I got on the ship, and a worker gave me a room number and key card. When I got to my room, I opened up the bag that my mom handed me in the car. I found a picture, a flashlight, a wallet with about $2,000 in it, and a piece of scrap paper. It said to find someone named Charlotte Elbinzer in Alice Springs, Australia. For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to do.
I decided to head down to the pool. Maybe I just need some fun, I thought. While I was there, I met two kids that looked my age. They didn’t seem to be having much more fun than me.
“Hi,” the girl said, “My name is Etesne. But please, call me Tess.”
The guy ran up after Tess, “Hey! where are you going?” Then he turned and saw me. “Oh, hi. I’m Quinn. And you are . . . ?”
“Jasper,” I told them.
I just hung out with Tess and Quinn for the rest of the day. We went to the arcade, messed around in the pool, and best of all, we went to a Chinese restaurant. They were really nice, and I was happy to have something to think about. It hurt too much to think about the fact that I can’t go home and that I might never see my mom again.


I was on the main deck when I saw it-a ratty old pirate ship. I had to warn somebody, and Tess and Quinn were still in the restaurant we went to for lunch. I found a security guard keeping an eye on the deck, and pointed out the pirate ship. “Oh, it will pass. Everything will be just fine. Don’t worry,” he said, but I knew he was wrong. I was getting that weird feeling again.
I ran to find Tess and Quinn to tell them what happened. I found them walking out of the restaurant. I told them what I saw, and how I knew they wouldn’t just pass right by us. “I know that ship,” Quinn said before I even got to point it out. “And you’re right, they won’t just pass us. They won’t leave at all until this ship is either their’s, or sunk. We have to get out of here. There has got to be a rescue boat somewhere around here. We have to find it.”

We did find a rescue boat. It was in the back. We got in and said the voice commands, and so it lowered us into the water. We were floating around for about eight hours when we realized we had no clue where we were and that we were starving. We found a survival kit, and we still had my backpack full of supplies. We found some jerky, dried fruit, and salt water purifiers. We all had a snack and then went to sleep. I took the first watch. I knew there was no way I could sleep. When morning came, I woke the others.
Later that day, we saw something. It was really far away, but we all knew what it was.
“Land!” I shouted with joy. I had always hated the water. We got out the paddles and paddled as fast as we could. We were there within an hour.
Tess looked amazed. “What is this place?” she asked.
“Well, I’m gonna guess it’s an island,” Quinn said sarcastically. It took all of four seconds for Tess to have him pinned to the ground. I decided I should never mess with her. “Sorry, sorry,” he apologised, struggling to get up.
“Maybe we should go explore,” I volunteered. Tess and Quinn agreed because nobody else seemed to have a better idea.

The island seemed pretty empty. We didn’t find any signs of human life until we finally found a small village right in the center of the island. We decided to go and check it out. To see if there’s someone who can help us.
We got into town and noticed the roads were dirt. There were stone houses and small gardens. We walked into what looked like an old-fashioned bakery.
“Giq xlb U gwko tiy rislt?” the lady behind the counter asked.
Tess looked confused. “What? Huh? Do you speak English? English?”
The lady behind the counter suddenly looked angry. We didn’t know what to do, so we left. We decided to stay away from the town.
“Hey, Quinn?” I asked, as we were leaving the town.
“Yeah?”
“How did you know about that pirate ship?”
Quinn’s expression darkened. “A few years ago,” he paused. After a minute he tried again, “A few years ago, my family was captured. I overheard the pirates talking. ‘We have to kill them,’ one of them said. ‘They know too much. They saw what we did and they could tell someone. There’s a reason we can’t leave anyone alive.’
“I was scared. I was only 12 years old, and I didn’t know what to do. I had to have a plan. They brought me out of my cell so they could kill me. I wasn’t scared-I was frightened. I walked to the edge of the ship and stared at the water. ‘Jump,’ he said. ‘You’ll never survive out there either.’
“But he was wrong. I looked up towards the sun, and then to my watch. I knew the approximate area that we were in, because we hadn’t traveled far from where my family was captured. A cargo ship would come by two hours later about one mile south. I knew I could make it. So I jumped. I could hear the pirates laughing as I went in. But I was determined to survive.”
His story surprised me. I didn’t think about things like that happening in the real world. I was glad he had survived, because if he didn’t, I would probably be captured and in their ship right then, just like he was when he was 12.
On our way back, we saw some fruit trees. There were apples and bananas and oranges and pears and even a few berry bushes. When we got back to the beach, we decided we should sleep. Again. We needed it though. We needed it because we were all still exhausted from earlier. Quinn took watch this time. I was asleep in seconds. I woke up, and it was still dark. And Quinn was asleep, so I woke Tess and asked her to keep watch. I fell back asleep easily.
The next time I woke up, it was light out again. Tess had gathered some berries and bananas for breakfast. It was delicious. We ate in silence, and then put our stuff together. I let Quinn and Tess borrow some of the clean sweats from my backpack. After we were all clean and fed, we decided to just relax. And figure out what to do.
Tess noticed it this time. The pirate ship was back. And this time, it would take over the island. I knew that we had to warn the people in the village. Tess was the first person up, and she started running in the direction of the village. Quinn and I were close behind her.
We soon arrived at the village. Tess was yelling as loud as she could to get their attention. Quinn and I were acting out ‘pirates’ and pointing towards the shore. The village people understood quickly what we were trying to tell them, and they had an army of men ready to fight the pirates.
The fighting was easy for the people of the island. They have obviously had to do this before. The pirates were very outnumbered, so the fight didn’t take very long. The people from the island eventually won. They thanked us (at least I think they did) for warning them ahead of time.
“English! Rgwt aowlj English!” the lady from the bakery said, while pointing at us.
An old man stepped forward from a group of people and said, “Thank you for helping us. And welcome to Albballooo Island. I can help you get home, if that’s what you three would like. It could be difficult, but we will help you try.”
His words took me by surprise. “Um, o-okay,” I stammered. I didn’t realize that anyone on this island could speak English. But he did. And it made me wonder why.

The people that lived on the island had a wide variety of boats. We found a motor boat with a full tank and asked if we could have it. We could. And we rode it back to where my plane took me. Albert, the one guy that spoke English, gave us coordinates of where we were and where we needed to go. Once we got there, we drove straight to the airport and went to the counter to by tickets.
Huh, I thought. That’s strange. There aren’t any tickets to America. I wondered why that was. Just then we got to the counter.
“Hi, when is the soonest plane to America?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but we don’t have any planes going to America right now. Haven’t you heard about the explosion? There aren’t any signs of human life anywhere.”
Oh no, I though, very worried. What about Mom. Did she escape and survive the explosion? Or is she dead like everyone else in America?
My eyes filled with tears. Why did I have to lose everyone I loved? Why me? Then I noticed something by the doors. Someone was watching me. I sprinted for the doors, Tess and Quinn were close behind.
“Hey! Jasper, where are you going?” Quinn yelled. I didn’t turn. I just kept running to the doors. But when I got outside, nobody was there. We decided to go have lunch. We found a Chinese restaurant down the block, and decided to eat there. Then I saw him again. The man that was watching us earlier.
“Hello,” he began. “I am Charles, and I can give you a ride to America.”
“Sure,” Tess said, without a moment of hesitation. I kicked her under the table. “Ouch,” she squealed. “Be nice.”
“Fine, we’ll take a ride to America. How much does it cost?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s free. I was headed there anyway to do some investigations.”
“When?”
“Tonight,” he responded quickly. “Be there at six.”
“Okay.”
He began to walk away, when it hit me. Investigations? “Wait,” I blurted out. “What investigations?”
“Well we still have to figure out what would cause a country-wide explosion, don’t we?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, “I guess we do.” And then Charles was gone.

The ride there was much quicker than the one I took a few days ago before all of this happened. It was only four hours. I was suddenly curious.
“What do you know about the explosion so far?”
Charles looked weary. There was something that he didn’t want to tell me. “Well, somebody died-”
“Zane,” I gasped.
His eyes looked concerned, but he continued anyway. “Yes, Zane died. You must have been one of the people he was protecting. When he died, America became chaos once again. And when he died, the rules of protection weren’t intact anymore. Certain bad people could do what they wanted to do again. They don’t have any more restraints.”
“Wait, why him?” I asked. “Why is this happening because he died?”
“He had an agreement. These bad people, called Destroyers, they agreed that as long as Zane was alive, they wouldn’t destroy America. But Zane is dead now. And they are trying very hard before they come across another Protector. And they have almost succeeded.”
“Why did he have to protect me? He should be protecting the president or something!”
“Because you were next in line. And so was Quinn. And Tess. The three of you are the new Protectors. You are the only ones that can stop the Destroyers.”
“Oh,” was all I could say. This couldn’t have been true. I decided to stop talking.

When I got off the plane, I looked around. There was nothing but land. I thought Charles told us we were landing in Chicago. Then I realized we were in Chicago. Or at least what’s left of it. I had to do something. Otherwise, this would become the end of America as I knew it. The only problem was that there was nothing that I could do. My horrible feeling came back. Charles was right. We were Protectors. We just weren’t very good ones.
THE END