We stopped driving and found an abandoned house. We settled in. I thought it was hard to sleep because of the swirling thoughts in my head. The fear. The death. All of it was stuck in my head as I drifted off to sleep. I dreamt of sitting on the couch in my living room. 

The TV was on a news channel. 

WEALTHY GERMAN MODEL FOUND DEAD. KILLED BY AMERICAN TERRORIST, 

FRANK JOHNSON.

That’s when I saw the name;

FRANZ HITLER

It echoed in my head. Then, everything changed and I saw my family cowering in a corner. 

“Mom,” I said, but she seemed to not notice me. 

“Dad!” I yelled. Nothing. I turned and saw the black soldiers stomping towards them with guns ready. 

“Mom, Dad!” I cried as tears swelled up in my eyes. The soldiers pulled the triggers of their guns with no mercy and a yellow gas filled my vision. 

“No!” I screamed as the gas cleared showing my family lying on the ground. Lifeless. 

I woke up. Wyatt was also awake, sitting at the window watching the plumes of yellow gas rise into the sky. Then, Wyatt and I tried to go back to sleep, but it was hard, because at any second, the dark suited soldiers could break down the door, storm in, and kill us all. I looked out the window and saw the soldiers looking through other houses. 

“What if they find us in here?” asked Wyatt. 

“They won’t find us,” I said lying to make him feel better. Finn woke up. “What are you guys doing?”

“I can’t sleep. I just keep wondering if those soldiers will find us in here,” whispered Wyatt.

I looked out the windows casually, and my heart jumped. The black soldiers were walking down the street, their red lights illuminating the pavement in an eerie light! In fact, a tank was driving down the road behind them! We ran in between two  houses and hid. The soldiers had laser pointers for aiming.

I knew this because no one in the right mind would go out during a huge war with a laser pointer! Also, a ton of them were pointing in our direction. None of them were touching us, but they were close. If we moved even an inch, the lasers would be touching us and the mysterious soldiers would pull the triggers on us.

The thought of that made me hyperventilate. When I hyperventilate, I am loud. 

Wyatt covered my mouth and mouthed, “Shut up!”

The soldiers said something that I am guessing meant, “false alarm!” because they all left. 

While they were leaving, a soldier dropped a bomb. The yellow gases leaked out of the bomb. They swirled into the air in swirling wisps. I put the mask on.

I felt like I was breathing the freshest air in the world. I gasped for air a little bit too loudly. They all jumped in pointing their strange gas guns at us. I was freaking out like crazy! To be honest, we all were. Wyatt started crying loudly. The window above us cracked open. Rob popped his head out the window and shot at the dark soldiers. 

“Climb in!” Rob yelled. We took turns climbing into the broken window.

“Why did you do that? You could have gotten killed!”

“Sorry,” we said in unison.

“I did it,” said Finn.

“I ran out to explore and Dylan and Wyatt ran after me,” explained Finn.

“I don’t care who did it—” Loud gunshots interrupted Rob. He went and took a look out the window. Black suited soldiers were marching towards us.

“We will talk later. Right now, we have to go. Go wake up Mary, Ava, and Ernest and hide.” We did what he told us.

“Mary! Mary! Mary!”

“What?” she asked exhausted.

“There are more of the creepy soldiers outside! You wake up Ernest and Ava and run to that room! We will be under the bed,” I exclaimed pointing at a room down the hall. We ran to the room and hid quietly. Shots rang out rapidly. I heard bodies fall to the floor. I hoped none of them were Rob.

All of a sudden, the shooting stopped. Rob ran into the room. 

“We have to go! More are coming!” he yelled. 

“What happened to the other five soldiers?” Ava asked. 

Rob was silent for a second. “They will be remembered for their bravery.” We were all silent and stared at each other. This war was brutal enough. If only it could end this soon. 

Rob motioned for us to follow him. He creeped out into the street leading us to an old van. We hopped in the back and Rob drove us away. Gunshots sounded behind us and I heard the bullets ping off the van’s back. 

“Go faster!” Mary exclaimed. 

“I’m trying!” Rob yelled pushing his foot down on the gas pedal harder than ever. The van zoomed off down the street and we eventually lost the soldiers. Rob pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. He glanced at it and then back at where we were. 

“This is it,” he stated. 

“This is what, exactly?” Ernest asked. 

“A shelter,” Rob said as he got out of the vehicle. We strode through the pouring rain into the mall. Inside, two police officers and an old soldier greeted us. 

“We have bedding down to the far right corner over there,” one cop with a big bushy mustache said, pointing to the area. We all followed Rob to the corner and went to go get some rest on the tattered mattresses, blankets, and sleeping bags.There were only about a hundred other people in the mall. I felt ashamed of how many people were left. Not much. At least to my knowledge. Maybe there were many other shelters out there that held more survivors. I hoped.