Clair

Prologue

"Help me lift it up!"

I scream at the peak of my lungs then regretted it when all sorts of chemicals flooded into my lungs and caused great pain.

Her leg was trapped under an old provision girder that caved in after the explosion.

D'Arcy came running and begun lifting the beam off her leg.

I saw his muscles expand and his nerves come close to bursting. The girder was gradually being hoisted up and I took this opportunity to drag her body out.

Blood spurted everywhere and stained the carpeted floor of leeway. Her artery was punctured. The heavy smoke from the explosion suppressed the daylight from coming in and it was almost dark.

It felt so morose...

The only light I saw was that which I imagined. She screamed in agony as I continued to drag her body up. She was so young; she didn't deserve any of this. Nobody did.

D'Arcy dropped the beam again and collapsed on the floor taking deep breaths. He picked up his Remington rifle and checked the chamber before strapping it to his back

I couldn't tell where to go, but I let D'Arcy navigate me through the thick layer of smog that obscured the area around me.

The screaming stopped as she passed out, but I continued to follow D'Arcy down a flight of hoary rungs to a level that was yet to be destroyed by another improvised explosive device; IED's...

My arms were covered in her blood and her unconscious body was like a ragdoll in my arms. I increased my pace and followed D'Arcy through to a balcony and watched him leap over to another roof. I followed him faithfully.

The sunlight irradiated my murky hands and amplified the severity of her injury. I looked around in awe and watched the campsite burn. The foliage of the forest protracted over most of the edifice causing eerie shadows in places some would call home.

I jumped after D'Arcy and landed heavily and painfully in my boots whilst still holding her in my arms. I quickly checked her pulse and felt it violently oscillate. Not good.

We ran through endless smog areas often blinded and breathing in fissile waste of the shells that fell from the sky.

It felt harder to believe that heaven subsisted up there.

D'Arcy scampered towards the north-west side where a tunnel existed that was used to carry medical supplies.

Medical supplies... Good!

I kept my pace steady and tried to not fall into the concealed ditches caused by the explosion debris.

Infrequently, the sun rays gleamed through the tree awnings guiding me to safety.

I felt water flood into my brown boots through the holes created by wear and tear.

We almost reached the tunnel when out of the corner of my eye I saw another great explosion in the distance. The deep-rooted trees collapsed to the side violently causing miniature earthquakes around the area and a sound nature would only echo when in agony.

D'Arcy shoved me to the ground before the sound wave of the explosion hit me. It was so vulgar It felt like my head was going to nullify. Shrapnel from the village nearby imbedded into the ground around us as we kept running towards the tunnel.

She was losing her pulse and her face went pale.

The peculiar cave was dark, cold and lonely. Small slits in the walls illuminated the wet floors and D'Arcy spotted a place to prop the girl in my arms. I applied pressure to her open artery and managed to suppress the bleeding.