Young Writers Society

James~~

"Well, I've been to the Governors mansion before. It has pretty easy roof access if you aren't afraid of heights. There's also the ground entry, which I could pull off but it would be hard" I paused for a second "Riley... wanna do this one on my own. Seeing that bounty, I don't want you taking unnecessary risks."

Riley

I thought about his request for a minute. I took a good look at James.

"If you get yourself killed I will never forgive myself."

"Then I wont get myself killed." James replied.

"I need to go deal with Mitch and Suzie now." As I went to get up, James put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't be too hard on them. You knew Mitch would do that when you got him that gift."

I went down the stairs. "Suzie, give me one reason I shouldn't send you off to mexico."

"Uh, because you love me and would never do that to me. And it was Mitch's idea."

I look over at Mitch. "One simple comand Mitch. That was it. And the second I turn my back you make plans to break it. I am taking away your second in command status. You need to learn to listen to me!"

"What did I say about being harsh?" James said.

"And I am putting you second in command." I said to him. James looked happy. This was the position he had been after for a while.

"Riley, what, you cant!" Mitch stuttered.

"I did!" I said, before stomping upstairs to my bedroom.

hey

I now ITS SUPER DUPER SELFISH considering I've done it once already in Storybooks but I'm feeling left out Could someone help me get back in this please...?

Riley

Then was a knock on my door. "Riley, can I come in?" The voice was Jackie's.

"What do you want?" I said, rather harshly.

"Don't you think your being a bit harsh on Mitch. He's really upset." She said, opening the door and stepping in. She shut the door.

"He never was a good second in comand I get the feeling he was in this more for the excitment than for the actual purpose. It was always James I went to for advice anyway."

"But he loved that position, and you took it away from him, ON HIS BIRTHDAY!" She was near screaming now.

"I don't care what day it is. I try and be nice, and he just..."

"Your awful, you know that Riley."

"I am what?" I said, standing up. I never fought with Jackie, this had to be a first.

"You are being really mean lately, and more than a bit unforgiving!"

"Leave!" I said, pointing to the door.

I heard Mitch say, "She really is being a bitch, isn't she?" I climbed onto the roof of the old apartment through my window. And I sat up there and began to cry.

"Really, I feel bad about doing it, but Riley's acting like a bitch!" I nearly yelled. IT was funny how I seemed to be more upset about this than Mitch.

"Yeah she is. My birthday. My freakin' birthday is the day she decides to do this to me. Riley's a passive controlling zombie." Mitch replied bitterly before throwing his old football at the wall The sky was begining to darken through the window and Mitch's room where Mitch and I sat was getting darker and darker.

"Turn on the lights Mitch" I said. He turned and flipped the switch.

"Well, what are you going to do?" I asked.

"Aw Mitch, it'll be alright. I can't believe James didn't stand up for you at all.

Riley

I tried to not hear what they said about me, but it was hard. Controlling zombie, did Mitch seriously call me that? I looked out into the gently falling rain. I wasn't too hard. I was keeping us alive. I was making sure the govenment did not get us. And it had worked for almost four years. But it was beging to fall apart.

I missed the sense of constant action in the south, the love for adventure I had back then. I was sick of it here where the biggest adventure was a single-man break in. I growled. You know what, if I was such a control freak, maybe they didn't need me here. I wonder how the'd do without me. They would have no sousre of food, nothing to eat.

I remember Jack's (Mr. Kaibob's) parting words, "If you ever want to come back, Riles, we need our Tiger of Mexico."

I hopped on my motorcycle and rode towards the Mexican border. I didn't look back. I knew it would make me regret my desicion. I might come back, but then again, I mught not.

Three hours later I arrived at the door of the warehouse that the Foxs called home base. I knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Jack said.

"The Tiger of mexico has returned." I said. He opened the door and let me in. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips (we had actually been sweethearts for a while) and let me in. As soon as I entered a cheer erupted.

"Tiger has returned!" Jack called.


----By the way Jack is only 21. And Riley will come back a week from now.------

Mitch

Demoted. It was outrageous, why would she do that? Sure, he was overly impulsive, and didn't follow orders to the letter the way she seemed to think everyone should, but he looked out for them just as much as she did. It wasn't right that she bust him down for simply intending to break a rule that she should have known he couldn't follow. Why get him a bike that could go that fast, anyway, if she wasn't going to let him?

He paced back and forth in his room, hands knotted together behind his head, trying to walk off the frustration. He barely heard the rising drone of a motorbike, not even thinking about what it could have been until Suzie finally burst into the room.

"Jackie, Mitch!" She said, wide-eyed, looking from one to the other. "Riley just left!"

Mitch scoffed, "Probably off to ask that friend of hers to cut her wrists for her." He knew he was being childish, but right now, it didn't make much difference to him. She was being just as bad, what with that storming off to her room, not even giving him a chance for discussion.

"But she was crying when she left!" Suzie continued, "I don't think she's coming back."

Mitch glanced away, folding his arms. "Fine. If she wants to abandon us on top of everything else, that's her business." Secretly, though, he felt a little guilty. It had been the whole affair surrounding his bike, after all, that had apparently driven her away. And he knew it wasn't right that they end such a long friendship in this way.

"Well, give her a few hours." He said, "She's probably just trying to blow off some steam, anyway."

Reg

The next day.

I pulled up to the apartment in his 4x4. It was still early and I knew the gang probably wouldn't be up. I clambered out of the front door and pulled a piece of heavy luggage out of the trunk, I smiled. I flung it over my shoulder and made for the entrance to the apartment. To my surprise, they were all up and awake.

"Reg, where have you been?" James said, eagerly.

I just looked at him and scowled. "Where's Riles?"

"She left," squealed Suzie, "she bloody left!"

I laughed. This was classic. I knew that eventually the past would succumb her. She'd gone back to Mexico. The lust for memory was too much. My lust for memory was my energy for existance.

I began to resight the times of the old. The times of the older than old. I mumbled to myself about those long days of running from blood, stained with the knowledge of survival. I marvelled at it all. The thought that I was still alive was overwhelming.

Mitch interrupted my murmurs.

"Well, what's in the bag? And where have you been?" He groaned. He was clearly upset about something.

"The bag?" I questionned.

He nodded.

"Why, you're eager, aren't you?" I said looking at him as if he were a small child, "It's a surprise."

"A surprise?" exclaimed Jackie in protest, "I think we've had enough surprises for today! Dammit!"

I laughed and retired to the kitchen, placing a can of beans on the stove.

"Always with them bloody beans, Reg! Ain't you sick of 'em?" shouted Mitch.

"No," I grinned and threw the bag into the room they were all gathered in. "Open it up. It'll give you something to amuse yourselves with."

James and Jakie tore it apart whilst Suzie jumped in suspense. Mitch wasn't interested, he was clearly angry or upset.

Inside the bag was a collection of beans, assualt rifles, black spray paints and a wrapped up bit'a cash. Even Mitch was drawn by what he saw. The whole gang looked at me, curiously and full of anxiety.

"How much is here?" he asked.

"$5,000. But I can get more," I laughed.

"What?" shouted James, "How'd you get it?"

"A source," I said.

"Oh great, that's helpful," whined Suzie, "Why you get it for?"

"Insurance," I muttered and began to dig my fork into the newly boiled can of beans.

Riley

"So whats the newset feat?" I asked, after every group member in turn had given me a quick hug.

Jack smiled, "Its not like were going to break into the president's house in the middle of a party and demand all there money."

"You wouldn't!" I said in mock horror.

"We are, tomorow. And we are glad to have you with us. Another person could make all the diference. We might not lose as many that way." His words hit me. I had almost forgoten in the south it was a miracle if you survived four months.

"Lets do it!" I said.

"You haven't changed a bit." Jack commented.

"Well, the northern ways have gotten to me a little."

"In what way?"

"Well, lets see. No one has died in the last two years." I said. Jack began to clap.

James~~

This was insane. The Reg guy seemed nice enough, but someone was going to miss that money. Did it make a difference though? Wasn't I planning on stealing that much or more tonight? No. It didn't matter, I just didn't want change.

"So. Who's gonna lead?"

The others looked at me in shock, except Reg, at the fact that I had actually been one to start a conversation.

"She's gone. She'll come back eventually, but maybe not for a month, and it may be tomorrow. We need someone who can lead us, and I can't, because I might not make it home tonight." I paused for a moment, considering their faces, "Personally, I think Mitch should take it, and then when Riley gets back, he gets second in command back. I want it, but its not my place."

I let out a long breath, trying to calm myself. These weren't people I wanted getting close to. There was a couple thousand dollar bounty on one of our members heads, and probably higher on mine, and no one even knew about Reg. If we were caught I didn't want to be tied down. I had to be able to do anything and everything to make sure as many of us made it through as possible, and that required little emotion. That was why I didn't talk, and they would never know it. Sometimes I thought Riley glimpsed it, but I knew she was prepared to do just as much as me, if not more.

"So what do you say?"

Riley

"Isn't that a smidge dangerous, though?" I asked Jack.

"Isn't that the point." One of his friends said.

"Well, there is such a thing as too dangerous." I said.

"Ah, the north has taken over your mind Tiger. Come on, you used to love this." Jack said.

"When I was sixteen!" I retorted.

"Oh, someone's a little bit feisty, yes? The north ruined you."

"I dont regret a single second I was there."

"But now your here. Let the action take its reins on you. You will be glad you did."

"I will, for you." I said. Jack gave me a quick kiss.

He wispered, "There's the Riles I love." I had half a mind to push him off.

Mitch

Well, there it was. The position of leader, and with James' apparent support. It was his for the taking, and it didn't even matter that he'd been demoted so recently. If he wanted, he could take control, and then...

Mitch looked at his shoes. "I... don't really want to lead." He said.

James looked a little surprised at this admission, turning to look at him, "But then why-"

He shrugged, "I liked being second in command, but I never wanted to be in charge of the whole thing. I'm not cut out for that." He grinned, "I'm just support and counterbalance for a leader. It takes someone harder than me to actually run something like this."

Riley

It was the third day I was with Jack. And I was getting sick of him. Today we did the break in. I almost told him it was a stupid plan. But I couldn't.

"Everyone know the plan?" He asked us.

"Yup." we all said. I had on a completely black outfit, with a pistol and some bullets shoved in my back pocket and a dagger in my front.

Nightfall soon came, and we took our spots on the roof. Jake nodded to me. I opened the latch one by one they all dropped down. I went in last. A group of police was already there.

"We were expecting you." One said. I took out my pistol, but I was too late. They all had guns. Holy cow, this was a bad place to be.

"Aim for the neck!" Jack yelled. We all took out our knifes and threw. or at least, I alomst did. But I saw the face of the young soldier the second before I threw it. I didn't throw. I dropped my knife, gun and bullets on the ground. I saw jack about to throw another knife.

I grabbed his wrist. "Killing is unnessisary."

"Either they die, or we do." He said.

"If we all run in one direction, they cant stop us." I whispered.

"Charge!" We all ran towards the nearest door. The police began to fire.

We reached the warehouse in less than five minutes. Only five of the original twelve were with us.

And Jack collapsed on the floor, a bloody mess.

Reg Carter

Mitch and James were blabbering about something to do with leading. I merely marvelled at Suzie who curiously sort through the weapons laid out infront of her. There was something amusing about this group of people. I didn't care who ended up leading it; all I cared about was my survival and the past. It was all that mattered.

I walked up to Suzie and picked up an M16 Assualt rifle that she was inspecting. I loaded it and snapped off the safety, my eyes beaming down the sight.

"Woah, Reg," she shouted in fear, "what are you doing?!"

"Checkin'" I replied, calmly.

"Well put the blimmin' safety on!" yelled Jackie from the otherside of the room and I noticed James considering his options.

The apartment had fallen silent.

I snapped on the safety, flung it over my shoulder and wondered out back into a small and enclosed garden, that bared more resemblance to the size of a small WC.

"What you doing?" asked Mitch.

I smiled at them. "Checkin'" I said, "just checkin'."

The group returned to their shouts, only to be interrupted by a nasty crackle of a three round burst of fire, followed by the splintering of a concrete wall.

"What the-" began Mitch.

Suzie-

"Are you trying to get us all killed?!" I shouted at Reg, interupting Mitch. He just answered with a smirk.

"You all are waisting time," he answered calmly.

"He's right. Ren's gone and we're losing Riley's trail every second we waste arguing," said Jackie.

I sighed. I really didn't want to say this. "I vote Reg as temporary leader. He knows the south better than Riley."

"Sure," said James.

"I agree," said Jackie.

Mitch hesitated but then nodded. Picking up the hunting bow, a modified Robin Hood classic, and a bunch of sharpened bolts, I looked to Reg.

"What's the plan?"

**Suzie's serious! Agh! It burns!**