Nightmare Land

I slowly open my eyes as the sun rises on the horrid world, that I'm forced to live in. I stand up, the wounds still on my body from yesterday. I open the window barricades to a new morning. I unlock a door and out struts my German shepherd, Alex. Her thick black is fur knotted and dirty.

"Looks like I'm going to give you a bath, but I don't have any time right now," I say with a smile. I walk into the kitchen, Alex strolling behind me.

"I'm up," a voice comes from upstairs. My little brother, Greg, thumps down the steps, his short blond hair messy.

"Finally! I'll have breakfast for you in a second," I say grabbing a box of powdered eggs.

"How many more boxes of those do we have?" he asks pointing to the box. I shrug my shoulders and pour the powder into a bowl. I grab a bottle of water and drip little by little into the bowl as I whisk it.

"Not many…" I put the concoction into a pan and set it on the stove. "How did you sleep?"

"Not very well," he said while he yawned. I place a plate with eggs on it in front of him.

"Here, eat… do you want to come with me today? I want to go get some CD's."

"Sure," he says with his mouth full. After we finish eating and Greg gets dressed, I grab my belt and put my gun in the holster on my hip.

"Ok let's go." With that I open the door to the night mare world. "It looks ok."

We walk down a couple of streets; it seems to be clear so far. We're rather close to the store now, maybe a street's distance. I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I whip one of my hands to the holster and the other to Greg's shoulder, "Get down." A dog-like creature comes out from behind a dumpster. I pull my gun out as Alex starts to growl. The monster lifts its head, blood dripping from its teeth. I hold up the gun, Greg is almost crying even though he sees this type of creature all the time now.

"Start heading back to the house, I don't need to listen to music that bad." The monster must have seen something more interesting and ran off. We run back home. As it starts to get dark out, I shut the window barricades. "Its time to go to bed," I say with a tired face. We get ready and I tuck Greg in. "Good night"

"Good night" Greg says closing his eyes. I go down stairs and put Alex in the bath room and lock the door.

"Good night," I say once again as I shut my tired eyes and drift off to a better place.

By: Zoë Buchanan