The first day of the war is probably the most vivid memory I have. I recall being home alone with my parents out at work and my brother and three sisters being out at their friends houses when the bombs started to fall all across America and the soldiers came marching up the street with hardly any resistance. I remember running inside our house and into the basement, I grabbed a cardboard box and crawled into our open crawl space, I placed the box over the hole to the entrance and tried to make it fit the best I could. I was breathing so heavily and being only sixteen had no idea about what to do. I backed away from the entrance and into the farthest corner of the tight space, putting as much space between me and them. As I sat there in the dark with the spiders and ants crawling across my hands and feet as they scurried about their daily business, I tried to calm myself and think of a rational plan, my first goal was to find a gun of some kind, but I couldn't leave my space or they would find me and probably have shot me. I began to drift off and dreamed about a parade, my mind using the gun shots and bombs as the percussion section of the bands. Then the bomb hit my house, crashing it down on top of me and burning most of my hair off of my head. My ears rang with the resonating sound that you get after a loud clap of thunder near you as it strikes. My eye's were dazzled by the flash of the explosion, and my head foggy with sleep. I stumbled to my feet, luckily nothing had pinned me to the ground beneath the house, though I could feel my skin tingle with the sensation of fire just enough to make me aware of the coming pain. I felt hands grabbing me and pulling me out of the ruins and dragging me into a vehicle of some kind.
"You alright, come on now lets just get down to the gun shop before them damned revolutionist do. We gotta......." the speaker was the driver and he had to pause in his explanation to avoid a bomb crater and soldiers firing their rifles at his SUV.
"Why are you calling them revolutionist?" I asked half heartedly as we ducked our heads because of another volley of lead was flying at our car.
"Boy, where have you been the last hour?!" yelled the man sitting on my right. " The south has risen again. They are everywhere, watch it Allen!"
A mortar round hit the side of our transport, leaving a gaping hole in the side and the two men that were at my right mere seconds before were gone, well most of them was anyway. The SUV came to a screeching halt and my instincts from the boot camp the previous summer kicked in. I bolted out of the burning truck and monkey ran to the nearest set of houses and dove in between them, I could here the gun fire popping into the siding of the houses as I hit the ground. The driver was right at my side the entire time and was breathing heavily as I moved towards the tree line at the backs of the houses. As I ran for cover behind the houses and a safer way to reach the gun shop I heard the other man go down. I didn't look back I just kept going. I had to reach the gun shop if any one stood a chance of living. I sprinted over hedges and small fences trying to get to the corner of the street and get a good look at the shop before I went for it. I sprinted to the side of an open garage with a truck inside of it. I leaned up against the wall of the garage, breathing heavily, I peered around the corner slowly. The bullets flew the second my hair was showing. I stumbled backward into the truck and grabbed for the door, not caring whether it would start or not. I said a quick and silent prayer. Then rummaged for the key, I found it taped underneath the dash board. Slammed the key into the egnition and started up the truck, slipped the gear shift into reverse and threw gravel, switched into first with the tires still spinning and gassed it. I felt the myself being pulled back into the seat as the truck shoot out of the drive way and towards the gun shop. Bullets flew into the truck and threw up a hail of sparks and dust. I saw the rpg before it was launced and jerked the truck up unto the curb and right in front of the gun shop doors. The rocket hit the road and threw asphalt and fire in all directions, pieces slammed into the drivers side as I slid out of the passenger door and into the shop. I crouched low and ran as fast as I could in the prone position. I slid behind the counter at the back of the store and began taking out the hand guns that were left and pulling two rifles off of their rack. The truck was roaring with flames by then and I knew it was going to explode any second and that I had to get out of there. I grabbed a few ammo box's and a bag and filled it full with food supplies and extra ammo for later, then I ran up the stairs at the back and hopped down unto the other side of the wall and out a window at the back of the second half the building.