Here I am sitting in a torture chamber along with 19 other prisoners. Some of the seem to enjoy the torture as if they're secretly in cahoots with the terrorists currently holding us captive. Some seem unaffected and are peacefully snoring away. It's just me wide awake in agony every second.

My captors come in and out every hour to take shifts. Twice a day they'll let us out of our cells into this enclosed and fenced off area. Oh, you have no idea how nice it is to look up at the blue sky. But it only makes me dread going back even more.

One of my fellow prisoners wasn't here today. We all secretly murmur frightfully about what happened to him. Our current captor explains calmly "David just broke a leg over the weekend. He'll be back in a week," as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. I wonder what will happen when in a week and he doesn't come back and their lies are exposed? Will they just make something else up? Or will they have to do away with the rest of us like David?

We were in middle of another torturous session with a captor droning on and on about world domination and praising war commanders named Napoleon and Washington. I lay back with a groan. Suddenly I could feel my captor's eyes burning red hot right through me. I cautiously lifted my head and saw him staring at me with those eyes made of pure darkness and evil with one intent: to torture children. I knew what would come next. He'd make an example of me like he did David. He'd make sure no one would ever lay back and groan.

"Can anyone tell me what Nate here did wrong?" His voice thundered. One of my fellow captives who love our captors eagerly shouted out "He was disrespectful and wasn't paying attention!" Paying attention to what? Being tortured? Honestly what do they expect? We're just a bunch of kids! They force us to sit in a metal hard chair for eight hours and listen to them drone on and on. That was the day I began contemplating escape. Of course we've always fantasized about running away and never coming back in all sorts of ways. Let in a thousand rats, blow it up, do something so bad that they'll be forced to take us out to a higher authority and then we can run. But this was the first time I ever thought about it seriously.

Oh how I wished I can just could run away and learn by myself. Just teach myself about Napoleon and Washington and not have a bunch of cruel idiots blabbing away at me. I'll be able to learn all my favorite subjects and take all the courses that my school doesn't have. Oh I just couldn't wait! Even though I knew it was just a dream I had a feeling that one day, one day it would come true.