Chapter 3 The Beginning Part 2

Our Sanctuary

The Valley

Chapter 1: The Beginning Part 2

In the morning, I woke up early and had a shower, and went down for breakfast. I said goodbye to my mother and my two younger brothers, and I left for the airport with my dad. It was busy when we got there, my dad gave me some more money and told me to behave myself and have some fun. My dad told me, "that if it did not work out, they would help me to look at another college or university."

I grabbed my bag and ticket and headed off into the terminal to find my flight. It was the first time I was in an airport, and I did not know where I was going. I stopped by a security guard and showed him my ticket and asked where I was to go. He pointed towards the gate, telling me it was over there, and he said I was early; I could have a seat where the other people were sitting until they called my flight for boarding. I got there and kept checking my ticket to make sure I knew what the flight number was, so when they called it out, and I knew to get up and go to check-in.

Finally, they announced my flight number, I got up and looked to make sure of it, and I went up to the desk. The lady looked at my ticket and took my bag and pointed to where I was to go through and said to have a good flight. I walked fast as I headed into the back towards the gate. I showed the next lady my ticket, and I was escorted right onto the plane ahead of the others; I guess this was because my seat was in the first-class section. It was a nice plane, the first one I had been on, and as I sat and waited for the others to get on it, I got bored. I brought out my phone and put in my earplugs to play some music, but I was stopped and told not to use my phone until we were in the air; the stewardess handed me a magazine to read until we were ready to take off. I decided to try and get some sleep instead, but the stewardess woke me up as we pulled out to the terminal. They went through some safety things and where the exits were and some other stuff; I got bored and looked out the window to watch us take off.

The stewardess asked me, "would you like a drink and some breakfast."

I politely said no, I had already eaten at home; they then asked me if I wanted anything else; I did not know what else I could have, so I said no, thank you, I was fine. I was left alone until we were approaching our destination. They asked me to put my seat up and my seatbelt on; we were about to land. As we landed, the stewardesses informed us all to make sure we had all our belongings, and to get ready to exit the plane, the section I was in would be the first to leave the plane. As the plane finally stopped, I waited and watched the stewardess to motion for us to get up and leave. When she did, I got up and followed the people in front of me, keeping right with them as I did not know where to go. I was lucky, the people I was following moved very fast, but when we got to where our luggage was to come out, we had to wait a few minutes for it to come out. I stood a few feet behind them and watched them as they retrieved their luggage, and I was glad I stayed close; the people began to shove to get in front of the others to get their bags and leave. I saw my bag coming, and as I tried to reach for it, I got pushed to the side, and it went by me. I moved down the line and was able to grab it as there were fewer people here. I looked up, and I started to follow the line of people going to exit the terminal.

I had to show my papers and answer a couple of questions before I was allowed to leave, and as I got out, I saw some people holding up signs with names on them. I looked around and saw this guy holding up a sign with my name on it; beside him was a young woman, who I hoped was Janet. As I approached them, she put out her hand, introducing herself; it was Janet; she asked, "Are you, Alex?"

I said, "yes." She was very nice looking, and as I stared at her, she turned and said that this was Scott, he is the guy I would be staying with at the University. Janet said, "we had to wait around for one more person; his name was Greg; he was on the next flight, which was due in ten minutes."

We went to have a coffee, and while Janet went to the bathroom, Scott asked me, "what do you think about these survival shows that were on the television."

I told Scott, "I had seen a couple of them, but I thought they could do a lot better if they prepared ahead of time."

Scott said, "that is what he thought." We started to talk about these other shows that he liked; I knew we would get along. Janet came back and said that Greg's flight had landed, and he should be out shortly, but we had to wait a while for him; he was about the last person to come out, he was small, was dressed like a computer geek with glasses and a bow tie.

We were driven back to the building that we would stay in a while on the campus; Greg asked, "what are you here for?" When I told him about the computer programming course, he just looked at me. He then asked, "where are you from, and what do you do?"