Orphaned Stars (original title Humanity)

Chapter 1

Drip

Drip

Drip

It fell from the jagged walls and echoed below.

Drip

Drip

It fell in drops upon her forehead.

Shahnaz gasped for air and it roared around the cave. Her honey brown eyes anxiously looked around her new surroundings. The serrated greyish walls only darkened the atmosphere.

Drip

Shahnaz stretched her neck, her back arched. The drops fell into her mouth. Water. How she longed for it. Her breathing continued to be deep but now with some control. With her hands she felt the ground, the hard grit scratching her palms and she knew she was lying on the edge.

"I should be dead," she whispered. The echoes talked back.

She rolled onto the side facing the wall and pulled herself up. The pounding in her head wouldn't stop and she felt the trickle of blood from her temple. There was a hundred meter of climbing if she were to see the open sky.

Shahnaz ripped her veil into four pieces and wrapped them around her hands and feet. The only way out was to climb up.

***

A barren land spread like lost hope around her, and she was stuck in the middle of it. Not a broken building, shop ruin or even bodies lay there. There was nothing, nothing except the howling of the wind in the distance and the hot sand gritting between her toes.

Wiping the sweat accumulating at her brows Shahnaz called out.

"Hello! Is anyone there?"

She pivoted, yelling in all directions, louder now in desperation. Jogging in one direction she tried again. Her attempt proved futile. She stood still for a moment trying to understand what had happened. And nothing made sense.

Tears began to sting her brown eyes and she continued to walk the other way. But the further she went down one way, nothing improved. The desert stretched on.

What could she do? Either stay in her current location and wither away or keep on walking. But walk where? A barren land, a deserted land welcomed her in every direction. She had lost hope of finding a living soul.

"Am I the only one in this forsaken land? Why didn't I die? Why am I here all alone? Is this my hell?"

Swarming questions filled her mind but she had to look for something that could only save her life - water. She had to focus on one thing right now and that was to stay alive.

Finally, after glancing around her new surroundings, she set off in a direction not knowing if it was North, South, East or West. The sun had moved ahead and her body ached like never before. Blood crept down her thigh and her throbbing belly ate her from the inside. Her heart raced with anxiety and uncertainty of what lay ahead.

The sun would set in two hours. Her tall and narrow shadow was her only companion and it continued on until a shadow emerged. Placing her pinkish burnt hands over her dry eyes she saw a rundown building.

***

She placed her hand on the crumbling cement wall and tried not to breathe in the stale air and it only stung the back of her throat. Wheezing, she opened her eyes and found familiar surroundings. A signboard bought her back to the past. Once it was a small military school and it stood proud, she would find her brother Yasir yearning to go inside.