There was only smoke.

Gray, billowing smoke as far as my eyes could comprehend.

I closed my eyes. The sound of gunshots snapped at my ears. It continued to echo throughout the area, and after a few moments, dreadful silence took me in its embrace. It was cold, and since I didn't have my scarf, I couldn't help but shiver every now and then.

I cast a glance at my left leg.

"It hurts. . . "I muttered.

The pain didn't shot up like before. It had dissipated into a mere lingering sensation. My tattered dress was completely soaked in blood and I grimaced. 

All of a sudden, the smoke brushed over my face and a strong gale cleared a path for me. I shook my head as my mind tried to comprehend the new scenery.

My heart stopped for a moment.

The area was filled with rubble, where bodies were lying around, dead. A few of them even had missing limbs.

I felt nervous. No, it was something else. It couldn't be fear nor anger. However, the urge to cry welled up inside me.

I started to sob when an image of my parents popped up inside my head.

"Don't leave… me," I muttered absently. "Daddy… Mommy... Where did you go?"

I started to look around me with no goal in mind. 'What am I doing?' I thought at some point. So far, everything was blurry in my mind, and I couldn't really recall what happened before, and how I ended up in that street all alone.

After some time, my eyes caught sight of a dark-haired woman under large jagged rubble. 

I gasped.

She was the woman who always came to my house to give some sort of payment to Mommy and Daddy. She was kind to us, always visiting on weekends. Aside from her, everyone else seemed to look at my family in a strange manner. Most people looked at us in contempt, but she didn't. She was a very kind person.

And so, with a wrenched heart, I walked over to her slowly.

Her lower body was completely crushed under the rubble and I found myself having difficulty to breathe.

It was like invisible clumps had formed in my throat, threatening to suffocate me. My hands clutched onto my neck desperately trying to claw away at that foreign sensation.

"There's someone there!"

An angry shout shocked me. I turned around, and a few men in black military uniforms were pointing their weapons in my direction.

"Don't move! Put your hands in the air!" yelled one of them.

At that moment, I couldn't restrain my emotions anymore. I started to cry on the spot. I cried and cried as those people approached me.

"I said, put your hands in the air," he repeated.

Despite what the man said, I helplessly cried.

I didn't know what to do. My mind was unable to think back then. I cried without having any control over it. 

"Hey, should we? She's just a kid. I could say she's the same age as my daughter," said the man on my left to the one in the middle.

"Orders are orders, Derrick. Wipe out everyone in the area. If anyone surrenders, especially the civilians, we take them to our base," the one in the middle replied.

"Well then, we should take her with us. I don't think she understands what you said to her, I think. I mean she is still a kid. I feel bad." The man called Derrick looked at me with a frown, adjusting the aim of his rifle.

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"She can't hurt us," he continued.

"If she does not resist, I don't mind. You take care of her?" said the man in the middle.

As for the one on my right, he had an angry look on me. He nudged my shoulder gently with his rifle and said some words under his breath before casting a glance at his teammates.

"She can't stop crying. It's getting annoying. We kill her here right now and move on to the next checkpoint." The cold end of his rifle stayed on my head.

"Wait, Sam! I'll take her." Derrick lowered his rifle and crouched to meet me at the same eye level.

"It's okay. I'm here for you. Just . . . Let it all out. Here." He proceeded to offer me a hug and somehow, I threw myself at him.

I let my tears fell as my cry echoed throughout the area. He patted me in the back as my cry subsided.

"What's wrong? You can tell me. It's gonna be alright," he said

Slowly, I rubbed my eyes and looked at him. "M-Mommy . . . Daddy."

He smiled. "Ah . . . you got separated from them?"

I nodded.

"I'll take you to where they are," he said.

"R-Really?"

"Of course! It's gonna be alright." His gloved fingers pulled the few strands of my dark hair away from my face. "You have the three of us. There's nothing for you to worry about."

He cast a quick glance at Sam.

"Man, what a daddy you are. Can you hug me too? Pretty please?" said Sam with a soft voice.

"You don't have a heart," Derrick retorted.

He looked at my left leg and winced. "We better get her to the base quick. Her leg looks awful. Damn."

The man in the middle who seemed to lead them waved a gesture. With that, they walked back to where they came from, with me in tow.

I held my tears in as they brought me with them. There was nothing I could do or wanted to do. Perhaps it was for the better. After all, he promised that he would take me to Mommy and Daddy. I didn't know why, but that man called Derrick had a soothing aura about him, so I felt a little less scared than before.

He patted my head a few times as my small hands brought myself closer to him.

"Mommy... Daddy."

"You will meet them soon enough. Don't worry," assured Derrick.

The leader of his group said something absently about having to cancel the meeting with their other friends at a checkpoint to both Derrick and Sam. Instead, they had to take me with them to the base.

"I want some hot coffee when we get back," Sam said to himself.

As he said that, he glared at me.

I tried not to look at him after that.

"Hey, don't look at her like that," remarked Derrick. "She's scared you know."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. Papa Derrick is mad at me."

Then, they seemed to get caught in a conversation that I wouldn't want to know. Adult talks were hard to understand. So, I had my eyes subtly looking at my surroundings as the four of us walked. I rubbed my wet cheeks with my sleeves.

I noticed that around us, there were no people.

It was quiet.

Crumbled buildings were everywhere within my sight.

'I wonder what happened to everyone else,' I thought.

We arrived at the base they were talking about not long after, but it was so massive my jaw dropped.

The buildings had a cube-like design with smaller rooms that resembled boxes branched out neatly alongside. There were a lot of soldiers walking here and there. I shuddered for some reason but Derrick assured me again that everything was gonna be alright.

Immediately, his team introduced themselves to the people stationed outside, and we were rushed in hastily by a group of soldiers.

'How come they build something like this near the town without anyone knowing?' I thought.

My heart pounded so hard that my focus was hazy on everything around me. In the blink of an eye, we arrived at what supposed to be their boss's room according to Derrick. I had a little knowledge about soldiers in general but they all made subtle nods and gestures with their hands to their boss, which I interpreted as giving respect to them.

I knew it a bit because I read a lot of books that I could get my hands on in the past.

"General," the team's leader, Campbell called with a serious tone.

"We found this child alone on our way to the checkpoint. She said she was ten. After some consideration, we figured it was imperative to bring her here. She is in need of a medical checkup, Sir." He pointed at me and gestured to come to stand in front of him.

The stern face of the general was scary enough for my body to shiver on its own. 

I was afraid. There was no one I knew in that room. They all stared at me blankly and I tried to avoid eye contact with them. My breath became heavier as the silence went on.

The general looked at me up and down before settling on my legs. "She seems to have been treated, Sergeant."

"We cleaned her wounds and covered her leg in bandages on our way here, Sir," Campbell stated.

"I see. Further inspection and treatment of her wound are necessary given how bad her leg is. I'm surprised she can even move it. Does she not feel any pain, at all?" 

"It appears to be that way, Sir. Perhaps the sensory receptors around that left leg of hers do not function anymore," Campbell said.

"I see." The general heaved a sigh. "Robert."

A few gunshots were heard and I fell down hard onto the floor. My vision went blurry in an instant. I heard voices, though all I heard was mumbles, traces of words.

"She--could---a spy--as--taken--necessary--danger."

At that moment, I realized. If my parents were dead, then I didn't wish to be alone there. I wanted to be with them.

'They must be dead', I thought.

My head was wet, and a strong stench of copper filled my nose. I felt sleepy somehow, so I had to close my eyes.

'This nightmare... I have to wake up from it'