Into the Unknown

By Mariah Miller

Table of Contents
Sam............................pg. 1 Zach...........................pg. 9 Chapter 3............................pg. Chapter 4............................pg. Chapter 5............................pg. Chapter 6............................pg. Chapter 7............................pg. Chapter 8............................pg. Chapter 9............................pg. Chapter 10...........................pg.

1 Sam
4057. The world is falling apart in the year 4057. In the 22nd century, the world looked like everything you would dream of the future looking like. New inventions popping up everywhere, people flying around in bubbles, millions of lights on so bright, that even at night, it looks like daytime downtown. Or at least I think. Whenever we learn about it in school, I sit there and day dream of what it would look like. They say that the reason it's not like that today, is because the world ran out of money. My name is Samantha Bennet, and I'm only 15. But I can't afford to be thinking about the past now. But let me just fill you in on some background on what's going on. The year is now 4057. The world is failing. People are starving and homeless. They can't afford to have families. I'm the middle child in my

family. Well, I was. I had an older sister, but she died. Here's how; I was 8, and she was 23. She was a doctor at the big hospital downtown. She was fine, until one morning at 11:00 PM. She could afford to buy a house of her own, because she was a doctor, but she wanted to live with us. To help us. Anyway, at 11:00 PM on Christmas Eve, one hour until Christmas, she started screaming her head off. I guess my mom went in her room to calm her down, because she stopped screaming. My mom ran into my room carrying my sister, who was crying, and told me and my little brother to get in the car. We went to the emergency room, and they took her in to operate, while we were ushered into the waiting room. Mommy, what's happening to sissy? Jake asked my mother. Sissy's sick, Jake. She replied, and put her head between her knees. After about 15 minutes, a doctor came into the waiting room, and while my mother looked up,he said, Well, it's confirmed. Your daughter has Propopanga. My mom broke into tears. We can't afford losing a child. Propopanga is a deadly disease. You can get it from anything. Propopanga is where a white cell is stronger than a red cell, and the white cell breaks into the red cell. It then becomes an orange cell, and goes around collecting other cells, and eventually, it starts feeding on body parts inside your torso, like your liver, stomach, intestines. Once, I even heard a story about some that went to a person's heart. That's very rare, though. But getting Propopanga means that you only get to live for one hour, and there's only one surgery that can take care of Propopanga, and that's where they have to open your stomach up, and find the swollen, glowing, orange cell that started the disease. If they can't find it before the hour that

you have, you die. If they find the one that started it in the hour, then they can start trying to find the other cells, so that they can't give you Propopanga again. The surgery takes several hours. You lose a lot of blood if you have Propopanga. The doctor left, and me and Jake, my little brother curled up on the only chair left that was available. Jake fell asleep instantly, but I stayed awake for what seemed like hours balling my eyes out for my sister, and praying that she would live. I finally cried my self to sleep at I'm guessing 11:45 PM. My sister died at 12:30 AM Christmas Day. A doctor came and woke us up to tell us she had died, and that we could go home. I didn't want it to happen, but I immediately started crying and screaming. No! She can't be dead! She was alive an hour and a half ago! It's all your fault! You're supposed to save people, not kill them! I yelled at him. Please calm down, please. I did everything I could to save her. he tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen. Well it wasn't enough! I will not calm down! I will never calm down! I screamed. I'm so sorry. He said. By now, tears were creeping out of his eyes, too. The only thing I can do is ask if you would like to see her. He asked us. Sure, lead the way. My mother said. She didn't sound sad, or mad at all. I can't believe you! I thought, your daughter just died, and you don't even care?! But then I looked over at her, and saw that tears were streaming down her face like a waterfall. I look over at Jake, and see he's not crying. But then I remember he's only 3. He's too young to know what's going on. He lead us into a room that had big glass walls, and lots of locks on the doors. It was filled with

hospital beds, and only a couple of them were occupied. They all had their eyes closed, and weren't moving even a centimeter. The doctor lead us to the end of the room, to the last bed, and told us this was my sister. I got down on my knees, holding the side of her bed. Marissa. Marissa. Marissa! Marissa!... I kept saying over and over, as I gradually got louder, and louder. I kept screaming her name as my mom picked me up and carried me to the car. For the next few weeks, I would refuse food, and drink very little. Until I realized, I was the oldest in my family, except for my mom, but she was in depression, and was only conscious for a few hours a day. I have left my brother alone to fend for himself against the world! I thought one morning. Right after I thought that, I immediately jumped up, got ready for the day, and took care of the house. Anyway, back to the story. Then, as you might guess, my mother died, and left me and my brother alone. Normally, when kids don't have any parents, they go to the orphanage, where they say that someone will take us home, but everyone knows it's not true. Parents can't afford another person in their families. One time, it was so sad; my best friend came from a big family, and they were so poor, they had to put her in the orphanage, even though she had parents. And once you're in the orphanage, you never come out. You now might be wondering what happened to my dad. All I'm going to say, is, we don't really know where he is. He left for work one morning, and simply never came back. So now I'm here, in school, 2 hours away from when we get home. I can't say I'm excited. Even though my mom and sister died 7 years ago, me and Jake still have nightmares, and he still cries about it. I refuse to cry, though. I

have to stay strong. I can't break down. We've been hiding from the mayor, and leaders, because if they found out that we didn't have parents, they would punish us, and put us in the orphanage. The kids in the orphanage look so drained of life, I couldn't to that to Jake. Now, since me and Jake are alone, we have to have some way to get food. I'm not much of a hunter. I can't even throw a knife that well. So, one day, Jake heard me singing in the bathroom, and convinced me to go out and sing on the streets, and have people put money in a hat. It's the only way we could think of to get money, so I finally gave in, mumbling about how I can't even sing that great. So, that's what's going on now. Here's our schedule: 5:30- wake up 6:00- eat breakfast 6:05- go to school 2:30- come home 2:05- go sing on the streets 3:00- clean house 4:00- go buy food 5:00- dinner 5:30- do dishes 6:00- free time 8:00- bed time The same routine. Over and over and over. I'll never get out of this continuous loop of unhappiness. I'll never be able to make Jake truly happy. This world will never have a deeply happy person on it. I wish we could go back in time to the 2000's; to the 21st century. I want to live in a big house. I want to have $100 saved up. I want to have friends. I want to not have to worry about

anything. I want Mom, Dad and Marissa back. I want to laugh. I want to smile. I want to be happy.

2 Zach
Hi my name is Zachary Johnson, but people call me Zach. I guess you could say my family's pretty well off. My dad's a doctor, and my mom's a scientist. They both make a lot of money. But I try not to think about it. I'm an only child, so I get spoiled. I also get lonely a lot of the time. I would love to have Sam and her board at our house for free, but they said they could handle themselves. So I offer them money, and have them over a lot. You might be wondering how having them over a lot would make a difference, but there's two reasons: 1. I get some alone time with Sam, and we always feed them, and we buy clothes for them, and give them the things they need to survive. It's the only way I can help them. But one time, I skipped school, and went into their house, and fixed it up,

and cleaned it. I also left a little gift on their counter. But even though I've done everything I can think of for her, I still don't think she likes me any more than she did before I started helping her. I can't wait to get home. My parents are going to go talk with the president of the United States of America, to see if they will make a law saying that no one under 20 can be out at night past 5:00, because apparently they saw some little teenagers out at 8:00 PM doing graffiti. Ring, ring, ring! I hear the bell ring signaling the end of school. Yes! I grab my books and run to her as fast as I can. Sam! Sam, will you come stay for the weekend? My parents are going out of town, and they would be fine if you came and stayed. Would you and Jake want to come? I asked hopefully. Um, how long will we stay, and what time would you want us to come over? She replied. Well, it would only be for the weekend, and since it's Friday, you can just come over right after you pack your suitcases. Oh, I don't know, Zach. It might be hard on Jake if we come over. He's still devastated over what happened to our mom and Marissa. He might even wake up in the middle of the night screaming and crying. He has nightmares all the time now. She said as my heart sank. Well, we can make it comfortable. C'mon. It'll be fine! You probably won't have to go out singing for a whole weekend! I negotiated. Well, my voice does hurt, and it might be nice for Jake if I'm around more often. Sure we'll come stay. But just for the weekend. And don't be surprised if I come over and say that we can't because Jake doesn't want to. She warned. Oh, don't worry. I'll be prepared. We both smile, and walked away. I skip all the way home, so happy

that she can come! As I hurry home, I think of what we're going to do, and I'm planning out our weekend. When I turn into our driveway, I run up the grass, and unlock all 5 locks on the door. Then I let myself in. Instantly I know something was wrong. There was a tense air about the house. I look around, and find a perfectly good lamp broken and on the ground. Crash! I run into the kitchen. No one. Bang! Into the bathroom. Nobody in sight. Thump, thump, thump! I come out of the bathroom, and sprint up the stairs. I hear a door close, and bolt down the hall. I burst through the door, expecting to find some robber hiding by the bed. No one. As usual, there was no one there. There's never anyone there. No one to talk to. To laugh with. You would think I would have the best life. I would rather be poor, and sad, than rich and sad. At least when you're poor, you have to work, and that keeps your mind off how starving you are. I put my handle on the door, to leave, and suddenly I can't see anymore. I feel cloth on my face, and start grabbing at everything. I reach behind me, and feel someone, so I whip around, out of their grasp, pull off the bag, and pin them to the ground. Crash! Apparently, there are other people in the room. Then, I feel my knees drop to the ground, and realize that the guy who I pinned down, wormed out of my grasp. Suddenly, my face is pushed to the ground, and now I'm the one pinned! The guy then ties my hands together, and puts the bag on my face again. I'm lifted up, and told to walk. For some reason, my brain doesn't get the message until he pushes me. I start walking slowly, afraid I'll run into something. He must have opened the door now, because I know I'm past it. Wow! I just fell. I guess we're at the

stairs now. I go down, down, down the stairs, trying to not trip, but it doesn't help. I star falling, and when I get up, I realize that I'm only on the landing. One more stairway to go. Ugh. Can't wait. Down, down, careful, down, down, wow! Down, down, more slowly this time. And finally I reach the wood floor at the bottom of the stairs. Left. Go left. Says the guy in a rough, gravelly voice. I turn and walk. What would happen if I don't do what he says? Will he kill me? "Stop." he says finally, after some twists and turns, now I'm pretty sure that I'm in the living room. But wait, I'm standing on something metal, then there's this tingling feeling all throughout my body, and the sensation of being torn into a thousand pieces, but I'm not being hurt, and I wonder what's going on. Now I'm being put back together, and I fall on my knees, which I realize are stable. "Up. Get up." Up, I went. Suddenly, I'm being pushed. There's the sound of a door opening. My hands are tied together, and I'm pushed through the door, and land on the ground, expecting it to be a hard cement floor, like in a jail, but it's carpet. I sit here for a minute, not seeing anything through the bag. The silence is filling the room, so thick that I'm afraid I won't be able to breathe soon. The door opens, and my hands are untied, the bag taken off my head. "She'll be here to talk to you in a few minutes. Take a moment to look around, then bathe, and change. You must look presentable." "For who?" I question. "The master who commanded us to take you. No more questions. Get going."

3 Jack
Hi. I'm Jack, Sam's best friend, and I would do anything for her. Do I like Sam? Well, I guess you could say I like her a little. But that's it. No more then a little. But I know she doesn't like me. We're just friends. We do almost everything together, and everyone knows we're just friends. But since I kind of like her a little, I was a bit jealous when she went to talk with Zach. "You can't be jealous!" I said to myself, "she doesn't like you! She never will! Maybe she likes Zach, who knows?"