The Innocent of the War – Chapter 1 – Escape

I ran. That was all that I had left. The choice to run or the choice to die. Of course I couldn't die. I had suffered through too much to die now. I could feel the barren wasteland of the scorched earth peeling the skin off the balls of my feet. The pain lynched through my legs as I began to falter after what felt like hundreds of miles. I looked back at the town where I lived. Carterwoods. A place of dreams, my father used to say. Before the foreigners came to play. The southern foreigners with their petty little army games. It took only one trip to send me careering down a slight dip in the landscape. The rough sandy stones pierced my soft cheek and blood coated my face… I stopped completely. I had to now. I slept in the cool humid night of the summertime, breathing so heavy, my chest felt like it would shatter at the movement. My body felt limp.