“Lock him up,” said the man. He walked away, disappearing into a dark corner of the room. Hugo was picked up and taken through a doorway and down a lit hall. It seemed somewhat like a hospital with relatively clean tiles and working lights, though It smelled like chemicals and rotting flesh. Hugo was taken into one of the rooms in this hall. The door had a small window that was covered with paper on the outside, so Hugo couldn't look out.

The room itself was empty and dark, without a window to the outside. Too weak to walk, the man carrying Hugo stood him to his feet and pushed him inside, closing the door behind him. Hugo sat and laid against the wall, hoping to fall asleep.

Carmen and the six toddlers walked from the alleyway into open farmland south of Tulare. The moon shined down, illuminating the area. Carmen used a wooden stake to off the few wanders they came across.

“How much longer?” said one young boy. The toddlers wobbled as they walked behind Carmen. Their legs burned from exhaustion.

“I don't know,” Carmen said with a sigh. Her eyelids were heavy, but she resisted.

Another toddler tugged on her shirt, “I’m hungry,” she said.

Carmen looked down at the kid, “I don't have anything to give you.” From the corner of her eye she saw Lila falling behind. “Lila, keep up please.”

Lila’s head was down, as she lazily kicked rock across the dirt as she walked. Her shoulder brushed against a dead bush that was held up by a wooden stake when she realized Carmen had spoken to her. “Okay,” she said, enthusiastically. She sped up slightly, still with her head down.

Carmen noticed the toddlers wobbling, all with their heads down. One yawned, then another, then another. Looking around, Carmen spotted a lone group of buildings in the middle of some farmland. “Hey, look, maybe we can stay there for the night.”

The kids looked up to see the buildings and continued walking, but now at a slightly faster pace. Creeping up to the place, it seemed to be a small ranch with one house, a couple storage units and a couple cars.

Carmen led the kids behind a storage unit. “Stay here, I’ll be back,” she whispered.

“Where are you going?” said one kid.

“To make sure no one else is here,” Carmen answered. She took her stake and walked to the house. It looked desolate, unmoved. Feeling her way around, one of the windows was open, but had metal bars and a fly mesh on it, yet a breeze flowed in and out. She peaked in, seeing an occupied bed. Whoever it was, they were asleep and from what Carmen could tell, this window was opposite the front door.

She ducked under the window and pondered what to do.

SNAP went the sound of a metal trap.

“AHH!” screamed one of the kids from across the property. Carmen shot up to her feet and glanced back into the room. The person in the bed had disappeared. She ran back to the kids, ready with the stake in hand. Some were still behind the storage unit but Lila and one of the boys were by a small fenced area. The boy was on the ground at the gate of the fence, holding his leg and screaming for his life. Lila was pulling him up by the shoulders.

“What happened? What’s going on?” said Carmen as she ran up to the two.

“Help me,” the boy cried. A bear trap was locked around his ankle.

Carmen felt a shiver travel over her body as she looked at the wound. The amount of space between the jaws of the trap was too narrow for the foot to have received just a bruise. She put her hands on the trap, trying to pry it open but the movements made the boy cry harder.

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SLAM went the front door of the house. Carmen let go of the trap and picked up the boy. The trap had a chain that rattled as the boy was lifted. Unsure if the chain was nailed down to something, she started towards the other kids. The chain tightened and the boy was pulled from Carmen’s arms. He fell to the ground, sobbing in pain.

Carmen looked between the kids, the boy and the house. They fearfully watched her lose her stance. Her eyes glistened in the moonlight as the tears started to flow, and her breath started to pick up. The air was still.

Rapid footsteps could be heard coming from the house. A dark silhouette ran past Carmen and to the boy. With a crowbar they pried the trap open and sent a jaw flying into the air. The boy’s cries dimmed slightly. The silhouette turned to the boy and picked him up. They stood there for a second with their back to Carmen.

She noticed he was fully dressed in casual attire. A white polo with blue jeans. He wore a cooking pot for a hat. He was middle-aged with a beer belly.

He grumbled to himself, then turned his head to peek at Carmen from the corner of his eye.

“Webi Wabo,” he said. He began to walk back to his house.

Carmen stared blankly for a moment, until Lila pulled on her shirt. “Hello?”

“Sorry Lila,” Carmen said. She sniffled and whipped the tears from her eyes. “Kids come on.” She gestures them over to her. Together, they followed the man to the front of his house, where he left the door wide open. After he entered, Carmen and the kids stopped just before the door.

“H-hello?” Carmen said.

The man poked his head from around a corner and nodded for the group to enter.

“Sir, can you say something?” Carmen asked.

The man continued further into his home. Carmen, without much choice, enters with the kids. The house seemed like a normal family home. Like an old person had lived here. There were pictures on the wall of a family. None of the people in them looked like the man. Instead, it was a family of five. It was hard to make out what they looked like in the dark, as there were no lights on, but there seemed to be one old lady, one adult woman, one adult man and two ambiguous kids.

The living room was clean, still keeping with the theme that an old person lived there. The couch seemed comfy, so Carmen pointed the kids to sit on it while she investigated. The kids sat and rested their eyes, but Lila stared blankly at the ceiling as she rested her head on the backrest.

Carmen spoke up, “Sir, can you-”

“Ah!” yelled the kid from another room.

Carmen sped towards the sound, finding herself in a kitchen. The boy was on the table and the man was wrapping the wounded leg.

“Thank you,” Carmen said.

The man didn't reply. When he stopped there was no sound coming from the kid. Carmen looked closer and heard him breathe. Realizing the boy had been knocked out, she turned to the man.

“Can you talk?” Carmen nervously asked the man.

He sighed and walked to a countertop beside the sink. There, a notebook, pencil and unlit candle rested. The man opened a cupboard and took a matchbox from it. He lit the candle and began to write.

Carmen waited patiently for him to finish. The light from the candle dimly illuminated the room. She saw the boy’s leg was bloody, and his ankle seemed broken.

The man finished writing. He turned the book to Carmen revealing the words sloppily written: “He won't make it. Sorry about the trap. It's meant for chewers.”

Carmen frowned, looking over at the boy.

The man flipped to the first page of the notebook and showed it to Carmen. “My name is David Flaming.” After a second, he began to write on a new page. “You can stay for night. There is a spare room.”

“Thank you,” Carmen said.

The man nodded in response and Carmen walked back to the kids.

“We’re staying here for the night,” she said, not noticing every kid was asleep except for Lila.

“What’s gonna happen?” Lila asked, still staring at the ceiling.

“Don't worry. Just sleep… Do you want to see the guest bedroom?” Carmen asked.

Lila slowly got up, wobbling as she walked. She followed Carmen through the hallway that was between the kitchen and the living room, and three doors were down it. The one on the left was David’s room. The two more on the right were a bathroom and finally the guest room. The guest room was well kept and the bed was very comfy. Carmen and Lila laid comfortably on separate sides. Lila fell asleep instantly.

Carmen stared at the ceiling. Through the open window, distant groans of one or two wanderers could be heard, way out in the fields.

She drifted to sleep at the sound of her silent sobs.