Chapter 1

( Fifteen years ago......)

Jessica's Pov

The day had ended like every other day. I got into the school bus which always took me home from school . Nora had given me some chips which she couldn't finish during the break time. She was my best friend in school and the daughter of a senior international secret security service officer in the Philippines.

She sat next to me and told me stories , on how her father was about traveling to the Italy next weekend .He wanted to be transferred there . If his trip turns out well, then she and her brother were going to relocate to meet her mother , but if it didn't ,then they would have to remain here in the Philippines. Her father and mother were both Italians and her mother refused joining them when her father was brought here.

I only hoped that her Dad wasn't going to be transferred, because it meant we were not going to see each other again. She had told me that her mother based in italy and her Dad needed to do the same ,so that their family will have to stay together.

We had only moved about ten minutes drive from the school,when three SUV's popped out the road and kept chasing our bus. Our form teacher had told us all to hang on and hold unto something due to the constant dribbling the bus driver made while dulging the gun shots released on our bus.

The road was very lonely and we all got scared . I held tight to the seat before me with my head faced downwards . Nora held my hands and I could tell that she was very scared. She asked what we should do and I told her to do as our form teacher had said, which was for us all to face our heads down.

We all screamed when the back glass of the bus was broken by a flying bullet. Fear stroke my heart immediately. I was young and had never seen anything like this in my life. I cried out to my mama and wished she could come and save me from the impending danger I was facing.

I was shocked to my marrow when the flying bullets began hitting fellow kids in the bus. I screamed at the site of blood that gushed out of their mouths ,nose ....

My form teacher kept ordering the bus driver to stop. The loud screams from kids in the bus, the continuous swinging of the bus from side to side as the driver tried dulging the bullets and trying hard for them to loose site of us , made me scared. The continuous flying bullets only made some kids get up from their seats. They tried running forward so they wouldn't get hurt, but as they ran ,they only ended up getting shot.

I remained on my seat with my head still fixed down, I understood that getting up would only lead to my getting shot,so I stayed calm. Nora was scared, she held me my hand tight and I could feel the sweat that soaked my hands from hers. She was shaking and I felt for her. My form teacher kept telling the driver to stop the car .

She knew that if he kept moving, they wouldn't stop until they had gotten everyone killed. She told him that there wasn't any point for him to keep moving , because we had lost lots of kids. It would be better that the lives of the remaining kids were saved.

The driver seemed very adamant, he told her that he wasn't ready to risk his life by stopping and that he also had kids at home who wouldn't want to loose him. My form teacher took out her phone and dialed a certain number, I could hear her ask for help ,stating our location to the person she called.

Nora's hand became very loose in mine, it was like she tried releasing her hands from mine . I turned to know what the matter was and got the shock of my life. She had been shot by the stray bullet. Hot tears dripped down my eyes as she fell on me. She tried saying something, but blood kept gushing from her mouth. I cried when I saw tears rolling from the side of her eyes. In few seconds she was gone.

I shouted at the driver to stop ,while standing up. My form teacher ordered me to go down , but I refused. I had no idea what happened ,but all I could recall was that the bus was filled with tear gas. I quickly used my handkerchief in masking my nose. The driver couldn't see his willscreen anymore, he got off the road and the bus crashed on a tree. I hit my head on the iron that was attached to a seat.

In few minutes ,some masked men got in , one of them pulled the driver up and shot him. My form teacher was beaten and dragged out of the bus. I and the remaining kids were marched out as well and taken into a lorry which had just arrived.

As I was dragged down , I couldn't stop looking at Nora, she lied helplessly dead in a pool of her blood.

What would her parents say or do now ?

I thought about my mother, she was going to be very worried about me . I had no idea where these men were taking us to and I was very scared because they looked very brutal.

The lorry took off after we were all loaded into it. Inside was dark and there were no windows. I had no idea where we were and only looked at the kids which were there too and how helpless they were. We were about fifteen kids who weren't dead but we all had bruises.

We were camped at a factory that evening and got a change of clothing into some damn old looking wears. They gathered us at night and conveyed us into another lorry to a shipping port. I had looked for my form teacher, but she wasn't anywhere around.

What broke my heart was the thought of my mother,she would have no idea where I was. The only evidence she would have was the school bus and the kids that were already dead in it.