Final Paper

Trusland and The Commies

In a small country wedged in between China, Russia, and North Korea life seems to be

flourishing. Trusland is a country that consists of three cobblestone streets that run parallel to one

another with tall slim buildings on each side of the street. The people thrive on everyday life by

making work less of a stressor while finding more time for drinking wine, enjoying fresh bread

with olive oil, and dining with friends. No one comes to Trusland to be a millionaire or a high

class person, people come to seek equality and peace. The country is run beautifully yet there’s

always a problem that lingers the streets on a daily basis. The communist countries that surround

them long ago agreed to give them land for a price that no one should have agreed to. China and

Russia have all access to the land and are able to steal kids in their education program.

Tuslandian’s have been known to be some of the brightest people yet they’re not credited for

their skills since their neighbors steal their wits. In a country this small, every child sleeps with

one eye open.

The rest of the world was unaware of this terrible situation and respected Trusland,

seeing them to be one of the most quality run countries around. The United States thought of

them very highly, and their people as well. Without knowing what’s going on behind the scenes,

the U.S opened a study abroad program for students to live in Trusland for two months to learn

the culture and teachings of the people. Trusland didn’t want to accept the offer but the commies

intercepted their call and took action. They told Trusland to call them back and tell them to send

whoever they want over… or else. With their backs against the wall, the call was made, what

came after that was no short of a disaster.

 The arrival day for the Americans was a great celebration setup by the commies, a parade

down the middle street while the town acted excited for them. Inside, they felt sick. Each student

was named off with their academic achievements and their goals for being here. After the

ceremony, the students were escorted to their houses. Each student house was tucked away in

every niche in the streets so they’d be hard to find while at home, ironically enough the

Americans were uninformed of what was to come.

A native family by the name of Grooper was assigned three students to live with them.

John and Suzan Grooper were nice people with meaty arms and thick accents similar to the Irish.

Truslandians know they’d be one of the best for this situation. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, at the

door the students have arrived.

“There’s the company we’ve been waiting for. come in, come in, we have much to discuss!” The

students walked in and sat on the red 90’s couch with gold spirals on it.

“Since you’ll be living here for quite some time it would be lovely to get to know one another.

I’m John Grooper, I’m the handy man around town and I’ve lived here since I was 25 years of

age. This is my wife Suzan, we got married before moving to Trusland and have been happy as

can be togetha!”

The room fell silent for a moment, then a girl with braided blonde pigtails spoke up and

leaned in toward the group, “It’s so very to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Grouper! I’m Sarah! I’m 17

years old and cannot be more excited to be in your beautiful country. And what a lovely home

you have Suzan! You have such a wonderful taste.” Sarah’s peppy attitude clearly woke up the

room a little more than before she had spoken. The men in the room seemed to have assumed she

would be a peppy person based on her pink skirt and bows in her hair. The room fell silent again

until Sarah elbowed the boy sitting next to her. “Oh, I’m Drake. I’m 17 and I take my studies
very seriously.” Everyone gathered around noticed how tentative Drake was to speak, he’s

clearly a very shy individual. Drake turned and looked at the boy sitting next to him hoping he’d

take the weight of attention off his shoulders. “And I’m Sam. I've played football my whole life

and strive for perfection at everything I do… Oh and I’m 18.” The Grooper’s welcomed the

students with open arms and hoped to make their home feel like their own. As much as the

Grooper’s wanted to make everything light and exciting they knew it would be smart to let them

know about the situation within the country. On the other hand John thought to himself, if I act

like I don’t know about it then I won’t freak them out and have them running scared throughout

the country. John decided it was best for them to figure things out for themselves. Suzan shortly

after the group chatter ended she slowly stood up, “Well I better go prepare supper so we're not

eating too late now!” she let out a motherly chuckle.

Sam was quick to respond, “What are we having tonight?”

“Oh my boy, you’ll be excited to hear this. I make the best meals around, I won’t tell you now

what we're having but you’ll enjoy the smells leaking out of the kitchen in about twenty

minutes.”

John damn near cut her off and put a hand to his face to act like Suzan won’t hear, “

Suzan’s cooking is what keeps me around.” The whole room filled with laughter.

“Oh you love me even if you don’t want to admit it.”

Suzan floated away to the kitchen while John stayed and educated the students about his

long life he had lived over his days. Shortly after his monologue, the smells Suzan discussed

started to warm the house as if someone lit a candle. Sam being the big bad football player in the

house, everyone knew he’s anxious for that food. With the smells of gooie blueberries, freshly

baked bread, roasted chicken, maybe a touch of cinnamon, and tea to drink. Everyone could hear
a pot scream on the hot stove. With that scream, they all heard a yell that followed, “Suppers

ready!”

Everyone darted to the dining room and found a cricketie wooden chair around the long

rectangular brown wood table leaving the heads of the table for the Mr. and Mrs. The food was

laid out around the table and the students' eyes lit up like it was their very first Christmas. Once

Suzan finished laying out the food she slowly found her seat and casually took her old decolored

napkin and folded it over her lap then looked up. “Okay dive in now!” Those words released a

racket around the table as everyone grabbed a whole glass container of food and plopped it on

their plates then passed it to the right until they’ve got a little bit of everything. When the first bit

of food touched their tongues you could hear the grones around the table in such satisfaction

from each and every bite, it was even better than they had hoped for. The warm bread was made

so that butter had melted into the bun, the chicken had a sauce in it that was unexplainable yet so

good. Not to mention the blueberry pie that sat in the center untouched yet, everyone devoured

their food to get to that pie. While everyone feasted, John sat quietly at the head on the table, he

seemed disturbed to even touch his food. He scratched his beard and bit his lip while wandering

his eyes around the room, taking a short glimpse at everyone. He looked down for a brief

moment, then spoke, “Everyone… There’s something… I have to say…” He let out a gasp. The

room became eerie as the sound of chewing and the confused eyes were the only thing left. “I

didn’t want to have to tell you this but you people seem like good folks and I would hate to see

anything bad happen to you. So here it goes. Our country is in between two communist countries

and our land is owned by them both. In the original agreement of Trusland becoming a country,

we offered the commies to have access to our country in search of students. Since we have one

of the best education systems in the world, they knew their country would thrive with bright
individuals who were equipped with high IQ’s. When the U.S wanted to create a study abroad

program here we originally said no. Sadly, the commies intercepted the call and forced us to

agree to the terms to loor more students into their reach. I know this is terrible news but I must

not let you leave the house without this knowledge.” The room became still and fear was in the

air, Sarah spoke up with a shaky voice, “So, what are we going to do about being here? We have

to leave as soon as we can.”

“As soon as everyone hears about this news the flights will be booked up quickly. Suzan and I

will look into the next flight available after we finish dinner. We’ll protect you here until then.”

The students gave a look at one another for a second, then continued to eat in silence.

Shortly after, all the food was gone besides the pie; it was almost like everyone's appetite had left

them yet no one wanted to leave that delicious looking pie to dry. Even Sam seemed hesitant to

reach for the pie cutter, it almost was like a trap if one were to eat a slice. Sam interrupted the

silence,

“ Would you mind showing me to my room please?”

“Of course.” Suzan said with a gentle charismatic voice. Everyone else wanted to go to their

rooms too so they followed Suzan up the stairs with their luggage.

“I hope you don’t mind but, we don’t have the biggest of houses so you’ll all be staying in the

same room. Here it is.”

Suzan opened the old wooden door to a room that had three beds laying parallel with one

another with a big open area at the feet. These beds were full size and the room seemed equipped

for people our age. There were posters up on the wall of the popular teen musicians of the age in

Trusland covering up the old whitish yellow painted walls. Suzan spoke, “It’s not much but it

should do until we find you a flight back home.” The students thanked them and each claimed a
bed, no words were spoken for quite some time, the only sounds in the house were the light

clatter of washing dishes from downstairs. No one felt comfortable while they all laid in bed

waiting for their flights home. Sarah rolled over in bed, “ So do guys think we'll get out of here

soon?”

Sam sighed, “I hope so, because if we don’t we're going to be in a world of trouble.”

Drake cried out, “I think John will find us a way out of here shortly. I don’t see it taking too long

to get out of here.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. “We should get some sleep, I think it’ll help clear our minds for

tomorrow.” Sam said. The whole crew agreed and shut out the lights and hoped for a better

tomorrow.

It was a stormy night, the wind was whistling and the rain was pelting the window

repeatedly. Sometimes a storm is nice to sleep to, it was not the case for this storm. The crack of

thunder would light the room from time to time making the house feel a little less like home than

the students imagined. Roughly at 2:30 in the morning the house awoke by a loud bang on the

door downstairs. Everyone walked to the hallway and poked their heads out. John looked at the

students, “Stay in your room! It might be the commies. If you hear me yelling, find a way out of

here. They’ll search the house.”

The students' hearts dropped and they felt fear race through their blood. They went to

their room and remained quiet as they attempted to listen. John went downstairs to answer the

door. When he opened the door he saw two soldiers and one officer standing organized in the

doorway. The leader spoke, “Sorry to disturb you at such a late hour Mr.Grooper but we’ve been

notified that you are holding some of the study abroad students.”
John stood still for a moment, but answered with confidence, “Oh really? Who told you that?

We’re too old to be housing a bunch of teenagers these days.”

The officer seemed unphased as he pasted an evil smirk on his face, “Listen Mr.Grooper

we don’t want to make this any more difficult than it has to be. We KNOW you’re housing

according to the Truslandian officials. So… You can either cooperate… Or you can continue

your little game and we’ll do what we have to do. Do you understand what I’m saying sir?” The

officer pulled his revolver from his waist, clicked in a bullet and pointed it at Mr.Grooper’s gut.

The officer had a very serious meaning behind that smirk now. Mr.Grooper had no choice at that

moment. “Well… I ah…” He had fear written on his face now. “GET OUT OF HERE NOW!”

He shouted at the top of his lungs. The officer pulled the trigger shooting Mr.Grooper in his gut

as a stampede of footsteps moved around upstairs. The officer and the soldiers dove into the

home and quickly ran upstairs to search for the students. Meanwhile the students were opening

the window and jumping out as an escape route. Drake and Sam had already jumped out the

window and waited for Sarah to follow. Looking up at the window in the storm they saw Sarah’s

hands get ripped away from the window ciel and a racket going on inside the room, the boys

both knew that she had been captured. The officer stuck his head out the window and saw them

and they knew it was time to go. The boys felt sad and terrified but their emotions needed to be

suppressed in order to escape. The officer and soldiers didn’t search for anyone else, Suzan hid

in the closet and was never found.

Out on the run the boys found some shelter down by a boat dock in hope they would not

be seen. Drake shed a tear, “Sam, I don’t want to be taken.”

Sam quickly responded, “No shit man. Come on, we have to put our heads together now or we’re

going to get caught.”

“Shhh.. I hear them.” Drake whispered.

With the sounds of nearby puddles splashing the officer and his soldiers were on the hunt

for the students. The officer stopped nearby and demanded his men to halt. “They’re near… I can

smell them.” Sam was practically shitting himself at this moment in time, thinking that this

might be the end of the line. Drake was in the middle of coming up with a plan while remaining

in a hiding spot. He surveyed the area around them and he caught an escape route. He nudged

Sam and pointed off in the distance at a cargo ship being loaded up. They both knew it was their

only hope. Once the officer and the soldiers left the area they started to sneak over toward the

ship. They didn’t say a word while Drake led the way and Sam followed closely behind, the ship

was not far away. They leaned up against a wooden crate that was soon to be loaded onto the

ship, Drake proposed a plan. “Alright, when we get a chance we need to sneak past these guys at

the perfect time and get to that cargo crate. There seems to be only three guys on duty so we just

need to keep our eyes on them.” Sam nodded, they both peaked their heads out from behind the

crate cautiously, it seemed like they finished loading up the ship and headed to the control room.

Now is their chance. Sam and Drake both darted to the ship and dove into the cargo crate and hid

in the very back. They hugged in celebration. There was a small square vent that they looked out

of if they stood on a box. A man walked by the crate and slammed it shut, locking them in until

they reached the next port. They both sat on a crate and looked at one another, without saying a

word, they knew they just went through a life changing experience. A man walked by the outside

of the crate and yelled something out in a foriegn language. Drake turned his head quickly

toward Sam with a horrified look. “What is it Drake?”

“They’re speaking Russian.”