We’ve all been told to report to our local underground bunkers where food and supplies wait for us. I held on tight to my small rag doll mama had made for me the previous year for my birthday. The sky was painted this crimson red. The scent of sulfur threatened to invade my nose past the cotton rag Mama had tied around the bottom half of my face. Houses across the neighborhood boarded up and you could still hear the constant hammering ringing down the streets. I made sure to wave goodbye to every house I could see.

I do pray that the sun comes out soon. I miss running through the fields our house used to be nearby. Laying down in a bed of flowers and just let the sun beat on my exposed skin. Mama would always scream at me when I’d come home beet-red and burnt. She tells me that it’ll be a short while before I can run around and be free again. One of the last things she grabbed from the house was a rosary and she’d been clutching that pretty hard ever since we got here. Papa hasn’t said a word. He’s just been walking around like a zombie. Head held low and eyes like a deer in headlights. We all walked in unison toward what would eventually become our new home. I hope I’d be able to make new friends there. I could show off my betty doll!

~

They’ve all left me here. I’ve lost count of the days that have passed. My skin had become pale and flaccid. My nails had grown jagged and long, with dirt-caked underneath. I fear to open my mouth lest another tooth comes tumbling out. The clothes I came in here with had become rags after everything that had happened. Sadly, I had to burn my doll in the fire. Mama said we’d freeze to death if I didn’t. Maybe that fate is better than the life I’d been stuck with.

God has left us, or at least that’s what Mama kept rambling on about. She finally let go of that rosary once she got tired of waiting for food, just like the others. One believes in the lord until they’ve been dragged through the very depths of hell itself.

Papa did eventually speak, but I couldn’t understand him between his exasperated screams and howls. I think he pleaded for me to help but I just ran as fast as my calloused feet could take me.

I found shelter inside some empty shipment container at the end of the camp. I thought I was safe in there but Mama found me one day. Her eyes were dark, not a shimmer of light left. I think she held some pieces of Papa.

I never go to see the sun again.

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