The leaves crunched under our feet as we walked through the dark forest. There didn't seem be much of a path, and since we were a large group it was very squished. They kept us moving moving fast, anyone who fell behind was shoved into position. It was almost silent besides the shouts of the gang members to move faster and the muffled sobs of the more frightened ones. I walked with Luke on one side, and Nicole and Dallas on the other. We didn't speak. None of us really wanted to talk. It had only been at most an hour and a half since we left school, but it felt like a lifetime. We were too emotionally and physically drained of energy to do anything. I was reminded strongly of the "death marches" that Jews in Nazi Germany were forced to take, walking for hours to their death, sometimes even forced to dig their own grave before they were shot and buried. I hoped that we wouldn't meet a similar fate.

Finally after probably about an hour of walking through the woods we reached another clearing, this one much bigger than the first. The first thing I noticed were the rows upon rows of sleeping bags laid out on the ground, and many of them had children sitting on them. Some of them had bruises like me, I even noticed a couple cuts on their faces with dried blood, most likely made by a switchblade of some sort. As I scanned their faces I saw people I recognized, people that were in my grade. I couldn't believe the sheer number of kids that were here. There had to be at least two hundred, including us. This plot was certainly bigger than I thought at first.
"Alright, you little brats, listen up. Go find a sleeping bag and stay there. There will be no walking around, and stay quiet. Food will be given in an half an hour. I'm sure I don't need to remind you, but I will. If you try to escape you will be shot on the spot." One of the gang members said, not the creepy leader. He looked around at us and smiled very creepily. I wonder if all of these people practice their creepy smiles. I wouldn't be surprised.
"Well?! What are you waiting for? Go!" He screamed. We all, and I kid you not, sprinted to our sleeping bags.

Luke, Nicole, Dallas, and I all found a sleeping bag together and sat down. For a little while no one spoke. What do you say in a situation like this? I realized that someone had to break the silence, and it was clear I would be the only one doing so.
"Ok, so we need a plan. This is real, and we need to do everything we can to survive and get back to our families." I paused and watched their reactions. Nicole slowly raised her head and fought back a sniffle. Poor girl. I felt bad for her, but this was just a reminder that I had to be strong for my friends and for myself. Luke and Dallas looked at each other, and for the first time in what felt like hours, smiled. I knew then that we could do this. That there was hope. I knew that we were going to make it out of this alive. There was no one who I would rather be here with than these three.

"Alright, I think the first thing we should do empty out our backpacks, see what we can use." Everyone nodded and started to empty out their bags. Luckily our kidnappers had allowed us to keep our backpacks, and hadn't searched them. I opened up my backpack and started pulling out anything I thought might be useful. I grabbed my lunch kit and opened it up. All of my food was still there as I had to finish a project at lunch and didn't get a chance to eat. That might be useful. I also had my journal and a pen in there, which I never leave home without, as I'm a writer that always seems to come up with really good ideas, but then forgets them. I also pulled out my flute, which I had just gotten. I am an avid flute player, and consider myself quite good. If anything, I can use this to fend off the inevitable boredom that was sure to come. I also grabbed minor things like a book, a couple pens, and my phone. Wait. I grabbed my phone! I could call someone, call the police, have them at least aware that we were being held hostage. My face lit up and I turned it on before realizing that my phone was fairly new, and I hadn't gotten it set up to call or text. My hopes got flushed down the metaphorical toilet and I turned it off and put it back in my bag. I looked at my friends piles and saw some possibly useful objects. We had a fairly large pile of food, as well as some things to pass the time. One thing stood out in particular. Both Nicole and Luke had pocket knives in their piles. Dallas and I looked at them in confusion, and they just exchanged a glance and shrugged. I didn't bother asking them why they had weapons, but I figured that if we got cornered, those weapons would come in handy.
"Well, I am not even going to ask why you two have pocket knives, but I'm sure it's a good reason. At least we have a good pile of food, an extra sweater and some things to entertain us." Dallas said with a grin. We all nodded in agreement. I turned my attention to the pile of food. There was certainly enough for all of us, but for how long?
"We need to ration this food." Luke said, voicing my concerns.
"He's right" I said, as everyone turned to face me. "We don't know how much food we will recieve, or how long we need to make it last. We need to be sparse with it." I continued. As I said this I could see gang members walking around throwing bagels and bottles of water at people.
"Quick, hide the stuff!" Nicole hissed and we quickly packed away everything and pretended to be miserable like everyone else. We were tossed a bagel each and a bottle of warm water. I only ate half the bagel and drank a little of the water, as did my friends. We put the rest in our backpacks. I could see other kids being smart and conserving their food like us, but at the same time I saw kids, mostly elementary school children, consuming all the food. I shook my head. Fools. Even though their eating of all of their food at once probably wouldn't kill them, it certainly would make it more difficult for them in the long run. It was still very quiet, and I quietly got out my journal and a pen. I had an idea. I would record everything that happened here, so that when we got away, I had evidence of it. Also, this way I wouldn't die from boredom. So, for the next couple hours I wrote down everything that had happened to us in the past couple hours. I described the man hitting on me, then hitting me. I wrote about the boys failed escape attempt, and his murder soon after. I mentioned the crying children, the sense of fear when we realized that we had no control over the situation, the long trek through the woods with people shouting at us. As I wrote I realized just how scared I really was, and had to fight back tears, but despite my best efforts a tear or two plopped down onto the page. Soon it was dark, and the gang members started yelling at us to get to sleep, kicking a few who didn't get to sleep fast enough. I didn't want to sleep, but I knew I had to be well rested for the day ahead. So I closed my eyes, dreading the nightmares that were sure to follow, and wishing I was home in my own bed.

I think that was my longest chapter yet, a bit of a filler, but still not. So our hero's have made it through their first day, I wonder what will happen next (evil laugh). Thank you all for reading and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. If you did please comment, vote, and follow.

Cat