Safe?

We lived in California on a mountain. That was home. We would have never thought that something so earth shattering would happen at home. Except maybe an earthquake. Just in case, we were ready. We had everything: food, water, activities, plus anything else we would want.

That day started off like a normal Saturday morning in my neighborhood. My friends Brittany, Jordan and I were walking dogs on a the hill that we lived on. We were walking above a park. A park where kids came and played on the playground and parents ran around a track. A family park. We felt safe. Safe, a feeling that we would not feel for many days.

Our walk was going well, until we heard a gunshot. We took off running. We had never run that fast in our lives. We kept running and running until we came upon a small cave where we could hide, at least for now. Until we had to leave. When? When would we have to leave? Thoughts were running through our heads. What will happen? Who are these people? The biggest question was why. Why? Why would the people want to kill innocent young girls? Why? We soon heard helicopters above us and police sirens below. But the question was, how could the police know to come. None of us had a phone.

As luck would have it there were bricks. Piles and piles of bricks in that cave. Bricks? What could we do with bricks? Then we figured out that when the killers ran by I would throw bricks at them, hopefully knock them out long enough to run down the mountain and reach safety in our nearby house. We would run back to the house, lock the door, and go into the secret room that I had. Soon after we heard footsteps coming. This was my chance. I had to. I had no choice. I had to throw bricks at them to save our lives. I stood up. I picked up a few bricks and I heaved them at the killers. Success. We ran so fast that they almost fell over. We got to the house, locked the door and went to the hideout. We knew that we were safe. Safe.  At least for now.

~ Caroline B.