Guns and Doves - E.S. (phonics reader txt) 📗

looked like he was about to die, then he whispered “no yelling, don’t yell Blue”, he almost begged.
“ fine, but she stay”.

I ended up staying, even If I wanted to leave, Blue, the little girl, would make me stay, she was the one in charge here. They took my into the building, that actually was a hotel. The door was hidden, the same color as the bricks, no wonder I couldn’t see it.

In the lobby of the hotel, there was kids, like me. Many of them, all different colors, genders, ages, every thing, Blue wouldn’t let go of me, and the boy, Kase, lead the way into the front of the lobby. There was a group of kids that looked my age, mostly boys, he introduced me, and me to them then left. Blue followed Kase. “So, how’d you find us?”, one girl asked, I think her name was Kim, she had short black hair, she was a little taller than me, but just as skinny, she had small brown eyes and small lips. “Well, I was running away from a person who, I guess, caught the sickness, and I ran to here, I think Kase let off a shot and almost killed the guy, then Blue finished him, Blue made me stay”, I said. They all nodded and asked questions and I got to ask my questions too. There seemed to be two types of people in this group, the ones that want to have fun, and the ones that want to stay alive. Kim was one the people who wanted to stay alive. We hung around the lobby for a minute, then Kim showed me to my room.
There was eighteen floors, I was on the fourteenth, because that was my age, I was right beside Kim and some boy that seemed to be in the “wants to have fun” group. This hotel was fancy, a queen sized bed, a marble table and floor and shower bathroom, a walk in closet, and a little living room and kitchen. I put my clothes into the closet, which looked a bit funny because it was such a big space with so little clothes, and I put my shot gun in the living room under the couch and my hand gun beside my bed, I put my food in the kitchen and checked what I had to eat.

There was a knock on the door, it was the boy that lived beside me. “Hey”, he said, he had food in his hands, “I thought you might not have much”, and gave me the food, “oh thanks, come in”, I said and closed the door behind him, we walked in the kitchen. I put the food with the others, I still didn’t have a lot of food, but the boy was a big help. “So you’re....who are you?”, he asked, “my name is Dove”, I exclaimed, it wasn’t my real name, but that’s the name it is from now. “Dove”, he repeated, “I’m Luke”, he told me, “hi Luke”, I said awkwardly.

He walked around my room, then into my closet, “wow, you don’t have many clothes”, he said the obvious, “yeah, I guess so, well I packed light”, I explained, then he looked at me “your wet”, he said, again, saying the obvious “do you need some clothes?”, he asked, “um, well, I’m covered, expect for something to wear to bed, but that’s ok”, I turned down his offer, I wonder why he’s being so nice, around every one else he just joked around, and hardly even noticed I was there. “No, really, come on, I’ll get you something”, he took me to his room. There was his closet, although, it too didn’t have many clothes, he had a lot more than mine. He handed me a T-shirt, it was red, and had long sleeves, “yeah, it’s a bit warm, just cut the sleeves, it doesn’t fit me anymore”, he explained, and handed me some pants, they were black and red plaid “again, I think you might want to cut them, but they don’t look to bad”, he said.

We walked back to my room, where I cut the clothing with my knife. The shorts turned into short shorts because I was not that level one my cutting, and like my other tops, this shirt too, had no sleeves. I changed into the Pj’s and put my clothes on the balcony to dry, we looked out, to the city. It looked like a happy place, the sun was up, there was hardly any one on the streets, and it just wasn’t scary, being so far away from where any one could touch us. “I wish it felt like this all the time”, Luke said, “like what?”, I asked,
“Like there isn’t any thing to be afraid of, there’s nothing down there that will rip you to shreds and eat you alive”,
“Well that’s a good description, but I know what you mean, I wish it did too”.
3.

All the kids went down stairs for dinner, and it seemed like every one had a nickname.
I met a girl, she must’ve only been a couple years younger than me, her name was Fatts, she was pretty skinny, must’ve only weight about 60 pounds, and she wasn’t short or anything like that. Another, young girl, her name was Flower, she had a flower in her hair, it was plastic, and I guess she has it in there a lot. A boy in my ago group named Guns, and another girl named Sun. I guess I wasn’t the only one with a weird name.

While I was eating Blue came up to me, I was sitting with Kim, so Blue sat on the other side. Luke didn’t go any where near me now, I caught him looking a couple times, but mostly he was with Guns, Guns fit the name, her was very muscular and seemed to be good at shooting a gun, I but I could do better than him though. Blue looked up to me, she had corn all over her face “what are you doing, saving that for later?”, I laughed, she felt around her face, all the corn came streaming down, she looked at her lap, at all the corn, she giggled a bit, then started to eat it.

A group of people went out the door, most people didn’t even take a second look. The people who went out the door all had guns, or some kind of weapon and bags, what was it for? They all seemed to be older than me, Blue looked over at them too, then grabbed my hand and headed over to the door. There was always some one guarding the door, always, Blue went up to the guard, “I go with?”, she asked the guard, he looked down at her with a little smile “sorry Blue, no going out today”, he said, Blue didn’t look happy with this, “why not?”, she said, pouting, the guard sighed “Blue you know you can’t go out at night”, he explained, Blue sat down on the ground, “Froggy”, she said, looking serious “you have to let me out”. The guard, Froggy, smiled “why?”, he asked, wondering, then Blue went on explaining “because, you know I’m small and can help the most, all those people are old, and they could die! They aren’t fast!”. “Blue. All those people have been training for a long time, I’m sure they can handle themselves”.

There was a knock on the door, Froggy straightened up and aimed at the door, the knock got longer, it turned to thumps, bangs, no noises, but bangs at the door, it caught most peoples attention. “Froggy, what are you doing? That could be one of us!”, I whispered, “it’s not”, Froggy said, not even bothering to look at me, he kept looking at the door, “do my a favor, tell Kase to go in stage two”, he told Blue, she ran off, “go get another gun”, he ordered me, I ran up to my room and gun my shotgun from under the couch, and ran back down. I kept looking at the door, like Froggy.

“Ok, I’m gonna open to door, you have to shoot, right away”, Froggy commanded me, he went behind the door, and opened it. A body came flying in, I had to get a good shot, I focused. I looked at the chest, no, legs, no, arms, no, head, I slowed down my thoughts, you could say, and all I saw was his head. I took one bullet, a load bang came and the body banged against the ground, Blue came up and smashed his neck with her axe, and it was over. The door slammed shut and two older boys came and covered the body with a bag and took it away. “Stupid grumbs”, Froggy said and sat down against the wall.

Later that night I was in my room fiddling with my guns, I heard a knock on my door, it was Kim, I opened the door to let her in, she walked into the room and sat down on the couch. “I didn’t know you could shoot like that”, she said, “well it’s no biggie, any one here could do that”, shoot a “grumb” in the head with one shot when it was running it’s fastest speed, Kim snorted “yeah, even the kids who been training, guys like Froggy, couldn’t have that good of shot”. “well, thanks then, I guess”, I whispered, Kim nodded, she went into the kitchen and started digging in the food, she whistled “you just got here, how do you have so much food?”, she asked “I mean your supplies didn’t look like this when you were first here, which was today”, she went on. “Luke from next door gave me some”, I said, “ugh, Luke? I’m glad I’m not his neighbor. I mean he has no sense, and in training all he does is fool around. Doesn’t he get that this is now his home, his family? You have to protect it”, Kim grumbled, “why did he give you food?”, she asked, I don’t think Kim liked Luke, “I don’t know, he just walked in and gave me stuff”, I explained, “probably stole something”, she said.

Right then there was a knock on the door, I looked who it was, it was Luke, I looked back to Kim, “it’s him”, I said, then Kim walked up out the door, swung it open “we don’t want your free-bes you little Freefall!”, she yelled, then slammed the door in his face, “I didn’t come for you, Stiff”, he said, and stood there, Kim walked away, but came back with my shot gun, was just about to open the door when I stopped her “won’t you get in trouble?”, I asked, “I know we are a family, but it’s survival of the fittest”, then opened the door, not giving me a good answer.