Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Caught ❯ Chapter 1

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

so I haven’t really written much for HV (humanity’s valor) which sucks. I’ve only got 3 pages done for ch 10.
MUSE: I suppose I could have thought of something to write up for the rest of the chapter while I was sitting in my stand for the past 9 days lol….but this popped into my head first and I just had to write it down!!! I really hope you like it, and that it doesn’t jump into the action too fast. Please, tell me what you think!!
Me: yes yes, we worked hard on this one, added a lot in to it.

All 1st Person Limited.

Me: so someone always says her name wrong, so this how you say the name Alica- pronounced a-leesh-a lol

You’ll also figure this out while reading, but the main character’s name is McKenna. Her boyfriend is John, the one who is going to Afghanistan in the Marines. Her best friend is Mike, the one who said he doesn’t wanna hang out anymore. Her other best friend Alica is the one who devotes all her time to the wannabe Queen of high School. Now, all should be clear later on. Enjoy!!

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What meaning should life have to me if no one I love is in it? If I am abandoned, and forgotten, what is the point in me remembering those who have forgotten me, or trying to return to those who no longer want me, who tried to abandoned me? There is no point in it. I guess I’ll just have to move on, find new people to love, just like so many times before this…

You know what today is? It’s November 27, 2009, 1:36 pm and I’m on my way out to my deer stand. That’s exactly twenty two days from my birthday. I’ll be turning eighteen. Big number, in my mind. I suppose not to many other people it isn’t, but to mean, turning eighteen means freedom. Freedom to eat what I want, play what I want, listen to music as loud as I want, have no curfew, hang out with friends as much as I want; just the freedom to do anything I want. But eighteen is also a big responsibility age too. I can deal with responsibility, I have absolute total faith in my abilities to be a responsible adult, but to others, like my mom, who refuse to believe that her little girl is growing up and doesn’t need help with much of anything anymore, don’t think I’ll be able to take the outside world. I know different, my friends know different, and a few trustworthy adults know it too. But, the best part of turning eighteen is I’ll be spending that day with my most favorite people in the world. Even if one them happens to be going to Afghanistan as a Marine in 3 months, the other doesn’t really ‘want to hang out’ with me anymore, and the last one is too devoted to the wannabe Queen of High School to have time for me…but you know what? They’re just going to have to make time for me, because I will not…no, I refuse to be without my favorite people.

Today is also the seventh day of hunting season. I’m way up north, in Wisconsin. I’m only a half hour away from Michigan! Those yoopers can get scary, you know… I haven’t seen a damn thing yet though. But I got a few scrapes here and there so I’m still hopeful a big 11 pointer with a 22 inch spread and weighs 225 lbs will walk in to my bait pile within the next couple of days. Now that’s my kind of deer…if I get that buck, I could win a $304, $223, and $46 buck pool money pot! Well, only if I have the biggest deer I win all that money.

And you know something else? Taking a shit in the woods is not fun. You have to watch for other hunters lurking about, and deer that might be around, and even deer trails! You’re supposed to dig up a spot to take a shit in, then cover it back up because then the dirt and leaves will smother the human waste scent. That way, an animal can’t detect it unless it’s uncovered or the animal’s sense of smell is supremely keen. One time, I thought two deer were going to run me over, but it turns out that the two deer I though I heard were just some other animal making a ton of noise. I know a lot of you are thinking, EEWWWW you POOP in the WOODS??!?!?!?!? Well, yes. I can’t drive another twenty minutes to the cabin each time I need to go to the bathroom, so I make due with the woods. Everything else does.

I was walking on the trail, half way to my stand. My eyes were trained on the ground, watching where each foot was placed so as not to step on unseen twigs and crinkly leaves, and not to trip on or get whacked in the face by low hanging branches. I hate not looking where I’m walking when I’m in the woods, but I needed to look up once in a while to check if any deer where staring at me through the woods.

Birds were chirping, and squirrels chased each other up and down trees. The sun was shining bright, making the slight splotches of snow blindingly intense. I looked around me, totally not expecting what came next. A mechanical gravitating orb was in front of me. It’s eye opened up to reveal a black, thin box. As I waited for something to happen, I glanced around me, still wary of the mechanical object. Just moments before the woods had been alive with the sounds of various little creatures scurrying about and the wind rustling the leaves. Now, it was so quiet you could hear a chipmunk fart a 1,000 feet away.

Then, an image popped up on the screen. I turned back to the floating machine, only to see a smaller version on myself on the screen. I was shocked into breathlessness as I gazed at the screen…but only for a second. I grabbed the gun hanging on my shoulder, my 30-aught-6 Remmy, took off the safety, and aimed into the small white and red pines straight ahead of me. It took only a moment for me to do it.

In the screen, I watched myself perform the very same actions at the very same time.

“Who the hell are you!” I snarled at the trees. The camera was in there, and maybe a person too, but the pines were too thick to tell.

I received no answer. “Fine,” I whispered under my breath, “your dead.”

My finger twitched its way to the trigger and as it was about to pull it, the floating eye spoke. It had a low, mechanical voice yet you could detect the femininity in it.

“If you shoot, you’ll never see them again.”

I glared at the screen. “Who.”

The screen changed. In my place at the center of the screen was instead what looked to be a surveillance camera angle of a man, shirtless, bound up with rope to a chair. Chains hung around his throat, and he was covered in large, bleeding cuts and even larger bruises. His head hung forward, in a defeated kind of way. I could see part of his side; a rosary hanging around a larger cross was tattooed on it. My breathe hitched, and I thought I knew who the man was. But, as if he had heard my voice ask that question, his head raised in alarm to look at the surveillance camera and be began squirming in his chair, trying to get free. I watched as his bound muscles tightened and threatening the ropes with their size. My gaze followed the muscles up to the face, and as I did so, my heart clenched and my stomach turned.

I gasped and stepped back when my guess was confirmed.

“John…” I breathed. As I said it, he stopped his movements. I saw his face turn angry and horrified as he stared at the camera. His eyes showed a fear I had never seen before, and it scared the life out of me.

John screamed my name hoarsely, “McKenna!!!”

He could hear me! He yelled it to me, and it was as loud as a foghorn, as clear as day, like he was right next to me yelling it. I was speechless for moments, wondering if I was dreaming, hoping this was nothing more than my imagination scaring me.

The birds around me in the trees squawked and flew away in surprise and fright. Guess it wasn’t a dream…

“Get the hell away from her! Don’t you touch her you fuckers or I‘LL KILL YOU!”

I repeatedly said his name into the screen, gripping the sides of it. Tears were threatening to pour down my face, but I couldn’t let him hear the fright in my voice. I swallowed down the tears and started to speak to him, to calm him down. But nothing could come out.

The doors behind him swung open just then though and a pair of burly ugly men filled the doorway.

“John! No, NO leave him alone!“ I screamed. But I had no such luck in keeping my voice. It scampered out of my throat like a rabbit out of a hole.

One was tall, black and muscular with no hair atop his head. The other one had a long scar going down his left cheek. He was white, and a bit shorter and fatter than the black one. I stopped my panicking and watched with a held breath as they approached John. I found my voice once again, “NO, stay AWAY from him!!” I screamed harder at them.

They glanced at the camera and chuckled to each other. The one with the long scar in his cheek walked in front of John, while the other one stayed behind him. The one in front smirked, then landed a deep punch in John’s gut.

John doubled over as well as a person tied to a chair could, gasping and coughing for air. Under each breath though, I could hear my name being said, and very torturous insults thrown out.

The scarred cheek guy looked at John. His ugly face took on a look of disgust at John’s relentless and useless threatening. He nodded to the black guy, who stepped up to the back of John’s chair. He grabbed the chain hanging around John’s neck, rested one foot on the back of the chair for leverage, and pulled so hard you could see the veins popping out of his arms.

John’s head shot backward, and the black guy choked him until he passed out.

“NO!” I screeched at them.

The screen changed just as I saw the bastards doubling over, laughing at my pain, and John’s suffering.

This time, someone else showed up. He looked so familiar, if only I could see his face. It looked like he was in the same kind of room John was in, and the same situation too; chains also hung around his neck, gashes and bruises adorned his shirtless body, and his hands and feet were also bound tightly. But he was much smaller than John, with dark, dirty blond hair, and a scrawny but muscular body. He had a scar on his chest, directly over his heart. I knew that scar. It was from a dirt bike muffler that exploded and burnt his chest. He didn’t look up or around, but he shifted his body to get my attention. He spoke softly, but just loud enough so that I could hear.

“McKenna? That’s you, right?”

“Oh no, oh no, no, no. M-Mike!! Not you too!” I stuttered into the screen. I knew it was him.

“Oh thank God you’re okay. Listen to me please, McKenna please! You gotta do exactly as that mechanical floating eye says-”

“No, I will not, I refu-”

Mike‘s head shot up, glaring at the surveillance camera. He tried to control his quivering voice, “KENNA! Shut up!”

“I can’t leave you there while this damn machine works disasters on you and John! I have to stop it, so I’m going to! Is there some reason you don’t want to live?!” I started getting snippy with him.

“Of course I want to live! Are you crazy?” He lowered his voice, and I took note to do the same. “Listen good Kenna. You need to do exactly as that goddamn machine says or-”

“Did you not hear me? I said-”

“You will die if you don’t!”

I stared at the screen. Mike had bloodshot, puffy and bruised eyes. His chin was bleeding still and he had a big gash running along his cheekbone. I finally got my big macho, totally-not-girly words out, “So what… I always put you before myself, you should know that by now.”

“No, you need to stay alive. You don’t realize how much we all need you. Your family, your friends, me….John. You don’t know how much you do for us, Kenna, just by being around.”

“Mike, I can’t do that, I can’t listen to the fucking machine that stole you guys away from me. I can’t.”
“Shut UP McKenna Sue! You have to! You need to do this. Stay alive for us all and follow the damn floating eye’s orders and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Be our hero, ‘kay kid?” He smirked faintly with the last sentence.

I could see the uncertainty and fear in his eyes as he said this, but his voice was strong and shrewd. “Fine…Don’t call me kid again or I’ll give you another scar on your chest. How long do you have before those guys come in and torture you in front of me too.”

“As long as I don’t make a racket like your boyfriend in the other room did, then they won’t come in at all.”

“How did you know it was me?”

“I heard John yell your name. He’s in the room next to me, and the walls are really thin. And I heard you screaming...” he glanced down and back up at the camera.

“What are they doing to you two? How did you get there? Who took you?”

“Kenna it’s not just us, they have your family too. Your mom, your sister, Neil, and your dad. They couldn’t find your brother, Andy though. But listen-”

“What? Where! Where are they being held!”

“Kenna LISTEN! This is important, you need to know this first. They took Alica too, McKenna, and they…she’s g-”
My feed to Mike was cut, and I hit the side of the screen so hard the floating eye lost its gravitational momentum and fell down a few feet. I grabbed the sides of it again and snarled, “Give him back! What did you do to Alica?”

The screen which had been black now showed four people huddled together in a cold meat storage room. One of them looked up around herself.

“No! Why them too!?” I was starting to panic again.

My sister Barbara Jean (BJ) was the one that looked up around her. With her was my mother, Maggie, her boyfriend, Neil, and my dad, Scott.

“Kenna? Is that you?” BJ asked.

“Yeah yeah it’s me, are you guys ok?” I was trying so hard to control and hide my concern for them. They must be freezing in there!

“It’s just a little cold in here, but we can stand it. Where are you?” Neil said.

I had totally forgotten where I was. I looked around me, dazed and confused. Recognition revealed my surroundings, and I answered, “I’m on the trail half way to my stand. But I’m coming to find you. The people who took you took John and Mike and Alica too.” I was starting to calm down and get my cool back.

“No, McKenna. Let the law enforcement deal with this. Let them do the work, we don’t want you getting hurt. It’s too dangerous for you.” My mom and dad practically said it at the same time.

“Yea, you can’t get us out of here. Let the grown ups do it, let them save us since you can’t,” my sister added.

I have to admit, that hurt me. But the eye added in, “She must do this alone, no law enforcement will be involved otherwise you all will die.”

Neil sucked in his breath and closed his eyes, bowing his head. Everyone else gasped, and mom started to cry.

“I will save you. I promise.”

The screen closed up on my sobbing, panicking family. The last words I caught were from Neil, “Be careful. We believe in you.”

I think the floating eye hadn’t expected me to do what I did next, because as I turned around and started running back to my four wheeler, it stayed where it was. I rounded a corner into small pines about fifty meters ahead of the eye until it finally caught up with me. I said to it as it buzzed next to me, “If you hurt any one of them, your fucking dead, you hear me?! DEAD!!”

The boots were weighing me down so much, and my backpack and my gun bumped against me with each stride. my backpack had a lighter, food, water, and warmer clothes in it. But I needed it all, everything in the backpack and my boots, and especially my gun, so I couldn’t drop anything.

The eye next to me decided to pipe up and say, “There will be a helicopter waiting for you at the Price County Airport. In it, you will find a fake ID, a new change of clothes, and a list of objectives you need to accomplish to reach checkpoints. Follow the objectives to each checkpoint, and you will find someone you are looking for. You have three days to complete all of the objectives and reach the checkpoints. If you fail, someone will die.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, just feet from the four wheeler. I stared at the mechanical gravitating orb, which had stopped a few feet away from me at eye level. A few moments passed, and in a voice I never thought I could make, a very ferocious, dangerous voice, I said, “I will find you,” I paused, collecing my plan that had slowly been forming in my head, “and I will murder you.”

If a machine could look taken aback, then this one pulled it off.

I stepped towards the four wheeler, shoved the keys into the ignition, jumped on without unloading my gun, and sped back towards camp to get my car. I didn’t bother looking back to see what the floating eye was doing. I honestly couldn’t care less, I would rather shoot the mother fucking thing.

I didn’t know what happened to the eye, but I didn’t care. Now, new adrenaline pumped through me, and I was the most determined person in the world, all to save the ones I loved.