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Timmy Mooring

Table of Contents:



Chapter 1

Chapter 10

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Dedicated to my dog, Berry.

Chapter 1

I try to forget the seventeenth of January 2000 because it is the worst day in my life. My parents were soon to be coming home from work and I was sitting on the floor in our four bedroom house playing video games when I heard the doorbell ring, and when I opened the door it was a strange man telling me that my parents were gone and that I needed to go with him. Being 5 years old I believed him and stepped into his white van. The next thing I knew was a wet cloth over my mouth and I blacked out.

Five years later I am working in a 1,000 acre coffee plantation with over 3,000 slaves working in the blistering heat for an ounce of bread and a drop of water. It is tough, sweaty work, picking the berries, roasting them over the fire and grinding the beans so I am always dreaming about anywhere else because anywhere would be better than here.

One day when me and my only friend Jack, who ended up on the plantation the same way I did, getting kidnapped, were working in the fields picking the red berries. It was around one hundred and ten degrees fahrenheit and we were drenched in sweat laboring hard while our masters would sit down on a chair or a hammock under some shade with a whip in their hand. So as soon as a slave started to talk or “not work hard enough” the would get a good slash on the back.

I have only ever got two slashes but Jack is constantly getting whipped for trying to talk or fooling around throwing berries and people. Once he trough a berrie at one of the masters and that night he couldn’t sleep because he was still in so much pain from his tan skin open and bleeding from the whip. Jack’s crazy brown hair that always stuck upward and his stupid grin was always enough to keep me going through the day.

When I went over to start picking from a new bush I glanced at the ground and saw a small shiny metal spaid that must have been there since planting season. I picked it up and raped it in my torn shirt before any of the masters had seen me grab something. I continued to work until sundown and then we were checked in one by one into our small hut that didn’t have enough space for a small family, to make sure that nobody had escaped. There were ten of us in the hut, all about our age with the same story of getting kidnapped. We all sleep on the floor. I sleep next to Jack against one side of a wall. The bathroom is outside where a big pit has been dough for all the huts. Out side of the huts are guards with pistols that patrol around making sure no one is sneaking out.

I only know of one person who has tried to escape and all 3,000 of us slaves got to watch him hang from a nose.

My bright blonde hair shined of the sun and my pale skin turned redder and redder from sunburn.

When I stepped into the hut i had to duck because I was tall.

When we were going to bed I told Jack about the spaid that i had found and showed it to him.

Without even thinking about it Jack whispered, “We should dig our way out of this prison. We could do it you know. Dig a little bit every day until we can fit under the fence”

“But we will have to dig at least six feet to get under the wall and surly the guards will see the hole and if we get caught they will kill us! Even if we escape where will we go?” I replied.

“We will find our way home.” he whispered as he fell asleep.

Over the next couple days I thought about it and the more I thought about it the more I realized that we had nothing to lose. If they caught us they would kill us and we wouldn’t have to work any more.

The next day I told Jack when we were working in the fields picking the berries “I think you're right we should try to escape”

Jack smiled and said “We will make a plan tonight.”

I thought about it all throughout the day and when the checked us in for the night, instead of immediately eating the slice of bread and going to sleep Jack and I were wide awake ready to share our plans.

Jack said, “I think the best way out of here is to sneak out and dig under the fence all in one night. Once we dig our way out we will run and hide in the forest and then we will talk about what to do again.”

“That was my idea as well. Since the huts are surrounded by barb and electric wire we will have to go through the main entrance wich is guarded. One of us will use the bathroom hole and and will throw a rock over by the first hut and when the guard goes over to check it out the other person will sneak up behind him and knock him out with the spade and we will drag him over into the coffee plantation where no one can see us.”

“Yea. And we will take all his clothes and his gun and you will dress up as a guard and tell the guard on the fence that his shift is over,” said Jack.

“Then we will dig to freedom.”

Chapter 2

The next day I could barely work I was excited but at the same time I was so nervous that my hands were shaking. I was so consumed in thought that I didn’t even notice the blistering heat or the blisters on my hands. I was so distracted that i didn’t even notice that i was just standing there not picking berries until the guard came over and slapped me on the cheek and told me to get back to work, but i was still in another world that this didn’t bother me. I could see that jack was just as excited and nervous as i was because he was picking berries without stopping to goof off or try to talk to me.

It was an ordinary day to everyone else but to me and Jack this was the most important day of our life. It would decide if we lived in freedom and had a better life or if our life would be suddenly brought to a stop. We dared not think of the second option but it was still somewhere in the back of my head that it was making my hands shake.

Every minute seemed like an hour and it seemed like the sun had took sleeping pills and was taking forever to move from east to west across the sky.

Finally it was dark and the masters called all the slaves it to get checked into their huts and get their food and water. Me and Jack were silent when we entered our hut and we took our usual positions on the floor.

It was the new moon so the night was pitch black. So black that it would be difficult to see three feet in front of us. We waited for the other slaves in our hut to fall asleep, which would be very soon because of how tired we were at the end of the day.

After five minutes all the others in our hut were asleep and our crazy plan was about to be played into action. We had decided that I would be the one to go to the bathroom hole, so very nervously and scared I got up exited the hut, for the last time, and walked the one hundred feet to the bathroom hole. I could see the guard about fifty feet away looking at me with suspicious eyes.

As I dropped my torn stinky pants, and pretended to go to the bathroom I saw Jack sneak out of our cabin, with a rock in hand. He hid behind a bush and through the rock at our cabin. It made a rustling sound as it rolled of the palm frond roof, just loud enough for the guard to hear it.

The guard walked over to our cabin to check it out and I saw Jack sneak up behind him and knock the guard out cold with the shovel. I pulled up my pants and ran over to Jack. Together we dragged his body out of the hut area and into some rows of coffee bushes, were no one would be able to see them.

Jack removed the unconscious guards clothes and took his gun and put them on himself.

“We better get moving. We have a lot of work to do” said Jack.

“Which way do we go?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s get as far away from the huts as we can.” whispered Jack, so no one could hear us.

We started walking down the row of coffee beans in the opposite direction of the huts. It is so dark that several times we would trip over stones and roots. We kept walking for an hour and we were still in, what felt like the middle of the coffee plantation.

“It seems like we are not going any where” I said. “We should turn and go through the rows.”

“Ok” Jack agreed.

Five minutes later we spotted the fence before we ran into it. We silently crept along until we spotted the fence guard leaning against the fence asleep.

Jack crept over and with a loud crack jack hit the butt of the gun on the top of his head. He slumped over, possibly dead.

“Problem solved” joked Jack. “Now lets start digging. You use the spaid first and i will use my hands.”

We started to dig the soft earth. Digging was exhausting and progress was slow. We took turns using the shovel. After an hour we had dug a hole wide enough for us to squeeze ourselves into but not nearly deep enough to get under the fence, that was at least five feet in the dirt to prevent people from digging their way out. We had blisters on our sore hands and even though it was night it was still at least 75 degrees hot, but we kept on digging.

After about what seemed like hours we had finally reached the bottom of the fence, but we would still need to dig upward. Digging upward was much easier because all they had to do was hit the dirt and gravity would do the rest. After thirty quick minutes there was a hole big enough for me to mole under the fence and out up the other side. I was the first to climb out. It was a funny feeling, the best feeling that I had ever felt looking at the fence from the other side. Jack wormed through the hole and sied a sigh of relief. We had escaped and that was all that mattered to us at that point.

Chapter 3

“We better go and find a place to hide ourselves in case they come looking for us.” Jack said. So we ran a mile into the forest and found a mossy place on the ground to sleep. After ten seconds we were sound asleep.

When we woke up the sun was high in the sky so we figured that it must of been around noon. It must of been the first sleep since I started working on the coffee plantation that felt refreshing. I felt like a whole new person.

“What now?” Jack asked.

“Now we should find something to eat, then we will find our way back home. Wherever home might be.” I added.

“I live in a small community called Fallstown next to Jaxonbroke.” explained Jack

“No way! I live in Jaxonbroke and my dad used to take me into the woods by Fallstown to go hunting with him!” I said excitedly.

“I Guess our plan now is to find our way back home” said Jack. “Let’s find some food and then start walking and hope that we find a town eventually. Let’s find some food and we’ll meet back here in five minutes.”

I walked around for a couple of minutes, making sure not to get lost and i found a bush of some red berries that tasted good to eat, picked a bunch of them and walked back to where we slept.

Jack was already waiting there with a bunch of wild raspberries some mangos, and even a lizard that he had caught. So we ate more that we had eaten in a very long time and on a full stomach we started walking in the direction that the sun was falling, west. At least we knew now that there would not starve.

We ate berries while we would walk and there were always streams of water every five to ten minutes. We felt healthier than ever now that we were not deprived of food and water.

We kept on walking until noon upon which we saw a large squirrel. We still had the guns from the guards, as we were still wearing their un torn clothing. With some luck I was able to shoot the squirrel, and jack, since he was a boy scout as a kid he had learned how to make a fire from twigs and grass. We roasted the large squirrel over the fire and once it was cooked we ate it.

Eating meat reminded me of my home, when my mom would cook my favorite, chicken soup. I had tried to forget all that I remembered of home at the plantation so that I would not be as homesick.

After eating, our legs were tired from walking all morning and we took a little nap to regain some energy and then we went on our way again. After an hour we were nearing a calm river when we saw two cute fuzzy brown bear pups playing with each other. Little did we know that we were watching from too close a distance because after ten seconds mama bear came crashing through the brush and charged at us. Jack and I turned sprinted like we have never ran before. The nine foot tall brown bear chased us ferociously on all fours, and us, sprinting as fast as we possibly could was dodging trees and roots. The bear was gaining quickly on us. As we ran next to the river I decided to bound across the shallow river and Jack followed suit. Once we were across I glanced back and saw that the bear had stopped. I guessed that as we were across the stream the giant bear had decided that we're no longer a threat and had givin up pursuit and went back to her cub.

Breathless, and panting hard Jack and I lay down with sweat running off our cheeks.

“That was a little too close to getting mauled.” Jack said.

I nodded my head in agreement.

After we caught our breath we continued to walk west. We kept on walking. We walked until sundown were we made a fire and cooked a small turkey like bird that we had caught. It tasted delicious. Exhausted from walking they quickly fell asleep next to the warm fire.

The next day early in the morning when Jack went to take a poop he came back looking very uncomfortable.

“Where I wiped itches a lot.” he said with a concerned face.

“Well what did you use to wipe?” i asked.

“Here i’ll show you.” he said.

He walked over and pointed to a poison ivy bush.

“Thats a poison ivy bush. That will ich a lot but if you don’t scratch it it will go away.”

“Oh noooo” he groaned as he reached to itch his butt.

“Stop that! It will only make it worse if you don’t touch it it will go away. We’ll keep walking and hopefully that will take your mind off of it.” I said.

We walked for a while until we reached a roaring river that was much too strong to cross. We walked along the muddy river bank, our feet squishing the ground for an hour until we reached the top of a waterfall. The waterfall was about fifty feet tall and went into what seemed to be a deep dark pool of water and the bottom.

We looked to see if there was a way to get around to the bottom of the waterfall so we could swim across the pool of water at the bottom but we found no way down the steep and much too slippery incline. After some thought went into the matter Jack shouted above the roaring noise of the water pounding the bottom,

“The only way down is to jump off the waterfall and hope that it is deep enough to not get crushed at the bottom.”

Before I could say anything about why that would not be a good idea Jack, who obviously thought that that was the only way walked over to a rock that hanged over the waterfall and jumped off the edge.

In about two seconds there was a giant splash as he hit the water. I was beginning to get nervous as he didn’t show back up at the surface immediately, but after what was too long for my liking he popped up and gave a holler.

“It’s plenty deep. Your turn now!” he yelled as he treaded water.

I walked over to the edge with my heart beating like a drum and with a leap of faith I jumped. I closed my eyes, but I could hear the wind howling past my ears as I flew past it.

When I hit the water I plummeted down into the deep pool until I slowed down enough that i could start swimming back up towards the surface. When i got to the top I took a giant gulp of air and wiped the water from my face and opened my eyes. Jack was waiting on the bank with a huge grin on his face.

“How was that!” he asked

“Terrifying” i replied with a shiver.

I climbed up on to the bank cold, and found a little clearing. We decided to dry our clothes and our boots off before we got going again, so we made a fire and we built a shelf thing from some sticks so that we could hang our clothes over the fire without them getting burnt to ashes. So we striped down and dried our clothes off. While our clothes were drying we searched around and found some food to eat, and we drank out of the pool.

After a while our boots and our clothes were dry enough and the sun was high in the sky. We put our clothes back on and carried on our way.

We walked until nightfall, where we set up camp for the night.

Chapter 4

The next morning after breakfast we had walked for an hour until we came across a huge valley, and in the middle of the valley was a small town.

“Finally some civilization” I said.

“And we will be able to find out where we are!” exclaimed Jack.

It was difficult getting down into the valley, and it took a while climbing down the steep slope. Jack and I both went down a fair part of it on our butts.

It took all the way until noon to get to the edge of the town. We found a safe and hidden place to stash our guns, so that people didn’t get the wrong idea about Jack and I.

Once we got to the town it was just an ordinary town, but it was the first time in a long long time that I had seen regular people doing regular things. There were cars and houses and shops and a library. People who looked happy were walking dogs. Kids a little younger than us were running around played tag and laughing. Some people were sitting in the sun reading a book. Seeing this brought a smile to my face and it reminded me of home and how much I was looking forward to it.

“Where are we?” Jack asked a stranger walking by.

“You're in the town of Dornie.” he said.

“Do you know where the city of Jaxonbroke is?” I asked.

“Yea its the nearest city to here it’s about one hundred miles north of here.” he said as he pointed in the direction of north. “Where are you guys from? he asked.

“We work on a farm a little ways from here and our bicycle chain snapped on the way here.” Jack lied.

“Well you guys sure look hungry. Why don’t you come over to my place and grab a bite to eat. My name’s Lukas, what are your names? Lukas asked.

“I’m Jack”

“And I don’t really remember my name I said, but you can call me kid.

“Ok kid and Jack my house is this way. Follow me.” Lukas said.

After some eggs and mash potatoes we thanked Lukas for his hospitality and went back to where we had left our guns and retrieved them. We made our way around the outskirts of the town until we found the highway that would take them all the way back to Jackonbrook. We walked in the woods next to the highway and after an hour it was getting dark soon so I made our fire and Jack went out hunting for meat.

After a little bit Jack came back with a chicken that he had caught from a chicken coop next to a farm that was five minutes away. I made Jack do the dirty work of unfeathering and all the gross and bloody stuff. We cooked the chicken over the fire until it was good to eat. After we ate it we fell asleep.

The next morning after breakfast we continued next to the highway, in the woods. There was barely any cars that we would her whizz by probably on one every hour.

We kept walking, at one point we had to cross over a very long bridge with a huge roaring river. We saw lots of deer but decide not to shoot it because it would be a huge waste of food. There were lots of blueberries bushes and eating the blueberries reminded me of how much I missed my moms blueberry pie that she would make every thanksgiving. Thinking about this made me realize how much I really missed home.

At one moment when we were walking through the forest, close enough to see the highway but far enough so anyone driving on the highway couldn’t see us, the rare car, a white van rushed past on the freeway. For some reason it gave me the chills. I don’t know why but just it driving by gave me the creeps.

Every couple miles we would see farm houses and farm pasture and fields where they would grow strawberries and tomatoes that we would snack off of while we walked.

We didn’t stop for lunch at noon because we had already eaten a lot while we were walking. A little past noon I hoped over the barb wire fence to get a handful of strawberries to eat. As I was bending over a heard someone yell from a distance, “Hay! Get off my Farm!” I turned around, startled and saw a large fat farmer, red faced and steaming mad.

It hadn’t occurred to me at that point that I had been stealing the food.

“Come here right now!” he screamed at me, with shotgun in hand as he started to run as fast as he could over to me, which wasn’t very fast.

Nervously I turned around to ask Jack what to do, but Jack was already running away. I turned and ran away from the farmer and tried to catch up with Jack. In five minutes of fast jogging the slow farmer was far behind, and had probably given up chasing us before he had even started.

The next time that I went to get food from a farm I was more careful to see if there were any farmers.

We walked until sun down and then, exhausted we fall asleep.