal and I'll go talk to Hannah."

(The next at at lunch)

"Well,"I asked,"how'd it go?" "Not good,"Tony replied."He doesn't want to go and I can't make him." "Well,"I said,"I got good news. Hannah will leave with us and help us do it." "Right on!"Paul said."Maybe you could convince Micheal to come, Jacob." "I'll try."I got up and walked over to him. I told him to meet me in the hall quietly. He walked after me. "Do you want to get out of here?"I asked. "Yeah,"he said sounding surprised that I would ask that question."Who doesn't?" "Okay?"I said confused,"then you should come eat with us once and a while. We would have a lot to talk about." I went back to my table and sat down. "Why'd you talk to him?"Tony asked. "Because he's my friend,"I said, now more confused. "That wasn't Mike!"Tony said,"that was the other body-guard!" "Oh,"I said. That made more sense."Well, the good thing is that he does want to escape and I think he will help us." (HONK!)"That means back to work!"a voice said over a P.A. system. "We'll talk again later,"I said and then left.



"I can't leave,"Tony said. "What?" I asked. "I can't leave Mike here. I just can't leave my friend,"he continued."I won't tell that you're leaving but I can't go with you, I just can't,"then he got up and left. Everyone sighed and buried their face in their hands. "You have to go!"Hannah came up to the table.."They caught Norman talking about escaping and they'll catch you too. You have to go!" "But how?"Paul asked.. "Good news,"Oteka(the other guard) came up to the table."I'm guarding the hatch tonight so we can escape." "What about Norman?"I asked,"he's coming too,right?" "Yeah,"Hannah said,"the person who guards the hatch guards the prisoners." "Okay,"I said trying to stay calm. I was as exited as ever,"we'll meet back here tonight when all the others are asleep. See you then." everyone agreed and then the horn sounded

(That Night)

I woke up and went to the rendezvous point. Surprised that the others were already there, we went as quietly as possible to the hatch. Oteka and Norman where waiting for us. We ran up to the hatch and exited, ran down the ally across the street and- "STOP!" We turned around to see Micheal walking toward us gun in hand with Tony trailing behind him. Micheal wlked closer and every step he took made the fact that we'd been caught more re-BLAM! Micheal was hit by a truck. "Come on Tony!" I yelled and then started running. He hesitated, looking at the body of his friend. Then he dropped his gun and started running with us. Eventually, we found a cop who took us to his station where we where questioned before being allowed to leave. Then 20 days of interrogation, we where allowed to go back home. Hannah, though, had no family to return to. So I convinced my parents to take her in. Tony, however, had a different story. I found out that he was always late because he was smoking, and he was getting his smokes from Micheal. He had become more seriously addicted after this incident and he died 2 years later. Paul and Norman went insane and haven't communicated since.