I am Sam: A Work Of Fiction

2008-11-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

Once the real Chris was untied, Zoe started typing away at one of the keyboards. After a few seconds, she placed the memory chip into a small slot on the computer. The computer beeped some, and some numbers flashed across the screen. Then it went silent.
We waited for a little while. Finally, Zoe started typing again, rather frustrated.
"It's not reading the chip," she said. "I don't understand it. The data isn't corrupted or anything, it's just blank."
She kept trying things for several minutes. I looked down at the desk and saw the scanner that the fake Chris was wanting me to use. I looked down at my right hand. Just then I noticed something on my thumb. There was a small area of skin that was shinier than then rest, like it had a film over it. I rubbed it with my other fingers, but it didn't come off. I looked again at the scanner.
"Zoe, I think I know where the information is." I said. "It's on my hand."
I showed her what I had seen. She gave a quick nod and started typing some more.
"Of course," she said. "It would be too easy to get if it was on the chip itself. They put it on a film on the outside of the chip, so when someone touched it the data would transfer onto their hand! Alright, put your hand on the scanner."
As soon as I did, the scanner lit up and more numbers flashed across the screen.
Zoe let out a sigh of relief. She put a disk into the computer and transfered the data onto it.
"Yep, that should do it," she said.

Within a few days, I was sitting in an airplane ready to head back home. Everything had happened rather quickly after that last day. I had said goodbye to Zoe and was quickly transported to a base where they kept me until they'd arranged for me to be flown back home.
It was going to be a long trip, and as soon as I got into the plane I started writing this down. This is to let everyone know where I've been the last couple weeks. Despite common belief, I was not at camp. Anybody who says they saw me there have been paid to say that. I did not just write this to win the "My Cool Summer" contest our newspaper is having, though I'll definitely enter it.
Well, I'm about to land so I guess I'll stop here. Have a great day everyone!

P.S. Yes I do know the data that was on the chip, but that knowledge could destroy the world if it got in the wrong hands, so don't ask.

2008-09-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

"Who are you?" I asked the man.
Jade answered, "This is the real Chris."
I was very confused, but they explained it to me as we got the real Chris untied. This is what had happened:

The real Chris was an agent working for an international group of spies and soldiers called REBEL (I can't remember what it stands for). Their job is to break up rings of terrorists threatening the lives of civilians around the world. Chris has been assigned to look into some rumors about a large weapon being created somewhere in Hawaii. Before he was able to reach his destination, he was kidnapped and almost killed by enemy spies, but managed to escape with one of two almost identical memory chips that the enemy was carrying. These two chips each contained a piece of some valuable information. The information could only be retrieved once the two parts were put back together. One chip was no good without the other.
In order to escape he had to jump out of a third story window into a dumpster. He hit his head while landing, dropped the memory chip, and was knocked out. Some REBEL agents that had been following his kidnappers took him to a witness protection center. They didn't know who he was except that he was one of their agents. When he woke up, he didn't remember anything. The blow to the head had washed his memory. His fake ID said his name was Bert, so that's what they called him.
Meanwhile, the enemy agents took advantage of the fact that none of the REBEL agents in Hawaii knew what Chris looked like. They sent someone to pose as Chris to ensure that REBEL didn't learn anything else about their plan. However, they ran into unforeseen problems when a couple of their agents bailed out of action and disappeared, leaving behind something they were supposed to deliver: the second memory chip.
The enemy traced the memory chip to my house (thanks to the email I sent to them). They sent one of their agents to check it out. REBEL caught on to what was happening and took me to the same witness protection place that the real Chris was at. They were going to take me somewhere else from there, but I was intercepted by some bounty hunters. After I escaped from them, the enemy agent still posing as Chris found me. He was pretending to spy on enemy agents, when he was actually transferring information to them about REBEL agents. That's what he was going to do at the warehouse before it exploded. (I'm not sure who blew it up. Probably bounty hunters.)
Around that time, REBEL agent Zoe Nelson undercover as Jade Nikia was sent to Hawaii to investigate rumors that Chris was leaking information to the enemy. That's when she met up with "Chris" and me. The fake Chris knew that a big enemy meeting was taking place at the Halekuni resort, so he diverted attention to a different resort. While we were there, the real Chris recovered from his memory loss and REBEL instantly let Zoe AKA "Jade" know that the Chris she was working with wasn't the real Chris. The real Chris was somehow kidnapped again and taken to an enemy base.
Before Zoe could respond, the fake Chris had taken me to the same enemy base that the real Chris was at. She got help and arrived as quickly as she could.

I think I got all of that straight. It was very confusing, and I still had a lot of questions that needed answering.

2008-08-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

I looked up. Jade was standing at the door with a gun in her hand.
"Jade, what's going on?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Two men walked in, one of whom I recognized as the man I saw in the window at the hotel. They handcuffed Chris and led him out of the room.
Jade lowered her gun. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm fine, I think." I slowly stood back up. I was a little confused about what was happening. I noticed my camcorder in Jade's hand.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"We've had it ever since we knocked you out that first day."
"Wait a minute," I said. "You mean that you were the one that first kidnapped me?"
"No, not me personally. Our organization knew that the enemy needed you for something, and that they'd probably kill you after getting it. We needed to protect you and whatever it was you had that they wanted."
I pointed at the scrape on my face that I'd gotten in the explosion at the warehouse. "You call that protection?!"
"Sam, we didn't mean for you to ever leave the cabin. But there was some leakage of information and we had to evacuate you before the enemy got there. We were a little too late."
"I see," I said, trying to get things straight in my mind. "So what about Chris?"
Bert straightened up in his chair.
"What about me?" he asked.

2008-07-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

It was about that time that the guy in the other chair woke up. I had almost forgotten that he was even in the room, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard him speak.
"Where am I?" he asked in a slightly slurred voice.
It must have scared Chris, too. He spun and pointed his gun at the man. In that moment, everything I had experienced in the past few weeks screamed at me to seize the opportunity. Before I could think, I threw my whole body forward and slammed into Chris, bringing him to the ground. The gun slipped out of his hand and slid under one of the counters. Within a couple seconds we had both gotten up again. I knew I couldn't beat him in a hand-to-hand fight, but, now that his gun was gone, he couldn't hurt me as long as I stayed away from him.
I ran across the room, near the chair that the other guy was tied up in. As soon as I saw him up close, I remembered where I'd seen him before. He was the guy called Bert from the cabin I had been taken to when I was first kidnapped! I was very confused, but I didn't have time to try to figure it out. Chris was running towards me, and he looked very angry. I dodged him and ran back to the other side of the room. I tripped halfway and fell to the ground.
My leg was hurt, and I couldn't stand back up. I looked up to see Chris still rushing towards me. He was about 2 steps away when I heard the door slam open.
A voice hollered, "Chris, don't make another move!"

2008-07-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

I thought about the message that had flashed accross the computer screen.
If only I knew what was going on, I thought to myself. If only I knew who I can trust.
I stood there for what seemed like ages, holding my hand over the scanner. I could feel Chris watching me out of the corner of his eye. My face felt hot and I started getting dizzy. Somehow everything important seemed to depend on what I did next. For once I wished somebody would knock me unconscious.
Whether it was because of that wish or because I had decided to stall for time, I don't know. Either way, my knees gave out and I fell to the ground. I felt like I was paralyzed, but I didn't try to move anyway so I didn't know for sure. I just laid there, pretending that I wasn't aware of anything that was happening.
"Sam, get up," said Chris. I heard him walk over near where I was. "I know you can hear me. Get up. I told you, this will be much easier with your cooperation."
I stayed completely still.
Things were quiet for a few seconds. Then I heard the click of a gun being loaded.
"Sam, this is your last warning. Get up."
I figured he was bluffing, but I didn't want to take that chance. I tried moving and, surprisingly enough, was able to stand without much difficulty. Chris was standing in front of me holding a gun. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I just said the first thing that came into my mind.
"What happened?"
Chris just stared at me. I stared back at him.
"Put your right hand on the scanner," he said.
I slowly turned around and started moving my hand towards the scanner again. I was right back where I'd started.
At least I gained some time, I thought, realizing that I didn't even know what I needed to gain time for. Hopefully it had done some good.

2008-06-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

"Chris, what's going on? What am I doing here? What makes you think I'd run away?"
Chris didn't say anything. He just walked around the room, looking at the various screens and pressing buttons. After a couple minutes he started walking out of the room.
"Don't go away; I'll be right back," he said with a half smile.
As soon as he walked out I started looking around the room again. There was a table against the wall to my right. There was another door against the wall opposite me. Next to the door was the other sleeping guy. Against the wall to the left of me was a large counter covered with several computer screens and keyboards. While I was looking at the screens, one of them started blinking. It blinked a few times, then stopped. Then some words appeared on it. It said, "SAM STALL CHRIS AS LONG AS POSS." The words stayed there for a few seconds, then disappeared.
It was so strange that I hardly noticed when Chris walked back into the room.
"Alright, Sam," he said as he unlocked my handcuffs, "if you cooperate things will move much easier."
I didn't say anything.
He motioned for me to go over to the computer screens. I had already decided what to do as soon as I was free of the chair. I walked slowly a few steps, then quickly turned and tried to run out the door. It was locked.
"I told you," said Chris, "I need your help." He motioned again for me to walk accross the room.
I walked, very slowly and very carefully, to where he was pointing, keeping my eye on Chris the whole time.
"Now put your hand on that panel and leave it there for a few moments."
He was pointing to a small scanner on the counter. I started lifting my hand towards it, unsure of what to do...

2008-05-31T00:49:00.001-07:00

I woke up in a very dark room. I was sitting on the floor, my feet and hands tied up. A few feet in front of me I could see the outline of a door. Other than that, I couldn't see anything. For a few minutes I tried wriggling out of the ropes around my wrists, but it was clear that whoever tied me knew what they were doing. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait.
After a few minutes the door opened and light flooded in. For a few seconds it was too bright for me to see anything.
"Awake now, I see," said an unfamiliar voice. "Just in time." I felt someone cut the ropes around my ankles. "Come on, stand up. We don't have all day."
My feet were numb from being tied, so it was difficult for me to keep my balance. Once I steadied myself I tried to get a good look at the man who was talking to me. Before I could see him he'd turned around and started walking out the door.
"Follow me," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me along. I tried to concentrate on where we were going. I wanted to get an idea of the layout of wherever I was, but my feet were hurting too much for me to think about anything else. After walking down several hallways we turned into a room that looked like someting out of Star Trek. There were computer screens everywhere. The man shoved me into a chair and told me to stay there. After that he quickly handcuffed me to the arm of the chair and walked out. With my hands tied and my arm stuck to the chair it was clear that I wasn't going anywhere. I looked around the room, wondering what all this stuff was for and why I'd been taken here. That's when I noticed someone else sitting in a chair against the opposite wall. He was also tied up and handcuffed, and he seemed to be sleeping. He looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't remember where I'd seen him.
Just then I heard a very familiar voice
"Hey, Sam. Nice to see you awake. Sorry about the ropes, but I can't have you running off."
It was Chris.

2008-05-03T00:57:00.001-07:00

I stared at the camera in disbelief. Thoughts were rushing through my head, mostly muddled and incoherent, but through it all one fact became quite obvious. As I struggled to think through what it all meant, I realized that I should probably get out of Jade's room. I started to turn to leave and my heart nearly jumped into my throat. The curtains were just slightly open and there, staring at me from outside the window, was the window washer I had seen earlier. I tried to conceal my shock and walked out of the room as casually as possible. As soon as I closed the door I rushed down the hall as fast as I could. I turned a corner towards the elevators and nearly ran over someone who had just come up.
"Woah! Slow down, buddy. Where's the fire?"
I looked up. It was Chris!
"Chris! Where have you been?"
"I've been busy," he said. "Come with me. There's someone I want you to meet."
I followed him into the elevator. What happened next went by so fast I didn't have time to react. The elevator stopped but didn't open, Chris pulled out an oxygen mask from somewhere and threw something onto the ground, the elevator filled with a yellowish gas and I started getting dizzy. I was getting tired of being knocked out all the time and fought to stay awake, but within a few seconds everything went black.

2008-04-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

"Maybe it's all a misunderstanding." I could hear Jade talking in the room. I held my breath and tried to stay as quiet as possible.
"Maybe so," said an unfamiliar voice, "but we can't afford to take that chance. We can't let him go anywhere until we're sure. Do you have the paper?"
"It's around here somewhere," said Jade. I could hear her walking towards the closet. I scooted as far back as I could, pressing my back into the wall. I could see a shadow just outside the door.
"Oh, wait!" she said. "There it is on the table." She walked away from the closet. "Yeah, that's it. It's a map of some place. We're not sure where. Chris said he knew someone who could help us with it. I just hope we have time to get in touch him. This incident has really slowed things down."
"So once Chris gets back what are you going to do about the kid?" asked the other voice.
"We'll have to take him with us. Like you said, we can't afford to take chances."
I heard some other sounds. Someone typing on a computer, curtains being closed and, after a few minutes, two sets of footsteps leaving the room. After the door shut, I waited a few seconds. Satisfied that I was once again alone, I slowly opened the closet door. Just before leaving the room I took one last look around. Everything was just like it was before, except for one something sitting on a table near the closet. At first I thought I was imagining things. I examined it closer and almost yelled with surprise.
It was my old digital camcorder!

2008-04-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

I waited around for a few minutes, allowing my mind to run off in all directions. Before long I had pieced together all sorts of scenarios explaining why Chris had left so suddenly. None of them satisfied my curiosity, though, and I decided to ask Jade if she could tell me anything more about it.
I walked down to her room and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. The door was slightly open, so I pushed my head in and looked around. I didn't see anyone and I was about to leave when I noticed something on the floor inside the closet. It was a piece of paper. I normally wouldn't have been so interested, but something about this paper caught my attention. I quietly walked in and picked it up. It took me a minute to realize what it was. It was the paper that I had found in the debris from the exploding warehouse! The one about the Halekuni Resort. The one with Jade's name on it. I had had it in my pocket the day we arrived at the hotel, but I had forgotten about it by the time I changed clothes. I figured Chris must have found it and shown it to Jade. I wondered if it could've somehow been linked to Chris' mysterious disappearance. It certainly didn't look good for me to be keeping secret papers with Jade's name on them.
Suddenly I heard Jade talking to someone in the hall. I didn't have time to get out of the room, so I ducked into the closet and closed the door. Within a few seconds, Jade walked in.

2008-03-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Chris and I stayed in a room on the 12th floor. Jade was in a room down the hall. I hadn't seen the older guy since we arrived at the hotel.
Jade figured it would look weird for me to wear the same clothes every day, so she took me shopping as soon as we got settled into our rooms. By the end of the day I got a whole new wardrobe.
Chris said that for the next few days I was supposed to act like I was on vacation. Which was pretty easy. The resort was awesome! I spent most of my time in the game room or in one of the many swimming pools.
On the fourth day I was on my way back to our room after a late lunch when Jade met me in the hall. She seemed a little agitated.
"Chris had to leave," she said. "He'll be gone for a few days. Just keep doing what you've been doing."
That was all she said. She turned and walked back into her room. I stood there for a moment, wondering what could have happened that made Chris have to leave so suddenly. That's when I noticed something out the window at the end of the hallway. I looked and saw a window washer standing outside staring at me. As soon as he saw that I noticed him, he turned and started washing the window. The incident made me slightly uneasy and I walked quickly back into my room. Most of Chris' things were still out. I walked over to the window. It was facing the parking lot and I could see Chris' car still parked outside.
Something wasn't right.

Jade Nikia

2008-02-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

We drove for a few minutes before arriving at what I assumed was the resort that Chris had mentioned. We drove into the gate and stopped in a parking lot in front of the main building.
"Stay here," said Chris. He got out of the car and walked into the building followed by the old man from the other car.
Jade Nikia stayed behind. She walked around the parking lot some, and then started walking towards where I was. Once she reached the car she opened the door and sat down in the driver's seat next to me.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi, uh, Miss Nikia," I said, more than a little uncomfortable.
"Call me Jade," she said, smiling. "So you're the kid everyone's talking about. It's great to finally meet you."
I wasn't sure what to say. After an awkward silence, she spoke to me in a lower voice.
"Look," she said. "I know you probably don't have a clue about what's going on. I'm sorry you have to go through all this trauma. But there's more on the line here than you can imagine." She turned, as if to make sure no one was around. "Also, you need to be careful around Chris. He's a good guy, but he's a control freak. He's only supposed to play a small part in this, but he isn't content unless he knows everything."
I cut her off. "What part is he supposed to play?"
"Well," she said, "he's supposed to gather information and pass it on to his superiors. Unfortunately, he sometimes tries to decide what action to take without consulting others."
"And what part do you play?" I asked.
"I play sort of the same part," she said, "only it's a little more," she paused searching for the right word. "Interactive."
"You mean you're a double agent?"
She laughed. "And remember one other thing. Try not to be too smart. Anything else you need to know?"
I thought for a moment. "What part do I play, Jade?"
She looked at me for a while. "I don't know yet," she said. "I don't know what you're doing here. Chris is probably the only guy who knows why you're so valuable. And you'll have a hard time learning anything from him."
Just then, Chris walked out of the building.
"Well," Jade said, "I guess I'd better go. It was nice talking to you."
"Yeah, you too," I said as she got out of the car. After a moment Chris opened my door.
"Alright," he said, "you can get on out now. What were you and Jade talking about?"
"Not much. When do we eat?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
Chris laughed. "Soon enough," he said. "Help me unload the luggage."

2008-02-16T03:50:00.000-08:00

We split up into two cars. Jade and the other guy were in one and Chris and I were in another. I was slightly disappointed with this arrangement, as I was hoping to get to talk with someone other than Chris. It had been a while since I had really talked with somebody. It seemed Chris couldn't talk about anything for very long. But since he was the only person near me at the time, I decided to try and start a conversation.
"So. Who exactly is Jade Nikia?"
"Just a colleague of mine," was all he said.
A few seconds passed. I decided to ask him something I'd been meaning to ask him for a long time.
"What's that memory chip that you made for, and how did it end up with me?"
"Well," he said, "the chip itself holds coded information. Very valuable information that I stumbled across. I gave the chip to a couple of our agents who were supposed to hold it for us. They were supposed to find an obscure location and hide. Well, they somehow found out what was on the chip and decided to get rid of it and disappear.
"Fortunately, they contacted me first. I gave them directions with what to do with the chip. They were to leave it with another agent that would take their place. From what I can figure, they got confused and left it in the wrong house. Either that or they didn't receive my directions and decided to just leave it wherever.
"Anyway, as soon as I found out that it was missing, I enabled the tracking device. I was about to come get it when I found out you were taken by the enemy."
It seemed like a logical explanation, but I felt like there was something he wasn't telling me.
Oh, well, I thought. I'll think about it later. It looks like we're getting close to a town.

2008-02-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

When I heard him mention that we were going to a resort, I assumed that we would be end up at the Halekuni Resort. I didn't want to say anything, though, since I hadn't told Chris about the paper that I found, and I didn't know how to explain it to him. He would probably ask me why I hadn't told him about it, and what else I knew that I hadn't told him. His friendship had really helped me out so far, and I didn't want him to be suspicious of me. So I kept quiet.
We got into the small airplane. I sat in the copilot's seat, but was told not to touch anything. Chris was able to fly the plane himself, and soon we were flying over the ocean. I remembered that Hawaii was made of several different islands, and I figured that we were going to one of them. That's when I realized that we couldn't be going to the Halekuni Resort. The Halekuni was near Honolulu, and we'd just left from there. I turned to Chris.
"Where did you say we were going?" I asked.
"A small resort on the Kauai Island," he said, "in a town called Kapaa. It's come to my attention that there's going to be a meeting of different enemy agents that will take place in a hotel somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands, and there's been rumors of some activity in Kapaa, so I'm going to check it out."
The rest of the flight was spent in relative silence. Chris seemed to be preoccupied by the plane, and I was thinking furiously. I hardly even noticed the plane landing. We touched down in a field very similar to the one we had taken off from. We got out and were greeted by two people. One was a man, probably around 60 years old, and the other was a lady who looked to be in her early twenties. Chris shook hands with them and they all greeted each other like they were old friends. The lady turned to me.
"And who is this?" she asked.
"Oh, this is Sam," Chris said. "Sam, this is Jade Nikia."

2008-01-26T04:32:00.000-08:00

We drove for quite a while, and I was able to spend some time getting my thoughts straightened out. I asked Chris for a paper and pencil, and starting writing down the names of everyone that I could remember meeting recently (or giving names to those I didn't know) and what I knew about them. What I ended up with was something like this:

Carl: The first guy that I saw. He came to my house and showed me a picture of some guy that he was looking for. I later saw him in the warehouse right before it exploded.

Bald guy: I don't know his name. He was in the picture that Carl showed me. He has a Russian accent. He showed up a few days after I met Carl. He hit me over the head and knocked me out. I woke up later in the trunk of a car.

Black-Haired Lady, Bert and Businessman-like Guy (or BBB): I saw these people when I woke up from the sleep that Bald Guy had knocked me into. They were staying at a cabin in the woods. They seemed nice, and I have no clue what side they're on. The Businessman-like Guy seemed to know almost everything about everything. They put me in a limo and were going to take me somewhere.

Ski-mask guys: These guys attacked the BBB people and "kidnapped" me. They took me to an airport, but I was able to get away from them. I took a taxi to a hotel.

Chris: I met Chris at the hotel. He paid for my taxi. He said that he was the one who made the memory chip. He seemed impressed about how many people I'd seen and gave me a job. My job was to recognize people and tell him who they were. He took me to a warehouse. The warehouse exploded and I was knocked out. When I woke up, I everyone was gone.

Truck Driver: I really don't know anything about this guy. He showed up at the warehouse after it blew up. He didn't see me, and I managed to stowaway in his truck as he drove away. He took me to a parking garage in Honolulu. After he got out of the car, Chris showed up and now I'm with him on the way to an airport somewhere.

Jade Nikia: I haven't met this person, but this name is circled on the paper that I found in the debris left by the exploding warehouse, so it must be important.

Well, my story was definitely confusing, but at least it was written out in front of me.
The car began slowing to a stop. I looked out the window. We weren't at an airport at all. Just a big, wide open field with a really small airplane sitting a few yards away.
Chris got out of the car.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You'll like it," he said. "It's a seaside resort."

2008-01-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

It was Chris!
He was about as startled to see me as I was to see him.
"Sam! What are you doing in there?!"
I explained to him what happened to me after the explosion at the warehouse and asked what had happened to him. He wouldn't tell me.
"Let's just say that I don't want anybody to know I'm still around. And since you've seen me, you're gonna have to stick with me for a while. Now help me look."
I watched him rummage through some of the junk in the back of the truck. I thought about running, but I realized that I had nowhere to run to.
"What are you looking for?" I asked
"Oh, anything," he said, without looking up. "I don't really know. Anything that might give me some idea of what this guy is up to. Check the front, will you?"
I slowly walked to the front of the truck. I pulled the door handle, but the door didn't open.
"It's locked," I called out. Chris tossed me an odd looking key. I unlocked the door and started looking around. I couldn't find much. No identification, no briefcase, nothing. Obviously, whoever this truck belonged to was careful not to leave anything behind that could identify him.
"Alright, kid,"Chris called. "We gotta go. Leave everything like you found it."
I locked the door and followed Chris to a car that was parked a few yards away.
"Get in,' he said. "We've got a plane to catch."

2008-01-05T06:37:00.000-08:00

I was able to uncover the tarp just enough to get some light. I pulled out the paper I had shoved in my pocket and began reading.
As I noted before, it was information about a hotel in Honolulu. It was called the Halekuni
Resort. It was near the beach, and it looked like a pretty nice place. There were some pictures of the outside of the building, and a list of names. One of them, "Jade Nikia," was circled.
I could tell by the sounds that we were entering a city. We had been driving for about 20 minutes, and I was getting very hot under the tarp. I carefully poked my head out to get some air. I blinked as the bright sun shined into my eyes. As I opened them, I found myself looking at downtown Honolulu. It had been a long time since I had seen a large city. The buildings moving past made me dizzy at first and I closed my eyes again. After a few seconds, we turned into a parking garage. I hid back under the tarp.
Soon, the truck was parked and I heard the door open and close again. I waited several minutes, but nothing happened. Just as I was about to get out, I heard someone walk up to the truck. I could tell by the footsteps that it wasn't the same guy who drove me here. Whoever it was walked up to the back of the truck and pulled the tarp off me.

On My Own Again

2007-12-18T04:54:00.000-08:00

When I woke up it was just getting light. I took a moment to remember all that had happened and decide what to do next. I laid there for a while listening. I didn't hear anyone, so I slowly crawled out from under the piece of roof. I brushed myself off some and started to look around.
The warehouse was completely gone. It had been reduced to a heap of rubble. I didn't see any sign of people, living or dead. I began walking up a hill to where the van that we came here in had been parked. The van was gone.
I walked back to the pile of junk that used to be the warehouse. Having nothing better to do, I began to search through some of the debris for anything that might be useful. After a while of pulling and digging I found a black briefcase. Inside were several documents. Most of them I couldn't understand, but one of them was just a lot of information about a hotel in Honolulu. About that time I heard a car approaching. I shoved the paper in my pocket and hid behind some rubble. Soon a large truck pulled up a few feet in front of me. I could see hear the door open and close, and I heard someone walking around, searching through the piles of junk. After a few minutes, the car door opened and closed again. The truck started and started to drive away. I peeked out from my hiding place. Just as the truck had gone about thirty feet, the engine died and it lurched to a stop. After trying to start it a few times, the man got out and opened the hood. Almost without thinking, I saw my moment, ran out, and hopped into the back of the truck. I hid under a tarp that was conveniently laying in the truck. After about a minute, the car started up again and we started moving.

The Mission

2007-12-09T02:15:00.000-08:00

I was driven around blindfolded for a while. When the car stopped, I was told to get out walk straight. After I had taken a few steps, I was told to stop, and someone took my blindfold off. I looked around. It was night, so I couldn't see very clearly, but I could tell that I was on a hill by some bushes. About a hundred yards in front of me there was a small warehouse. A hand grabbed my shoulder and pushed me to the ground. I turned around and saw Chris. He motioned for me to keep silent. He handed me some large night-vision binoculars and pointed towards the warehouse. I looked through the binoculars, trying to find a window or something on the warehouse. Suddenly, a door opened and a man walked out. It was Carl. He stood outside the warehouse for a few minutes, then walked back in. I turned to Chris.
"Carl," I whispered.
Chris nodded and jotted something down in a notebook. "Let's try and get closer," he whispered back.
I was a little worried. I was told that I would be kept at a safe distance from the enemy. But I didn't have much choice. I followed Chris towards the warehouse. We walked around the building until we reached a window. Chris got on one side and motioned for me to stay on the other side.
Suddenly, the stillness was broken by the sound of a huge explosion inside the warehouse. The darkness was filled with a huge flash of light, and I was thrown to the ground. I turned to see the whole warehouse engulfed in flames. I struggled to stand up and started running towards where the car was. I could feel myself starting to lose consciousness. I managed to get behind a piece of roof that had blown off the building.
Then everything went black.

Training

2007-12-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

The word training brought all sorts of pictures to my mind, like martial arts moves, cool gadgets, virtual reality simulations and stuff like that. I was rather disappointed to find that my week-long training was just a week of going to boring meetings. I did learn some interesting things, though:
I was in Hawaii. Apparently, whoever bumped me over the head somehow kept me asleep for a couple days, and I had been flown here. I also learned that the guy who knocked me out was not with the same group of people that I saw when I woke up. I had changed hands sometime while I was unconscious.
I found out some stuff about what I would be doing for the next few days. Apparently, my only use was that I had information about the identities of some of the bad guys. I was to be transported to some location (they didn't tell me exactly where) and try and point out some of the people that I had seen in the last few days, and describe what they were doing and what they said and who they were with.
I was to keep out of trouble, do as I was told, and I'd be on my way home within a few days.

Simple. Right?...

An Offer

2007-11-17T22:20:00.000-08:00

I was rather surprised, as I didn't think that anyone knew that I still had the memory chip. I wasn't sure quite what to do. I was about to say that I didn't have it anymore, but the look on the man's face told me that I should cooperate.
"How did you know I had it?" I asked.
"When I created it a couple years ago, I put a tracking device in it so I'd know where it is at all times," he answered. "I've been tracking it down for the past couple weeks and it led me to you. How did you get it?"
I wasn't sure how much I should tell this guy, but since he was sharing some information with me, I decided it wouldn't hurt to tell him some stuff.
"It was..uh...given to me by someone. I'm not sure who. As soon as I got it I saw some guy named Carl who-"
"Wait a minute," he interrupted. "You've seen Carl?"
"Yeah, he came to me. He had a picture of someone that I later saw-"
"Hold on," he interrupted again. "You saw the guy that Carl was looking for?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"How many people have you seen?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. Quite a few. There was someone with a Russian accent, an old man with gray hair, some big guys who knew karate, and some other people. I can't remember all of them."
"Kid, do you realize that you have more information about these people than almost any of our agents?"
I thought about that for a moment.
"So," I said slowly, "who exactly are you?"
The man looked at me differently all of a sudden. "Well," he said. "We're a group of people from various countries fighting to end this war before something big and destructive happens"
"What war?" I asked. "There's no war going on!"
"Well, no," he said. "Not officially. But if it ever becomes official, it could mean the death of millions of people. Our group is trying to stop it before it happens."
I realized that this guy was putting a lot of trust in me, and I wasn't sure why.
"So what will happen to me?" I asked.
"Well, as I see it, we have two options. We can wipe your memory and send you back where you came from."
I didn't like the sound of that.
"What's the other option?"
"One thing that we're short on is intelligence. We've sent many people to get information about out enemy, but security is very tight. We could always use someone with the kind of information you have. What do you say? Wanna join us?"
He held out his hand.
I shook it.

Chris

2007-11-08T10:12:00.001-08:00

Before long, the taxi pulled up near a small hotel. The driver told me how much I owed him, and I tried to think up some excuse for not having any money. He certainly wouldn't believe the truth! But before I could say anything, some guy that had been standing a few feet away walked over to the taxi.
"He's with me," he said, handing the driver the money. I tried not to look surprised, as the taxi drove off.
"Thank you," I said, turning to the man. He was tall, young looking, and had very dark eyes. "Why did you do that for me?"
"Are you hungry?" he asked?
Based on what had been happening to me lately, I probably should have walked off, but the guy seemed nice enough, and I hadn't eaten for a while.
"Yes, I'm really hungry."
"Come on. I'll buy you some lunch.
He led me down the street to a small restaurant. We sat down and he ordered us both some food.
"Now," he said. "I suppose I should tell you who I am. My name's Chris, and I believe you have something that belongs to me." He held his hand out. "My memory chip."

Recap

2007-10-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

The drive in the taxi gave me a chance to think through what had happened to me the past few days.
Someone had left me a memory chip with some mysterious pictures on it. Within a few days, a guy called Carl showed up at my house. I decided to look at the pictures on the memory chip. One of them was of a paper with an email address on it. I sent a message to that address. A week after that, another guy with a Russian accent showed up. He bashed me over the head and I was unconscious for a while.
By the time I woke up, there was no telling where I was. I had been driven to a house somewhere. While there, I talked to an older man who seemed to know everything about what was happening, but he didn't seem to want to tell me too much.
The next day I was to be transported some place, but before I got there I was re-captured by some other group of people who wanted to use me as a bargaining piece. They took me to an airport where I managed to escape and now I was sitting in a taxi in some city driving towards a hotel.

And somehow, through all of this, I managed to still have with me the memory chip that had started all of this.

On my own

2007-10-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

For the next few hours I was driven around for a while until we got to an airport. I wondered what country I was going to, and realized that I didn't even know what country I was in. I was led into the building and told to keep my mouth shut. The place was slightly crowded, and the thought came to me that I might be able to get 'lost in the crowd'. I kept a close eye on my kidnappers. I saw that they were keeping a close eye on me. Every time one would look away, it was only a couple seconds before another was watching me.

Finally, inspiration came in the form of a luggage cart that happened to be near me. Waiting until no one was watching, I grabbed the cart and pushed it as hard as I could towards a nearby group of people. It had just the effect I was hoping for. There was a loud crash, a lot of people running, a lot of people screaming. The noise caught everyone's attention and, in the few moments of panic, I was able to run out of view of my kidnappers.

I followed a large group of people out of the building, then quickly ran into the nearest taxi.
"Take me to the nearest hotel."
The driver nodded and started to drive off. I thought for a moment that I didn't have any money to pay him, but I figured I'd worry about that later. I was free!

A Change Of Scene

2007-09-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

The doors were slammed open and several large guys appeared. There was a quick little martial arts fight between the guys in the limo and the guys that just showed up. Guns were knocked to the ground as soon as they were pulled out. People were flying everywhere. The new guys outnumbered the limo guys, and I was soon forcibly transferred from the limo the back of a truck just in front of us. The car raced off and, as I looked back, I could see that the limo had four flat tires (something that must have been accomplished while the fight was going on). I turned back around, catching my breath, and then instantly lost it again. Staring down at me were five of the biggest guys I think I've ever seen, all wearing ski masks. The largest one moved forward some.
"Are you alright, kid? You're not hurt, are you?"
That wasn't exactly the question I was expecting to hear.
"Umm..I'm fine, I guess. Who are you?" I asked.
"We're not going to hurt you. We just need some information."
That was all he said.
"And you want me to give it to you?" I asked.
"No. We want you as a hostage. You must be worth something to those guys. We left them a note. They tell us what we need to know, and you'll go free."
"Would this information," I asked, "have anything to do with a memory chip?"
The man jerked up. "You know what was on it?"
"Umm...no. I just heard it mentioned," I replied. Obviously, these guys didn't know that I knew anything, and I decided to keep it that way for a while.
It seemed I knew more than most anyone else about what was on the memory chip. I was valuable property.

On The Road Again...

2007-09-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

The rest of the interview is sort of a blur in memory. I heard the guy say something about Iran and bombs and a river. I tried to gather as much information as I could, but my mind was racing. The next thing that I clearly remember is being told that I was going to be moved to a house outside of the country.
For the first time, I wondered what in the world my family must have been thinking at this time. What had they been told about my absence? If only I had some way of seeing them.
It was somewhere in the course of this train of thought that I remembered that I still had the memory chip inside my pocket. The people I was with obviously didn't know that I had it. After debating with myself over whether or not I should give it to the, I realized that I really didn't know who the good guys or bad guys in this were. Until I found out, I decided that I would keep the chip with me.
Within an hour, I was led outside and into a black limousine with tinted windows. The guy called Bert got in first, then me, then some other huge guy. I wasn't sure how far we would be going, but I didn't enjoy the thought of spending any length of time in a car between these two guys.
Not a word was said for a good half-hour. I spent most of the time going over the events of the past few days, trying to piece together what few puzzle pieces I had. After 30 silent, uneventful minutes, I heard tires screeching ahead of us, car doors slamming, and some shouting. The two guys surrounding me got rather tense, and the limo slowed down to a stop.

Out of the Darkness...

2007-09-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

As soon as the door closed behind me, someone switched on a light, blinding me for a second. As I regained my sight, I found myself in a huge office. In front of me, sitting behind a huge wooden desk, was a man. His looked very much like someone you would expext to be the world's most succesful businessman. He smiled, showing his shiny white teeth.
"Sit down," he said, nodding towards a chair in front of me.
I sat down.
The man pulled a huge file out of a drawer. He looked through it, glancing at me every now and then.
"I see," he said after a couple minutes. "You are Samuel S____, born 1991. You went to school..." he went on for a while. Somewhere between my broken arms and my braces, I interrupted him.
"Um, excuse me sir, but what exactly am I doing here?"
He sort of squinted at me, as if he were deciding wether or not to tell me something.
"Sam," he said, "it has come to my attention that you recently intercepted a memory chip. I assume you saw what was on it, and I also assume that you don't know what it is you were looking at."
I didn't like the way he was assuming all the correct assumptions, and I didn't like the way he had called me 'Sam.' But, eager to know more, I simply nodded and waited.
He held out two pictures.
"Have you seen either of these two men?"
I had, but I was tired of the whole photograph thing.
"And what if I have?" I asked.
"If you have, then I have good reason to believe that you're in danger. Because of what you've seen, the best agents from over twenty countries in the world are after you. You may not want to be involved, but you're in this whether you like it or not."

A Voice

2007-09-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

After a shower and a lunch consisting of a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and crackers, the guy called Bert finally spoke. Up to this point, all I had heard out of him were a few grunts.
"Go in there," he said in a gruff voice.
I cautiously made my way toward the door he was pointing to. After what had been happening to me lately, I had no idea what to expect. I slowly turned the doorknob and pushed open the door.
It was pitch black inside.
"Come on in," said a voice from inside the blackness.
I slowly walked into the room, staying as close to the door as possible.
"Close the door," said the voice.
Deciding that I was tired of being ordered around, I summoned up my courage and asked, in a rather timid voice, "Who are you?"
After a moment of silence, the voice, again, said, "Close the door," this time in a more commanding tone.
I decided I didn't have much choice and, after drawing a heavy breath, I slowly closed the door behind me, shutting out the last bit of light in the room.

When I awoke again...

2007-08-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

The next time I woke up, I noticed that the car or whatever I was in had stopped. I heard a door slam and some muffled talking. After a few seconds there was a blast of light from the door to whatever I was in being opened. I was blinded for a few seconds, but soon I made out a lady staring down at me.
"Well, look who's awake," she said in a half-friendly voice. "Come on, sleepy head. You gotta get out now."
I was too dazed to disobey. I sat up, felt the buzz of blood draining from my brain and fell back down. After another attempt, I managed to half stumble, half roll out of the car. Staggering to my feet, I looked around to see where if I could figure out where I was. All around me was thin, jungle type woods. A few yards away was a small cabin. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, and I was still a little drowsy from being in a horizontal position for such a long period of time. The lady, who I noticed to be tall with short black hair, must have noticed the confusion on my face.
"You're going to staying here for the next few days," she said. "More will be explained later. Right now, Bert will lead you to your room. You'll have time for a shower before lunch."
"Follow me," said a huge man with a Neanderthal face, who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Things were still spinning around like a cyclone in my brain. Had I been in my right mind, I probably would have demanded to know what was going on. For now, the words shower and lunch were all that I heard. I followed Bert into the cabin.

When I awoke...

2007-08-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

The first thing I noticed was the darkness. I felt for the flashlight I always keep next to my bed. All I felt were carpeted walls all around me.

Then the memories came flooding back.

I tried to sit up, but my head hit something about 2 feet above me. I struggled to glimpse some sort of light. It was then that I noticed a gentle hum beneath me. After a few moments, I realised that I was in the trunk of a car.

After completely feeling every square inch of my cage, I decided to take an inverntory on what I had on me. It didn't take long to find that I didn't have my camera, but I still had the camera memory chip in my pocket. I had taken it out of my camera earlier that day. Or, at least, I think it was that day. There was no way to know how long I had been unconcious.

After a few minutes, I decided the best thing to do was wait and see what would happen.

I fell back asleep.

The Reply

2007-08-19T00:46:00.000-07:00

Up till now, my story has been mostly introduction. It was about a week after I sent the email that things really started happening.
I had almost forgotten about the memory chip, or at least I wasn't thinking about it every hour of the day. I had started making a movie. For some reason or another, I had to get some footage outside. I was walking around the block with my video camera when I saw a vaguely familiar face out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I saw a man standing across the street, watching me. I couldn't remember how I knew him, but I had definitely seen him before.
Feeling a little nervous, I continued walking at a slightly faster pace. I turned a corner, walked for a few more yards, then looked back. The man was following just a few feet behind me. He was short, muscular and bald. I was just about to start walking again when the man spoke.
"Excuse me," He said in a thick Russian accent. "I'm looking for a friend of mine." Just when I was thinking that I had been in this situation before, I recognised who the guy was. It was the man in the picture that the guy called Carl had shown me. The man held up a picture. "Have you seen this man?"
The picture was a little blurry, but I could see that it was a picture of the guy called Carl. I wasn't sure exactly what to say.
"Um...He looks sort of familiar-"
The moment the words left my mouth, something big and heavy landed on my head. The world spun around for a couple seconds, then everything went black.

An Email

2007-08-15T06:33:00.001-07:00

It went something like this:

Dear Sir or Madam,
I recently, through a series of odd circumstances, gained possession of a memory chip. I found in it this email address. Do you happen to be missing a memory chip? If not, do you know who this chip might belong to and how I could get in contact with him/her? Thank you.

A concerned citizen.

Yeah, It was a little lame. Especially the concerned citizen part. But it was good enough. Hopefully, I would get a reply that would explain a little more about what was going on.
And I did get just such a response. The only problem was, the reply wasn't sent via email.

2007-08-14T05:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to look at the pictures on the memory card a little closer and see if I might have missed something. A lot of the pictures were of documents and I couldn't understand most of them, but I noticed that there were two words that were mentioned several times. The words were "Object" and "Tear". They were always used as nouns, but the sentances they were in didn't make much sense.
After looking through five or six pictures, I finally found something useful: an email address.
After about ten minutes of arguing with myself about what to do, curiousity got the better of me.

Carl

2007-08-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

Well, there he was. 7 feet tall, black hair, black suit, sunglasses, almost completely concealed earphone, neutral facial expression. When they thought up the stereotype secret agent, this is the man they were thinking of.
"My name is Carl. I'm looking for a friend of mine," he said in a deep voice with a slight Australian accent. "Here's a picture of him."
Carl held up a black and white photograph of a bald man.
"No," I said. "I've never seen him before."
Carl was looking steadily at my hand. I glanced down and realized that I was still holding my camera. I quickly hid it behind my back.
"Can I help you with anything else, Mr. Carl?" I asked. He gave me a sharp look.
"If I have any further use for you, I will certainly let you know." With that, he turned, got into the car and rode off.

The Plot Thickens

2007-08-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

It was a box, wrapped up in brown paper. I opened it and found another box, also wrapped up in brown paper. I opened it and found yet another box wrapped in brown paper. This continued for a while until I was surrounded by no less than ten open boxes and tons of torn up paper. The last box was tiny. It contained merely a 2 GB memory card for a camera.
It wasn't long before I had it inside my Canon ZR 600 Digital Camcorder. There wasn't much on it. Just some pictures of a room and some papers, and a video of a waterfall.
Finding this all rather odd, I decided to ask my parents what they thought it meant. I was just on my way to do this when the doorbell rang. I ran out to the balcony to see who was 6here. All I could see was a black car with tinted windows sitting outside our front gate.
Curious, I ran downstairs and opened the door. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

One Last Note

2007-08-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

I know. You're thinking "Man, when will he get on with this fascinating story?" I assure you, after this post I will get to writing. However, I just wanted to let you know that I have decided NOT to write my story in the form of a blog. I find it constrictive to my imagination and will, therefore, return to writing in my own style. Thank you for your patience. I believe when I last wrote, Sam was just about to find out what was in the mysterious package that someone left him.

To Avoid Misunderstanding...

2007-08-11T02:05:00.000-07:00

This entire blog is fictional. It's a continuing story about myself put in the form of a blog. If something actually happens that I want to talk about, I'll start a new "real life" blog.

Greetings!

2007-08-10T07:30:00.001-07:00

Dear Reader,
Not much is happening. Not much is likely to happen for quite some time. We just had some visitors from America, and that was a lot of fun. However, they just left today. So life will soon fall back into boring routine.

One interesting note:
Someone from the group (I don't know who) left a gift for me in my room. It had a note attached, saying not to open it until Saturday. So I'll have to wait to find out what it is. It doesn't make any noise when I shake it, and it's fairly heavy.

Well, that's all that's happening and, as I said, that's all that's likely to happen for a long time.

A Note from the Author

2007-08-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Valued Reader,
From this point on, my story will be written in normal blog fashion. I will write the events as if they are actually happening to me day-by-day.

The Needed Explanations (or a few more mysteries)...

2007-08-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

I won't waste words on lengthy and needless explanations. I'm sure you're wondering who the aforementioned "they" are. (see previous post) However, I won't tell you. Their identity is entirely unimportant. The only thing you must know about them is they were the first to see it and they didn't think I could do anything about it. Zoe didn't think so either, but she hadn't known me long, so that was forgivable.

Anyway, enough of this idle chatter! I believe the last word of importance I mentioned was "until". Until, that is, they fell in love. Not that love is, in and of itself, a bad thing. But there's a time for everything, and this was not the time for such trivial matters as love.
Naturaly, upon discovering their situation, they decided to get out of the country and start a new life together. It would have worked out for them, had they not brought it with them.
I don't want to accuse anyone without knowing all the details, so I won't say that they stole it. Perhaps they didn't know that it was in their suitcase. It may have been planted there. Either way, there it was. Of course, they couldn't keep it. So, not telling me of the danger it would put me in, they gave it to me. If someone was to die, better me than them. After all, they were in love!

I would like to let you know right now that I had no clue of the importance of their "gift". It wasn't until after I met Chris that I even knew that REBEL existed.

But I'm getting behind myself. I'll relate to the events in the order that they unfolded without any more of this boring history.

Beginnings...

2007-08-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am Sam, among other things, the most notable of which I will keep to myself for the present. It is crucial to the flow of my narrative that you begin reading with no preconceptions about my identity other than those of a curious reader.
My story begins where most stories end: “And they lived happily ever after.” The one thing that sets my story apart from that of other authors is the word directly following the sentence:
“Until…”

Hmm...A Change Must Be Made

2007-08-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Reading over what I've done so far, I have come to the conclusion that this blog is excessively boring. Therefore, if the reader doesn't mind, I will, for the fun of it, dramatise my life to make it more interesting. All the ideas, of course, will be based on actual facts. The details, however, will be made up.

In short, this is no longer a day-by-day "my life" blog. It is now a continuing fictional story based on my life.

Enjoy!

Sunday

2007-08-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

We went to church today.
We have a small church. It's a really great group of people. My youngest brother wasn't feeling well today, so my mom stayed home with him. Besides that, things were pretty normal.
This week was the last week that we'll be meeting in our current building. For the past several years, we've been renting property. We've actually changed locations 4 times since we started our church.
Anyway, we were recently able to purchase land with a building on it to use as a permanent location for our church. It needed some remodelling, but it should be done by next week.

Random fact!
Did you know that the can opener was invented in 1858, almost 50 years after the tin can was invented? Until that time, cans had to be hammered open with a sharp object. Opening cans was a long, hard and dangerous process.

PS. I changed the settings so that anyone can post comments. Please let me know if you happen to read this blog. I'm just curious as to who actually reads this.

A Quick Post

2007-08-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's late and I'm just about to go to bed. I just wanted to say that if you see this post, please leave a comment telling me how you happened to find this blog. Thanks!

Sam

Hello World!

2007-08-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

I am Sam. I am 16 years old. I was born in Oklahoma and I live in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (a small country between Thailand and Vietnam). I have 3 siblings: 1 older sister and 2 younger brothers. My family and I are missionaries here in this fascinating land.

I hope to post here quite often, so check back regularly.