ZAP! Was the only sound I heard as darkness swallowed me up. I woke up in a suspicious place--it’s all dark and scary. I tried to get up, but I can’t. It felt like the air was holding me down like I was strapped to the ground. Then a really bright light turned on and it was blinding. Two dark figures walk in.
That was when the events from earlier today flashed before my eyes. It was a beautiful spring day at Billybob High School in my hometown of Topeka. There were the usual books, students and teachers. I was in Math class and the teacher was just making me mad because he was insulting me, adding to my bad hair day. I decided I couldn’t take it anymore so I leapt out of my chair and tackled my math teacher and started punching him. That was when I realized what I was doing and figured that I should run. I rushed to the nearest building to hide in. The building was modest with nothing inside. The next thing I knew, the door flew open and some police officers caught me and tazed me. My knees buckled and I fell to the floor. Everything went black.
I came back to the present with a WHOOSH! That was when I realized I was still in the room with the dark figures. I tried to move my arms again and this time it worked, but I still couldn’t get up because there was a very sharp utensil in front of my face. It looked like a mix between a drill and a knife. I then got the idea that I could talk to the men and ask what was going on.
I said to the man on my right, “What are you doing?” He didn’t respond. I asked the guy to my left, “What are you doing?” He said they were inspecting me. I was surprised when he said that because I had no idea why anyone would want to inspect me. I wanted to go home and just get a detention for hurting my teacher or maybe get suspended or something like that.
I was then given a shot that put me to sleep and I could feel myself being carted away. I woke up in a room that looked like something out of Star Wars. I saw two other people there. They were both my age and they were playing cards. “Go fish,” said the one who was skinny and looked like he hadn’t seen the sun for a while. “Do you have any threes?” said the other big, muscular guy to my left. Then they noticed me.
“Hey”, the big guy said, “wanna join?” I asked him if he could tell me where I was. He said, “yeah you’re in jail.” I shouted, “What!” He said, “Relax you’re not really in jail you’re at a detention center. I asked him what his name was he said it was Demarcus Jones. The other guy said his name was Philippe Cleft. “Okay my name is Mendoza Sanchez. We should get out of here--don’t stop believin,” I said. They said they wanted to but they couldn’t get out. I told them anything was possible and to never stop believing just like in the song “Don’t stop believin” by Journey.
We devised a plan to get out. Philippe would hack into the security system, Demarcus would break down the doors and do the fighting. I would make sure everyone got out. These roles all tied-into why we got here—all except mine. Demarcus is here because of all the fighting he has done. Philippe is here because he hacked into the school’s network to change his grades. I was just there.
The Plan was going well. At the beginning, Philippe was hacking, I was waiting and Demarcus was about to break down the door. After Philippe was done hacking, we ran out, knocked out the nearest guards and took their weapons. One had a police baton and the other had a Taser. We were running down the hall while the place was in chaos. “Who was the smart one to make a detention center and a prison one building?” said Demarcus. We had all the people in the building helping us escape. While everyone else was fighting guards, we were escaping. We ran out the front door after taking some keys from one of the guards. By then they had the SWAT team guarding the front, side and back entrances. We couldn’t go out the front door so we ran back in. Eventually we found a way out. A man dug a hole that I didn’t think even a dog could fit into. He dug it as a backup plan. We jumped into the dark hole and crawled out into freedom. I was flabbergasted that no one was outside of the hole and we ran to our homes. Even today, 20 years later, Demarcus, Philippe and I are now best friends. We still feel proud about that day we escaped the detention center of Topeka.