Thinking outside the box by Becca (rooftoppers TXT) 📕

ran over to Nesa. "Mommy!" she cried. "Nesa, shes in her dreamland now, she wont come back, come on!" I yelled over everyone els. I started pulling her twords the window. "But my mommy!" she kept crying. "you'll see her again, dont worry" I said pushing her twords the window. "Jump" I said pushing her closer. Nesa looked once more at her dead mother, then jumpped, I fallowed behind her. I hit the ground with a loud thud, but the screaming in the train was louder. Rick was by Nesa who was still crying. "Its okay, your mother is okay, shes in dreamland, and thats where were going" he whispered to her. Nesa looked up at Rick. "You sure?" she sniffled. "Yes" he said absoultly. My mouth was hanging open. Nesa was the first person who had ever talked to Rick that wasnt me. she could see him!
I scrambled up and wobbled over to Rick and Nesa. "You cansee him? You really can Nesa?" I asked in disbelief. "Ye-yes" Nesa stammered. "Why wouldn't I?" she looked to Rick then back to me. "'Cuz everyone else said he wasn't real, and that they couldn't see him" I tryed to explain. "Oh....now what do we do? Th-the tr-train was on fire.... my m-mother is...", Nesa didn't finish her sentence. "We find dreamland of course, anyone can find it, we just have to look" I said holding my hands out for Nesa and Rick to get up. They both took my hands. "Where do we go now?" Rick asked. I closed my eyes and thought, going through my map in my head. Listinging to my gut I pointed twords the forest. "That way"
Goog thing i still had my bookbag with me, because I was getting hungrey. Weve been walking for a while it seemed like. I was still leading, with Nesa and Rick close behind me. The sky was getting dark, and it was getting cold. I stopped and turned to Nesa and Rick. "Lets stop here, Im hungrey" I said plopping down on the ground. Nesa instantly sat with me, Rick kept standing. "Im not hungrey, you two can eat" he said. I shrugged and gave Nesa come crackers. I took out some for myself and some peanutbutter. "Put the peanutbutter on the crackers" I said, taking the top of it and dipping my cracker in it. Nesa did the same. Her eyes lit up, "Its yummy" she said, eating another.
When we were done, we drank some oranger juice and layed back, looking at the stars. "Wont animals come eat us?" Nesa asked nervuisly. "No, they wanna come with us to dreamland too, and Im the only one who knows where it is" I said mater-of-factly. "What does it look like?" Nesa asked. "Well, its a big bright forest, and a big tree fort in one of the trees. And a nice family , that's ganna be our family. The house is big. The sun shines bright, everyday. Flowers grow every season. And a new sister is there too" I said, closing my eyes. No one said anything, and we fell asleep.
Just like I said, no animals came to eat us. I woke up first. I looked around and rembered, I ran away, the train, Nesa. Free. I pulled myself to my feet and nudged Nesa. "wake up" I said pushing her again. Nesa blinked open her eyes, when they focaused her eyes went wide, and she jumpped up. Then she seemed to rember where she was and relaxed. "Its okay, rember?" I said quitly hugging her. Then I got up to wake Rick up, but her must have gottenup when I was waking Nesa up. You could here the birds chirping loudly, and the sun was high in the sky. "Lets eat, then we can go" I said taking out the crackers. A twig snapped, and when I looked over to where it was, I saw a boy, maby 11, walk out, eyes darting over us nervisly.
Journey

"Who are you?" I ask, looking at him coursily. He looks bad, his clothes are ripped, and hes all muddy.
"Dustin, what are you doing here?" He says, strighting up, seeing that we're smaller than him.
"We're going to find dreamland. Im Cherry, thats Nesa, and thats...Rick" I say gesturing to my firends, hesiting at Rick, not sure if Dustin can see him.
"Dream land? like... somewhere, better? Bright sun, trees, tree fort?" He asked. I widen my eyes in shock. He knew about it too? How....?
"I used to dream about somthing like that, then I kinda, moved on...." he said, voice trailling off.
"Same with me" I smile. He looks unsurly at us, then sits across from Nesa, who had small tears rolling down her face.
"Whats wrong?" he whsipers, touching her soulder. She sniffles then looks up at him.
"I-I miss m-my mommy" she says saddly. Dustins eyes are filled with sympothay, and he whipes away her tears.
"Thats okay. You'll see her again, where ever she is...." he says, smiling a little.
"Do you know what else is ganna be there? Bunnies" he whispers, as if it was the best thing in the world. Nesa's face lights up,
"Really?" she says, whipping the rest of her tears away. Dustin nodds. Nesa and Dustin keep talking about bunnies, and what else will be waiting for them. I turn to rick.
"Did I make the right choice?" I ask him. "Of course, if you didn't, you would have been beaten up more, Nesa would have died on the train, and Dusin would have never met us" he says seruisly.
"Oh" I say, looking down and thinking. I look up,
"Are you hungry?" I ask, directing my question at Dustin. He looks up suprised,
"Yeah, I haven't eaten for 3 days now.... But I stil got my water" he says, holding up a camo water botal.
"Okay" I say, sitting down, pulling out the crackers and peanutbutter.

I think Dustin tried it before, because he didn't ask any questions. I didn't want to run out of food quickly, so I only ate 3. After we were done, I stood up and pulled my back pack onto my shoulders. I held my hand out to Dustin, he took it and I helped him stand up. He was taller than me, but I still felt like a comander in am army, now hes second in comand. He smiled down at me, I smiled up at him. Nesa and Rick joined us. I looked at Dustin once more, he seemed like he wanted to say somthing, or like he was suspossed to do somthing.
"What do you got to do? We'll help" I said seruisly. He hesitated, looking at all of us.
"I promised my little sister I would come back for her if I ever found somone, who could take us to dreamland" he said. I thought about it slowly. We were going to rescue someone from ememy lines. I needed a plan.
"How far, where in the house, and how old is she?" I asked. He looked suprised I just jumpped into it. He answered me quickly,
"Not far, maby a days trip. Shes on the first floor in the house, her rooms near the back door, she has a window. Shes 4".

I wasn't that sure if it was a good idea to take someone so young, she was a baby, but if his mommy and daddy were bad, then we could take the risk. Good thing it was first floor, or we might have to go into the house. We would have to do it at night, so I think by tonight, she would be free.
"Lead on" I said, geasturing forward. He didn't hesitate, and we all fallowed closly behind him. There were some dead leaves on the ground, and they crunched beneith our feet. The wind was gently blowing, and I liked the nice breeze. The sun was climbing into the sky, it would be noon, it looked like in 4 hours about. I could hear birds chirping off in the distance. It was a very pretty day, almost as pretty as dreamland. We kept walking like this for a while, and I would occanitaly see squirrls or chimpmunks finding the nuts that were left from winter. Nesa was slowing down looking tired, so I called break. We all sat down, Nesa and Dustin in the shade of a small tree, Rick sitting near me, while Im sitting in the sun by a bush. "Anyone thirsty?" I asked. I didn't want to use the food just yet.

Nesa nodded, Dustin help up his waterbotal, and Rick shook his head no. I shrugged and drank some of my oranger juice, then gave it to Nesa. She drank it slowly, but only drinking a little, then gave it back. I stored it in my backpack and layed down on my back. I whistled a happy tune, thinking of the birds I heard eairler. I got carried away in my whistling so I dont know how long I was like that, but then I noticed no one was talking.
I opened my eyes and saw a grey kitten gazing down at me. I let out a ghasp of suprise, then slowly sat up. Oh, it was the cutest kitten, it had its ear tips white, so were its paws, and tail tip. So it was grey, with white points! I reached into my book bag and pulled out a cracker, the kitter slowly came twords me when I extended my hand to her. She nibbled on the cracker, then ate it all. I picked her up and put her in my lap. Nesa quickly came over to me.
"How did you do that?" she ghasped. I shrugged and petted the kitten.
"What can we name her?" she asked, petting her too.
"Zooy" I said, the name just popped out. It was good, becaus ewe didn't know if it was a boy or girl.
"Will she fallow?" she asked. I looked at the kitten a moment, then nodded.
"Lets go" I said, setting Zooy down and standing up. Dustin and Rick come over and petted Zooy, and she seemed to like the attion.
"Lead on" I said to Dustin. He looked once more at Zooy, then we moved off. I was right, Zooy fallowed right at my heals.

We walked all day, nothing but the birds and our ocacinal chatter. We only stopped once, and we all had a drink and I gave a cracker to Zooy. But when we finally arrived,