I wake up and hear screaming.  It’s my mom.  Why in the Hell is she yelling and screaming at 3:13 am?  Then I get up and see what’s going on.  It’s the Capitol, their taking my father!  All I can do it just stand there frozen.  Watching everything happen around me but not able to do anything, not able to speak, and not even able to move.  Mother is crying and holding my brother, Nolan, while my dad is being put into handcuffs.  We all know what this means, he will never come back.  Nobody knows why he’s being taken away, except me.  I can’t tell anyone either.  I promised my dad to keep it a secret between me and him.

    Two days earlier, me and my dad had stayed up late working on our project.  We were trying to figure out why The Others had taken over our land, and where they came from.  Sadly, that night we didn’t get anywhere.  We had nothing really, only the things that my dad overheard The Capitol talk about, and even then we never knew if anything was true.

    My dad was part of The Capitol, my mom part of the Child Keepers, and that left me and my brother part of the Children group.  I would get my new placement when I turned eighteen.  Only 3 months to go.  Nolan, my brother, had 3 years to go.  My parents tell me stories about how things used to be.  Everyone had different birthdays, they celebrated holidays, cars would drive on the ground, there was way more people, and it was a free land.  Adults got to pick their jobs, and they kept animals as pets.

    “That was probably the best part!  Having an animal was so common and it was fun,”  Father says while he talks about his dog.

    Mom and dad moved here when they were about 9 years old.  They got assigned partners too.  So biologically, me and Nolan aren’t blood related.  We were assigned a family, and each family can only have 2 kids. Most families have one boy and one girl unless they’re twins, then they go to the same family.

    Sometimes I wonder if I have any brothers or sisters.  Or who my real parents are.  Nobody knows about this.  The Capitol is keeping it a secret from all of us.  But why?  Why are they keeping all of these secrets from everyone?  This is why me and my father started our project.  We knew that they were hiding something.

    Two months ago, before my dad left, my best friend Mona was transfer early and then nobody has ever seen her again.  Had she been killed?  Was she in the same place as my dad?  How many other people where there?  These being just a few questions on my mind.

    Now it has been 5 months since my father left.  Finally the day had come.  I’m going to the ground.  The only way is to fight against gravity, and to pull myself closer to the earth.  But how am I going to do that?  With a rope.  I’ll tie a rope to the Eiffel Tower and pull myself down.  As soon as I get far enough, I should just be able to walk around like normal.  But I guess we’ll see won’t we?

    So I grab all of the materials I need.  Food, clothes, and rope.  I make sure that I have everything and seek out my bedroom window while everyone is sleeping.  Nolan is rolling around in his bed and almost woke up.  My mom is asleep on the couch.  She has been like that for months.  So depressed and tired.  She only gets up to go pee.  She doesn’t even cook us dinner anymore.

     I miss my old life.  Back when me and Nolan would play legos, and we would go on family walks all the time, and when me and my best friend Melissa would have late movie nights.  Those were the good old days.  But tonight, i’m leaving it all behind me.  Gone forever.

    I took one last look around the house.  Then I remembered that every other house on the block is the same, nothing special about it.  I whisper my last words to my family.

    “Goodbye, I promise that I will make this right.”  Then I left.  There is a tube that I have to go down to get to the land.  I step into the tube, then the floor of it disappears and by then I know that it’s too late to turn back.  It doesn’t even feel like i’m falling.  It feels like I’m just standing there.

The next thing I know, I’m on the ground surrounded by people.  Why would there be people here?  I take a closer look, they all had  a design on their left hand.  It looked more like a tattoo.

¨Who sent you here?  Was it the capitol?¨  One of them asked.  I couldn’t believe it, they knew and spoke english too.  So the same question went through my head over and over, Why were there people here?

¨Nobody, just me.  I came here on my own.  Please don’t hurt me.¨  I was terrified.  They all looked at each other and kind of just nodded in agreement.

¨Do you have any idea of how dangerous this is.  You could’ve been killed.  Your lucky we found you and not them.  Come this way, and we’ll keep you safe.¨  So I followed them.  But now a new question was going through my head, What did they mean by them?  The walking seemed like it went on forever.  It was  in a forest too.  Long blades of grass, tall pine trees, and the smell of fresh air.  I didn’t know weather to be happy that I made it, or terrified that I made it.  Should I trust that they will keep me safe?  How do I know that they’re not going to kill me?  I wish that I could go back to my house with my family and friends.  They take me to a what looks like a cabin.  It’s to dark to tell.  But as soon as I step up in the patio, I realize it is.

“Jacob, take her up to her room,”  The tall and scary man said.  Then I see this figure, tall, skinny yet scrawny, and pretty cute.  I was assuming that it was Jacob.

“Come this way,” His voice was just wow! I followed him up the stairs and into a room.  The room was dark.  He turned  on the light and I took a look around.  It was huge!  There was three beds, one bathroom, and a very large t.v.  I was amazed.“So, how long have you guys lived here,” I asked in awe.

“As long as I can remember.  I’ve lived here my whole life.  My father on the other hand hasn’t.  He tells me all of the time how it used to be,”

“What all has he said?  Why do you guys live here,”

“He says that we used to all live together.  Like everyone used to get along, but, now nobody gets along,”

“What?  We?  Who is we,”

“Us and the humans like you,”  I slowly got it.  They weren’t humans.  But then why did they look like us?

“ Is that why all of you guys have those tattoo looking things on your hands,”  If it was it would kind of make sense.

“Yes.  Everyone of us has our very own mark.  They define who we are.  They mean more than just a tattoo to us,”   Just like that he changed the subject.

“My dad is the leader of our group.  We call ourselves The Believers,”  My first question was, why, but then he started talking and it answer my question.  Could he read my mind?

“No offence, but, kidnaping probably isn’t the best way to go the…”

“We believe that not all humans are bad.  We believe that we can make it right again,”   He laughed a little.  It was adorable.  Then his dad had to ruin it all and call Jacob back downstairs.

“I’ll come back up later and check on you.  By the way what is your name,”

“I can’t just tell you that right off the bat...you’re gonna have to try harder than that,”  He laughed once again.  His smile was just, perfect.  Then he walked out.  I was so tired so I just fell asleep.

I woke up to someone whispering super loud saying to be quiet you’re gonna wake her.  The voice didn’t sound familiar, but it did sound close.  I rolled over and opened my eyes.  It was one of the other guys hitting Jacob with a pillow who was laying in another bed.  He was still asleep, but he was snoring like really loudly.

‘Way to go prince charming, you woke her,”  I giggled and that's when I knew that he was my prince charming.  Two weeks passed and everyday was the same, but different in their own way.  Then one day the commander came in yelling.

“Get up!  Emergency meeting now,”  I got up rushed to get dressed and hurried to the living room where everyone else was.

“Whats going on,”  I say as i’m still tucking in my shirt that they had for me.

“They have found out that you’re here.  You’re not safe anymore.  You need to leave, now,”

“Where am I supposed to go?  There’s nowhere,”

“You can go with the other humans.  They’ll keep you safe”  Other humans?  There were other humans and they just now tell me!  What in the hell were they thinking!  Why would they keep that from me?

“What the hell!  Why didn’t you guys tell me this earlier?  Where are they right now,”  I was frantic.  Screaming, and yelling.  I almost even walked out of the door.

“I have no idea.  I’ll have to send out some of them to find the other humans,”  the commander said while pointing to jacob and his friends.

“Well then let’s go.  We have a whole world to search,”  They all looked at me like i’m insane.

“Oh hell no!  You’re staying here!  You’re not going out to risk your whole damn life,”  Jacob yells at me.  He gives me this look like, i’m not gonna let you get hurt.

“Too bad none of you can control me,”  I say as I storm out of the house.  Jacob follows me.  He stops me and says,

“Look I know that it was wrong of us to not tell you, but you can’t go out and just risk your life like this.  You can’t do this.  I won’t let you do this,”  He looked like he was gonna start crying.  But, all I could do was walk past him into the forest.  Nobody was going to stop me, not even Jacob.  Even if I had to find them on my own.

I’m just getting deeper and deeper in the forests.  Jacob and most of the rest are following me.  The truth was that I had no idea where I was going, but I just kept moving straight forward while occasionally dodging out of the way of branches and trees.  Walking for about what felt like 2 miles I see something up ahead.

“Stop!  That’s not safe, you can’t go any further now.  You’re gonna get caught,”  Jacob yells at me while I trip over a tree stump.

“What is that place?  Why is it dangerous?  Why would I get caught,”  I reply in confusment.  The building was a huge grey building with a fence around it.

“That’s where all of the other humans are.  The Others have caught them, and that’s why we didn’t want you to come and to see this.  I’m sorry it’s just that we’re trying to keep you out of there and, we”

“Just stop talking!  I can’t believe any of you anymore.  I’m going to get them out of there without your help.  Just go back home, cause maybe The Commander is missing your lies.”  I walk off towards the building and look for a way to see into it.  Jacob had done what I asked him to do, and left.  I felt like crying, but knew I had to be strong.  You know what they say, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.  That’s exactly how I felt right about now.  Still searching around and I found a window.  It was looking into what looked like a bathroom.  A boy’s bathroom, you could see because of the urinals.  Then I saw someone walk in, but they looked familiar.  It looked like, my dad?  It couldn’t be though.  He wasn’t alive, The Capitol had killed him.  That’s when it all started to make sense.  When you were taken away from your home by The Capitol,  they would just send you down the tube and not kill you.  It all made sense now except two things. Why weren’t we friends with the others, and why did Jacob still leave me?  I mean I told him to, but that doesn’t meant that you always do that.  I wanted him to stay.  But now I’m gonna have to do this on my own.

Looking around even more I find another window, which looks like it’s to the girls bathroom, hence no urinals.  But even though I can see through the window, I still can’t get to it.  There is still a fence here, and it looks like it’s electric too.  I’m still searching around the perimeter, and then I see a way to get in.  There’s a whole underneath the fence.  I climb in and suddenly it just goes black.  Damn it, I’m gonna have to get dirty.

I woke up in a panic.  This was the worst feeling ever, and I didn’t even know what I was feeling.  It was like there was a weight on my chest, and that my ribs were slowly caving in and snapping in half.  The sharp edges of my broken ribs are stabbing me in the lungs, and then finally, one into the heart.  It was horrific. Then I heard a yell.

“Madison, is that you?  Oh, God please say it’s you,”  When I look up I see a face of a man who looks to be about in his mid forties.

“Dad?  Where are we,”  I say as i’m still waking up and unconscious.  He jumps up and hugs me so tightly. I still don’t understand how he’s here.  When I asked him he just kind of looked at me and ignored the question.  But who could blame him right now, he was happy and wanted to enjoy this happiness.  When I sit up, I realized that I was on a crappy old worn out bunk bed.  I found out that the pain that I was feeling was caused by my father when he had to do CPR on me.

“What happened to me?  Where am I,”  I’m still so confused and have no idea what’s going on.  There’s what looks like about ten people crowding around me all at once.  I looked around and we were surrounded by old worn out beds, a cement brick wall, and people.  Lots and Lots of people.

And just like that, the lights went out, people started screaming.  But, at least I was safe, right?