Completed book. Enjoy!

chapter one

Two men sat in a dark room. One was a short, balding man with wide eyes and spectacles. The second was sat in a tall, black, throne-like wheelchair. He was wearing all black, even a black mask covered his head. A metal grid covered his eye area. He had countless tubes coming out of various parts of his body that went around to the back of his wheelchair. An air of darkness was around him.
The short old man sat nervously as he fiddled with his fingers while the dark, masked man sat calmly.
“It is time, Doctor.” The masked man said with a voice like thunder.
The old man jumped at his voice, then he relaxed. He had expected this day would come soon, although he was still skeptical.
“This form is growing weaker and weaker,” The man continued, “It is time to find a Subject.”
“But where?” The Doctor stammered.
The masked man laughed a deep and horrible laugh that shook the room and horrified the Doctor.
“Finding him shall be easy,” The masked man said with a relentless tone, “What you need to worry about is making him.”
The blood rushed from the Doctor’s face as a thought of pure horror struck him.
“But what if i fail?” He inquired.

The masked man chuckled.

“I think we both know the answer to that question, Doctor.”

The old man nodded in silent understanding. He stood and bowed before the masked man before walking out the door. He knew he was a dead man.

chapter 2

You are being ridiculous, I told myself for the hundredth time this week, He’s probably out of town, or maybe he’s sick or something....

My friend, Oliver had gone missing. Well, I don’t know if ‘missing’ is the right term, but he was gone. Vanished. Poof. It all started last week; thursday, to be exact. He wasn’t at school.

Ok, not a big deal, I thought, he’s probably just sick.

But then he wasn’t there the next day, either. I sent him an email:

Hey, are you ok? I didn’t see you at school today.

No response.

I didn’t see him saturday or sunday. I tried to send him a text message but there was no answer. He had been gone for 5 days.

At dinner, I wasn’t eating much.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” My mom asked.

“Oliver has been absent all week...” I mumbled.

“He’s probably just sick or busy.” My mom stated.

“Yeah.....” I said, but I knew there was something wrong. I felt it.

Thats when I finally decided to go visit his house.

Going to Oliver’s house is usually a big, scary thing for me. His mom has Schizophrenia, and his dad is always gone on business trips. His house is a bit scary to say the least, It’s pretty run down and beat up. He has a mean bulldog  that’s always chained to the fence, but it still scares me.

I took a deep breath and started walking up the path towards the door. The bulldog charged at me as it barked and slobbered everywhere, but it got pulled backwards by the chain. I gulped and continued walking. I got to the front porch and knocked on the door. I waited for ages before the door slowly opened, still chained so it only opened a few inches.

“Go....” I heard a shaky voice say.

“Is... Is everything... Ok?” I stuttered.

“Leave. Now.”

“Ms. Sharp? Are you ok?” I asked.

“GO! LEAVE NOW!!!” She shrieked. I jumped as the dog started howling and the door slammed. My heart was thudding as I ran down the pathway and down the street to my house. Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. I immediately tried to call his cell phone. I dialed his phone number. I waited for him to answer. There was no response but the message at the end was different. The voice was not Oliver’s, it was deep and harsh. It said:

He is mine. Long live Morte.

I shivered. Something was really wrong.

I knew where to go. I biked across town in the rain. I stopped at a big, light blue house with navy shingles and white window panes. This was Piper’s house. Piper is well... for lack of a better word, she is a hacker. She doesn’t hack personal accounts and use them for money, but she is very skilled with codes and things.
I hated asking for favors, but I needed help. I knocked on the door and she answered. Piper is a lot older than me, I am only in my second year of high school and she is graduating this year. Her hair is short and red. Her eyes are big and green and she is always wearing a lot of eyeliner. She usually lives alone because her dad is always out of town, and her parents are divorced.
“Who are you?” She asked in a southern accent.
“I’m... Uh... Wintergreen Fish, and--”
“Is this some sort of a joke?” She snapped.
“No, I um... I need your help. You see I--”
“Well duh, you need my help. I was talking about your name.” Piper interrupted.
“Um... That’s my real name, yeah...” I shrunk. “Can I come in please?”
She let me in and shut the door behind me.
“Now, you need my splendiferous deciphering skills, do you not?” She said, somewhat sarcastically.
“Yes. My friend is missing, and I need to track his phone.”
Piper raised an eyebrow.
“Is this some crazed obsession or something?”
“No, he’s just my friend, and he really is missing.”
I told her all about what had happened with his absence, and his message and his mom’s panic attack. She didn’t say much, but she kept nodding her head in understanding.
“Okay,” Was all she said when I was done, “Let me see your phone.”
I reluctantly handed it to her. I followed her into her bedroom. I was expecting it to be full of big computers and monitors and switchboards and buttons. . I was wrong. She only had two big monitors sitting on her desk. She told me to find his number from my contacts, so I did that.

“Go sit over there,” She pointed to a chair on the far side of the room.

I sat down. She then looked at the number and immediately started typing at lightning speed. I waited for several minutes before she said:

“Whoa...”

“What?!” I demanded.

She shook her head.

“You better come back tomorrow, kid. And bring money.”

Great... I thought.

chapter 3

The next day, when I woke up, I wanted to go straight to Piper’s house. But no. I had to wait until after school. My parents still had no idea what I was trying to do, and I had no idea what to tell them.
This thought lingered with me as I got ready for the day. I combed my long, brown hair and brushed my teeth. When I started to wash my face, I wasn’t really paying attention and I got soap right in my eye.
“AAAaAAaaaRrrgG!!!!” I yelled so loud that I think the whole neighborhood heard me.
I rapidly rinsed my face and scrubbed it dry with a towel. I looked at my eyes and they were bloodshot. It looked even more noticeable with my frosty blue iris.
I shrugged it off and walked to school. School was rather boring as usual. I didn’t really have a lot of friends other than Oliver. I was rather shy around loud people and I didn’t really fit in. Finally after final period, I darted to Piper’s house. I charged up her driveway and banged on her front door.
No answer.
I sighed. She wasn’t home from school yet, I guessed I would just sit on the porch until she came. I waited for a full half hour and she hadn’t come yet.
Maybe she has plans, I thought. I slowly walked home. I did my homework and ate my dinner.
“What’s the hurry?” My dad asked.
“I just have some... projects I need to finish before tomorrow.” (Well, I wasn’t lying!)
He nodded and continued to eat his chicken while my mom just gave me a peculiar look.  When I was done, I grabbed my bike and went to Piper’s house. Again I knocked on the door to see if she was home.
Again there was no response. I waited for around five minutes. I knocked again. No answer. I reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it and let myself inside.
“Piper?” I called out, “It’s me, Wintergreen.” No one responded.
I made my way to Pipers bedroom and turned on her computer monitors. One program was open on the left one. It was a Map. It had a pinpoint on one location. I wondered if this was where she had tracked oliver’s phone. I zoomed in and read it. It was an address for somewhere in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
What would Oliver be doing in New Mexico? I thought.
I wrote down the address and put some money on the keyboard. I charged home and turned on my computer. I typed the address into google.
No Matches found was all that came up.
“Come on!” I said outloud. I tried google earth, bing, yahoo, maps, Everything.
No matches for any of them. I put my head in my hands and groaned.


The next afternoon at school, I decided to go off of campus for lunch. I hopped on my bike and rode to a restaurant a few blocks away. I ordered my food and sat outside to eat. When I was almost finished, a short, old man with glasses walked up to me and dropped something in my lap. I looked down at it and then back at him. But he was gone. Poof. Vanished. I looked at the objects, there was a purple flash drive. It looked like it was brand new. There was also a small piece of wire. There was a note taped to them:

Keep them safe, you will need it.

I felt the strangest feeling that I needed to heed these words. I put them in my pocket.

I stood up and realized how silly I was being. I was probably just shaken from the whole ordeal with Oliver. Nonetheless, I kept the things in my pocket.

After school, I put the hard drive into my computer. A peculiar list of files and documents with inconspicuous names came up on the screen. I clicked on a random picture file and waited for it to load. It was a blurry smudge of colors, No one could be able to tell what it was. I clicked on another one. A fuzzy picture of a small woman with long, blonde hair at the grocery store came up. I guessed that these were snapshots from security cameras, which kind of confused me.

I clicked on a few files similar to this one for a few minutes. I saw no connection between the pictures, they were all at different locations. I clicked on the final picture and examined it. It was rather blurry, but I could make it out a little bit, it was a picture of a boy. Then I jumped, I recognized this boy’s black hair and grey sweatshirt.

It was Oliver; and there was someone else with him: Me.

chapter 4

I stood up.
Ok, what is going on?! This is not good! I thought, panicking.
I frantically clicked on several documents, trying to make some sense of them, but they were all in a strange code. I looked up all kinds of codes on google and found nothing. Then it hit me.
Piper can help.
I ripped the flash drive out of my computer and ran down the stairs. I leaped on my bike and pedaled as fast as I could. I was shocked to see police cars parked in the front. Piper’s dad was standing outside, talking to two police officers, he looked upset and confused. I heard a few words of their conversation.
Gone. Kidnapped. Don’t know.
Something told me that Piper had met the same fate as Oliver. I had to find the key to this code to learn more. I snuck around the back of the house and through Piper’s bedroom window. Luckily, her window was unlocked and no one was there. I turned on her computers and began to search. I was completely confused until I found a document with  similar shapes and numbers in it. I clicked on it and sighed with relief. It was the key. I clicked on ‘Print’ and waited for it to come out. Just as I grabbed it out of the tray, I heard voices and footsteps, and they were coming closer.  I rapidly unplugged the monitors and darted into the closet. I buried my self as deep into her clothes as I could, Praying that they wouldn’t find me. I heard the door open and some people walk inside. They said very little and I couldn’t make any of it out, but their voices sounded different from the police officers and Piper’s dad. Maybe they were different officers that came to investigate. But then I heard smashing noises.
I sat for what seemed like hours before I heard the door close. I slowly opened the closet door and peeked out. No one was there so I stepped out and looked around. I gasped when I saw that both of Piper’s monitors were smashed. I jumped out of the window and landed hard on the ground. I charged to the front of the house to see if I could catch the people who did this. I saw no one but the two police officers and Piper’s dad lying on the ground. I screamed and ran to them. I felt their pulses. I sighed in relief to see that they were just unconscious. But now they were waking up, and if they saw me here, It would be suspicious. I shoved the paper with the key on it into my pocket and hopped on my bike. I pedaled as hard as I could to get home. When I walked inside I jumped to see my mom standing there.
“What were you doing?” She asked me.
“Me? Oh, Uh, I was just... Studying... at a friend’s house.” I was bending the truth a bit, I must say.
“What friend?” My mom demanded.
“Uh, a new one, she lives east from here.”
My mom looked at me suspiciously and then said:
“Ok fine, Just next time tell me beforehand.”
“Ok, mom,” I said as I ran up the stairs to my bedroom.

I opened up a document and began to translate. I got as much as:

“January 20th, 2011, log #77
We have found a new enemy, a middle aged man with brown hair and green eyes. Height approximately 5’ 10’’ Weight approximately 230 lb. Name: Andrew Brown. May know about the--”

And then my dad walked in. I frantically closed the program and whirled around.
“What?” I said rather harshly.
Dad looked a little surprised.
“Uhh, what are you doing there?” He said a little sarcastically.
“I um, I’m writing a book, and it’s not going very well, so I don’t want anyone to read it,” I lied.
“Oh, um, Okay,” Dad said, “Do you want to take a break and have some cookies?”
I decided to go, I didn’t want to look too suspicious and withdrawn. I acted as casual as possible and pretended to be happy. When actually, I was wondering if I was going insane. When my parents finally went to bed, I ran upstairs and re-opened my program to continue typing.

“May know about the Translation Process. Immediate waylay.”

Immediate waylay? Translation process? What is going on!? My brain screamed.
I translated several documents such as this. All were the same except for the descriptions of people and some of them said thing like “May know something about location of headquarters” or “Has necessary information for the completion of the Translation Process.”
Finally I decoded a message that made me cry:


“November 16th, 2012, Log #136
We have found a candidate for the Translation Process. He is young, but he is strong. A teenage boy with black hair and blue eyes, Height  approximately  6’.  Name: Oliver Sharp. Immediate waylay.”


And thats when I knew that Oliver had been kidnapped. I didn’t know what to do. Sobbing, I decoded the last two documents


“November 30th, 2012, Log #137
We have found a new enemy. A teenage girl with short, red hair and green eyes, Height approximately 5’ 8’’.  May know about location of Headquarters and may have hacked into some of our systems. Name: Piper Wood. Immediate waylay and destruction of information source.”

Piper.

“December, 2nd, 2012, Log #137
We have found a new enemy, A teenage girl with long, brown hair and blue eyes. Height approximately 5’ 5’’.  Associate of Oliver Sharp and Piper Wood. She has stolen information from our computers. Name: Wintergreen Fish. Immediate waylay.”
And me.

I was next. I knew it. I trembled in the corner all night with a kitchen knife clutched in my hands. Where would they try to take me? Who is even trying to take me? Where were my friends? What did Oliver do to get kidnapped? Thoughts like these ran through my head for several hours before finally, the sun had risen, and I had to get ready for school.

School, the thought seemed so distant and peculiar. I didn’t want to go, but what else could I do?

I slowly got ready and started to walk to school, constantly looking over my shoulder. I felt a sudden burst of anxiety and started to run full speed to my school. I threw the doors open and ran to my first class. I was early, in fact, I was the only one there, besides the teacher, who was writing something on the board. And then I realized something even more peculiar, I  hadn’t seen anyone standing in the halls or outside. I was the only one, Me and my teacher. I slowly walked across the room and took a seat in my usual spot. The teacher, Mr. Harris stopped writing math problems on the chalkboard and started to slowly walk towards the door. He put a key in the knob and locked the door.

“Um. Mr. Harris, where is everybody?” I asked.

Then he turned and I screamed. It wasn’t Mr. Harris, It was a man about the same proportions as him, who had stolen his jacket. He started to approach me, and I frantically started to look around. I saw an unconscious man on the floor. It was the real Mr. Harris. I jumped over him and grabbed a chair. I held it in front of me to shield me from the man. Then I heard a cupboard door open and close behind me. Just before I turned around to see, someone grabbed me from behind and held a rag upto my mouth and nose. My limbs went weak and my vision went blurry. The two men began to drag me out of the room and down the halls. I could not resist, I couldn’t even move. I could only breath, and barely see. they dragged me outside where a van with shaded windows was parked. The van door opened and someone stepped out. It was a dark haired, tall man, in black clothing. His eyes were harsh, but then I realized something. I recognized those eyes.

They were Oliver’s, and they were the last thing I saw before everything went black.

chapter 5

I slept for several hours. When I woke up, I couldn’t see, I was blindfolded. My hands were tied together in front of me with zip ties, and my arms were held down with rope. I could tell we were driving somewhere. I heard inaudible voices in front of me. Then my thoughts started racing.
Why was Oliver here? Why did he look so angry? Where are we going? I thought with an extreme sense of urgency.
“Where are we going!?” I loudly demanded.
“Shut up,” a gruff voice snapped, “We’ll be driving for another two hours, and I don’t want to knock you out again.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
The gruff man chuckled mysteriously.
“Thats... Confidential.”
I concluded that I wouldn’t get any more information out of this guy. I decided to be quiet. I sat for several minutes, staying completely still, then I got antsy. I started to move my feet around. I kicked something and it fell over.
“Hey! Watch it!” Someone said.
I held still again. I started fiddling at my zip tie, I remember my father teaching me how to get out of zip ties, He would tie my hands up so tight that I almost lost circulation, then he would tie up his own hands and stick them out in front of him, and then he would swiftly bring them down and hit it against his stomach while pulling his elbows outward. I tried it a few times, and finally got the hang of it. But he told me something else as well,
You need opportunity. If you are surrounded by people in an inclosed space, It won’t do any good.
Thinking of my parents made me start to cry. I wondered if I would ever see them again.
“Knock her out again.” The man with the gruff voice said to someone.
“No!” I said, “I’ll be quiet.”
I sat for another several minutes, I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to ask for Oliver, but I didn’t want to be knocked out again. I tried to sleep, but I had too many things on my mind. I tried to scrunch up my face so that my blindfold would come off. I did this for a few minutes until I scrunched up my nose just right so that I could see my feet, but that’s all. Then the full despair sunk into me and I sat for the remainder of the trip, silently crying.



When we finally stopped, I got pulled out of the van. We walked for a few minutes until I got shoved onto the floor of a room. I sat quietly for a few seconds before I called out.
“Is anyone in here?”
No response. I stood up and broke out of my zip ties, which made a banging noise that I hoped no one had heard. I pulled off my blindfold and looked around. I was in a dark room, in fact, I couldn’t see much more with my blindfold off than with my blindfold on. I felt my way around the room. It was entirely empty, nothing was in here but me. I felt my way to the door and looked for a handle. There wasn’t one.
I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how long I would be here. I sat in a corner and cried myself to sleep.

Several hours later, I woke up to the door opening and a bright light streaming into my dark room. A big, grouchy looking man wearing all grey was standing there. He cursed.
“How did you get out of your ties!?” He demanded, “Nevermind, I’m taking you somewhere else.”
He grabbed me and tied my blindfold back on. He pushed me around for several minutes until we reached another room, which he pushed me into. I heard a creaking door shut and a key turn. I ripped off my blindfold and jumped to see nine other people sitting in this room, which was a long, rectangular room with grey walls and a window, but it had bars over it. There were ten cots lined up against the wall.
“Kid!” I heard someone say.
I looked to see that it was Piper.
“Piper! What are you doing here? What is this place?” I frantically asked.
“I don’t know, kid, but it isn’t good,” She said, shaking her head.
I looked at the other people in the room. They were all around my age or a few years older. A handsome boy around the age of seventeen, with shaggy dark red hair and green eyes walked up to me and shook my hand. He smiled and said:
“Hello, My name’s Patrick.”
A girl with short blue hair, brown eyes, and a big scar across her face pushed Patrick out of the way.
“She’s not in the mood, Mr. Charisma,” She interrupted.
“Well,we should probably introduce ourselves!” Patrick scowled, rubbing his face where the blue-haired girl had slammed it into the wall.
The blue-haired girl rolled her eyes.
“Okay, fine. I’m Sky.”
A spunky looking girl with big, brown eyes and hair the color of Patrick’s said:
“I’m Lia. I’m Patrick’s sister.”
An African American boy with short black hair and big brown eyes smiled and said:
“I’m Richard. Nice to meet you.”
A shy looking, short girl with blonde hair, and blue eyes quietly said:
“I’m Amanda.”
A tall boy with a short, brown, shag and brown eyes, came up to me and nodded.
“I’m Victor.” He said in a british accent.
There were two more people sitting in the corner, a boy with light blonde hair and dark brown eyes, and a girl with light brown hair and hazel eyes. They both looked mad.
“Their names are Martin and Natalie,” Patrick said, nodding towards them.
“They don’t like you much.” Sky whispered.
“They don’t like anyone much!” Lia snapped.
I was a little overwhelmed. I felt like I had seen all these people before. I didn’t know how to react to all these people, so I said something really stupid.
“Um... Hi.”
They all looked at me.
“My name’s, uh....” I stuttered, “Wintergreen...”
There was a silence that was a few seconds too long.
“Now what?” I asked, “I mean, what are we doing here?”
“Sit down kid,” Richard said, “This is gonna take a while.”
I saw no chairs so I sat on the floor, Indian style.
“Has anything suspicious happened to you recently?” Victor asked.
It felt good to finally tell people about what had happened. I told them every last detail about what had happened to me. When I was done talking, I was out of breath. I expected all the kids to be freaked out, but they only looked slightly surprised.
“That’s like what happened to me,” Lia sighed, “I was looking for Patrick. Patrick was the first one here.”
“Well, Where are we?” I demanded.
“This place is called The Factory,” Patrick said, “It’s the headquarters for a group called the Diabolica. They are supporters of a man named Morte.”
I remembered the message on Oliver’s phone: ‘He is mine, long live Morte.’ I shivered.
“Who’s Morte?” I asked.
“We don’t really know,” Amanda said, “He’s not good, whoever he is.”
“You see, kid,” Richard said, “We’re all here because we did too much research. We all found out a bit too much, and now we’ve been shut up.”
Then I remembered where I had seen these people before. I had read their documents on my flash drive.
I sat for a minute, and then I stood up.
“Where’s Oliver?” I demanded.
They all looked confused.
“My friend!” I reminded them, “I saw him in the van! His file said something about.... The Translation... Procedure or something like that!”
They all looked even more confused, except for one, The blonde haired boy named Martin stood up and spoke for the first time.
“Your friend is dead.” He declared.
I was shocked.
“What!?” I said but no noise came out.
“Do you want me to repeat it?” Martin jeered, “Your friend is gone, he’s dead.”
“But I saw him! On the van!”
Martin shrugged his shoulders and sat back down. I felt sick. I slumped on the floor and started to cry. Amanda came up to me and patted my shoulder, but it didn’t help much. However, something told me that he wasn’t dead, and that Martin was lying.

chapter 6

I cried for a few minutes longer, while everyone awkwardly stared at me. Then I relaxed, and stood up.
“What do you guys do?”
They looked at me, confused.
“Well... We wait.” Said Victor.
“For what?” I inquired.
“For...” He paused... “Something...”
“So you guys really have NO idea what’s going on here, do you?” I demanded.
Richard stepped forward.
“I do,” he said.
Everyone looked shocked.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier!?” Sky exclaimed.
“I was too scared,” Richard stated, “They got cameras everywhere, I was afraid they would take me away if I started to tell you.”
I looked around, there were security cameras in every corner.
“We won’t let that happen.” Amanda smiled, trying to calm down the shaken looking Richard.
“Well, like you all,” He began, “I found out too much, maybe even more than you all. This Morte dude is trying to take over the government.”
“So, he’s a dictator?” Lia asked.
“A dictator in the making,” Richard stated, “Anyway, he has hacked into all the security camera systems in America, so he can watch everyone, If someone is acting suspicious, he will snatch them up, like fish. He gets them away from humanity so that no one will find his secrets and report them to the government.”
“Where is everyone else then?” I asked, “There were a lot more people on the files that I read.”
“The adults?” Victor asked, “Yeah, he uses them, he wipes their memory and trains them to be members of the Diabolica. The machine he uses is too strong for us teenagers, so we wait.”
I shivered.
“How old do you have to be?” I asked.
“18,” Richard said.
A look of pure horror crossed Lia’s face as she turned to look at Patrick, who was sadly looking at his feet.
“No!” She shrieked.
“What!?” I asked.
“My birthday,” Patrick said, “It’s tomorrow.”
There was a silence for a long time. Then Piper stood up.
“Nope,” She said.
“What?” Patrick asked, confused.
“They are not taking you tomorrow,” She said, “Why? Because we’re gonna stop them!”
The brown haired girl named Natalie spoke for the first time.
“Yeah right,” She scoffed, “I’d like to see you try!”
“Shut up, Natasha.” Piper snapped.
“It’s Natalie!”
“Whatever,” Piper scowled, “Anyway, I have a plan.”
“Shhh! They’ll hear us!” Sky hissed, Pointing at a camera.
“Oh yeah,” Piper sighed.
We all gawked as she pulled a small device out of her pocket and pointed it at a camera and pushed a button, the red light on the camera shut off, she did this for all the cameras.
“Ok, that’ll give us 20 minutes, tops. Here’s the plan,” Piper said, “Do any of you guys no karate? Or Kung Fu?”
No one but Amanda did.
“Ok great, we’ll need that. I’ve learned a few methods of self defence...”
“I have a weapon!” Sky declared.
Everyone stared at her as she pulled a gun out of her jacket.
“Where did you get that!?” Patrick demanded.
“I uh... Stole it,” She confessed, “From one of the guards.”
“Okaay...” Piper decided, “I think we’re pretty much set... Tomorrow, when they come and get Patrick, we will attack,” She pointed at Sky, “You, don’t aim for any important organs or anything, stick to the legs and feet, and don’t shoot unless absolutely necessary. We don’t want to kill anyone,” She pointed at Amanda, “You, Just... attack!”
She blushed and nodded.
“But the guards have gun’s of their own!” Victor stated.
Piper thought for a minute.
“Sky, can you steal their guns without them noticing?” She asked.
“I can try,” Sky responded.
“Great... You should sneak up behind them and steal them when they come in. Then hand them to some of us and we will point the guns at them... and tell them to leave Patrick alone. Do I get an amen?” Piper declared, trying to sound funny at the last bit, but kind of failing.
We all nodded, all but Martin and Natalie, who just sneered at us.
“Okay, tomorrow we strike.”


It was hard to sleep that night, the cots that were provided were not exactly comfortable, and someone was snoring. All night long I heard people walking around on the other side of the wall. I cried again; I cried because I missed my parents; I cried for the possibility of Oliver being dead; I cried for Patrick, and the whole crudeness of this place and the man named Morte.
“Hey,” I heard someone whisper to me.
I turned around to see Amanda.
“It’s okay,” She reassured me.
“No it’s not!” I said a bit too loudly.
Amanda looked down, blushing.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay, I know how you feel, we all do, It’s hard on your brain, You’re trying to make sense of it all, but you’ve got nothing but the stories of the people around you, and these four grey walls.”
I reached into my pocket and found the small, red wire that the strange old man had given me with the flash drive. I sat up.
“I’ve got this too,” I said, holding it up.
Amanda looked confused.
“What’s that?” She asked.
“I... I don’t know...” I whimpered, “I got it with the flash drive, the old man gave it to me.”
“Oh, well... I guess you better hold on to it, it may be useful... sometime...” Amanda said, trying to sound helpful.
I sighed and put it back in my pocket.
“Thank you,” I said, “You’ve been really kind to me, I appreciate it.”
Amanda smiled and went back to her cot. I rolled over and finally fell asleep.

Chapter 7

In the morning, we all woke up early, we ran through the plan one more time, and prepared ourselves. Patrick stood in the far corner of the room, farthest away from the door. Amanda stood in front, and Sky stood with her back against the door frame. Everyone else (Even Martin and Natalie) Made a sort of human shield between Patrick and the door. Then we waited. We waited for an entire hour before the guards finally came. There were two of them, big and strong looking. They took four steps into the room and tried to push Amanda out of the way, but she kicked them both in the knees and punched them in the stomachs and throats. The guards, who were startled and hurt, stepped back.
“Oi! What do ya think you’re doing?” One of them said.
They tried to push through her again, but she punched them again, and somehow got onto the back of one of them, putting her arm around his neck. She grabbed his head with her other hand, and turned his head slightly, He cried out and stumbled over, right as she jumped of his back. She turned to face the other guard, who was reaching for his gun, he cursed when he saw that it was gone.
“What the--!” He shrieked, “Where’s my gun!”
He whirled around and cursed to see Sky and Victor pointing guns at him.
“Wintergreen, take this!” Sky yelled over her shoulder, handing me a gun.
I took it and aimed it at the guard on the ground, who was trying to stand up. I must admit I felt bad, but I reassured myself that we were the good guys, and this was the right thing to do.
The guards both had their hands up, and now they were standing against the wall. Then I remembered:
The security cameras.
“Guys!” I screamed, “More are coming!”
They all groaned.
“Why don’t we just let them take him!?” Martin demanded.
Sky whirled around, now pointing the gun at him.
“Because he’s our friend! We’ve got to defend him! How would you feel if you were him? Huh!?”
That was a big mistake, we were all staring at her that we didn’t see the guard pull something out of his bag and sneak up to her. By the time we noticed, It was too late.
“Sky!” Victor screamed just as there was a loud snapping noise and her body lit up with sparks.
She was on the ground, unconscious or dead. The guard with the shocking device walked up to the human barricade that was in front of Patrick. I knew I had to act fast. My hands were shaking as I aimed my gun at the guard’s foot, and slowly pulled the trigger.
Boom.
Everyone turned and gawked at me, and then at the guard, cursing on the ground. Just then a sea of guards came in, pointing their guns, all of them wearing gas masks. There were too many for us to stop.
“Well done,” We heard a slithery, deep voice say over the intercom, “Now, time to sleep.”

The air vents immediately started to spew a purple gas. If felt like my lungs were imploding and my throat swelled shut. I coughed and gagged. Slowly everything went darker and darker, and before I knew it, I went senseless and everything went black.

chapter 8

I slept for several hours before I woke up. I was tied to a chair by the arms and legs with leather straps. I couldn’t see much for a few seconds, but then my vision focused. I looked around and saw my cellmates tied to chairs like mine. We were in a small, dark room with no windows. Martin and I were the only ones awake.
“What did you mean, when you said he was dead, how could you know?” I demanded.
He scoffed and smirked.
“You don’t even know what the Translation Process is, do you?” He asked.
“No,” I said, “I don’t.” I felt rather stupid.
“Ugh!” I heard Victor call, “Where are we?”
I turned to look at him, he had a nasty gash on his forehead that was still bleeding.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Yeah,” He grunted, “Well... No,” He moaned, “But I’ll live.”
“If they don’t kill us.” Martin retorted.
Just then, Lia and Natalie woke up.
“Where are we?” They both moaned at the same time.
“We don’t know,” Victor said.
There was a silence until everyone else was woken up. Just then, the door swung open with a bang against the wall. Three people walked in, I turned to look at them. A rush of relief came over me as I recognized one of them.
“Oliver!” I called, “What--?”
But then I stopped, he didn’t seem afraid; In fact, he looked like he was rather enjoying himself, he had a smirk on his face and his eyes seemed amused. He wasn’t wearing his usual grey hoodie, but a black leather jacket with a black shirt and black pants, along with black boots. His hair was longer and messier. I knew he wasn’t his usual self.

“What happened?” I continued.

He laughed. But it was a different laugh.

“I now must tell you all what has been going on around here.” He said, his voice sounded like the one over the speaker, not Olivers. I was so confused.

“This place is the Factory. It is where we train prisoners, just like you, to be like these gentlemen here,” He gestured towards the two guards, “Then we will send them out into the world to do my bidding. I am Morte.”

“What!?” I screamed. How could Oliver be Morte?

“Hush,” He grunted, “I was getting to that. This government is falling, the leaders of your country are idiots. I can change that.”

“How can you change that?” Piper demanded, “None of them are as idiotic as you are!”

“Shut up, you stupid girl!” Oliver shrieked, “Anyway, when a prisoner is under the age of 18, they are unready for the Machine, so we keep you in a cell until you become of age, when your time has come, you will be taken into a room, where the machine is, then we will remove the memories that corrupt your mind, and fill it with new purpose, you will become one of the Diabolica, my followers,” He paused, “And as I have been told, It is that special day for one of you. We shall deal with that next week, shall we?”

A silence filled the room as everyone turned to look at Patrick.

“Did he do that to you?” I asked, “You were once Oliver Sharp, do you remember any of that?”

He laughed.

“Ahh, one of my favorite subjects,” He cooed, “The Translation Process. The Translation Process is a well... Process... In which we remove the memories of an individual and replace them with the memories of another, In which case, I replaced the memories of this stupid boy with the memories-- or shall we say the... Soul-- of me, Morte. For my old form has grown weak and fragile, This form is stronger. When the memories of another are removed, we put them into a box, in the form of a sort of hard drive, there they stay, incase we need those memories for any... Information we might need.”

I was in shock, this was not Oliver, I couldn't speak.

“But you said that you have to be eighteen to get your memories removed!” Lia stated, “You don’t look much older than me!”

“Indeed,” Morte grinned, “But this boy was different, He was higher in his grade as well as build, he was strong enough. Well, that is enough for our lesson today, Number 2456, and 4593, escort these children back to their cell,” He gestured towards the guards.

They both looked sad, they un-tied us all out of the chair and re-tied our hands behind our backs, they both led us all out the door and into a big room, full of bustling people wearing similar clothes to those of the guards, there were hundreds of computers and pieces of complicated looking machinery.

“It’s strange,” one guard said to the other, “We used to be people, normal people, with lives outside of here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, 2456,” The other guard snapped, “We are the intelligent ones, you don’t want to be one of those silly little people who run around with no direction! Have you forgotten everything you’ve learned?”

“But think about it, 4593, you used to be one of those people. Surely you were happy enough, they can’t be that directionless!”

“Shut up,” 4593 scolded, “Don’t make me report you.”

The guards were silent for the rest of the walk, the whole time I was thinking of Oliver, He wasn’t here anymore. He was a hard drive sitting in a box somewhere, with little chance of coming back. I was crying, distraught with the loss of my friend. It made me sad to see his body taken over by the evil man called Morte.

When we reached our sell, we got pushed in. The door was slammed shut and locked. All nine of us groaned to see this dull room again.

“I... I had no idea,” Richard stammered, “I’m so sorry, Wintergreen.”

I nodded half heartedly and went to lie on my bed, I watched Amanda clean the gash on Victor’s face. She was so nice, yet so sad. I watched Sky and Lia argue about what we should do next while Patrick tried to stop them. I watched Richard talk to Piper about their stories. I watched Natalie and Martin growl and complain. I then imagined all of them with all of their memories removed, doing the bidding of Morte. I shivered at the thought. I remembered the conflicted guard, Number 2456 and how he missed his old life, even though he remembered none of it.

These thoughts stayed with me until I fell into a deep sleep that lasted until morning.

chapter 9

The next morning, I was the first one up, I combed through my hair with the small combs provided for us, I went to the bucket of water and used the towel to wash myself. I looked in the dirty mirror, I looked horrible, but I wasn’t worried about that, I had my mind on other things. Oliver, Morte, the Diabolica, and if I was ever going to get out of this place. I was sitting on my bed and stared at the little wire that the old man had given me until I heard a knock on the door. I went over there, expecting our usual breakfast. The door creaked open and I saw that I was right, it was breakfast but someone else was delivering it, I jumped to realize that it was the same old man that had given me the wire and the flash drive.
“Hey!” I said, “Your--”
He slammed the door with my face, leaving me standing there with the tray of oatmeal. I stared at the door for a minute, wondering how this man could be here. I looked down at the tray and noticed something odd, there were tags on the bowls with our names on them, like they were special for each person. But how could they be special? They all looked the same. I sighed and set the tray on the table, I picked up my bowl and started to eat. I was somehow very hungry, so I ate more than usual. When the bowl was about one-fourth full of oatmeal, my spoon hit something hard. I curiously tried to scoop the object out with my spoon, but it kept slipping. I eventually just reached in there and pulled it out with my hands. I wiped it off a bit and saw that it was a key. I gasped and immediately covered it up with my hands so that the security cameras wouldn’t see.
“Hey, guys! Wake up! Breakfast!” I called out.
They all groaned and slowly got up and rubbed their eyes. They all walked over to the table.
“Hey, why are our names on these?” Sky asked.

“Umm, I don’t know...” I said, timidly.

Everyone looked suspiciously at the bowls, but ate them anyway. When Patrick was done, looked down at his bowl, confused. I wondered if he had found something too.

“Guys, come here.” He hissed.

We all gathered around. He was holding a folded, laminated piece of paper with writing on it. Patrick unfolded it and held it up for us to read. It said:

I am giving you instruction on how to escape and save the young boy. If you follow my instructions exactly, you will be successful. At 5:30pm tomorrow, you must gather your belongings and open the door. I have given Wintergreen Fish the key.

Everyone looked at me and I nodded.

You must twist the key four times to the left until you hear a clicking sound. Then you must swing the door open as fast as you can and run. But there is a place you must go. As soon as you exit the room, go right, down the hall, it will be dark, but I have given Natalie Stonehaven a small flashlight.

Natalie looked down at her oatmeal and pulled out a plastic bag with a small keychain flashlight in it.

Look on the left hand side of you and when you find the 6th door, you must unlock it in the same fashion as before, I have given Victor Smith the key for this door.

We all looked at Victor, who held up a key much like mine.

The room you will enter is the room that Morte likes to call his ‘Warehouse’, it is a giant room full of shelves, there will be boxes on these shelves, these are the boxes with the memory hard drives. You must find the one with the name of Oliver Sharp written on it. You must take this  box and immediately exit the room. You must go to and unlock the room three doors to the right. Amanda Greenhouse will have the key to this room. This is the room containing the machine that Morte uses to erase memories and replace them. This is also Morte’s chambers. He will be there, most likely. You must somehow get Morte into this machine and put the hard drive into it and refill his memories with those of Oliver Sharp. This will not be an easy task, you must try hard, I will try and get guard Number 2456 to help you, for his memories did not fully transfer, and he knows that this is wrong. In the far corner of the room there will be a big, black chair, a man will be sitting in this chair, in a coma. He is wearing a special mask and he will have tubes protruding from him. This man was Morte before his memories were converted to the form of Oliver Sharp. You must remove his mask, the mask helps him breathe. That will destroy Morte and his memories will die he will be no more.

I hope you can fulfill this task, I believe in you.

Sincerely, Samuel Jones, Morte’s personal doctor.

We all looked at each other.
“It’s a trap!” Sky said, “I know it is!”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Victor said, “Why would it be a trap... I mean, we’re already trapped here, why would they want to trap us again?”
Sky paused.
“I guess you’re right...” She sighed.


“So...” Piper stated, “Let’s do it.”
We all looked around in silent agreement... and that was that.

chapter 10

               That day was tense. Waiting around for your chance to escape and stop a dictatorship isn’t exactly soothing. And I’ll admit, I was scared. Scared was really the only thing I had felt the whole time I was in the Factory. I was scared to destroy Morte, I didn’t want to be the one to kill him.

We all silently got ready for our adventure, not speaking a word to each other, we all read the paper over one more time. And then 5:30 had come, and we were ready to go.

“Ready?” I asked all of them.

They nodded. I took a deep breath and stuck the key in the doorknob, I turned it four times to the left and I heard a clicking noise. I turned the knob and pushed it open, I peeked outside to see one guard with his back facing us, he seemed tired.

“There’s a guard out there! We’ve got to be quiet, really quiet, when we see the hall, run!” I whispered.

They all agreed. We tiptoed out into the corridor and then to the right, into the dark

hallway.

“Run!” Patrick hissed.

           So we ran, Natalie was in the front, shining her flashlight around. We all looked to the left side of us and counted the doors, as instructed by the little piece of paper, when we reached the sixth door, Victor pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the room. We stepped inside.

It was a large, warehouse-like room full of rows of shelves with various boxes on them. The whole room had a sort of eerie gray light that shone around, seeming to come from thin air.

“Well,” Lia sighed, “Let’s get started.”

We started to walk around, picking up boxes and looking at their labels. No two boxes were alike, they were all different. I picked up my first box and read the label.

Andrew Brown

I recognized that name, I had read it on the documents. I stood there for a minute, thinking that all these boxes had people in them, or at least the remnants of people. Their bodies were walking around somewhere else, with new ideas and no memories of their past. I felt bad for the memories in these boxes, I wondered if they were conscious and aware of their situation. I sighed and kept on looking through the boxes. We looked for what seemed like an hour until we found the right box.

“Here it is!!” Sky called out.

We rushed over to her. The box she was holding was rather small. It was black with gold flowers painted on it, and it was fastened with a clasp, it looked about 80 years old if not more. Sure enough, the words ‘Oliver Sharp’ were written on the top with white paint. I took it from her and opened it up. There was a big, boxy piece of metal inside, with lots of patches of circuit board. This was Oliver. My friend was in there, and I had to save him.

“So this is him,” Natalie said, “Your friend.”

“Yeah...” I trailed off.

“Let’s go,” Richard said, “We still have to do the next step.”

The next step was the part I was most worried about. How would we even know how this machine works? The even trickier question was: How do we get Morte inside of it?

We left the room and jumped to see two guards standing there.

“Hey!” One yelled, “How did you get out!?”

We had to think fast, and our first instincts were to attack them as best as we could with our fists and knees until they were unconscious. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite work as planned. The guards were really strong, and they could yell, they could definitely yell. Amanda and Lia were on their backs, trying to cover their mouths. They also had their arm across their throat, trying to knock them out. Then I saw one of the guards pull out their gun.

“No!” I screamed.

I leaped onto the guard and grabbed his arm, trying to move his aim somewhere besides Lia’s head. I somehow got him to point his gun at the ceiling. Just then, there were two loud BANGs. One came from the gun I was pointing at the ceiling, the other came from behind, just as I felt agonizing pain in my left calf. I fell to the ground, whimpering and grabbing my wound. My pants were covered in blood. I looked up at the guard who had just shot me, he had just ripped Amanda off his back and then pulled Lia off of the other’s. He shouted:

“We need more guards!”

And they both went running down the hall, leaving us there. I was suddenly surrounded by my friends.

“Are you okay!?” Amanda panicked.

I grimaced.

“Well, No,” I wheezed, I just got shot. But we have got to go on.”

I grabbed the box and stood up, which sent a shooting pain through my leg.

“Here,” Richard said as he let me put my arm around him for balance.

“Thanks,” I said.

Victor ripped a piece of fabric from his jacket and tied it around the gash in my leg.

“Why don’t we just leave her?” Martin declared, “She’ll just slow us down!”

At this point, I was pretty much agreeing with him, but no one else did.

“No,” Sky announced, “We’re going to continue, whether you like it or not, and we’re continuing WITH Wintergreen.”

“No,” I grunted, “He’s right.”

“Shut up, Wintergreen,” She snapped, “You’re coming.”

I hobbled down the hall until we had gotten to the door of Morte’s room. We all stood there, staring at the door for a minute.

“So,” Amanda said, “Here we are.”

“Yep...” Lia sighed.

“Let’s go in,” Natalie said, annoyed.

Amanda sighed and pulled out the key. She stuck it into the lock and twisted it. The door swung open and we ran inside and locked the door behind us. The room was not very large. The floor was made of concrete and the walls were grey, It was much like our cell. There was a desk in the corner and a bed in the other, I slowly turned around. Sure enough, there was a large, black chair in the corner with it’s back facing us, there were several black tubes running from the front of the chair to the back, into a machine. Right next to the chair was a large machine that looked like a torturing device. It was a large, metal chair with two straps on the arm rests and two straps on the legs. Two poles came out the back with a bar connecting them at the top. Dangling of that bar was a sort of metal hat with wires coming out of it everywhere. There was a boxy looking thing on the back of the chair with a slot in it big enough to hold one of the memory cartridges.  I concluded that this was the Machine. The room was very dark, the only light came from a few candles on the desk. There was only one thing missing, Oliver.

“Where is he?” I asked, “The note said he’d be here.”

“Who?” Richard asked.

“Oliver!” I said, exasperated.

There was a long silence before Victor said:

“He’s here.”

“Where?” I demanded.

He pointed to the bed in the corner. There was a lump under the covers.

“He’s not asleep,” Amanda whispered, “Look at his breathing, it’s too fast.”

The covers were immediately thrown up and Oliver/Morte jumped out of the bed.

“Hurray, you found me,” He said in his creepy, sarcastic voice, “Took you long enough. Don’t pretend like I don’t know why you’re here.”

We all looked at each other, confused. Now what?

The rest was sort of a blur, I was sitting on the floor because I couldn’t stand up with my wounded leg. The next thing I knew, my friends were piled on top of Morte and he was struggling to get out from the bottom of the pile.

“Get off me!” He screamed, “Do you know who I am? Guards!!”

That didn’t change their minds much, They grabbed him and hauled him over to the Machine. He tried his best to fight them, but there were too many of them. Just then, there was a banging on the door, and I heard the guards yelling.

“Guys!” I screamed, “They’re coming!”

They looked at me, which gave Morte just enough time to twist out of their grasp. He darted to his desk and pulled a knife out of a drawer. He held it up to us and laughed.

“You think you’re soo clever don’t you?” He asked, slyly, “My Doctor helped you, didn’t he?”

We were silent. Just then the guards busted the door and came running in, there were 7 of them. I knew we were done for. I began to cry, leaning against the wall, clutching the box close to me. All of the sudden there was a shout from the side of the room where the Machine was. Everyone turned their heads to see. I was shocked to see that guard Number 2456 had strapped himself into the chair and put on the metal cap, There was a memory hard drive sticking out of the slot in the back.

“Stop him!” Morte shrieked.

All of the sudden there was a Swoosh and everyone fell backwards. 2456 stepped out of the machine.

“I know who I am now,” He said, simply, “And I know what you did.”

All the guards looked scared and pulled out their guns. One of them tried to fire but there was only a dull Poofing noise. The door swung open and the old man walked in.

“Doctor!” Morte yelled, “You will be punished for this.”

The doctor looked indifferent.

“2456 emptied your guns this morning,” He told the guards, “Oh, and I also put Anesthetic in your dinner, anyone feeling a bit sleepy?”

They all grunted and tried to advance on the doctor, but their steps were wobbly and they were soon unconscious on the floor.

“Doctor!” Morte yelled.

“Oh, and I also put some in your dinner as well, master. You’re free to take him, children.”

All nine of my friends stepped forward and grabbed him. His knife was easily taken from his hands and placed on the table. They had to drag him because his limbs were too weak. He was shouting the whole way, his cries getting quieter and quieter. Next thing you know, he was in the chair with his limbs strapped down.

“Here,” I called, scooting towards them on the floor, holding out the box. Richard took it from me and removed the cartridge. He place it in the slot on the chair and pushed the button. I held my breath.

Nothing.

“What!?” I shrieked.

Victor pulled out the hard drive and looked at it.

“You need the wire now,” The doctor said.

I pulled the wire out of my pocket and looked at it.

“What for?” I asked.

“The hard drive is damaged, you need it to repair it.”

Victor handed the hard drive to me, I used my fingernail to unscrew the back. Everything looked fine. It was a neatly organized pile of wires.

“What do I do with it?” I asked, looking at the doctor.

“I don’t know,” He said, shaking his head.

I looked around the wires until I found the raw end of a wire. I held onto it, until I found another.

“To I connect these?” I wondered out loud.

No one answered because no one knew. I prayed as I twisted my wire onto each end of these ones. I screwed the back of the cartridge back on and handed it back to Victor.

“Are you sure about this?” Piper asked.

Truth is, I wasn’t. But I nodded my head anyway.

He put it back into the chair. All this while, Oliver was just short of unconscious. Victor pressed the button and the whole machine made a buzzing noise, just like it had when 2456 was in it. I held my breath for the second time. The buzzing got louder and louder until...

BANG!

The back of the chair almost exploded, Victor and Patrick had to dive out of the way from flying sparks. Then everything was silent, except for the hissing noise coming from the burned hard drive.

“No!” I screamed.

I crawled as fast as I could to the remains of the hard drive. I grabbed it, then yelped when it burned me.

“Did his memories come back?” I demanded.

“I... I don’t know,” The doctor said, looking confused, “We’ll have to wait until he wakes up.”

Oliver was moved to the bed. We waited for what seemed like hours in complete silence. Luckily, the doctor had given the guards a more powerful Anesthetic then Oliver, so they didn’t wake up before him. Finally he groaned.

“Kid!” Piper shook him, “Kid! Are you okay?”

“Wha--?” I heard him say, in a voice that was not slithery, “Who are you? What just happened?”

I almost cried with hope that he was okay.

“Do you remember who you are?” Amanda asked him.

“Uhh, yeah.” He said, “My name is--”

All of the sudden he cried and jerked.

“I can remember things!” He groaned, “Horrible things! I killed people!”

“Shh,” I said, “That wasn’t you. Do you remember getting your memories switched? Those are the memories of someone else.”

“There is still one more thing you have to do.” The doctor stated, “You must remove his breathing tube, he is the source of these memories, Morte will be destroyed.”

He was pointing at the black chair. I was nervous as I slowly stood up and hobbled over there. I looked at the man sitting in the chair and gasped. He was wearing all black, just like Oliver had, But this man had a black mask covering his head, there was a piece of metal with slits in it covering his eyes and a breathing tube coming out of his mouth, there were various tubes coming out of his stomach, back and arms. He seemed to be in a coma. I gulped, scared for what I was about to do. My friends were watching me nervously. I reminded myself that I would be saving lives of innocent people with the death of Morte, and then, without a second thought, I reached over to his mouth tube and ripped it out. A beeping noise came from the chair, and then there was silence.

“Well done,” The doctor said.

I limped over to Oliver, who was unconscious again.
“He has forgotten even coming here,” The doctor sighed, “You must never tell him what has happened, for all he knows, he just got here.”
I nodded.
“The police are on their way,” 2456 said, “We’d better get outside.”

Chapter 11

I stepped outside for the first time in what seemed like forever. I deeply inhaled the fresh air. It turns out that the Factory was disguised as an abandoned warehouse. It was the only building for miles. We were surrounded by desert with a few reddish trees here and there. Pretty soon, three police cars, an Ambulance, and a news van were pulling into the dirt parking lot.

The police asked us a few questions, which we answered truthfully and openly, except for the parts with Oliver being Morte, we didn’t want Oliver to know what had happened. Paramedics looked at my leg where I had been shot and told me that I would be just fine, but I would have to use crutches for a while, and they would have to take me to the hospital to take the bullet out.. The cut on Victors face was also inspected and cleaned. They said that he needed stitches, and that he was lucky it wasn’t infected.

I took one last look at the Factory, remembering all that had happened there. Then I stepped into the ambulance with my friends, we were driven away to the hospital, where they did a few basic checks on everyone else, I got the bullet removed from my leg a few hours later. It wasn’t a pleasant experience to say the least, but after being kidnapped for a week, It wasn’t so bad. I was given a pair of crutches and my leg was bandaged. I was told to take some pain reliever by the doctor.

I was glad to leave the hospital, All my friends were there, waiting for me outside. I smiled to see that they were all okay. Then I felt a pang of sorrow to realize that we all lived in various parts of the country, When we went home, we wouldn’t be together.

“I’ll miss you guys,” I whimpered.

“Don’t worry,” Patrick said, very sure of himself, “I’m sure we’ll all see each other again.”

We all piled into the police cars and got driven to the airport, where they handed us tickets to go to our homes. My friends and I gave our farewells and exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. Even Natalie and Martin seemed sad to leave us all.

Oliver, Piper, and I were on the same plane, which was departing soon. We all waved goodbye, which made me cry.

On the plane ride home, Oliver wanted to talk.

“So I was really unconscious the whole time I was there?” He asked, “How long was it?”

“Only a day or two for you,” I lied.

“But how’d you end up getting kidnapped too?”

“Same way you did,” I said, “I found out too much about the Diabolica.”

He nodded.

“Thanks,” He said with a smile.

“For what?” I asked, confused.

“For getting kidnapped with me,” He stated, “I’m glad I had a friend.”

I rolled my eyes, sarcastically.

“So you’re glad you and I got kidnapped by psychopaths?” Him and I joked around like this all the time.

“Sure.” He chuckled.

Then there was silence.

“I’ll be good to be home,” He sighed.

“Yeah,” I smiled, “Home.”