Chapter One

Screams in the Night

Screams shattered the glass of silence that engulfed the desert I was forced to live in. My eyes flew open, as I was a light sleeper. At first, I thought it was just a dream and I had just heard someone screaming in my sleep. Silently praying, I tried to go back to sleep. Just when on I was on the brink of being asleep again, the scream pierced the night again. I shot up in my cot, knowing I didn’t imagine it.

“Someone get Mom,” I shouted, not realizing how crazy I must have sounded.

“Shut up X,” Squid said into his pillow not bothering to sit up.

“Seriously, someone go get Mom,” I snapped.

“If you want Mom that bad, you can go get him,” Squid said starting to get angry.

“I’ll get him,” Caveman finally volunteered and, look like he was drunk, walked out of the tent. Everyone in the tent was awake by this point because I had shouted so loud.

“I swear X-Ray if this is some prank your pulling I will break your neck,” Armpit said yawning, just as Mom and Caveman came in the tent.

“Is everything okay?” Mom asked then noticed my face. Instantly, he knew something was wrong.

“What is it Rex?” Mom asked coming to my side I was freaking out too much to correct him. Before I could respond, another scream broke the silence that had wrapped its arms back around the desert land. This time everyone heard it.

“Boy’s go back to sleep, we will take care of this,” Mom said and sprinted out of the tent. We all looked at each other; Zero had curled up in a ball on his cot and looked like he was going to cry. Squid looked at me apologetically and so did Armpit. We didn’t quite know what to do so we just stared at each other. As you can imagine, none of us slept the rest of the night.

Digging the next day was a living hell. Everyone was exhausted and we all wanted to know what had happened the night before. Who or what had screamed. When Mom brought us lunch, we all crowded around him asking question after question about what had screamed.

“All I can tell you is she is going to be okay,” Mom said softly. Of course that only egged us on. It was a girl? Is she hurt? What’s she like? How bad is it? What was it? But of course, he wouldn’t answer, leaving us in this haze of curiosity.

I finished digging as fast as I could and walked back to camp. When I walked into the tent, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Zero wasn’t back from showering yet and everything was still. I grabbed my clean set of clothes and went to the shower, passing by an extra cot that had the answers to everything.

Zero was sitting on his cot staring at something when I got back with Squid and Armpit. We were all talking and laughing about what Mom had said at breakfast that morning. I noticed Zero and followed his gaze and almost screamed like a little girl.

“What is that?” I shouted at the thing that was lying on the cot.

“That’s disgusting,” Squid shuddered.

“Seriously what is that?” I asked again. Zero didn’t answer, as usual.

“That would be Emily,” Mom said sternly coming in.

“It’s a person?” I asked.

“Yes, she is a person. She is badly bruised but she is a person,” Mom said softly.

“Is she alive?” Squid asked.

“Yes, she is alive. She prefers to be asleep and only wakes up at certain times of the day.

“Can she talk?” I asked.

“Yes, she can, she made it out with only one line of stitches. The rest is bruises,” Mom said.

“Can we wake her up?” Armpit asked.

“No, that is out of the question,” mom said sternly.

“Okay fine,” Armpit said looking rejected.

We all stared at her for a few more minutes.

“How long has she been asleep?” I asked really wanting to wake her up as well.

“Four hours now,” Mom said softly.

We were talking about her later on that night, when suddenly we heard a noise from the cot. As we watched, the girl opened her eyes for the first time since we had all arrived.