The Archer

Chapter 11

Authors Note (again)- This Chapter is still from Elizabeth's point of view, and it will probably be that way until about Chapter 15 or so. Okay, now you may enjoy Chapter 11.

After Ms. Martha gave everyone their numbers, she went back to the front of the bus and handed the clipboard she was holding to the bus driver. "Alright, everyone! I'm going to call all of your numbers starting from one! When you hear your number I want you to get off the bus and line up right outside the bus doors!" she said, loud enough so all the kids in the back could hear her. Then she signaled something with a hand gesture to the bus driver, and the bus driver nodded and leaned down to pull another lever in front of the one that he used to open the doors.

When he pulled the lever suddenly all of the seats made a hissing noise and our seatbelts came loose. I rubbed my red arm, that had been strangled in the tight grip of the seatbelt. Ms. Martha then called the number one and all of the ones, including Puke and I, stood up and hopped off the bus. I and the others lined up against the bus and stood there waiting for Ms. Martha to get to ten. I heard a loud ear piercing scream, so I looked over across the parking lot, there was a screaming kid in a blue jumpsuit, an officer behind him holding his hands behind his back, and leading him away to a large brick building.

I shuddered at the sight because I knew exactly where that kid was being taken. Back when I was attending Warrens Side there were at least twenty kids a week that would go insane and start going against their commanding officers and their colleagues. When those constant instances happened the officers would take those kids to the "Brick Volcano". The "Brick Volcano" was actually a building where they would burn the kids alive. The luckier kids that go insane don't go to the Brick Volcano, but instead to a small wooden shack called the beating shack, where the officers would beat them horribly. At least the kids survived the beating shack.

But, ever since the "incident" barely any kids even make a peep at all anymore. They were obviously all too scared to. But, there were also some kids like me, that would try to escape, I tried escaping many times before, but one night I was successful when I hitched a ride in a helicopter with some officers. Then, the helicopter happened to be attacked and crashed in front of Carol's house and that's when she found me.

Once all of the kids were outside of the bus lined up, Ms. Martha hopped out. The bus then backed out of the garage and made its way out of the main gates. Leaving us all alone with Ms. Martha. Ms. Martha may have seemed like a nice person, but I knew what she really was. Her uniform informed me that she was obviously an evaluator, that's why she had to examine us and assign us group numbers. "Alright children, when I call your number I am going to tell you what building you should go to, got it?" Ms. Martha said, smiling.

"Number ones you go to that building over there!" she said, pointing across the parking lot to a large cement building, with a large white number one painted on the side. The group of kids labelled number one, including me, began to walk across the parking lot to the building with our number painted on it. We finally made it to the large sliding glass doors of the building and made our way inside. A nice-looking blonde woman was waiting for us behind what looked like a receptionists desk when we entered the building. Once we got to the desk she told us to go through those doors, and she pointed out a winding staircase behind her that lead up to some open doors. I could barely see inside of the room, but it looked like a large cafeteria.

I followed the others of the group to the doors and began walking inside. Inside the room, there was a whole bunch of other kids sitting quietly on long benches at long lunch tables. Some other kids were lined up by a counter accepting food to be thrown on their plate by lunch ladies in uniform. They were then yelled at to go sit down in their assigned seat. I was pushed toward this madness by the crowd that followed behind me. I saw a familiar face out in the crowd, and Puke grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. "Since you don't have an assigned seat yet, you can sit with me and my squad." He said, pulling me toward the line over by the counter.

I saw him grab a red tray and I followed his actions and grabbed one as well. I followed him down the line, as lunch ladies slapped gross looking food onto our trays. After we finally got to the end of the line Puke pulled me toward a large table where a couple of other kids that stood out to me sat at. There was an older girl, who looked to be Carol's age, but she looked a lot different. She had short pixie hair, that was swooped over to the side, it was a platinum silver color, it was covering her left eye, she was wearing a navy blue beret, and black fingerless gloves. She was also wearing a red and white striped tank top with some skinny jeans and brown army boots. "What's up? My name is Lonna, but you're going to call me Kitty, maggot." the girl said, spitting in my food.

There were two other guys there too, one had spiky black hair, and he was very pale. He was wearing a white visor cap, he had a white polo on to, with brown khakis, and brown dress shoes. The other guy was a little wider, and he had a dark brown bowl cut. He was wearing thick black sunglasses, and what looked like a boy scouts uniform that was a little too small for him. "Hey be a little nicer would ya, Kitty?" the black haired one said. "The name is Max, but you can call me Shadow." he went on. "And my name is Charlie, but everyone calls me Boss!" The heavyset kid said, excitedly. "Nobody has ever called you that Charles..." Shadow said, mockingly.

Charlie sat there with a pout on his face and whined like a five-year-old. "So, what's your name newbie?" said Kitty, with a smug look on her face. "My name is Elizabeth! And I'm not a new kid, I've been here before..." I said angrily. "Oh, ok...we know about every kid that ever goes here before. But, somehow we just can't remember your face, right?" Kitty said, snickering to herself. "I have been here before! I escaped a month ago!" I said, hoping they would believe me. "Wait, are you the kid that everybody was talking about last month?!" Charles said, looking very surprised. "Wait, what are you talking about?" I asked, sort of confused.

"Everybody was talking about this missing kid last month, they had all of the guards looking everywhere for you!" Charles said, excitedly. "Well, I for one don't believe she could ever escape this death trap!" Kitty said, getting up snickering to herself. "Ignore her, she just feels bad about herself," said Shadow, patting me on the shoulder. I looked down in shame, I had no idea that everyone would start looking for me...