I woke up in the morning having the worst neck pain. Everyone looked horrible and tired. So that’s when I started to talk QUIETLY. “Will we be eating the same things every day?” John looked at me and said, “Probably, we have very little resources.” Nick said, “The rice doesn’t taste very good, I threw mine out onto the ground.” David said, “You should’ve eaten it because maybe one time we won’t have food for a while…” I’m pretty sure David wasn’t going to die, he was pretty smart. I was thinking the same thing as him.
We all got out of the tent at the same time, getting ready to have breakfast. We got rice again. I ate all of it. We weren’t given a lot this time. I finished up and had to use the bathroom. So i left everyone and walked to a private area. I did my business and then I heard something in the bushes. I sprinted so fast to the camp where everyone looked calm until I ran in the middle of all of them. “I heard something in the bushes. It was super loud!” Just then our leader came out and said “Quiet down, they could hear us..” “Are you sure it wasn’t just an animal?” I said “I’m sure.” Then the leader said “Stop eating and get your weapons, hurry now but be quiet.” Everyone scurried into the cabin grabbing the weapons.
Just then, I heard a gunshot. We were all ready with our weapons. We all heard these noises, we decided that we needed to separate. I took the path where I went to do my business. I looked into the bushes and didn’t see anything. Then I heard about 4 gunshots back at the campsite. I ran as fast as I could with my weapon. I saw one of our people… dead on the ground. I hid in a bush nearby trying to figure out where the shot was from and what to do. I saw the leader looking at something. He found one of them. I found one, looking straight at Nick… The one I found shot………… and wounded Nick. Our leader yelled “GET HIM.” We all starting to shoot near the person who wounded Nick.
They got the guy and the leader got the other. There were 5 more but it seemed like they already got them all when I was at the bush. We all decided to walk around the area to see if anyone else was coming. No one. I ran up to Nick, he was still alive but he was losing blood. His foot was blown off and he was pretty much screaming in pain. “Nick,” I said, “You’re going to be fine, just try to quiet down.” The doctor came out of the cabin and took him inside. I hoped that he would be alright. After all that could’ve been me if I wasn’t looking.

Lunch time came, we all decided not to eat. We all just kept working out, training ourselves for this to happen again. It hurt us all, my arms and legs were throbbing and I felt like I was going to pass out. We should’ve eaten lunch. But the good thing was that we were having dinner early. We all gathered around, a couple people on guard. I ate all the rice, but I felt sick. Today, it tasted pretty good but I felt like something was added into it. After a few minutes the sickness and pain went away and I felt better again. We all decided to go to sleep. I wasn’t on duty so we all got to go to bed peacefully.
The next morning I heard people talking. “I think there is body lice.” Another said. “I feel ichy.” I felt fine, it could just be in a couple of tents. I haven’t taken a shower in 5 days, I felt really gross. David, John, me and a couple more guys went to a pond. It wasn’t the cleanest water but it looked pretty good. We started to bathe in it. We didn’t have any soap, no nothing, just the water. It was so cold. I felt amazing in it. Once we got out we had to air dry. I WAS FREEZING. Just then the wind started up and it looked like a storm was about to come, so all of us went back to our campsite. We have lunch and this time we had a deer. When we started to eat, I felt rain drops coming down. I hurried up and finished eating. I was first into the cabin. Then once it started to get bad everyone else started to come in. There was thunder and lightning, but you know what we did. We trained. Everyday we trained.
It was night time and it looked like the storm had cleared up, we just finished dinner. It was my night to watch with David, John, and … a new guy. His name was Finn. None of us talked. We heard so many noises. So we decided to wake everyone up quietly. The leader told us to get our guns again. There were more people this time. They were shuffling through the bushes. I’m pretty sure there were some in the trees. That’s when I heard the first gunshot, all of the guys from the other side were shooting at us. I saw David running with John. I decided to run after them. I caught up with them, and asked out of breathe, “Where are we going?” David said, “Just follow the path that we took here.” So we all kept running.
Hours later I think we finally found our way back. I started to sprint towards the town. I had to see my family. I ran to my house, still in its same shape. I knocked on the door. Elena, my daughter opened the door. She smiled. “I knew you’d come back.” She hugged me. “Where’s your mom?” I asked. Elena said, “Upstairs.” I ran upstairs so fast, Elena following behind me. I slowly opened the door to our bedroom. There she was looking out the window. I called her name, “Lucy.” She turned around and saw me. She was so surprised. She ran up to me and hugged me. “Your back!” she said. “Yes, and i'm never leaving you guys again.” I said. We all hugged.