This world is a more horrible place then I ever thought. I used to live in the country of Canada until I was sent to the place they call the Horrific Woodlands. I might as well tell you my name. I’m Luis Santiago. Before I was sent to the woods, I lived in the slums of Toronto, the capital of Canada. I was penniless, didn’t have a home, and lived on scraps of food from people’s trashcans. This was what my life was like before I joined the Canadian Mafia.

At the beginning of my life when was born, my parents both died from a horrible accident. They both had too much too drink and they crashed head on into a semi truck. This was an emotional moment in my life, my parents died, and the police could not find any living relatives in their records.


The next day I was sent to an orphanage where I lived till I was fifteen. It was hard living in an orphanage. I went to a public school that had all sorts of bullies. After being teased, I made friends with the bullies and we did all sorts of stuff, from stealing kid’s lunch money to more serious crimes. I was with these bullies, who I called my friends, all through middle school and high school. I also made friends with the son of the governor of Toronto; his name was Josh. While I was an orphan, I hated the orphanage, so I decided that I would escape. That night, when the lady who ran the orphanage went to bed, I opened the window and used my blankets to climb out the window to freedom. I quietly ran down the street to my friend’s house where he let me in; I was now free.


I needed a way to survive in this world so I joined a gang. The gang was based out of Toronto and we specialized in smuggling. I took the oath of the gang and was assigned another gang member to teach me the ropes. That gang member was Scar, and he was the leader of the gang. He handed me a G18 pistol and taught me how fire it at the factory. Really, the factory was the place where our gang trained and prepared for our next crime. We were successful because our gang worked out of a Cisco factory, which benefited our smuggling industry.


Over years of business I became the leader of the gang and I decided to have our gang join the Canadian Mafia. On our first mission together we were hired to assassinate the governor of Ontario and we would succeed. I had personal connections with the Governor’s son and had been there many times, so I was the leader of this mission.


I was supposed to kill my friend’s father in cold blood. This was my friend, but I knew this would rake in a lot of cash for the gang. I was desperate. I reached the governor’s mansion, the only luxurious place in the city, and knocked on the door. After a couple of knocks and ringing the doorbell, Josh finally came to the door. He let me in and was surprised to see me because it had been a long time since we had seen each other. This was no time for fun and games. I had a job to do and I was determined. I asked him if I could talk to his father and he said yes. He led me down a long, narrow corridor to his father’s office. When he opened the door I saw my target. This would be an easy kill. I took out my Mini Uzi, concealed in my jacket, which I got through security by saying I had a heart condition and had a Pace Maker. I pulled the trigger and sprayed a hail of bullets at the governor. The governor instantly fell to the ground dead. Some of the governor’s security guards lunged at me, but I killed them before they could lay a finger on me. Then, suddenly, Josh hit me by swinging a vase at my head and I blacked out and crumpled to the ground.

The day after I succeeded in assassinating the governor, the security forces barged into the Cisco Factory on all sides with their M74s and concussive grenades. There was no way for my clients and fellow gang members to escape, so they threw their hands up in the air and the security forces handcuffed them. I was thrown into a van on my 17th birthday. Then I was interrogated and thrown into a cold, dark prison cell. Later in the afternoon they killed all of my clients and gang members in front of my own eyes.

A day later two men walked me into a bush plane and gave me a backpack filled with survival equipment. It wasn’t much but it included a flashlight, first aid kit, water purification tablets, a machete, a ration of one day’s worth of food, a tarp, sleeping pad and blanket, matches, and a few other basic supplies. Then the plane took off and headed deep into the woods. A razor wire fence surrounded the woods from what I saw. The plane landed outside of the woods. I got out, carried my backpack, and followed the men with guns that glistened in the sunlight to the gate.

The men opened the gate and told me to run. I listened to the guards and sprinted as hard as I could to the tree line. A rumor I had heard in the slums of Toronto was that there was an enclosed woodland forest somewhere in Canada. I realized with horror that this wasn’t any forest, it was an enclosed area where rich people paid fees to kill prisoners. Before I left the prison, on the way to lunch I saw a sign that told where people were going. I glanced at my name and it said to the Horrific Woodlands, the name it was given by the prisoners of the prison.


As I walked deeper into the woods, I noticed dead bodies lying on the path. It took only seconds for me to realize if I didn’t want to be killed in the first five minutes, I should get off the path. I walked deeper into the woods. The light suddenly faded away. Night had fallen and I should find a place to hide out. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a flashlight; this wasn’t the best, but it would work. I walked a little bit deeper into the woods until I found a tree stump. I sat down and thought first off, “How should I escape? And second off, “Where was I supposed to hide?” I stood up, glanced around for a moment and saw that there was a hole the size of a basketball. I cleared away the brush from the hole. Then I took some rope from my backpack and tied it around the trunk of the tree. After that I grabbed hold of the rope and slid into the darkness beneath me.


From the looks of it, it appeared to be the den of some type of underground bear found in most of Canada but it seemed abandoned. Then I went back up and grabbed my backpack carrying my much-needed supplies and set it into the hole.


I went back to thinking for a little bit. My mind flashed back to another rumor I had heard. This one was about how the security forces having these detectors on their hovercraft to detect humans in the area. These were mounted on the underside of the hovercraft and could detect a human within a five-mile radius. There had to be a way not to be detected. To my relief I finally came up with an idea. It seems really gross, but I dragged dead bodies and put them up next to the tree stump. I devoured a granola bar for dinner and went to bed on a sleeping pad I was given. During the night I dreamt about death.


When I woke up I sensed death was near. I stayed pretty cautious all morning. In the afternoon I became hungry and thirsty and needed to find food and water. So I walked through the woods trying not to get lost, so it would be easy to find my way back to the hideout. I soon found a tempting berry bush. In seconds my backpack was off my back and I used it to collect the berries. I crept without a sound back to my hideout to put the berries there and headed back to gather more. My backpack was filled, yet again, with berries. Then I set the backpack down by the river I found and got a drink. I was drinking some water when I heard an engine wine in the distance. It seemed to be getting louder. I realized all too late. A bullet shot from a sniper rifle whizzed near my head. The bullet was shot from a boy in a hovercraft. This boy was the first to pay hunting fees to go after me and kill me. This was no ordinary boy; it was Josh, and he wanted revenge. The hunt for me was on.


I ran through the woods with the hovercraft trailing ever closer behind me. It was closing in on me. I heard the metallic clank of Josh in the hovercraft readying his gun. This meant danger was near. Something had to be done fast, and I was the only one who could do it.
As I was running I noticed a ditch. I didn’t have another option, so I dove into the ditch. The ditch was surrounded by thick brush so the hovercraft could not come in. Then Josh was mad and fired off a few more rounds that missed me and left. I was truly lost. I didn’t know where I was. I started walking around trying to find my way back to my hideout. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t find it. I eventually settled down for the night. But before I went to bed, I searched through my pockets and found a knife, a flashlight, and another granola bar.

During the night I heard hovercrafts flying over the ditch all night waiting for the morning rays to come. When those death-calling rays did come I was ready to run. Just after sunrise two hovercrafts came to hunt me. The second person to pay fees had arrived. I had to think of a plan to get out of the ditch and not get killed.


My thoughts raced thinking of ideas; some good, some bad, as bullets wizzed near me. Then, a perfect idea sunk into my head. When I was little I had a friend who went to my school. One of our favorite things to do was to watch movies together. In one of the movies a person threw a shoe one direction and moved the other direction. This was the only idea that I thought of that might work.

I decided to go for it. I picked up a large stone, and hurtled it as far as I could then I ran with all my might in the other direction. I had fooled the hunters. I ran for a bit with no one on my tail until the hovercrafts finally caught on and were on my trail in an instant. Then I noticed that one of the hovercrafts was flying lower than the rest. Then, all of a sudden, the hovercraft got out of control, the pilot and the hunter fell out, and the hovercraft plunged down into the forest. This was my chance. I ran towards the hovercraft, which happened to be intact, and I climbed in and I flew into the air. The pilot of the other hovercraft noticed me and started firing his Gatling gun, which nearly missed my hovercraft. I kept flying until fighter jets appeared in the sky and forced me down. I had to do something. I was going to fake my death. As the hovercraft neared the ground it passed over the lake. I jumped out into the water and swam to the shore. The pilots thought I had died. But really I survived and found my way back to Canada and then to Mexico.

Epilogue

After Luis escaped, there was an epidemic that swiped across much of Canada killing many people. Life got harder for its citizens and the government seemed to collapse. Poverty rose and got worse in Canada. Basically Canada became a wasteland. Luis, gave up his criminal life and moved to Mexico, a flourishing nation. He began helping the community he lived in helping the kids stay off the streets. A few years later he died. As for Josh, he never gave up on bringing revenge to Luis. But he never succeeded.