It was another brisk winter morning in the town of Dunwoody Georgia, My name is Jacob McDaniel, my parents, and friends call me Jake, I was a 2 time sophomore, because I hated school, the idea of school always made me think that it was enslaving me into thinking a certain way, with me not wanting to conform to that way of thinking, I didn't do any work, I had tried to in the beginning when I was a freshman, but I soon realized what I was going to become, and stopped entirely, how I managed to become a sophomore in the first place is beyond me, but currently I was doing my best to live how I wanted, gaming, doing dumb stuff with my friends, like beating each other, and seeing who was the better fighter amongst ourselves, most of the time I would top that list, but very few times was I bested, it mostly came down to me being exhausted from multiple sparring matches, but you didn't come here to hear about that, you came to hear about a tale that would seem significant to a town that rarely had things happen.

As I walked out of my front door at around 7 o'clock like do every morning to go to school listening to my IPod, and walking the third of a mile to the same hell that I had been going to for three years, and would be leaving to seek my dream of going off to the army and fighting a fight that would look like a couple of brothers fighting for a piece of chocolate. I got to the school and proceeded to walk to my locker, no one bothered me, they usually didn't, I was tall, 6 feet, broad shouldered and lean, although I could gain a chunk of muscle to give me that extra edge in the intimidation department, I wore two double zip jacket as they were comfortable and I liked having a lot of pockets, grey cargo pants and black tennis shoes. Went to my first period and sat in my seat near the front of the class, still listening to my IPod, the school usually enforced a 'no headphone' rule, but it was nearing the end of the year so administration lightened up some, the security guards still enforced it, but that was about it, as I was sitting in class, the PA system came on, the normally cheerful women started to speak, frantically.

"Attention teachers and student, this is a level 3 lockdown, I say again, level 3 lockdown, this is not a drill, I repeat, not a drill-.".

The woman speaking was cut off by gunshots and then a guttural scream as the transmission was cut off, the teacher scared shitless tried to open the window and jump out, but to his misfortune couldn't, so he calmed himself down and got a folder out from his desk labeled 'lockdown procedures', and read them in his Boston accent as that's where he was from.

"All students should hide on the wall parallel to the doors as to maximize concealment, OK so students in the front of the class please move closest to the door." The teacher said in his thick Boston accent, I had done a couple of drills before, I was naturally a fighter so I did my best to fashion a weapon, quickly while I still had time, I grabbed a dull pencil, plunged it into the sharpener, when I was satisfied with the point I did my best to conceal myself against the opening of the door, it was at this moment that the threat became all too real.

Gunshots rang throughout the hall, I could hear footsteps outside of the room, I backed up slowly about three inches away, the door opened up slowly, I saw the barrel of an AK-47 , then it was like time stopped for a couple seconds, long enough for something in my brain to click on, like a set of directives in a computer being activated, I dropped the pencil and pushed the barrel to the edge of the door and grabbed the magazine of the gun and released it - no mag, no bullets - I thought, and then turned to face the attacker and gave him a heel kick to the stomach, pushing him back and into a kneeling position, I ran up to and on his knee that was sticking out and launched my knee into his chin, possibly breaking it, the attackers head snapped back long enough for me to deliver a swift jab to his now exposed throat, as my fist connected to flesh, I could feel his esophagus close in and she started to choke on himself, I left him there, on his knees, with him grasping at his throat, trying to breath, it was at this moment that I noticed the sheathed knife strapped to his chest, I unsheathed it and held it in my hands, feeling the weight of the object, I saw how slowly the life was draining from the man, I gripped the knife in my hands and brought it down hard onto the center of his chest, relieving him from his suffering, giving a fast death was the only way to deal with having to killing, after all of the light had drained from the man's eyes, I laid him down on his back "I hope you rest in peace." I said quietly, it was then I heard the sound of a door being kicked in and screaming, I searched the now dead corpse for a weapon of some sort, then I remembered the rifle that the man had, I looked behind and grabbed it and the magazine, inserted it into the gun and racked it, it have a satisfying clunk as the round was chambered into the breach "Good luck." I heard the teacher say, I looked back, the fear that was in his eyes was replaced with inspiration, "Thanks." I said and started to down the hallway.

I moved down the hallway slowly ,gun up, I moved toward the door, and I found the lock portion completely out of place, I stacked up against the door, and listened in through the doorway, I could hear the sounds of students being shuffled from one end of the class to the other then one of the man talking to a radio "Target is not here, what should we do with them." the man, paused then asked "Sir, they are childre-" he stopped then quickly responded "Affirmative." then I heard him rack his rifle, I quickly realized what would come next and made my move, I moved out of the cover of the doorway and brought up the rifle, found my target and pulled the trigger, the shot flew true into the base of the man's neck, the other two still caught up in the confusion started shooting, recognizing the danger of their actions I quickly, and mechanically, dispatched two rounds that rang true into the two men, impacting in different spots, one in the arm, piercing the limb and into the heart, killing him, and the other into the base of the skull, all three men were dead, I looked around at the students, it was then that I saw that two of them were laying on the hard tile floor of the room bled out and dead, the light from their eyes long gone, I was too slow to save them, I for all intents and purposes, killed these two students, they looked to be about 15 and 16 years old, I turned to the other students and looked at them, some of them looking at the newly deceased kids, tears in their eyes, those bad been their friends or loved ones, and now they were gone, caught up in something that was going to end up being way bigger than any of them in the room. I didn't hear any other shouting or heavy foot falls so I assumed the threat was eliminated, I walked over to the intercom switch and pulled it down to open the line to the office, the normally cheerful women from earlier that had done the announcement came on the line, her voice opened up with a fearful "Hello?"

"This is Jake McDaniel, assailants have been dealt with, four men, all dead." I said and flicked the switch to close the line, a minute later, the teacher came up to me and thanked me for my act of braveness and courage, she was an older lady, about mid 40s with black hair and blue eyes. After that, the principal arrived and he walked me outside, the police, paramedics and several news anchors were waiting outside, first the police came up to me, asking my name, date of birth and age, I gave them all quickly, and walked over to an ambulance where a medic gave me some bandages for my bloodied hands and some ice for the back of my head, I saw the principal walk away to the news anchors, to answer the flurry of questions, but then pointed over to me, 'Great' I thought, first I killed four people, now I'm gonna have to explain in the most simplistic way why." They all rushed over, like a flock of flamingos in a new habitat. In an instant camera flashes and microphones were shoved in my face, I was not prepared for this, media anchors were impatient, I looked at all of them and shouted "Please, all of you one at a time, thank you, my head hurts please stop taking pictures and yelling over each other."

The first of them started talking and asked, "Were you scared when you had to fight for your life."

"Well, Yes, of course I was, If i died, everyone else in the school would have as well, and I have friends that I didn't want to have that happen to." I said quickly, trying to make this quick. The second person posed his question.

"What would you say to other kids if their school gets attacked like this." he asked, I thought for a moment and said "Fight back, you never know what you might discover about yourself, and plus if it pays off, your a hero in your own right."

The next person posed his came up, and before he even asked his question, I knew that it was going to be a hard one to answer, I always saw the type of interviewer, and the way that they held themselves, and thought they could ask anything to people who did something or had something done to them, he pulled up his microphone and ask me.

"What was it like having to kill.",

A few seconds passed and I realized I was alone, the media anchors had passed on and all I saw were my group of friends standing on the curb about 15 feet in front of me, I got up and walked over to them, they embraced me with open arms- at least they understand - I thought.

"Nice work, sorry it had to be you though, it must have been hard having to make that decision." Robby - the boy that I had known for almost a decade - said as he gave me a firm handshake, he was a short boy, only about 4"10 but he could hold his own, the rest of them.

Brennon, a tall light skinned person, gave me a light tap on the shoulder, then Dillon, another tall white boy, a freshman, gave me a look of 'good job', then Kelton, a boy about my height who was smarter than Einstein it seemed. all of them were by far, the best friends that a man could have after something like this, I would always joke about something like this happening and me just taking the first guy down and mowing all of the rest down with a minigun or something stupid like that, but little did I know that this would be the lowest point in my life, I got out my IPod and put my headphones in, I needed to be alone for a minute to think about things. Music always helped me think, when I would listen to the lyrics, they would trigger things in my brain that would remind me of things, it was really handy sometimes, but other times it wasn't.

I was glad that I was recognized as a hero and not a murderer, most times today, if an act of self defense is tried wrong, the person defending himself gets pinned and the criminal goes free, that thought got me angry, and I didn't want to be angry, instead I turned the anger into strength and the strength into stamina and went home, if only I'd seen my mom in her car in the parking lot, she pulled up and I got in, we drove home in silence, it wasn't that far, but it felt like going from Georgia to California with bumper to bumper traffic, the whole way there. When we got home, I went straight to my room and went to sleep, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon when I went to sleep and didn't wake until about 5 o'clock, I got up and went to my desk, my computer was on, I don't remember turning it on, I got on and went to YouTube, and the first thing I see is my news story, it was labeled 'Hero in Dunwoody, Jake McDaniel' I clicked it, regrettably, watched it, the impression I got was - At least someone gets the point - I got up and went into the kitchen, my mom was there cooking dinner, fried pork chops, sadly I wasn't in the mood for pork chops, so I went back to my room and grabbed my wallet, I had a twenty, and figured I would just go out and get something - Moe's is open - I thought, and so I went, I walked out of my house to go, when I got there, I walked in "Welcome to Moe-." the guy at the counter cut himself and looked at me, then looked to the TV and saw my story on the news, I looked at the man and said.

"You don't have to be afraid of me, don't believe what the media tells you, it was all self defense." he calmed down and he took my order, I paid it as if I was just a regular guy and ate my dinner, moes had some great nachos, they really did, I didn't get anything extra on them just ground beef and queso, I got up and left the restaurant, It was about 8:30 and it was getting dark, I needed to hurry, I started walking, I would have to make the transition from city to almost forest, I was just coming up on a crosswalk when a black van pulled up next to me and suddenly, I was surprised to be pulled and in and restrained rather quickly with a burlap sack pulled over my face and tightened around the neck, I squirmed, trying to get free but couldn't, I accepted my fate - Only 2 hours after everything happened and already I had a bounty, wow - I thought, I decided to make the best of it, get comfortable and try to go to sleep, but a rough punch in the gut stopped me from doing so, it hurt but I didn't think I would be feeling it for long, as I would be dead.

Some time passed and we stopped, I was amazed I wasn't dead, I was lifted up out of my restraints, but my hands were tied behind my back still, I was lead out of the vehicle and pushed, then - to my relief - the bag was taken off of my head, the place where I was opened up into a vast corridor with artistic designs, four men stood behind my in red and white robes all of them about 2 inches shorter than me, I turned around and looked up, there were 5 people bearing a symbol of some kind, it looked like a capital A and a triangle had a baby and it put 2 tons of makeup on, the 5 people wore brown robes with hoods over them. The middle one started to speak.

"Jake McDaniel, you have shown acceptable reason to join our creed, should you accept, you will take the eagles path." his voice boomed throughout the sanctuary, I was shocked, didn't know what to do, I guess I had no other choice in the matter, would they kill me if I declined probably, but I didn't want to take that chance so I found my voice and said.

I looked around the place, it was made of stone, with ornate designs carved into the material, this truly was nothing like I have ever seen, I then looked back to the robed figures behind me, and in front of me.

"You all seem very well trained in whatever you do, but this is really all too much for me to take in right now, and way too damn soon to make a decision about, plus my mom is probably worried sick about me, if you would please, give me a couple days to think about this."

The figures started to whisper amongst themselves, after a couple seconds the middle one spoke, his voice, deep and booming in the septum "We will grant you a total of 96 hours to make your decision, I trust with your perceptiveness that you remembered your way here, even with a sack over your head." I gave a slight chuckle and nodded my head "Very well then." he said again, and I was hit in the back of the head again, knocking me out cold, I woke up with a splitting headache at the tree in front of my house, it was pitch black outside, but I could see clear enough, I noticed a plastic bag next to me with a note on it, it read "For the headache when you wake up" I pulled off the note and looked at the pills, they must have been Tylenol, I got up and walked to the garage door, my mom must have been asleep because there were no lights on, I crept up to the door and opened it slowly, it was known to be creaky and I didn't want to draw unwanted attention to myself, 'This has been the craziest Thursday I have ever had' I thought to myself as I stealthily made my way to my room, I opened my door to see my computer was still awake, with the video of my news story still displayed, I turned off the monitors, undressed and climbed into bed, the exhaustion of the day now having caught up to me, I let the soft material my fleece blanket take me off into sleep as it pulled me by it's hands.