The world around me was in chaos. Smoke and bullets joined in with the air about me. People screamed, and I ripped their voice from their very throats. The world was bathed in blood and destruction.

  And I was the ruler of it all.

  People fell like they were bags of rocks.

  Bullets whizzed through me without leaving a single mar on my powerful being. Unlike the petty humans below me. I let out a whistling laugh in the miraculous idea of what power I had. At my exhale of humor, many pulled protective gear over their faces. Through a window, I could see the girl I had seen so many times before. She cried as she always had in the dark room as she gazed out at all the destruction.

  ‘How weak she was...’

 ~

  “Holly!” Fierce whispering spat at me as I was shaken awake.

  I stared into piercing blue eyes and a face with sandy blond hair that still had traces of filth in it. A boy’s face loomed before me. It took me a moment to realize that it was a clean Harv. At some point, he found the time to wash up and shave. He didn’t look at all like he did last night.

  ‘He’s kinda pretty,’ I thought to myself and held in a chuckle. He doesn't look like he'd live a day in the storm outside. A strange juxtaposition considering how he had been living in it for years.

  His rough hand reached up and brushed some tears off my face. He tousled my hair like he had last night. “Nightmare?” I nodded and he patted my arm, helping me up. My stomach was still in pain and I coughed a little realizing that this time I spat up some blood. Harv noticed as well and looked at it with a blend of fury and concern. “Yup… Not changing my mind now. Get dressed.”

  I glanced down at my ragged jeans and torn shirt. I was covered in filth and realized how much cleaner he looked compared to me. I shrugged my shoulders, threw my beanie on, and announced, “Dressed,” before hopping up to a standing position from the floor. “What’s going on?...”

  Harv looked at me as if I should have known. “We’re leaving. Now. Before they wake up.”

  My jaw fell. “What?!” Harv brought a finger to his lips and pointed behind him. I hefted my shoulders in exasperation. “I can't just leave…”

  Harv straightened and watched me without expression. “Why not?”

  “I…” I stopped to ponder the reason myself. “This is my family…”

  Harv shook his head. “Family cares for one another… This is no family.”

  I never felt so conflicted. “Ivan… Ivan cares…”

  “He’s not even here. Besides… You said he was my age. He’ll be on his own soon. You won’t be… We have to go now.” His voice was urgent and it began to crack at the end.

  I stood in the room I grew up in. I drew in the memories of my home. Of this community. I never made friends, but Ivan did. And I had collected all these books from even the deepest treasure trove. Ed was born here. Was it worth getting away from to avoid all the abuse?

  I turned the idea around in my mind a little longer. “Let me say good-bye to Ivan and Little Ed… Then you have a deal…” My head hung on my shoulders.

  Harv clasped the upper part of my arm. “I didn’t want to make you upset… If you don’t want to go…”

  I sniveled, drawing back tears and wiping away at the ones on my cheeks. “I do… That’s what is so upsetting…”

  Harv reached a hand out to me to attempt to pat my back and paused with his hand suspended in midair. He pulled his arm back and nodded at me. His gaze shifted to the window over to the side. “Where’s this brother of yours?” He tilted his head to the glass panes, asking me to point him out among the few houses you could see in the vortex outside. I pointed my thumb behind me.

  “He’s with his friend, but you can’t see it from here. You’d have to be on the backside of the house.” He asked me how far the place was and took the lead out of the door. I strolled along a few feet behind. After a moment, Harv turned to me and placed a finger to his lips a few paces towards the stairs.

  “It’s lovely and all, but we can’t be caught, okay?” I hadn’t even realized that I was humming. I made a small mental note to watch myself and make sure that I kept quiet. I plodded after him down the stairs, but by the third step I jumped down he had motioned for me to get on his back. He carried me the rest of the way and whispered, “You wanted to say goodbye to the little one, right?” I leaned my head into his peripherals and nodded. I would have whispered, but I caught myself. I wasn’t the best at it. I made a second note that I’ll have to work on that, too.

  He got the message. “Where?” I tilted my head to the right over at the empty room where the only piece of furniture was a baby blue crib with a mobile of Safari animals dangling above it. The mobile reminded me of a children’s book I read. Something about a lion being dethroned by a monkey. Or was it the other way around? I shook my head lightly and decided to come back to reality. Harv was setting me down as soft as he could in front of the crib. I peered inside and stared down at the baby bundled in what seemed to be an excessive number of blankets. He gave a cough and fussed around a bit before settling down again. I hadn’t realized how much I loved my baby brother until now. What was that saying? You never know what you have until it’s gone?

  ‘Bye-bye, Ed-ster. Sure, you were a sniveling seven-month-old snot, but you would have grown up to be an amazing sniveling seven-year-old snot…’ Another note: Get better at goodbye.

  I decided to mentally crush that note. I would rather not be good at leaving. That means I’d have to practice.

  I placed my index onto his ball of pink flesh that would soon be considered a fist in given time. I then turned to Harv without so much as a sniff or a wipe at my eyes. Strangely, I seemed okay. As if I always knew that it would come to this. I shrugged and turned to face Harv as he asked if I was alright. He gave my beanie a shake on my head and tried to smile, hiding his pain and worry. It wasn’t scary like my mother’s. No, this was sort of comforting.

  “Let’s go see Ivan now.”

  Harv turned and made the gesture to ride on his back again. I thought about declining, but figured ‘Why not?’ He swiftly made it out of the house and we were standing on Jonathan’s doorstep in no time. He went to knock on what was left of the screen door after it stood against the bladed wind. I stopped his hand and shook my head. “Gimme a boost.”

  Harv tilted his head up to look at the window a few feet above us. He hooked his hands together and gave me an interested stare as he lifted me up. One that said, ‘You do this often, don’t you?’ Truth be told, I did. Many nights I would come out here and drag a box over to rap on the window. Jonathan was a good kid. He and Ivan would always include me in their PG-13 rated shenanigans. It was fun.

  This morning wouldn't be.

  Jonathan’s dark face popped up from the other side of the filthy glass. I could barely see him. He threw the window open and startled me, causing me to ‘meep’. I hated the noise, but it had become my signature yelp of astonishment and surprise no matter how hard I tried to shake it. He chuckled lightheartedly and cupped his hands onto my shoulders before I could fall. Harv swayed underneath me with the weight, and I was afraid he’d fall right off the porch. Jonathan took note of it, too.

  “Who’s dat?” he pointed at the man trying desperately to regain his balance. “Missy, is he givin’ ya trouble?” Jonathan spoke with a heavy drawl. Since I taught him about the old south, he found it amusing to pretend he was some sort of gentry. He flashed one of his award winning smiles.

  “He’s still holding me up, you know. Haul me in.”

  Jonathan blew a raspberry and pulled me in from under my shoulders. “It’s not like you’re heavy. A killerbuzz, maybe, but not heavy.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “First off, buzzkiller. Secondly, I want to see Ivan if you don’t mind.”

  Jonathan’s brow furrowed together and his smile ran away. “What’s going on?”

  I realized my mistake and put on a big smile and pretended to swoon. “That’s a lady’s business, sir. I would be just mortified if you knew.” I topped it off with a wink. It seemed to have worked because Jonathan just nodded.

  “Grounded again, is he?” His pearly whites came back into view. My smile became real at the way his eyes crinkled as he grinned. He turned his head and shouted into the hall, “Hey, Iv! Sis is here!” He looked back at me. “I’ll leave you to it.” He walked out of the room as my schoolyard idiot brother walked in.

  “Hey-” I hugged him before he could finish. He glanced down at me and smiled softly before hugging back. It was like he knew. No, he did know. “See you around, Hols.” He took my hat off and ruffled my hair. Then he let me go and watched as I hopped back out of the window. Out into the arid land of red dust.

  Harv caught me before I hit down on the porch. I protested that I would have been fine. I’ve done it plenty of times before, but he didn’t care. His face was twisted into one of skepticism. “That was quick.” He didn’t leave enough time for the silence to become evident. He just nodded. “Right. Now we oughtta git goin’ before we git trapped in a storm, Missy.” I realized that he must have heard Jonathan. I laughed, thanking him for lightening the mood. He stared off into the orange brown clouds that were thick enough to strangle you and were getting thicker. He motioned back to the way we came. “I stashed the bags by the pigs. Let’s go.” I had almost forgotten about the sacks full of syrupy peaches and other delights. I was glad we had them. Harv grabbed me by the wrist and hauled me along. His eyes staring dead ahead. He murmured to himself about shelter and protection. He had mentioned to me that he stashed my gun among all our other supplies and kept reiterating about the difficulty of the journey ahead.

  I followed behind him, humming.