It is dark, pitch dark. I can only hear the breathing , heart beat, and the muttering of what I could make out to be wishes. We can't move a muscle. Why may you ask well I will tell you. We hear a gun shot and foot steps on top of us. Who is this I will tell you that too.

Hi my name is Carter Smith , I am 23 years old with black fluffy hair and blue eyes. I live in Wisconsin with the worst owner a slave could have. His name was Mr. John and his hobbies included hurting his slave's , drinking, and smoking. It seemed that even if you blinked the wrong way, he would find a way to hurt you. I finally was tired of the things he did to me and my friends, so I met up with a man who said he could get me out of here. I automatically took his offer. I couldn't sleep at night because of the thought of getting a job and making my own decisions. Finally came the night to get out of this pigsty and go live in a place that I could be free. I woke up at 12:00AM and got my friend Peter and the others who were coming with me and met the man named Abacus Handcock. The place we met at was a big hole that my owner made me dig for a punishment, which has not been used for anything until now. The moment that I was looking at the hole, I paused to think about how the punishment of digging did not fit the crime of not finishing one more batch of pea's. Just thinking of the heavy shovel made my muscles hurt and the stinging on my back because of the whip he was used on me. I have scares that will always haunt me about that moment

We started our walk and I looked back at the worst place a man could live and spit on the statue of Mr. John because that is all he meant to me. I am glad that I am traveling with Peter, he has been my best friend since they took me from my family and brought me to Mr. John. Peter is a tall man with shaggy brown hair and dark black eye's. We both didn't know our parents but whenever I tried to think of them I felt a warm sensation inside and knew I could do anything. Abacus seemed to know his stuff of what he needs to do to make us safe, which reassured me that nothing would go wrong. As we were walking, I started to get board but luckily Peter decided to start a conversation. "Hey Carter, what are you going to do when you get to Canada?" "Well Peter I am going to start my own baking company just to get money, and then I am going to go to school to become a teacher. Enough about me, what about you?" "Since you asked I am going to be an athlete, one of the best of course!" "Keep dreaming Peter". I then decided to chat with Abacus. I asked him questions, but he seemed to be to up tight. I guess that is how you have to be in this type of job. But I did get an answer from him when I asked this question " why do you do this type of stuff?" He answered "I don't know. I mean why do we eat?" I responded with a confused look on my face " because we need it to live, right?" Abacus responded quickly with "exactingly, I do this so that people don't get hurt or worse die. I do it for the joy of seeing people being free." I backed away with what he said flying around my head like a bird trying to get out of a cage.

As we were walking, Abacus comes to a halt, and says'' Hide now!" I was to busy munching on a apple to hear Abacus. It wasn't until I heard the sound of horses coming down the road that Peter and I dove into the bushes to hide. Men in fancy clothes came down the rode with their fancy horse drawn carriages. They were looking both ways as if they were trying to find something. After the fancied dressed men passed us, we heard a whistle which made me jump out of my hiding place. Abacus signaled us to come out. We all came out and he pointed to Peter and me and said in a serious tone, "you two you could have got us caught if it weren't for luck. Also those men right there they were cops, which is a tale tail sign that there is no turning back. If we get caught, then it is lights out for us forever. Now lets keep moving, we need to get to the next safe house before nightfall". Peter and I looked at each other and nodded to acknowledge that we need to be much more aware of our surroundings.

We had to walk through woods that were dreary and not very pretty. They had trees that I swear were more than 10 feet tall and I could hear the sounds of animals that I could not identify. The air's cool breeze gave me chills up and down my spine. I was relieved to see that we finally found the safe house. For me it looked like a mansion, but what do I know. Where I used to live, was a shack with no roof and only had rocks to play with in my free time. There was no room in the shack, people were piled up on each other and you could not move. But in this house, I had space to move around, and I even got a blanket. I was given warm chicken noodle soup, instead of the cold scraps that my master used to gave me. Abacus told all of us it was lights out. I could hear his footsteps as he walked over to a different house. I laid down on my blanket and stared at the roof. I started thinking about Abacus leaving, and I couldn't handle it. So I jumped up from the floor and grabbed Peter by the shirt. Peter was sound asleep when I grabbed him, and he kept mumbling about a burrito, but quickly he realized we were sneaking out. We followed Abacus to his secret house with his pals. Peter and I snuck up to the house, which had a crack in the wood of the house for us to see what was happening. I could barely hear what was going on, but I could make out what Abacus and the others were saying. Abacus said "I understand what you are saying Jerry, but we have to get these people to a safe place even if in puts us in danger. We have to do it!" Jerry responded "I hear what you are saying, but what you are wanting us to do can get everyone killed." " Well that isn't your choice. We are going to the next safe house to pick up more people. I don't care that the next place is located in the most feared slave trading area" exclaimed Abacus. Peter and I looked at each other in shock. I couldn't believe what had just heard. We heard the door start to open, and we immediately ran back to the house where we were supposedly sleeping.

It was the next day. I woke up early and noticed that it was a foggy morning. Abacus banged on a pan to wake everyone up. We had to put out the fire to make sure that the police could not find our hiding place. At least that is what Abacus told us. To be honest, I don't really trust him after over hearing his conversation last night. We had to move out, so we started to walk. I had finally worked up enough courage while we were walking to confront Abacus about last night. I walked briskly up to him and said" Hey Mr. Abacus" but before I could say another word Abacus said "Call me Abacus, not Mr. Abacus". So I carried on with my conversation and said " I just wanted to ask you about what you were talking about last night in the abandoned house next to where we were sleeping." He looked at me with a worried face and said " How do you know about that? Any ways that is none of your business". "Yes it is! I have the right to know because I need to be prepared to know what I am going to deal with when we arrive at the other safe house" I said with a serious and worried look. He said " you are right Carter, but imagine what would happen if you tell everyone. I mean people will go crazy and we will get caught. So my advice to you is to keep your mouth shut and let this be our little secret ." I nodded in agreement and went back to Peter. I knew he could tell that I was worried, but he didn't say anything.

After awhile, I was used to Abacus telling us to hide when the cops went by and it appeared to happen more often. Along with being a hiding professional, I became immune to jumping when Abacus would blow the whistle. It wasn't until we passed the boarder for Minnesota that I got a weird feeling in my stomach because I knew that something bad could happen. The anticipation killed me until I saw the house full of slaves trying to escape. Abacus was the first one to go to the front door to make sure everyone was doing well. Once he found out everything was fine, he signaled us to come in. The inside if the house was crammed with people. I saw Abacus talking with a man who was the other underground rail road leader. Abacus looked worried. So I decide to walk over and ask him what was wrong. He looked at me with a pale face. That was the first time I saw Abacus appear scared. He mentioned to me that the police was following the other group. Abacus grabbed a bell and hit it furiously to get everyone's attention. He then yelled "Everyone we need to go to the basement as quick as possible." Everyone looked confused, but Peter and I. We knew what was happening, and it wasn't going to be good. We went to the basement and Abacus grabbed a hold of me, and whispered into my ear "Take this piece of paper, it will help you and the others if anything were to go wrong." I nodded in agreement and went down with the others. It was dark. Pitch dark. The other's and I could not move a muscle. I could only hear the breathing, heart beat, and muttering of what I can make out to be wishes. After minutes of waiting, I heard a knock on the door and then two gun shots. Suddenly bodies were hitting the floor. Then there were footsteps on the top of us and a man saying ''Hey come on over hear and look at this hatch." I automatically pushed my way through the others and found the door to escape. I then signaled the people to get out. I was the last person to escape through the back door before the police officers arrived. As they were coming in, I was going out the door!

Peter and I found each other by crashing into one another, and falling to the ground. We had to speak with our eyes and they said "we need to run!" We darted into the woods. I had to zigzag through the trees as the sounds of the police horses hooves got closer and closer to Peter and I. We decide to head to the trees. I found the right tree for Peter and I to climb. I let him go up first. He made it up quickly which was good, otherwise we were toast. Next it was my turn. I stumbled up the tree, and felt that the branches were like twigs beneath my feet, but I kept going despite my fear of heights. I kept telling myself, "this is what Abacus would have us do...push through!" Finally, I was safe and sound next to Peter.I saw the police man chasing down the other group, and I had a weird feeling in my stomach that made me do something that I would not do in a life time. But to be honest I thought I would never be in this situation. I found a bunch of rocks and threw them at the police officers. Knocking them out one by one. After all of the police officers were knocked out, I climbed out of the tree and tied them up. I made the same whistling noise that Abacus did, in hopes that my group would get the hint that everything was fine. While I stood there hoping to see signs of life, a little kid came running to me in tears saying that his mom was dead. As I stood there, I hugged the little boy, and started to notice more and more people coming out from different hiding spots. I needed to see how many people were alive before going back to the safe house. I was terrified to see who the gun shot had injured. We all walked back in a v-shape formation to protect each other, and our unity. At that moment I new that when Abacus gave the piece of paper to me, he was putting me in charge.

I walked in the safe house, which I realized that it wasn't a safe house any more. I saw with my own two eyes that Abacus was dead and so was the other leader. I had a hard time accepting Abacus's death, but I had to keep going. I had to be the one to get these people to Canada. I shut the door behind me, and looked at everyone and told them that Abacus and the other leader were dead. All that happened in next 5 minutes consisted of nothing but tears and crying. I felt it was my personal responsibility to care for them at this time. We went back to the woods to get the other people. I made the decision to have a funeral. One of the people, found a stone and craved in it " In loving memory of those who lost there lives. May you rest in peace." Many people left right as we set the stone down, but I had to stay and make the picture of the stone permanent in my memory, and then I left.

When I got back to the group, two men were arguing. " What do you expect us to do without our leaders? Because of what happened to the leaders do you expect people to volunteer?" said Fred a man who was in my original group. The other man replied with an angry tone" Yes, I do because I don't tend to die out here. I was told that I would be going to Canada, and I will get there no matter the circumstances." "Well let's see if there are any volunteers, shall we? "said Fred. No one raised there hand. I decide to open the paper that Abacus gave me. It was a map to Canada! So right away I shot my hand up and yelled " I volunteer!" The man said to Fred sarcastically "well then we are saved!" I responded with " why yes you are because I have a map of how to get to Canada." The man said " I don't believe it." " Well believe it!" I said with a grin.

I looked at the map and saw that it was a two and a half day walk. Then, I noticed something in the woods, it was smoke from a fire. A police officer got out of the ropes, and started a fire to signal other police officers. I quickly ran over, and had to knock him out, so that he could not interfere with our quest for freedom. He was out cold. I noticed that his fire had been burning for a while. So I decided that we needed to make it to Canada's boarder line in three days in order to not get caught by the police. I hurried back to the group and told them the news that we had to make it to Canada in three days.

We quickly packed our bags and gathered our things. I pulled out the map to figure out where the next safe house was located. The safe house was a good walk from where we are at right now. We starting walking at mid day, and it wasn't until several hours later that we arrived at the next safe house at around midnight . We rested there at night, and got up early the next day to start our walk again. We didn't even have enough time to eat breakfast. We had just started our walk, when we ran into a large river that was moving so fast that it appeared to be still, and had no bridge to cross. There may have been a bridge, but because of the rain from last night the water was covering the bridge. I looked at the map, and noticed the river was only a feet from the Canadian boarder. I look at my surroundings, and noticed that there was a large tree. I quickly got out my rope, which I had saved for a special occasion just like this. I climbed up one of the trees. I found a sturdy branch, and tied one side of the rope to it. I climbed down the tree, and then started helping each person cross the river holding onto the rope. I kept saying to myself "This is for Abacus." Everyone made it across, expect for Peter and me. Peter was getting ready to cross the river, and we heard the stomping of the policemen on horses. There were seven policeman on horses surrounding Peter and me. A policemen yelled out "stop what you are doing, or else we will shoot!" I looked at Peter, and mouthed the words "see you later pal", and pushed him over the river to the other side. After that I heard the cock of the guns. I still grabbed the rope with my right hand as hard as I could, as if I was grasping for freedom, and started to swing over the river. A loud bang went off, and I felt warm a sting in my shoulder. I hit the damp ground on the other side of the river on my knees and hands. I heard Peter scream "No, Carter!" He quickly came over to me, and told me everything was going to be fine. We heard more stomping horse feet, and this time it was the Canadian police. We then knew we were safe and had finally accomplished our quest for freedom!