Screaming, the sound of shots, the warm heat of blood and sweat mingling on my arms head and legs, the pain in my left arm from the small hands that clutched it. We ran tripping over everything and nothing at the same time, living a nightmare we never, ever wanted and definitely never dreamed would come true. Our only thoughts were those of survival, we ran getting slower and slower because of the wound in my leg and the fact that Lacey was only five. We rounded a bend in the alley way when the deafening boom sounded and burst of light came flashing toward us. I hugged Lacey to me as the burning pain engulfed me and I was left in darkness with the faint memory of the small cold body I held against me.
Darkness surrounded me I could feel nothing and I knew I was no longer in my body it was just my soul left. I was drifting away memory fading as I slowly fell deeper into the seemingly endless box of darkness. It aloud nothing to enter, there was no sound or light, no touch, thoughts were the only thing that filled the box other than the darkness that was drowning me as it took me deeper and deeper. Then there was a burst of sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, it filled the darkness with noise that tried to deafen me as it chased the darkness away. I slowly started lifting to the surface and as I rose, conversation became clearer and clearer. "she should be waking soon." said a gruff voice that held firm with authority but held a hidden gentleness if you listened. "If she wakes at all." a different voice spoke this time and it was light but tainted and sounded younger than the other. "don't say that, you can't say that, of course she'll wake up she has to," A very young voice jumbled over words, it was very familiar as if from a past memory. Then it hit me, Lacey the voice was hers, she was living and breathing, and well. "Whatever," The light tainted voice said and there was a slamming noise. I was almost at the surface and light was beginning to shine through as I began to wake. There was a gasp from beside me and I felt something like a hand tightening around mine distantly. "Look, her eyes are opening." Lacey whispered and there was shuffling from a distance that got closer and closer.
My vision was blinking in and out and when it finally cleared, my mind registered two faces peering down at me. The first face was that of an older man around forty or fifty it was the owner of the gruff voice, he had faded brown gray hair and sun browned skin, his eyes were faded blue and held the gentleness I had heard in his voice earlier. The second face was round and small, with brown ringlet's falling around to frame it, her eyes were the perfect shade of violet and stood out more than anything else, her skin was pale with a blush undertone and she had freckles sprinkled across her nose. I gathered my voice and spoke "Lacey," it came out as a whisper under my breath and I tried again. This time it came out stronger but still not strong enough to be more than a faint whisper. "Yes, I'm so glad your alright." She bent her little face over me and hugged me. I felt a bit of wetness on my cheek where hers was resting and spoke softly "Don't cry," I tried to lift an arm to comfort her but it wouldn't respond, I looked over at my arm completely still, laying on the plain sheets beside me. The older man looked at me realising what I was trying to do and spoke softly "you probably won't be able to move for another half an hour or so." I sighed and gave up on moving my arm. I looked back at Lacey her eyes looked like tear drenched pedals. "I'll be okay, you look tired you should go get some sleep." I said smiling, or rather trying to but not sure whether I was or not. "Yes, that's a good idea. Lacey we should give her some space so she can rest. We'll come back later to see how she is doing." The man said leading Lacey out of the room. Before he closed the door he pointed a hand at a chair and told me "There is a pair of clothes for you there, one you can move change. Then you can come and find us. Ask for Lacey or Doc okay." then he left the room.
I lay there for a long time before I was able to lift my head, I lifted it and looked around the room. It was a medium sized room and looked like a doctors office, it had a desk in one corner and the cot I lay on in the far back corner. Not far from the desk were two chairs,. One which had a pile of folded clothing that Doc had mentioned. Also in the room was a filing cabinet and a shelf with drawers. I could finally move my arms and everything else from the waist up and so I sat up on the cot. I still couldn't feel my legs, so I just stretched out my back and arms while I waited. The chair was close by so I leaned over and pulled on the t-shirt along with a black sweat shirt, my arms looked weird and felt as if they were someone else's as I pulled the sweat shirt over my head. Then I swung my still none moving legs over the edge of the bed using my hips, I grabbed sweat pants pulled them on along with a pair of socks and boots. I tried to move my legs again but could only mage to swing one leg a little bit before it fell back limp again. I was swing my one leg trying to get my other to move with it when the door opened. I looked toward the door, just as a guy a couple years older than me waked in the room. "Oh, your awake." He said it was the guy from earlier that had slammed the door shut behind him. "Uh, yeah." I replied trying to swing my right leg again. He came over and stood in front of me, "I've been taking care of Lacey, while you were…Uh…Out of commission." He said looking at me in the eyes finally. His were dark blue and thickly lashed, his black hair was shaggy and fell into his eyes in some places,, everything stood in good contrast to his faire skin. "Oh, well thanks." I told him and at that moment my leg decided to help me in my efforts to move it, my leg shot up in between his legs and my eyes widened.
I knelt on the ground beside him after jumping off the cot, "Are you all right?" I asked trying to see how bad I hurt him. "yep, I'll be fine in a couple of minutes." he replied looking up at me from where he was curled on the floor. After a couple minutes the sat up, "You want to go see where you and Lacey will be staying, now that your well? I was staying there so there is already two beds." he asked me know kneeling the same way I was. "Uh, sure." I told him wondering where exactly I was. He shot up quickly to his feet, fully recovered from being kicked. "Well, come on then," He said waiting, and that's when I realised my right leg had become unmoving again. "Um… I would but uh I can't move my leg again." I bit my lip feeling like an idiot for not being able to get myself up off the ground. "Oh," He sighed then swiftly swooped down and pulled me up by the waist. He threw my arm around his shoulders and got a better grip around my waist on the side that couldn't move all in the same motion as he pulled me up. I stood leaning on him for support while I got used to standing with one unmoving leg. Then we headed out the door and toward where I was suppose to be staying with Lacey.
We had been heading down the hall for a while when he turned down a corridor and took the last door. "I still haven't heard your name." I tell him then waited for his response, "Oh, it's Victor" the door opened and a rush of brighter light lit the room beyond. The door led to something that looked like a market place, there were stands every where. There were many each carrying something different, meat, bread, fruit, vegetables, produce, and even one that had clothing. There were four sets of doors, two of them were glass, the other two were normal. As we made our way to the third door I looked through at the different doors, the first on to the left led to a garden. The garden had many plants growing, including many different fruit trees, as well as vegetables of every sort. The door in front held a grass land and a barn, it had many animals as well as a pond of fish. The third door I was going to find out what was there, and the fourth we had just came through. We got closer to the door, I was admiring the little town that we lived in. I looked up and realised we were not outside, we were in an under ground cave.
We went through the door, the door entered into a long passage way full of doors. On each door was a piece of paper, they had names written on them. Finally we came to a purple door, on the top of the paper it said Lacey in Lacey's curly script, and below that was Victor's name. "Oh this was your official room." I said turning to him. "Uh.. Yea it was but I'll just move somewhere else." He told me. "No I can't just wake up and steal your room, you can stay on the extra bed and I'll share one with Lacey." I replied opening the door. "I.. Ummm I don't want to intrude." He whispered and I retorted "Technically I'm the one intruding, and were done with this talk your staying." The room was an alright size, it had one king bed and a single, a small dresser was in a corner along with a chair. I looked around and decided it was perfect, "I know you were probably used to sleeping in the king bed but do you mind sleeping in the single?" I asked and he replied "I was sleeping in the single I gave Lacey the king." "Oh," I was surprised it was awfully sweet of him to give a little girl like Lacey the king bed when he obviously needed it more. I took me a couple minutes to realise what the bump was under the covers on the bed, when I did I slowly pulled Victor along with me toward it. I lifted the covers a little to reveal a brown head full of ringlets, I smiled at the sweet sleeping face of my niece who seemed more like my daughter. Her eyes fluttered open "Momma," Her voice still heavy with sleep "No baby, its me" I whispered back. Her eyes burst open and she sat up flinging herself at me "Auntie Sam, your all better." she spoke no longer half asleep. "Yes," I said and I realised I could move my leg now and let go of Victor. I smiled and decided as long as Lacey was all right It would all be okay.