American Assassins

Chapter 2: Ronnie

I am scared. The images of my mother and father will never leave me as long as I live.  When Kimberley tells me to go to sleep I think how can I?  The images are still fresh in my head and my whole body hurt from running and being strangled by my father.  I was tired but didn’t want to fall asleep.  Kimberley stared out the window as we drove on.  I could only imagine what she was thinking. Logan seemed nice, but still, I didn’t know how much I could trust him.  My mother always told me not to trust anybody you don’t know, but what other choice did we have.  We were lost, cast out and abandoned if we kept running we would have been killed or died of hunger or hypothermia. 

                I look out the window just to see the car zoom by the sign that says Welcome to Pure Michigan.  It isn't really a sign though. It projects the words across both streets so when you drove across the border you drive into the words and it counts how many people were in each car and it has the number of people to the side of it.  Once we pass it I look back and it reads Welcome to Ohio.  Population 1,987,546 and the number keeps going up as each person passed by or went out.  I look back and watch the cars go by in front of us.

                “Michigan huh,” I hear Kimberley say.                                                          

                “Yeah, Michigan."  Logan answers.  "It was one of the first states to get hit by Union’s bombs and it hasn’t been the same ever since.  Our home is up near the top of the State.”

                “What’s it called?” I ask eagerly in my little child voice.                                                  

                “Platinum Mountain. Our shelter is the grand lodge near the Mountain’s base. It’s been closed for years but it’s big so the outcasts hide out there.  It’s no longer on the map so nobody can find us.  It used to be a ski mountain lodge but that all changed when, again, The Unions bombed us.  The resort, however, managed to hold out though; it’s still unbelievably in one piece.”

                “Is it safe?” Kimberley asks him. I can hear him laugh a little, he smiles back at us.                            

                “Yes, it’s very safe, I give you my word.”  Kimberly crosses her arms in front of her chest and leans back, not convinced.  Lights on the streets can finally make me see her body covered in dirt and mud with scratches up and down her arms, which were bare because of her ripped shirt and short sleeves.  I know Kimberley thought our father was the greatest father in the world, every kids believes that, but after the murder she must feel like somebody stuck a sword down her throat. 

                I see her eyes stare over to me, when I smile back she turns away.  I remember when we used to play on a lake called Baskin Lake.  We were born swimmers and skiers.  Kimberley loved going snow skiing and I loved going water skiing.  Both of us were skiers and excelled at both sports, but tonight when we were done with dinner, and my mother put us to bed, as I dozed off Kimberley shook me awake and I heard the sound of a death scream.  We both rushed downstairs to find our mother was kicking our father.  Both had kitchen knives in their hands.  “Join me or die a slow painful death!”  Our father spat as he raised his knife and it glistened off the light in the room. 

                “Over my dead body!” my mother scowled.  I screamed out in horror as my father slammed his sword in my mom’s side.  She sunk to the ground holding onto the newly made wound. 

                “Mom!” Kimberley screamed.  Both of our parents turned towards us, one’s eyes filled with hatred and anger and the others were filled with pain and sorrow.  One word formed on her lips as she mouthed it, “Run.”  That’s when our father picked up my mom by the neck and strangled her till she was collapsed on the floor, dying.