The Wasteland

Chapter 5: 15 September 2192

Chapter 5: 15 September 2192

I ran out the door and onto the street. My mother was right behind me laughing. Her laugh was the funniest thing in the world. It sounded like a mix of a donkey and a goat. Then, I started to laugh. I ran all the way to the park and fell onto the grass. My mother fell down beside me and said, panting,"I was planning on going to the gym tomorrow but now that I just ran about a mile, I ain't going!" I laughed and sat up. Zade, Arix, and my father, with my baby sister in his arms, came running towards us. They sat on the ground next to my mother and I. "Hey, mom. Race ya back home." I challenged my mother. "You're on" she said as she rose and started to run. "YOU DIDN'T SAY GO!!!!" I yelled after her. I shook my head and ran as fast as I could. "We'll be walking home." my father said to my sisters and brother.

Artemis led me downstairs to the lobby. As we passed the reception desk, I stopped and took a deep breath. Artemis grabbed my hand and pulled me away. "So, your not much of a prisoner if you can't bear a dead body. What did you do anyway? Well, to get into prison and to be sent here." she asked. I paused for a minute. "I didn't do anything." I said with no expression. "So you were wrongly convicted." Artemis stated. I nodded in approval. Artemis led me into the kitchen. All of a sudden, I heard something move over to the right. I could tell Artemis did, too. She put up her finger to her lips as a sign for me to be quiet. "Stay right here." I said. I moved past her but she grabbed my arm and turned me around. "What are you doing?!" she said silently. "Going to see what that was," I also said silently, "Give me your knife" Artemis pulled the weapon out of her pocket and handed it to me. I walked over silently to where the noise had come from. As I went past a stove, something gigantic stood up on two legs. It was a bear. Not just any bear. A King bear. These things could tear all of your limbs off in one second or less without hesitation. The bear stood at least sixteen feet tall with sharp rows of teeth. The bear looked straight down at me with eyes like Dane's. Cold and lonely. It roared and I yelled for Artemis to get out. The bear picked me up with hands the size of tires and bit me on the shoulder. I screamed in agony. I got my grip on the knife and slashed the bear's throat. The bear let me go and fell to the floor. Artemis came running in and knelt down at my side. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." she kept on repeating. She grabbed a towel from one of the drawers in the kitchen and wrapped it around the bite wound in my shoulder. I guess that I was in so much shock that I passed out because I woke up in the penthouse on one of the beds. I got up and looked in the mirror. The shirt that I was wearing was now on the floor, soaked in blood. My shoulder was wrapped in some sort of cloth. I went to go and touch the wound to see if it still hurt but a voice interrupted me before I could. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Artemis said as she stood in the door way. I noticed that her hands were stained with blood. "You turned me into MacBeth." Artemis said with a smile. She looked down at her hands and shrugged. "How long was I out?' I asked. "Eh, about an hour." she answered. "I'm still hungry." I said. She waved her hand indicating for me to follow her. She led me into the kitchen. "You brought that up here?" I said. The bear that attacked me was lying on the floor with its arm missing. "Where's the arm?" I said in confusion. Artemis pointed to the stove. The bear's arm was lying on it, roasting. "We'll have food for about a week now." she said, smiling.

After we ate, Artemis asked if I wanted to go for a walk. "Are you crazy?!" I exclaimed. "Yep. Pretty much." she answered plainly. "It's, like, -50 degrees out there. We'll freeze our ass' off!" I exclaimed again. "Not if we bundle up we won't." she said as she got up and went by the beds. I followed her and Artemis threw a big, heavy jacket at my face. "Put that on. You'll be plenty warm in that." she said as she put on a jacket almost identical to mine. We walked out of the room and went down to the lobby. We took a detour away from the reception desk to avoid seeing the body, again. "What time is it?" I asked as we walked toward the beach. Artemis pulled a watch out of her pocket. I recognized it. It reminded me of the one my brother used to wear. "It's 4:30. Why?" she asked. "Oh, no reason. Where did you get that watch?" I asked a little more anxious than I wanted to. "Um," Artemis paused, "I found it on the ground when I was in New York. Why?" she questioned curiously. I got real stiff. My family and I used to live in New York. And brother had a watch exactly like the one Artemis was holding. There was only one way to find out if it was Zade's. "Can I see that watch for a minute?" I asked politely, trying not to be pushy. "Sure." Artemis said as she handed it over. I held it in my hands for a moment and then flipped it over. Z. N. M. was engraved into the golden back. Zade Nicks Maddox. I stopped dead in my tracks. "What?" Artemis asked as she looked at me with a mix of confusion and fear. "I think this is my brother's watch." I said weakly.