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I walk alone, having left Lia up; the shoulder throbs despite the iventhe wound together More support ships cut across theblack smoke

I found Tiran where they shot hiround around him I couldn’t even hold him to my heart one last time His body was a ruin I could not bear I sicked up and fled, gathering just enough courage to return to our house to see if ed to hide

He did not I have no parents left

Now I look forfield

With every body I pass, I feel theof hope closing Knowing there’s only so many left So many steps more till my world falls apart But I hold on to the stubborn little voice in my head that says maybe she escaped I pray before I look at each new face, and feel sick as I breathe sighs of relief when it is soround

I’ the end of the last row She’s not here I don’t see the bright blue of her new shoes Fifteen bodies left Ten And then I slow Heels sinking into the beat of the flies fills my ears and I’m sed by horror

“No No”

A thin body lies on the ground Its throat has been hacked through to the spine Red hair encircles her head in a filthy halo It’s not her It can’t be her But her children lie beside her, their pieces twisted like broken toys And one of her shoes hangs loosely on her foot, covered in mud The other foot is bare Her lifeless eyes stare at the sky Eyes that saw my mother birth me That used to look down at ether under the covers, whispering of boys and the lives ould have Eyes that fell in love, that watched four children come from her flesh into the world,man with a hunk of metal in his hand

I feel the mud on my knees My hands

I claw at my sister’s body

Someone shrieks in the distance like they’re on fire And it’s long after the medics pullafter they stick a tranquilizer into my shoulder, that I realize the screams are my own

—

“You“You’re lucky to be alive Keep the wound clean I’ll put your information in the system so the medics at your next stop know to recheck it for infection” I stare through her, watching an iridescent beetle the size of a thumbnail settle on my exposed knee, several inches belohere the paper ment darkens to match my skin

“Next stop?” I ask, looking up at the medic She’s hard into her forties Sulfur eyes peer out from a mess of freckles A white-filtered medical mask covers the rest of her face Despite the sweat on her brow, she’s clean Froust her?

“They’re taking you and your nephew to a regional medical center,” she says “You’ll be safe there”