Last Day Of School (12/5)

 I looked at the picture of me and my best friend, Hailey, that I kept in my locker. It was from freshman year and the two girls were smiling brightly at the camera, clearly eager for what they only knew to be the “best years of their lives”. Their was a familiar screech from halfway down the hall, and I turned just in time to see Hailey sprinting down the hallways at me.

I grabbed her by the shoulders before she crashed into the lockers, “Jesus, Hailey is the building on fire?” I asked raising my eyebrows at her.

“You have to come with me right now, it's a matter of life and death!” Hailey exclaimed looking terrified.

Hailey was usually a bit dramatic, but something about the look on her face told me I should follow her instead of teasing and continuing to question her.

She partially dragged me to the cafeteria where there was a multitude of men and women in uniform. I would've assumed it was just a recruiters fair if they weren't pushing around students and their hands weren't unconsciously hovering to close to their service pistols.

I would've just snuck out of the school if I hadn't noticed Hailey's brother Brady being pushed roughly by a soldier with a baton. He was then hustled into a line with a lot of other male students. On the other side of the cafeteria there was a lengthy line of girls standing at attention with a female soldier marching back and forth in front of them eying them all up and down.

“Hailey, let's go!” I whispered pulling her arm, trying to get her to go down the hall towards the parking lot with me.

“We can't just leave, they have my brother!” Hailey said a little too loudly, starting to cry.

At this point I had no patience left and I didn't want her to get us caught so I dragged her outside to the parking lot before explaining my plan to her.

“Hailey I know, but we can't help him if we are in the same situation with him can we? We are going to follow them and break him out,” I said pushing her into the passenger seat of my car.

I got in the car and waited in the parking lot until I saw the soldiers marching the students out to vans and pushing them along quickly. After all of the vans had pulled out I followed behind at a safe distance until we reached a military base. I parked in a parking lot across the street and made my way quickly across climbing over a brick wall then helping Hailey over.

It wasn't hard to find her brother because the group of students was so large, and they were the only ones on base in civilian clothing. I watched the soldiers march the boys into a room and followed behind trying not to let the door close. I was so preoccupied trying to eavesdrop that I didn't notice the burly shaven man that crept up behind me and Hailey.

“Looks like we've got some stragglers,” he said into a walkie talkie motioning for Hailey and me to follow him.

I dropped my head and followed him with Hailey dragging along slowly behind me.

The man led us into a room with our classmates where we were sat in the front to watch whatever video the girls had already started.

I felt that I was in some sort of numb state while watching the video. The sound wasn't even registering in my brain, but it was clear that the United States had entered another World War, and we were the unwilling participants.