It was a cold, dark day, unusual in this season. The streets were nearly bare and a hush had spread among the few people who had ventured out. Her world, it seemed, was falling. The Elders were in disagreement and the tension had been rising for decades. How could their perfect world become like this. Many had already fled for calmer ground, fearing the worst was coming. Her family refused to budge. They put all their faith in the Elders that things would fix themselves. She knew her family was wrong, blinded so deeply by the carefully chosen words of the Preachers. But there was no talking sense into them and she could not travel alone or without parental permission.
She moved cautiously down the road, counting the stones beneath her feet. Moving quickly might cause suspicion, not that she was doing something wrong, but They considered everything to be suspicious these days. A soft breeze had begun to creep in from the north. Her black hair brushed gently on her cheeks, the cloth of her dress carefully conforming to her body against the wind.
She turned left onto the crossing road, the market clear in view. Most of the stands were shut for the day (probably indefinitely); some were even completely taken down. The stand she was headed for appeared to be open still. Good, one less thing for her family to blame the world for. A few people stepped softly from stand to stand, apparently just as scared of suspicious eyes as she was.
Moving swiftly she made her way to the front of the stand and handed the owner a slip of paper. He nodded and starting grabbing the requested items. While he gathered up the food, she pulled the cloth sack she had slung over her shoulder down so he could fill it. When he had finished she reached into a hidden pocket in the folds of her dress to pull out a money bag. No words were spoken as she exchanged the money for her groceries. There were no needs for words anyways, it was the same list and same amount as always, her mother had a knack for calculating things to the exact. How then was her mother obviously miscalculating the situation at hand? Questions, so many questions, but no time for them right now. Quietly she picked up the sack and turned to head back home. A couple more people had arrived for their shopping, making in total a measly 9 in the market today.
As she rounded the corner she had thought for a split second she heard a bird chirp. Ridiculous, all the animals in town had fled weeks ago. Instinct was enough to tell them it was time to go. Never had the world around her seemed so quiet, in fact if it were not for the soft tapping her feet made on the rock beneath her she would have thought she had gone deaf. Was that a raindrop? Lifting her left index finger to her nose, she felt the tiny droplet of water. Better hurry, mother would explode if she tracked in water or heaven forbid mud.
Just another 100 steps and she would be home. She knew the exact amount of steps it took to get anywhere in town, from her home to the market was 215 steps. She had counted it all so many times it was an obsession. The again she had always enjoyed counting things. Thirty more steps. She could see her front door. Was that a horn in the distance? Twenty-five more steps. She could see her mother in the window. Twenty more steps. The world went black.