I ran through the barren city with my dying wife and our four-year-old son by my side. We had to run; we had to find a hiding spot. As we looked for somewhere to hide, I felt them as they vigilantly watched my every move. We came upon our abandoned church, so we decided to hide there. It had grapevines all on the sides and the bricks were caving in. We went inside and felt no safer than we did ten minutes ago. I set my wife up against a pew and my son across from her. I went and sat down at the altar and I began to ask God for help. I prayed that my wife would be healed and that they would go away.
“Daddy, what’s wrong with mommy?” Egypt said in the middle of my prayer.
“She is just taking a nap,” I said hesitantly. Dubious of my own words, I stopped praying, went over to my wife, and saw the pain of a gunshot wound in her eyes. She could barely even move. I whispered her name and began to cry, “Alicia. Alicia baby wake up! Wake up!” She did not even blink. I put my head against her chest to make sure that she was breathing. Slowly. Slowly. Then as if out of nowhere, I heard a gun c*** and I turned. There they were and at that moment, I knew there was nowhere else to go…

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“Daddy come look at what we got you for your birf-day!” Egpyt exclaimed.
“What is this,” I said as I looked at the forty-five-pound box of chocolate that sat on the bed. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Daivon, I am very sorry, I thought you would like it.”Alicia said
“You thought I would like it, you thought I would like it, this is a forty-five-pound case of diabetes!”
“Even doe-you’re mad with me and mommy, can I still be like you when I grow-up?” Egpyt asked
“Of course, just don’t get a girl like your mother; get a girl with common sense!”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Alicia shouted.
“As if you don’t know,” I yelled.
“Well I am sorry if I disappointed you.” She said
“You should be sorry! I come home from a hard day of work on my BIRTHDAY at that, to see this outrage that you two have constructed,” I told her. “I am just going to go to bed and try and forget this whole thing, okay?”And off to sleep I went.

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ANK, ANK, ANK, ANK, my gratuitously loud alarm clock rung right into my ear.
“Daddy, Daddy,” my 4-year-old son Egypt said, “time to wake up! Mommy made waffles and bacon.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah and they are berry good.” Hearing this, I knew they had to have my favorite fruit, strawberry, in them. Therefore, I got up as quickly as I could; I went downstairs in nothing but my SpongeBob underwear. I looked at my beautiful caramel-toned wife, Alicia. She was everything I wanted in a wife at this point. A woman made to do what I want and when I want her to do it.
“Hello Honey, how are-” she said
“What kind of waffles did you make?” I interrupted.
“Blue and cranberry,” she said.
“What! You know I hate blueberries and cranberries! God, can’t you do anything right?!” I shouted.
“I am sorry; I thought that I would make breakfast based on Egypt's favorites this morning,” she explained.
“Well you could at least make me a regular waffle,” I said, “you know what? Just don’t make me anything! Six years of marriage, you should know what to make me by now!” Then, I stormed out the kitchen and did my daily routine: shower, brush teeth, brush hair, put lotion on, and finally put my suit on. I heard someone come in the room.
“Daddy, did mommy do something bad?” Egypt said.
“Egypt, sometimes mommy does things that hurt daddy and so I have to put her in timeout,” I said and then left home and went to my prestigious job.
I work at the CIA of Scatsville, the Utopia on the edge of the Sykes islands made for those in the witness protection program to live. Since Scatsville is the size of New York and North Carolina combined, we decided that we needed a president, and that is when my job began. I was a secret service agent, deemed to protect the president at all times. I walked in the door to the 5-story building and watched the same hallway the head agent, Menar, walked down with a folder in his hand labeled WPF almost two weeks ago. I pondered why he was insouciantly going down the hallway with such important files. In my office was the boss of our corporation, Mr. Ame, sitting in one of my guest chairs.
“Since we fired Menar for giving out secret information, the corporation’s security has grown by 67% and his position is now open to anyone who wants it. I am telling you this because I feel that you would be right for the job. Oh and another thing, the president is down the hall and is waiting for you to accompany him today at City Hall,” he said.
“Oh! Thank you for letting me know, I almost forgot.” And off I went. The president of the Utopia was the great Mr. Tails. He was the first to ever to result in having to come to the Utopia hiding area for the witness protection program so we made him president of Scatsville. He has been the president for over 14 years now and we hope he makes it to the highest amount of time an elected official can stay, which is twenty years.
“Are you all set Mr. President?” I asked.
“I am ready if you are,” he replied. At that, we went to his car and went straight to City Hall.
As we were in the car, it began to rain.
When we got there, we immediately started setting up for the president to speak. We put up the podium, the bulletproof shields, and rolled out the red carpet. We gave the doorkeeper the signal letting him know we were all set. We got into position and waited for the president to speak. He stepped from the white doors, waited for the crowd of 1,721 to stop their cheering, and then began to speak.
“To a few of us here today, this is a solemn and most momentous occasion; and yet, in the history of our Nation, it is a commonplace occurrence.” I looked through the crowd and saw my wife and son supporting my job, but I did not make eye contact, which would put them in grave danger if anyone knew of my relation towards them. “The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are.” While the president was speaking, he stepped from behind the stand and went towards the crowd. Meanwhile, the voice of Ame came back to my mind when he told that Menar had gave out secret information about residents of Scatsville wondering whose information he had gave out. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-14-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.”
Suddenly I heard a gunshot, turned my head, and saw our president fall to the ground dead. Blood oozed out of his head. It was as though the red carpet we had rolled out had expanded. The crowd went mad, they ran all over the place, as they did, some people fell and were trampled and killed as if it were Black Friday. I looked in the direction that the bullet came once again to see a man with a 15-inch Sniper Rifle. I knew this man, I knew, this man. He was Tyrone, a thug that would stop at nothing to get his revenge on me. Why he shot at the President was beyond me. I signaled my wife to get out of here because I knew this place was not safe any longer.
I ran to the Shaniya Hotel, where I saw the man on the rooftop shoot at the president, and put everyone in the hotel on lockdown. I asked the clerk if anyone suspicious came through, but she didn’t have the slightest idea. I told my partner, Cassie, to stay while I check on my wife to make sure she got home all right. I ran until I could not run anymore and then I hijacked a motorcycle and, driving as fast as it would go, I finally reached home.
There was a car beside our car in the yard and the door was busted open. I ran in to hear a voice that I never thought I would never have to hear again. It was sly and evil; I knew that it had to be my ex-lover Veronica. Veronica had my wife tied to a chair with a golden glock pointed to her head. She had my son in her arms claiming that she was his mother.
“I want mommy!” Egpyts cried.
“Your mommy is right here,” Veronica told him. She began to rub his back and assuage him as if she were really his mother. “So I guess you’re wondering who I am and why I am here, aren’t you?” Veronica asked Alicia. “Well you can just ask your husband Daivon, or his real name, Sean, he is the reason I and Tyrone are here.”
“Who are you and what did Daivon do to you?” she yelled.
“Veronica Bolivar. Well why don’t I start from the beginning hmm... it was January 1, 2020. I met him at the New Years Day parade in New York. He was so sexy and I loved how every time he looked at me, he bit his lip.” She fiddled with Egpyts. “Months later we started dating, he told me that he loved me, but he would yell and hit me. Due to his abuse, I felt like nothing. I felt that since he made me feel as if I were just a toy that he could throw around and treat any kind of way, I decided if he was going to treat me like a toy I should just be one. That’s when I became a stripper and met the man that caused all this to happen, Tyrone.”
“You did that on your own; he did not cause you to become a floozy!” yelled Alicia. She hit Alicia with the gun, and Egpyts screamed. At that moment, I felt the pain strike me as if I had been the one she hit. However, still, I watched from the shadows.
“Ah, where was I? Tyrone; that’s right. Tyrone was a thug who had just been released from prison; the reason Sean entered the WPP. Anyways they called my stage name, Two All Beef Patties, at Smiley's and I came out did what I had to do. I saw Tyrone on the front row and motioned for him to come to the back room. There he wondered what someone like me would be doing being a stripper and all, so, I told him my story. He told me that that he had met with a WPF agent, Menar I think it was, and was told that he had the files that I wanted. Now that I told him my story, he wanted them even more. The next day he found Menar and requested the files. Menar would not give them to him so he had to take extreme measures.” She put Egpyt down and told him to sit down and that she would hit him if he moved. “After we got the files, we immediately came here for Daivon.”
“Why did Tyrone want the files?”
“You doofus! He wanted the files because Daivon turned him into the feds. Tyrone was blamed for something that Daivon did, so he got 8 years in the pen! Tyrone and his gang, the Rough Riders, paid for the flight here, the guns, and other weapons that we have just in case you get surreptitious. Now that I have told you all that there is to know, I have to kill you.”
I jumped from the door and smacked the gun out of her hand. She ran to it as quickly as she could. I untied my wife instead of running out the house; she ran straight to Veronica and started fighting her with her bare hands. I tried to stop the fight but they were going crazy. Alicia swung back and accidentally hit me right in the nose, knocking me right out.

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When I awoke, the house was in such a bad shape that it did not resemble a house any more. It looked more like New Jersey during the week of their most catastrophic hurricane. I heard someone breathing with relief and stress. I went upstairs and saw that it was Alicia; she had been shot right in the chest and Egpyt was right next to her, neither saying a word. I turned to the left and saw Veronica. Dead. Looking at it made me feel relieved that half of my problem was gone. I ran to Alicia and tried to keep her alive. I ran as fast as I could downstairs, to grab some paper towels or something that I could use to stop her from bleeding. I had to keep my wife alive. I went back upstairs and all I saw was blood. It looked as if the Exodus Nile had overflowed the upper half of my home. I cleaned my wife up and headed toward the door with my wife and son.
I had to get out of the house.
I got to the door and heard, from my earpiece, that the CIA agency and our white house were bombed, and that Cassie was shot to death. I feel to the ground, I felt as if this was my entire fault. My past choices killed 900 of the people that lived in Scatsville in 10 seconds flat, made the city look as though no one has lived in for over 100 years, and most importantly hurt the people that I care about most. I was pitiful. I knew what had to be done. I had to get my wife and child to a safe place where they would not be in danger.
I ran through the city with my dying wife and our four-year-old son by my side. We had to run; we had to find a hiding spot. As we looked for somewhere to hide, I felt them as they vigilantly watched my every move. We came upon our abandoned church, so we decided to hide there. It had grapevines all on the sides and the bricks were caving in. We went inside and felt no safer than we did 10 min ago. I set my wife up against a pew and my son across from her. I went and sat down at the altar and I began to ask God for help. I prayed that my wife would be healed and that they would go away.
“Daddy, what’s wrong with mommy?” Egpyt said in the middle of my prayer.
“She is just taking a nap,” I said hesitantly. Dubious of my own words, I stopped praying, went over to my wife, and saw the pain of a gunshot wound in her eyes. She could barely even move. I whispered her name and began to cry, “Alicia. Alicia baby wake up! Wake up!” She did not even blink. I put my head against her chest to make sure that she was breathing. Slowly. Slowly. Then as if out of nowhere, I heard a gun c*** and I turned. There they were and at that moment, I knew there was nowhere else to go.
“You thought you would get away with putting me in jail? I’ll show you, I will. I looked over at my wife, wishing I could make up for all the times I put her through Hell, and then at my son, wishing I could tell him to not grow up and be like me, but to be different. I knew what I had to do. I had to save my family or die trying! I jumped up and snatched the gun from Tyrone. He then smiled at me and pulled out a grenade the size of Texas. “Put the gun down or I will kill us all” I hesitated, but then gave him the gun. He pointed the gun on top of my head and I felt as if I were sacrificing my life just as Jesus did for me on the cross. I heard the gun c***, and I knew for me it was all over.

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Click Click, POP, and POP! “Daddy wake up today is the cowboy play!” Egpyt was in my bedroom and with his cowboy suit on and his toy gun popping in my face because he was a part of the Sanford Christmas play.
“Egpyt, son, I love you, and I am very thankful for the gift you got me for my birthday.
“But I thought you were going to get diabetes,” he said.
“No of course not, where is your mother?” I asked.
“She is downstairs making berry waffles and bacon.” I jolted almost throwing Egpyt of the bed, and ran down to see my wife.
“Listen Honey I am sorry about last night.” she said
“Don’t be,” I kissed her on her lips that tasted of bubble gum lip-gloss, and told her something I have not told her since our honeymoon, “Baby, I love you and I always will.”
Again, it began to rain.