The Journey to the Safe Haven

Story with adventure

Journey to the Safe Haven

By: cslade

Chapter 1-

“Run! Get out!” Lauren yelled over the noise of the siren.  I looked up from gazing at the dirty ground and girls were running everywhere around me.   I didn’t know what to do should I stay or run.  Lauren gave me my silver knife and I cut myself free.  I could finally feel my hands again I knew I needed to get out.  I started running the opposite direction of the crowd, I ran as fast as I could up the up the black dirt hill and around a few trees.  My back and hands were aching from all the lifting I had been doing, but my feet kept on going pumping as fast as they could.  I turned around to see if anybody saw me or started following me but to my surprise nobody was there, not even Lauren with her brave smile and fierce heart.  Was I alone, left out here on my own?  Well-being on my own isn’t that bad, I am used to it, because I have been taking care of myself since I could walk.  When I was little Larson’s abducted all the girls and women in my village.  That is why we run away from Larson’s because all they do is enslave the female race.  Bitwills on the other hand take boys and men captive and make them work forever as slaves.  I can’t stand any of them nobody should be slaves or treated like garbage! “Who’s there?”  I fell to the ground because I knew who it was; the booming sound echoed in my head as if someone put a horn up to my ear and blow it.  My heart was falling out of my stomach, where is he?  I turned my head to the right and about a hundred feet over he stood.

 

Chapter 2-

I felt so hot; sweat was coming down me and drenching my brown short dress.  What could I do I don’t have a chance with a height of five three.  Nobody these days are tall, everybody ranges from five feet to barley six feet.  There is no way I am going to be able to get away without him seeing me.  I can’t even turn my gaze off of his green eyes, brown hairy body, and stocky build.  Good thing he isn’t as big as most Larson’s, he is probably about eight feet tall on a good day!  I know it doesn’t make any sense to size him up but I think I could get away.  I clinched my knife in my hand and jumped up from my spot, in the dirt, and took off in one direction.  I ran with my head up and I felt like I was pumping blood back through me, until it happened.  My side was aching and I was up in the air thinking maybe I could fly away.  The Larson had hit me so hard I flew through the air as if I was a bird, but the gravity didn’t think so and I came collapsing to the ground and the Larson was standing above with a twinkle in his shiny eyes.  “You thought you could get away did you?” he said in a deep voice “Yea, but you got in the way” I said with an attitude.  “No need for that tone, save it for the General.” he said with a smile.  The last time a girl escaped the punishment was death and it was sentenced for a day.  What a terrible thought, it took them a whole day to kill her, what could they have possibly done? I would never want that to happen to me; if I don’t want that to be the outcome this is my only chance!  “Defend yourself,” I cried and I jumped up as if I were an angry cricket and stabbed the Larson in the stomach making him bend down to his dismay.  I didn’t stop there I kept on going one, two, three stabs in a row.  What was I thinking killing him? Would I get caught was he just letting me feel like I was killing him?  The Larson responded with a whack to my head I felt myself hit the ground and that was it.

 

Chapter 3-

I rolled over and looked up at the sun coming out over on the east.  “My head hurts I whined,” and moaned as if I were a child.  Snap out of it, I told myself, coming back to reality.  I looked around aimlessly to see if the Larson was there.  I didn’t see him left, right, up, eww!  There he was dead I KILLED A LARSON!  My mind was so excited I started twirling my knife and walking back and forth, proud of my accomplishment.  After my moments of honor I started wondering who this Larson was.  Like if he was the cook, or the whipper, or maybe even the gate watcher.  I pushed the Larson over to read the name and job imprinted on his tag.  Litwill Kingston, what a puny name I thought.  I removed the dirt on the rest of the card to reveal his position or job.  Oh No! What have I done?  I started bawling my eyes out, “I’m so dead, dead meat” I cried.  I killed the General’s son, now they will surely hunt me down and kill me.  “I can run away, right now” I told myself and nobody will know it was me.  I grabbed my silver knife which had fallen into the dirt and started running out of fear, far away from the dead General’s son and even farther away from the camp!

Chapter 4-

Evening was coming to an end and I knew a safe place to sleep was a priority!  I started to look around at the trees to see which ones would be the easiest to climb, but the hardest for a Larson or a Bitwill to go up.  I saw thin trees, short trees, tall trees, fat trees, and prickly trees.  “What was that?” I said in a murmur.  I heard somebody crying, I rounded a tree and there he sat.  Up against a tree sat a boy a few years younger than me, with beautiful blond hair and deep blue eyes.  I stood in wonder at the boy because first of all I hadn’t seen a boy in years and on top of that he was crying like a small child!  “Boys don’t do that” I said with a smirk.  At that moment the boy’s heart nearly came out of his chest, he flew to his feet and grabbed his stick.  “You’re going to hurt me with a stick” I said chuckling, “You ought to find a better weapon, to be prepared if a Bitwill or a Larson comes around.”  I scolded.  The boy gazed at me in amazement; I guess he hadn’t seen a girl before.  “Hi my names Henry!  What’s yours name and are you a girl?” he said with an interesting look.  “Yea I’m a girl and the names Skylar, but I go my S.J.” I said “How do you get S.J from Skylar?” Henry asked “Because my name is Skylar Jackson” I said with a proud smile.  “Anyways what are you doing sitting around, you will probably get caught” I said scolding him again.  “I give up! I am tired of running away from stuff; all there is in this world is fear of Bitwills and Larsons, so I am just going give up and get killed” he said with a sad look.  “No need to die, life is full of adventure and new things” I said cheerfully.  “Did you escape with anybody?” I asked “Yea a few boys but I fell behind and got lost” he replied “Well I guess there is no use standing around unless you want to get caught by Larsons” I said with a quiver.  “I heard somebody killed the General Larson’s son, is that true?”  he asked “Yep killed him with this very knife” I said pulling the knife from my pouch and twirling it around.  “Wow you are brave” he said “Kinda” I said with a smirk.  “I think that would probably be the best tree to climb for the night” Henry said with a look of determination.  I looked up at the tree and it was perfect, there were a lot of branches that would hid us if we got up high enough.  “Great! Nice job!”  I said and started climbing with Henry close below me.

 

Chapter 5-

“If we keep walking we can get there in about a week” Henry said with a smile “Yea I guess so if we keep up our pace” I said giving him the look.  “Well Sorry! It’s not my fault my feet hurt from running away from Bitwills” Henry said.   “Halt” someone behind us said.  My heart started pumping again was it a Larson or maybe this time it was a Bitwill?  My breathing started getting hard and my feet started shaking.  “Where do you think you’re going?”  The voice said.  Henry glanced at me and I could tell he was terrified.   “Put your hands up and turn around slowly” the voice said, but this time I heard people laughing in the back ground.  Henry and I glance at each other and together we turn around.  “Henry!!” one of the boys cried “You’re here” Henry ran up to them and gave some of them a “manly hug” as they called it.  “Who is she?” one of the older boys said with a grin “Its Skylar Jackson” a voice from behind him said “It’s S.J.” I snapped back.  From the middle of the boys came a girl, she looked familiar and I knew that she was at the Larson’s camp with me.  “It’s Becka” she said realizing that we had never talked before.  “We were at the same camp, remember?”  She said questioning me. “Yea, I remember” I said.  “Where are you heading” one of the boys said.  Henry responded “Somewhere safe, like that safe haven you guys were talking about!”  “Okay well if you guys want to come with us you can” the boy answered “Sure!” I said anywhere but here!  Henry cheerfully said “She was the one that killed the General’s son at the Larson camp!”  Everybody was now looking at me in disbelief!  “Did you kill him?” one of the older boys asked.  “Yea, I guess so” I said “but enough of this chit chat, we need to get out of here before we all die!” I said.  “WELL IT IS TOO LATE FOR THAT!!!”  I turned around to see who made that remark.  Words could not describe my fear.  Standing in front of us were three Larsons and four Bitwills.  “Fight or Run!!” One of the boys yelled and we all took off running.  “Run east if you can” one of the older boys yelled.  It was a terrible sight boys left in right were dying.  In front of me I actually saw someone’s head get ripped off!  He had a sword in his hand, but the Larson grabbed it and then picked him up by his head and pulled by his neck.  I started bawling, I didn’t know what to do and now the Larson’s knew I killed the General’s son.  After the Larson finished killing the boy he looked at me “You’re next” he said and he started running at me full speed!  He grabbed me by my head and started pulling at my neck.  I knew he was going to do the same thing to me as he did to the poor boy.  I felt the blood in my body stop moving and all I could hear was the sound of the Larson saying “You killed the General’s son, now you shall die” Should I die or should he die?

 

Chapter 6-

“Defend yourself!” I cried I reached into my pouch and grabbed my silver knife and started stabbing the Larson in any place reachable.  I knew it hurt him because he started whimpering like a baby and pulling me farther away from him.  He pulled me so far away I couldn’t even touch him with my foot.  I then began stabbing his hand and wrist hoping he would drop me!  To my pleasure and dismay he threw me to the ground and fell over crying like an infant.  “Die you miserable beast” Henry said from behind me.  I turned around and their stood four boys, Henry, and Becka.  Still alive were one Bitwill and three Larson’s.  “Let’s finish this” I cried.  We all took off at the Larson on the ground like a stamped of bulls.  We ripped his hair off him and stabbed his stomach hoping to finish his terrible life.  We finished him his treacherous life, but left were a Bitwill and two Larsons.  The four boys, Becka and I all started charging at the Bitwill, but where was Henry?  I looked around aimlessly for Henry but where was that loser, he is like a child who needs a mother to watch him every hour of the day!  “Please don’t kill me!”  I turned to the voice of Henry and there he was.  The Larson had him by the head and I knew he was dead meat.   I felt a tug on my dress and turned around to see who it was “Let’s get out of here, we killed the Bitwill and the Larson ran away, probably to get help if we leave now we will have a week head start” one of the boys said.  Becka and the four boys turned and started running east and I followed looking back at Henry wishing there was something I could do, but there wasn’t he was a dead man.

 

Chapter 7-

I start pumping my legs to keep up with the others but they had a mind of their own!  All of a sudden they turned and went the opposite direction I started getting angry and mad! I picked up speed and then jumped in the air and yelled “His life isn’t yours to take” and I stabbed the Larson in the back all the way to his stomach.  Henry fell to the ground and the Larson fell on him.  I quickly shoved the Larson’s body out of the way and started shaking Henry asking him if he was okay.  He looked at me smiled and said “You are my hero” I punched him in his shoulder, laughed and said “You know it, now let’s get out of here”  I turned around and there stood one of the boys “Hey Bryce!” Henry said in his usually happy voice!  “Hey buddy, are you okay” Bryce asked “Yea I’m fine, thanks for asking” Henry responded.  “Come on let’s catch up with the others” I said “Okay” they both said together.  “If we hurry then we can get to the safe haven before the Larson gets back to camp to tell the others about our escape” Bryce said “but it will be an adventure” he added.  I looked at him and then looked at Henry “It’s a risk I am willing to take” I said and we nodded at each other and took off after the others.

 

END OF BOOK ONE

Author's Note

Please let me know how you like it and what I can do to improve my writing skills :) thanks

Reviews

[The Butterfly Writer]

I've only read the first chapter, and maybe it's just cause I've been writing longer so I have more experience, but there is quite a bit of work to be done. So, I'll give you a couple edits, and things I noticed.
-Your spaces after periods: There only needs to be one.
-You need to make any dialogue a new paragraph, and the paragraph that comes after it needs to be a new paragraph.
-I can't figure out if it's a guy or a girl, I'm pretty sure it's a girl, but it feels like it switches a lot.

Edits:
1. "I didn’t know what to do should I stay or run." --> "I didn't know what to do; should I stay or run?"
2. "...could up the up the black dirt hill..." --> "...could get up the dirt hill..."?
3. "Well-being on my own..." --> "Well, being on my own..."
4. "That is why we run away..." --> "That is why we ran away..."
5. "...boys and men captive and make..." --> "...boys and men captive and makes..."
6. "I can’t stand any of them nobody should be slaves or treated like garbage!" --> "I can’t stand any of them; nobody should be slaves or treated like garbage!"
7. "...and blow it." --> "...and blew it."

A lot of your problems are small things that can be fixed if you just have someone else read it first. This will fix itself over time too as you write more. I hope pointing out all those things wasn't too harsh; I'm really just trying to help. My inner editor is really nit-picky sometimes, and I do this to myself too, don't worry. Otherwise, it's a very engaging story.

[cslade]

I loved writing this story, it was a lot of fun and I just let my mind go where ever :) but I would always love anybody's input on The Journey to the Safe Haven. If anybody has in corrections or writing tips for me please let me know :)

Thanks
~cslade