The door slammed shut. I pulled the pillow off my face and sat up. I peered over at the alarm clock on my side table; it was flashing midnight. A power outage. I turned around and looked out the window.  The sky was black, and I could see the moon going down over the horizon. I hopped out of bed and walked over to the door. I could hear voices from downstairs.

“They’re coming, we have to go!” It was a man’s voice, but I didn’t recognize it.

“Who’s coming? Where are we going?” I recognized that as my mother; she seemed confused.  “Wait, I have to tell him,” My mom said, then I heard thumping coming from the stairs. There was a knock on my door. “James,” she said, slightly muffled. “James, wake up! We have to go.” I leaned away from the door and opened it, just now realizing that I was wearing no more than underwear. “Get some clothes on, and get downstairs in five minutes-- this is urgent!” She turned around and went towards the stairs. 

I turned my back and slipped on a random T-Shirt and a pair of sweatpants. When I reached the dining room downstairs, I realized that the strange man had actually been one of my mom’s co-workers; his name was Jacob. 

“Are you both ready?” Jacob asked, eagerly.

“Wait, I have to get one more thing” I ran into the living room and grabbed the Nintendo Switch off of the glass coffee table; I saw my own reflection where the switch was--I looked pale, almost like a zombie. I got back to the dining room, and there stood my little brother, Ben. He looked at me and smiled. He was way too young to realize that this was bad; he must have thought that we were going on an adventure.

“I lost them around Harborrow, but they know that I’d be going to you.” I felt chills running down my entire body, my face must have gotten even more pale, because Ben looked over at me.

“All right?” He asked. I felt innocence radiating from his body. I knew what he hadn’t yet realized, we were now on the run from someone, or maybe even a gang for that matter. Just last Thursday the building next door to my mom’s work had to evacuate because a man walked in with a gun talking about blood and chips, or something. That’s not the only example either- there has been a lot of gang-related events in LA’s history. At least at the current moment we were safe, I didn’t know how much longer that would last, but while it does, I was going to cherish it. I leaned down and hugged my little brother.

“All right,” I said. I don’t remember much from after that moment, but what I do remember is sleeping. Somewhere along the line I had fallen asleep. 

I dreamt of horses-- they were galloping through a clearing, the grass was up to their knees, and the wind was blowing it wildly. Very suddenly, I sound started coming, at first it was the sound of faint thunder, maybe a far off storm. Very quickly though it got louder and louder until suddenly, just on the other end of the clearing were hundreds of bulls running out of the trees.  I didn’t get to ever see what was chasing them, because right as they reached the horses, and the sound was so loud. I woke up.

I lifted my head off of my brother’s lap, he was still asleep. When I looked out the window I saw daylight, the sun was directly in the center of the sky. I looked at Mom, she was sitting in the passenger seat, Jacob was driving. 

“Where are we?” I asked, confused, because I didn’t recognize anything around us. It was all desert.

“We are about 30 miles south of Hoover Dam.” Jacob stated, factually. I peered out the window, I ‘d never been this far away from home, the furthest we’d gone was Bakersfield for one of moms highschool friends wedding.

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked. I started feeling pain in my head.

“It’s one twenty-three PM right now,” Mom said; “When did you fall asleep?”

“Right after we left,” I said, my head was throbbing now. I looked out the window, “Can we stop? My head is throbbing.” I looked towards the passenger seat to see what my mom would say.

“Jacob, could we stop up here?” She looked out the windshield at a gas station quickly approaching. I felt the car start to slow down, the turn signal started beeping, and then we made the turn. 

I stepped out of the car to a very fast rush of heat, almost like wind, but hot. I started walking toward the door.

“I need to use the bathroom,” I said, and pushed open the glass doors at the entrance to the building. In the far left corner of the building, I saw the bathrooms. I walked over to the men's room and went in.

I was standing in front of the sinks, looking at my pale face in the mirror when the door pinged to say that someone had entered. All of a sudden, ear-piercing sounds flooded my brain. I dropped to the floor, covering my ears as hard as I could. I sat as still as I could trying not to make a sound that they could hear. All of a sudden it stopped, I stood up as slowly as I could. I could hear footsteps coming toward the bathroom. Quickly, I hopped into a stall, making sure to stay quiet. I left the door open, yet close enough that I couldn’t be seen. Suddenly, and quickly, the bathroom door was open, and I heard someone walk inside.