The fresh, crisp air felt so good on my skin. After being stuck in the forcefield, I was glad when we got out.
“Seriously Kate,” Darby was saying. “If any conclusion, the city would be covered by a forcefield. How on earth would we get through?” Darby is a sweet girl and all, but sometimes she doesn’t seem to grasp that the city may or may not have food. I was starving, and I could tell the others were too.

“Darby, we need food. Everyone here knows that. Even Mr. Jack’s pitbull knows it.” I looked down at the old pitbull and saw he was saggy on his paws. “And besides,” I added. “The city might have more then just food. Plus, we don’t even know if the city’s surrounded by a forcefield.” I fell into pace with my other two friends Nico and Tracy.

“Kate? Do you even have a plan on getting in? You know, if there’s a forcefield.” Both Nico and Tracy looked at me expectantly. In fact, everyone was looking at me.
“Yeah,” I lied. “I’ve always got a plan.”

The soft light of the sun vanished as it sank lower. Thankfully, it was a full moon tonight, so we had a little light.
“Kate? There’s a bright light ahead.” Tracy said, pointing her finger towards a strange light in the distance. I peered at the soft glowing thing, trying to picture what it was.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” Darby squealed next to me. “It’s a city!” My mouth was parched from hydration, and my legs felt like rubber, but I perked up when she said “city”.
“Thank god.” I whisper in relieve. I glanced quickly at everyone, and saw hope flicker in their eyes. I knew that we probably wouldn’t have made it out here for no more then four or six days. “Right,” I said. “Lets get some food and water.”

Unfortunately, the bright light of the forcefield made us think it was far closer then it really was. The walk there took all night, and by the time we actually arrived the sun was rising. Previous, I had told everyone I knew how to get in. Sadly, the whole walk here I had thought of nothing. Everyone was looking at me as I stared at the soft purple colored forcefield.

“We should look for some chinks. There ought to be a ton because of the size.” I said after five very, very, long minutes. I scanned the dome and that’s when I saw one. It was a small and transparent square, that was plopped smack on the forcefield just twenty feet upwards. Oh joy. I thought sarcastically. Isn’t this our luck. What do I do now? Fly?!? I shouted to the others to come join me, pointing at the square.

“I don’t see anything, Kate.” Darby told me, squinting hard. “Are you sure its there? I mean, the chink is small . . . so you could be seeing things.” I frown at her, wondering why she couldn’t see it.
“Oh, I see it now!” Tracy said excitedly. Eventually everyone saw it, even Mr. Jack.
“But how do we hit it?” Nico asked. Drats. Now what? Do I just tell them that I didn’t know what to do? That I lied? No, I had to find a way. I glance around and examined the ground for something, anything, that could reach twenty feet in the air. Then my eyes landed on a tree. Hm . . . I never noticed that before. I follow the trunk upwards and saw that one of the branches leaned close to the chink.
“Anyone not afraid of heights?” I ask. Nobody answered, so I repeated the question, looking at everyone. Then slowly, Nico said, “I guess I’ll do it. I mean, at home I always climbed the trees in my yard.” He jumped into the tree and started upwards, reminding me of a frisky squirrel.
“Hey!” Nico’s voice yelled. Everyone hurried to the base and stared up.
“What?” Tracy asked.
“Something wrong?” Mr. Jack shouted.
“No, nothings wrong. But I’m at level with the chink.” We watched as Nico broke off a flimsy branch, and slowly edged it closer and closer to the square. BOOM. A flash of bright light bursted from the impact of the branch and the chink, and I started to see black spots. Later when I could see again, and there was no more forcefield. I silently thanked god for this, before calling, “Everybody ok? Nico?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Just a little blind.” Tracy said.
“Ditto.” Darby replied.
“Fine.” Mr. Jack declared.
“Doing ok.” Nico finally said.
“Alright then,” I said. “Lets go get some food and water.” I lead everybody towards the rundown, plant invaded, city.

After a few minutes walking through the streets, Darby said, “This looks abandoned.” I looked walked at a tall building that had holes here and there, plants growing up the sides, and crumbling walls. Mr. Jack’s pitbull barked and barked, racing into the building.

“NO!” I shouted, racing after the dog, following the ol’ dog into the structure. Two things happened. One, the shock of the pitch blackness. Two, the dog’s bark subsided into a whimper. Snickerdoodles! Where did the gosh darn dog go? I angrily thought to myself. Glancing back, I saw no one had followed me in. I motioned for them to join me, and then quickly swept the room. Nothing but boxes. In fact, boxes were everywhere. I peered into one of them and gasped. The box carried weapons. Loads of them. Machine guns, guns, bullets, swords, daggers, knives, etc. You name it, it’s there.
“Guys! Look at what I found!” I shouted to the others.
“What?”
“Why are there so many boxes?” Simultaneously, questions streamed in. I let them stare at the weapons.
“Wow.” Nico breathed. “I am in heaven!” Suddenly the pitbull showed up, barking his head off.
“Oh zip it.” I snap at the dog. First, he’s barking up a storm, then he whimpered, and now he’s bark. Again. That dog has some problems.
“Kate? Um, something moved.” I glance up and stared into the darkness.
“There’s nothing there Darby.” I said.
“But-”
“Darby. It’s pitch black in here, when there should be a little light from outside. This place is odd, the movement you saw was probably your mind playing tricks.” Then, an earsplitting shriek echoed off the walls. Goosebumps ran up and down my back. Darby was right. We weren’t alone in this place.
“I told you.” Darby whispered furiously at me. I saw Nico, Tracy, and Mr. Jack duck behind some boxes. I pull Darby down behind a box, and crouched with her. Another shriek rang out, causing Darby to jump a little. What the heck was going on? I peer over a box and ducked again, seeing something I wish I had never seen. A thing was entering someone’s body. The creature looked odd, like an alien. I shivered as the room became colder. A few minutes later, the creature/human thing disappeared, I crawled slowly out from behind the box, Darby at my heels.
“What did you see?” Darby softly asked.
“Something. I don’t know. It was this thing. It was taking over someone’s body. I don’t know. But it was strange. Most likely painful. That explains the screams. We have to get to the others.” I started to crawl faster, not daring to come out of the shelter of the boxes.

Soon after we met with the others, I told them about what I saw. Mr. Jack was the first to speak.
“Well that’s that.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Aliens.”
“Oh come on!” Tracy quietly laughed. “You don’t seriously believe it’s aliens do you?” Mr. Jack gave Tracy a hard stare.
“Yes, I do, Tracy. It explains a lot of things. Plus, if there’s one, there’s always more.” Then something caught my eye. A door was cracked open on the other side of the room. I point silently at it, and then start moving in that direction.

“Move that box over there. Make it ready to ship.” A deep voice came from behind the door, causing me to freeze where I was. The boxes where only filled with weapons. The pieces filled together. The aliens were using humans to ship weapons. How any humans were they using? Where are the aliens shipping the weapons too? We would have to find out. Suddenly, we heard cries of help coming from behind us. We ripped our heads around and saw stairs leading deep down into the ground.
“So,” I said calmly. “Who want’s to go first?”

After we voted to see who was going to lead, it ended up with me leading. The stairs spiraled downwards, which scared me to death because I hated spiral staircases. The cries of help got louder, and I shuddered at the thought of what we would find. Finally(T), the stairs ended, leading down a dark hall.
“Hello,” Nico shouted, his voice echoing everywhere.
“Help us!”
“Help me!”
“Get us out!” Cries and shouts came from everywhere. I saw a lamp and turned it on, revealing about twenty people all along the hall. The youngest looked to be about ten, and the oldest seemed to be about thirty-four. I saw the dirty faces, the unwashed clothes, and I pitied them.
“We have to get them out.” I said out loud to myself.
“Kate? How will we do that? I mean, we almost got caught with just the five of us, not including the dog. How will we get like twenty more people out?” Mr. Jack spoke quietly into my ear so no one could hear.
“I’ll think of something.” I replied grimly as I strode to one of the “cells” and opened it. The two boys scrambled to their feet, while the girl just sat there. “Jailbreak people! Everyone, start opening the cells. It’s time to go free.” I quickly walked to the next cell and unlatched it. Kids and adults streamed out, standing in front of the stairs.
“So the plan is?” Tracy asked questionably, looking about the people.
“We make a distraction, save these people, get them outside the forcefield, and then we find food.” I start up the stairs, and then realize that no one was following me.
“Kate, if we get caught then we’re dead. Probably.” Mr. Jack started towards me, his voice gentle. “Someone needs to be a distraction. And that has to be you.”
"Why me? Why not your dog? I mean, the aliens probably haven't seen a dog before. They'd be all around him." I motion to the dog. "Plus, the dog could lead them away from the exit, so we can actually get out without being caught. Besides, Nico can go open the forcefield, then we can get everyone out, then once we're all out, the dog can slip through the forcefield once everything is over." Everybody looked at me, even all the random people.
"That sounds like a plan." Nico said finally. "I mean, it sounds like it could work."
"Yeah," said a girl who looked to be about eleven. "I wanna get out of here, and if that's what it'll take, I'm going to go for it." I looked at Mr. Jack, wanting him to say something.
"I guess . . ." Mr. Jack finally said after a few long, pondering moments. Later on, we had split up into groups. I would take five people, Nico would take three people, Mr. Jack would take five people, Darby would take four, and lastly Tracy would take three. We all went up stairs as quiet as a cat stalking a mouse. Splitting into our groups, we hid behind boxes while watching Mr. Jack's pitbull walk straight to the middle of the room, barking his little head off. So far the plan was working. The aliens, most of them as far as we know, walked straight towards the dog and outside. I gestured to Nico to get a move on. Five minutes after he left, I told Darby to go, and then Tracy, and then Mr. Jack, before finally, I went. The three boys were surprisingly fast, and kept up to me, but the two girls lagged behind.
"Hurry up." I urged them from time to time. "We're almost there."
Sometimes I would hold their hands, and pull them. I could just see the edge of the forcefield, when one of the girls cried out in pain. I spun around and saw a guy holding a sword to her throat. Thank goodness I had thought to take a knife from one of the boxes just before we left! I drew it out, and stood in a fighting stance, hesitant to lung at him. Plus, was he the only one? Or were there more?
"Let her go!" One of the boys ran up the the man and started punching and kicking, I guess trying to free the girl from the man's grip. I saw this as a chance, and I rushed up and plunged the knife into the man's shoulder. You would think that blood would appear, but none did. Instead of the dark red stuff, a greenish color oozed out. Gross. I tried to pull the knife out, but it didn't budge. Oh brother. I thought, as I did a quick snap kick at the knees, hoping to break 'em. Before I could hit them, the guy sagged to the ground, as if he was a costume, and a green thingy appeared.
"Oh. My. Gosh." I said, backing away. The thing looked way freaky, with the big eyes, no nose, no mouth, three arms on each side of it's body, two weird looking legs. The kids stayed behind me as the creature advanced, it's eyes unblinking.
Boom. Bang. Out of no where a gun sounded. I waited for someone, one of the kids or me, to drop. None of us did. Instead, the alien fell flat on it's face, the chest had two big holes. I looked around and saw Mr. Jack, the dog, and Darcy standing not but a few feet away.
"Let's go." Mr. Jack said gruffly.

By the time we made it to out of the city, and out of the forcefield, I was so relieved I wanted to cry. The weirdness of today was too much for my brain to handle. At least I didn’t die today, or in fact that I had almost died. The kids ran over to their friends, no doubt talking about what had happened, and I followed Darby towards the others.
“You made it.” Tracy said. “We thought you wouldn’t because you never showed.”
“Yeah.” I said. “Neither did I.” Truth be told, I really didn’t think I would make it. If it wasn’t for Mr. Jack, I would probably be dead or something.
"So, now what? We've got the kids out, safely might I add. Now what? Where do the kids go?" Nico asked, walking up to join the conversation.
"Honestly, I don't know. I guess they could decide for themselves . . ." I drift off, looking at the groups of kids talking and playing. "Or we could take them with us for a while. Just to the next forcefield or something. We can't just leave them here."
"About that Kate," Nico said. "There's something Tracy and I need to tell you." He nervously glanced at Tracy.
"What?" I asked, curious about what was going on.
"Well . . ." Nico trailed off, looking at Tracy for help.
"We aren't going with you." Tracy said quickly.
"Huh?!" I gaped at them. "Your leaving?" I look at Darby. "Did you know about this?" She shook her head. Apparently as stunned as me.

"So you leaving? Where too?" I turn back to Tracy and Nico.

"We'll probably stay in the city. Protect some other people. The kids say that their parents were being held in another place." Tracy said. "The kids want to stay too. You know, to rescue their family."
"Oh. Well, I guess there's nothing I can do to change your mind?"

"Nope. Sorry Kate. But we really want to help these kids. Maybe we'll run into you sometime in the future." Nico replied. "We've got to get going. Before it gets too dark." Both Nico and Darby walked away, picking up children as they went.

"Bye!" Both Tracy and Nico said just before they were out of ear shot. Then they were gone. I stood there, wondering if I would ever see them again. Probably never, but I couldn't be sure.

"They'll be ok." Darby told me quietly. I nod, but didn't answer. I watched as the sun sank lower to the ground, the brilliant colors disappearing. Someday, I will see them again. But right now, I was just happy I wasn't dead, and that I would see my friends again. But for now, I would just continue this wild adventure until then.

"Come on Kate. Mr. Jack is waiting for us." With that, both Darby and I walked off into the horizon. Leaving the old city behind us.