I stared blankly at the equation on the blackboard. All the numbers and symbols jumbled up in my head and gave me a headache. How was I supposed to solve this! “Brrrriiinnngg!” saved by the bell. Except, something was strange. No one left class. I heard someone yell from outside the classroom, “Attention all, Terrorist warning! Everyone escape!” Seriously? is this a joke? Next thing I knew, I was getting trampled left and right by my fellow 4th grade classmates. My stomach growled in fear. I didn’t want to die. Nobody did. The obnoxious buzz of screaming children encompassed me while my science teacher frantically filed students out of the classroom in a chaotic and disorganized fashion. My vision blurred and my eyes pooled with tears as I faced the reality of the situation. We headed west. I walked in a crowd of kids near the front of the line and tried to fit in. One foot in front of the other. Left, right, left, right. It’s that simple. After the ninth mile, the horizon began to conceal the sun. My feet were screaming, and we finally found an open field to crash on.

I awakened at the crack of dawn. When I stood, my muscles ached. It felt like a ten thousand pound truck ran over me multiple times. The possibility of dying motivated me to keep going. Still half asleep, my eyes finally adjusted and noticed the absence of people around me. Did They left me behind? Worries began to flood my brain. My heart pounded out of my chest. I’m going to die. Alone. What do I do? Thoughts buzzed around me like bees in a hive. After thinking about the situation for an inconceivably long amount of time, I decided to keep heading west. It seemed like the right thing to do, considering my options. I figured i’d find food and water along the way. Hopefully.

At every step I took, it felt like I was being punctured by needles on every square millimeter of my foot. Regardless, I kept walking. And walking, and walking, and walking. My mouth became dry and gritty. All the teachers had jugs of water, but of course, I didn’t have access to any of them. I had to find some myself. I kept walking, hoping to come across a small body of water. My mouth became dryer and dryer to the point where it almost felt normal. After searching the arid land for what felt like 10 years, I knew that finding water would be impossible. All the hope that remained in my mind was gone. I wanted to die. I fell to the ground and just layed there. Night came around, and I drifted off to sleep.

My eyes blinked open. The land was spinning around me. I wanted to vomit but had nothing inside me to let go. It’s been two days straight since i've have access to water. I got up on my feet and started walking. Why? Because I wasn’t dead yet. Somehow that fact alone encouraged me. I was on auto-pilot mode. No thinking, just doing. It was as if someone else had taken over my body. I walked, and walked, only moving my arms and legs and nothing else. I kept heading west, with no intentions. Every time my foot hit the ground, a cloud of dust shot up to my face. I coughed once, and kept going. My mind was saying, “You need to stop what good is this going to do. It’s not like you’re going to come across an ocean or something.” But my body was saying, “Keep moving, it's the right thing to do.” It was a battle between my mind and body. My body won. I couldn't stop walking.

Reality hit me like a board. I could finally control myself and noticed a crowd of people off to the right of were I was facing. I blinked to make sure it was real and not just a figment of my imagination. They were still there. The group was pretty far away so I couldn’t make out who they were. I turned and started walking in the direction of the group of people. A smidgen of hope had entered my system. As I came closer and closer to the crowd they appeared to be getting further and further away. “Are my eyes deceiving me?” I whispered to myself. Nonetheless, I continued heading their way.

All of a sudden, there was a sharp pain in my chest. I fell to the floor and dust got into every opening of my body. I couldn’t move. My turned to stone. Memories went rushing through my head like tidal waves. From the time I was born, to hearing the announcement at school, and to seeing the crowd of people in the distance. It was like my brain was playing a movie of everything that has happened in my life up until now, and I was forced to watch it. My vision was slowly fading to black and my jaw began to slightly hang open. What is happeni—