Oh What A Wonderful Life

“What...is...that?” whispered hesitantly by Athena, with a face of shock. Out of nowhere a deafening noise fills the streets. Everyone falls to the ground, begging for it to stop, but the noise just gets louder, and louder, as if it is getting closer and closer. “Oh no…we need to get inside, it has come again, we need to go!” Cronos yells as loud as he can, but no one can hear his warning. He tries to stand, but the force from the sound waves push him back onto the cold concrete. Coming out of the clouds, a godly figure comes out of the sky, sweeping everything away. “Is that…'' Athena, Cronos, Apollo, and Cassandra all look at each other is amazement and confusian. “It’s a bird?” “It’s a plane” “It's a Dyson sweeper? I couldn't have seen that coming.” Cassandra states, surprised. 

The vacuum comes down and faces them, as if they were in a dual. It comes charging at them at full speed. Taking everything in its path. Civilians, plants, homes, everything. “What do we do!” Apollo yells, all though he knows no one can hear him. They all look at each other and they know they cannot escape this madness, they have a better chance of seeing what is inside. They look at each other, scared, but this is their only hope. They all come together, Cronos, Athena, Apollo, and Cassandra, all holding hands begin to accept their fates. The roaring cleaner is gaining ground fast… it is right in front of them now, then...just how the dyson came from out of the sky, quickly and mysteriously, everyone was gone. 

The force from the sweeper tore the hands apart of our scared, yet brave people. The rumbling noise, the debris everywhere made it impossible to see each other. Without warning, Apollo and Cassandra find themselves back in the outside world. Everything looked perfect...too perfect. Every house was back in place, every tree, bush, dog, flower, everything as it was before. Apollo looks at Cassandra to find that she is doing the same. “We need to find the others.” Apollo says without hesitation. Cassandra nods and they begin to walk down the sidewalk, observing their surroundings, noticing every little detail, how nothing is out of place. As they nonchalantly walk down the street together, Cassandra begins to see people. People cutting their grass, and trimming their bushes. Relieved, she starts to run towards them, Apollo right behind her. “Ugh.” Cassandra forcible yells. Apollo, not far behind, catches up to her and asks what happened. “I can’t get through.” She sighed. “I knew this place was too good to be true, we’re not back home. We can’t go any farther, look.” She touched some sort of transparent barrier, preventing them from going any farther, before they could talk to the people. “ Look, it’s them, Cassandra look, they are right there.” Hopeful, Cassandra gets up as fast as she can to see Cronos and Athena on the other side of the barrier. They hit the wall, run into, scream as loud as they could, but nothing. They couldn’t hear a thing. “Look, a car, maybe it can go through the wall.” Cassandra yells. “ Get out of the road then let’s see.” Apollo agrivatedly says. Maybe we can stop them. The car approaches the wall. It goes through as if nothing was there at all. “Hey! Help us! We’re here, help, please!” Cassandra yells. But she gets no response. The cars drove away, like nothing happened. “ How did it do that, how could it go through?” questioned Cassandra. Apollo replies, “I have no idea. Wait, who is that?” A man goes up Cronos and Athena. He’s a tall, strongly built man, wearing a suit with people around him. Apollo and Cassandra can do nothing as they watch the man talking to their friends. Cronos is visibly angry, shouting at this man. He looks as though he has had enough of his childish behavior and orders his slave-like men to take him away. Athena, shouting now as well, tries to get them to let go of Cronos, but as soon as she takes her first step towards him, more slaves come and take her too. They take them into one of the houses. Dragging them on the ground as they scream, cry for help. No one does a thing. The people in their yards, cutting grass and trimming bushes, not a single thing. Not even a glance in the direction of the helpless victims getting taken away by these men. 

Cassandra starts to beat on the wall again, screaming even louder than before. “You know they can’t hear you.” Apollo says distraught. “I have to try, I can’t just let them get taken away, what if they get killed...they’re going to die, those are our friends. Don’t you care at all?” Cassandra gives attitude to the statement. Apollo replies,  “Of course I care! What do you want me to do, you want me to pull the sun just a little too close, so they burn for killing our friends. I wish I could. I cannot do anything here! He can’t fight over this right now. It’s just us. If we don’t want to end up like them, then we have to keep our heads and think of something.” They see the men coming out of the house, but no Cronos, or Athena. Cassandra’s face turned even more red now, complimenting her hair. Her bright blue eyes fill with tears as she realizes that was it. They really are gone now, and the men are coming for them next. Apollo takes Cassandra’s hand and runs towards one of the houses. A small brick house with pink, purple, and yellow tulips in the garden. Apollo kicks the door open to find a short old man, with long white hair sitting on the couch. “ Well welcome in, don’t mind knocking.” The old man says sarcastically. Cassandra explains, “ You have to help us, that man, he’s-” “ I know. I’ve been watching, and I can help you, but you need to listen very carefully. That man is coming to this neighborhood next, so we must leave. The name is Hestia by the way.” Hestia interrupted. “I am Cassandra, and that is my friend, Apollo. So, how are you like us, and not like those other people, what’s going on? Where are we?” Cassandra questioned. “ We do not have time for questions. I am a person, just like you and your friend. I have been hiding out ever since I got here, waiting for the perfect moment to leave. Now you guys can help me. I need you guys to trust me. I know we just met, but I am your only way out right now. He is almost here so we must go.” Hestia explains in a hurry. “ Okay, well what is the plan?” Questions Apollo. Hestia urgently describes, “ We are going to spread out throughout the neighborhood, and ambush the man on my cue. If we can take him out, we can become the new slave’s leader. You may not have seen it, but on the back of the man's neck is a hole. Over the years I have made this device to implant it in the back of his neck. I am sure it is going to work. It has to work. We will all go after him, Cassandra, you will come with me to distract the man while I put the device where it needs to go. Apollo, you have to try and distract the slaves. Buying us just a few seconds is tremendous. We need to get in positions. It’s now or never. This is our only chance, focus. Now go!” 

Apollo and Cassandra run out the door, that is hanging from only one hinge now. Sweat begins to drip from Cassandra's pale, freckle covered face and she sprints down the road, to hide in the backyard of a surrounding house. She crouches behind a perfectly cut bush, and peeps her head out, in an attempt to find Apollo and Hestia. A face of relief portrays across the red heads face and she sees Apollo in a backyard just a few houses down. Panting, she urgently looks around for Hestia. But there’s no site of him. “ I really hope this old man didn't just trick us.” 

Cassandra whispers to herself. A loud, booming sound startled Cassandra. She looks to where it came from...the man is here. He stands on a pedestal that is carried by his slaves. Cassandra can hear her heart thumping in her chest as they get closer and closer. Apollo unknowingly runs out. “ What is he doing, he’s going to mess this entire thing up!” Cassandra gets up and urgently runs at the target. Still no site of Hestia. “There must be 60 people this man is controlling right now.” Cassandra thinks to herself. “ I’m right here idiots!” Apollo projects with his deep, petrified voice. The man smirks an evil smile, staring at Apollo. “ Get him.” The man tells his slaves. All but 10 went, as they still surrounded the man for protection. “Oh, there’s the other one.” The man sees Cassandra trying to run up behind him, he sends the rest of them to attack her. “ Oh no, oh no.” Cassandra swifty changes directions to run away from the men coming after her. As she runs for her life, she spots in the corner of her eye, that short old man creeping around the side of a nearby house. “ I have to go help him,” Cassandra confesses with herself. She runs into the nearest house, letting all 10 of the slaves in with her. She runs into a bedroom and as soon as they are all in there with her, she aggressively slides around the door, slamming one of the men's hands in the door as she grabs a chair to put under the knob so they can’t get out. Coming out of the house now, Cassandra finds the old man right behind the man, without his detection. She runs over to help distract the man. He is right there, the device is inches away from our freedom. Going back home, seeing her loving mom, being in her cozy bed, so close to freedom. Then, the man turns around, startled to see Hestia’s old, wrinkly face, almost right up against his.

 The man shoves Hestia to the ground, the device slides across the uneven road. “ I have to go get it, without that device there is no chance.” Cassandra contiplants, but she has no time to think about her decision. She begins to run. She notices all the slaves that were once chasing Apollo are now coming back, Apollo in their possession. Hestia in critical condition from being thrown to the ground. It is all up to Cassandra now. Her legs burning with the long strides she is taking. Her shirt bouncing up and down with every step she takes. Clenching her jaw at the burning of her legs, but she pushes through to get to that device that saves their life. She is inches away from it now, she imagines being at home, snuggled up with her favorite blanket, watching t.v. with her mom, laughing, having a great time. She needs to get this. Despite all the pains, the fear, she has never been as brave as she is right now. She finally feels that uneven road with her burning feet, after what it feels like an eternity of running, just a step away from the device. She extends her arm to grab it, obviously stepping right in front of an SUV, speeding down this uneven road, in this perfect little neighborhood.