I sit at a fancy table across from Danny with a bowl full of rice and beans."Feels just like old times." A wide smile plasters across my face, "Yes, I missed it..." I eat a full spoon of rice and beans. At a slow pace, Danny looks up from his food, "What's wrong little bro?" I set my spoon down in my bowl. "Why didn't you come back home?" Danny grabs a napkin and then wipes his mouth, "What do you mean, David? Look how I'm living, this is way better than living at home."

"No, it's not Danny! You could've been at home with me, but instead, you let me suffer. I thought you were dead!" Danny takes a deep breath and then exhales slowly. "I'm sorry, David... I was better off alone and look around you I made this place, this was all me..." I look around to check out the scenery. "I'm proud of you Danny... but I don't think you understand. Mom is probably looking for me right now and my friends. I can't stay here Danny." I stood up from the table, grabbed my bowl, and threw it in the trash. "David..." Danny grabs my arm with tears in his eyes, "You can build a whole new life here, Mom will be alright you'll see her again once you're grown."

I look Danny right in the eyes, "What are you talking about?" Danny lowers his voice, " When I turn 18, I want you to run this place." My eyes widened and my eyebrows jumped in surprise. "I- I don't know..." Joey comes into the room interrupting the conversation. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting something." Danny clears his throat, "No, you're good." I walk past Joey and out the door without saying a word. I walked towards the school to the hangout spot and sat down on the bench. I see kids coming back from lunch and going back into the cabins. I start to think about Erica and Aaliyah, "I didn't even tell them I was running away. I'm probably a missing person by now." I thought to myself.

I continue to be in deep thought till I see Juju walking towards me. "Why are you sitting all alone?" Juju sits beside me on the bench. "I'm just thinking..." Juju pulls out a cigarette from her pocket and then lights it. I look over to see her in deep thought. "When I first came here, I was just a scared little girl who wanted a home." She passes me the cigarette and I take a puff from it. "And why did you decide to stay here?" I said while exhaling cigarette smoke and passing it back to her. "I had nowhere to go, if I went back I'd probably be in jail or dead," She takes in another thoughtful puff of the cigarette. "This place is the best thing that ever happened to me..."

I could see tears forming in her eyes but she quickly wipes her eyes. "I don't know if I can stay here..." I said. "Give it a chance you'll like it, plus your brother runs this place you should be happy you have somebody." I smirk at the comment, "You're right, but I'm still going to think about it." Many voices come through Juju's walkie-talkie, "We have new people coming, found them walking near the coffee shop. They said they needed somewhere to stay for the night. Coming through the gates now." Juju swiftly puts out her cigarettes and jumps up. "Do you want to meet the new kids?" I stood up and nodded my head.

We jogged towards the gate and when we arrived there were two girls and two boys. "We just need somewhere to stay tonight, then we're off in the morning." The girl with the curly brown hair says. "Okay, we're going to need your names." The guy with a semi-fit body, brown hair, and hazel eyes steps up. "I'm Andrew Wiley..." The girl with long straight black hair speaks up next, "I'm Nia Payton, and this is my best friend Miriam Oakley." She points to the girl with the dark curly hair and pretty light brown eyes. And last but not least the other guy with dark brown hair and very tall, "I'm Dewey Hampton."

Joey writes down their names on a piece of paper stuck to a clipboard. "Okay, I'm going to take y'all to the president then I'll show y'all where to sleep." They all nod in agreement. "This place is so cool," Andrew whispered to Dewey. They all leave with Joey and once again I'm left alone with Juju. "Then there were two..." Juju chuckles then looks at her watch, "We have time before dinner, let's go back to the cabin so I can give you your job."

"What? A job?" Juju starts to walk towards the cabin and I follow closely behind. "Yep, we all work for our money."

"How much will I get paid?" I said. "Thirteen dollars a day... I know right we're living the dream." She says while smirking. "What do you even buy with the money?"

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"There's a lot of things around here you could buy like... Ice cream and shit... If you make enough you could buy stuff in the real world, we only go out once a month."

"Once a month? Why?" I said confused. "People can't know about this place until you're recruited. If people find out we're going to be in serious trouble." We make it back to the cabin and we walk inside. "Is that David?" Somebody yells from their bed. I look over to see a boy about my age staring at me. "Tony, get to work you can chat to David later." Tony gets up and heads out the door. Juju grabs a clipboard and starts flipping through the pages.

"Do you think you'll like the delivery aid job? You just go around camp and deliver things."

"Sure, I'd like that." She hands me a walkie-talkie. "When do I start?" I said while clipping the walkie-talkie to my pants pocket. "You can start right now if you want. I already turned your walkie on the delivery frequency, so just wait and they'll ask you to do things. If you need any help I'll be here." I nod and sit on my bed taking in the scenery of the cabin. I turn to look at Juju who's writing on the clipboard. This was the first time I had ever seen Juju look serious.

"Will I ever get my phone back?" Juju looks up from the clipboard. "Nope, might as well cry yourself to sleep because you're not getting that back."

"I figured..." I said disappointed. "But what about clothes, I don't have any."

"Don't worry about that, later on tonight you'll get new clothes." I nod my head. Before I could ask another question somebody spoke on my walkie-talkie. "David, we have a job for you in the kitchen." I unclip my walkie-talkie from my pocket and then answer, "Okay, I'll be there."

"Do you need help getting there?" Juju says while writing something down on a piece of paper. "I think I got it..."

"Okay, if you get lost there's a lot of people to ask for help." I nod then walk out the door. The wind reminds me of the time when Erica and I would fly kites and then let them go to see who would catch their kites first. To my right, I see a group of small kids eating chicken nuggets.

"Are you David?" I stop in my tracks to see a little girl about nine years old, wearing a unicorn shirt and shorts. "Yes I'm David..." She smiles and then runs away to her group. I didn't think much of it and continued to the kitchen.

I open the door to the school and get greeted by a girl with a hair net and a clear plastic apron. "You must be David... Follow me." She had a pretty smile that could melt your heart. I followed her to the kitchen, "I heard a lot about you, you're a lot cute in person." She said in a flirtatious way. My cheeks turn bright red while I try not to smile. "I'm Gloria." She turns around and hands me four trays with names on them. "Take this down to the holding cell, it's for the four new people." She bites her lips and looks me up and down.

"Okay, what do I do after?"

"You can go back to the cabin or you can come back to hang out with me." She says while touching my arm. "Okay," I smirk then walk out the school door. "She's very flirty and cute." I thought to myself.

I open the door to the holding cells and carefully walk down the stairs. I hear them talking amongst themselves. "America is so pretty and cool!"

"Yes I agree, we're never going back to Marpolia."

"What's Marpolia?" I said while coming around the corner with the trays. I see them all in their own cells. "Marpolia is the place we come from," Miriam says. "Is that a country?" I said while handing Miriam her tray.

"Are you serious? You never heard of Marpolia." Andrew says. "Nope." I walk to Andrew's cell which is next to Miriam. I hand Andrew his tray and he gently takes it. "Cut him some slack Andrew, I don't think Americans learn about our country," Nia says.

"So y'all ran away?" I give Nia her tray and she mouths "Thank you."

"Yes... We wanted to live the American dream." I walk over to Dewey's cell and hand him his tray. "It's way better over here than that guarded country...No freedom."

"Maybe I'll visit one day." Miriam looks at me concerned. "You can't... Nobody comes in and nobody goes out. That's why we escaped to figure out why." I listen in closely taking in everything she's saying. "Maybe I could help y'all."

"I don't think you can, once people find out that we're not from here, that'll probably send us back or worse," Nia says without hesitation. "Wait! Y'all are all over the news!" I said. "What?"

"Yes, the police is looking for y'all."

Andrew starts to panic, "This can't be happening, they're going to take us back if we're caught"

"Well, y'all are safe here for now."

My walkie-talkie starts to make a static noise then a voice comes through. "All jobs have ended. If you haven't had dinner yet, please eat and then get ready for bed."

"I got to go guys, sleep well." They all said goodnight as I walked up the stairs and out of the bunker.