On a sparrow's wings

Chapter 1 - The panic that followed

  Anastasia had a pretty normal life, for the most part. She went to school, she had friends, she had a family,she had an annoying older brother. Everything was normal. She didn’t stick out, a regular kid in a regular world. She was happy with that, she was okay with having a normal happy life, or she was content at least. She spent her mornings at school. The afternoons with her friends, usually getting in a little too much trouble or not enough. The evenings with her family, having dinner and watching tv.

  She thought it would be an another boring, normal dinner with her family like it always was. Mom would ask her how the food was before she could even sit at the table. Her dad would make his bad jokes about the weather guy and he would proceed to hear the first minute of the news and talk over the rest of it. He was always talkative. He never ran out of things to talk about. Even though they usually revolved around different kinds of fish and cars. She would nod along in agreement when he spoke about them, no matter how little she understood. Her brother Ethan would throw his food at her and laugh, dad would tell him to stop, but then he would replace it with mocking her. Ethan had always annoyed her. He especially liked to embarrass her in front of her friends. Usually by throwing stuff in her hair or joking about her with his meathead friends who would laugh, adding their stupid comments.

  Usually after dinner they would watch a cartoon together. Ever since Ethan turned thirteen he would moan and complain about it but nevertheless he always lingered on to watch the movie in its entirety with them. She loved this part of her day. Not because of the movie, she didn’t much care about it, although there were a few ones that intrigued her. She loved that they were together, that they were happy to be together.

  But today it was different. The tv switched to an emergency broadcast, her dad and mom grew quiet as they watched carefully. The man on the tv said that there is an emergency, told people to stay calm and to get themselves to a fallout shelter in a calm tone. Anastasia didn’t pay it much mind, she never did pay it much time, unless there were cartoons on. But the sirens blared, hitting the windows, the walls and piercing into their ears. Her parents’ faces grew weary and scared. Dad yelled for everyone to get their things. At that moment he didn't look like himself, he looked older, the gray in his hair a shade paler and his eyes were holes in his skull. Ethan and Anastasia wanted to finish their dinner. But her mom yelled out that there isn’t any time. She grabbed them both and quickly rushed them upstairs. They collected their things as quick as they could. Anastasia took her favourite clothes, most of which were pink and sparkling,  and her diary. Ethan got some clothes and his slingshot. They quickly got in the car and headed towards the town centre.

  Along the way Anastasia looked out the window and saw these large beams of light hit the ground around the city, turning the ground to ash, almost in a triangular shape. They glowed with a discolored blue color, the air around them seemed to be getting sucked in. The clouds above were thicker than usual almost like rain clouds but not the usual dark grey color but they had this faint yellow flicker amongst them, almost like lightning was running along them, but it never exited them.

  They entered the inner city. The traffic spanned for so long that Anastasia couldn’t see where it ended. The sounds of honking and screaming were almost deafening, all the voices Anastasia heard were scared, screaming at other people in anger to hide it. Even the honking seemed desperate to her.  Soon her dad joined in with his honking and yelling, but like with everyone else it didn’t help. It added to the gathering chaos around them. People were frantically running around them, on top of cars, screaming filled the air, as men, women and children rushed to get closer, closer to what the broadcast said was safety. Her mom was screaming at her dad to get moving, he screamed back at her that he is trying. They realised that there was no point in driving so they left their car in the congestion, carrying as much of their baggage as they could. 

  They made their way through the crowds as they got thicker and thicker with each step they took, their luggage bouncing against their chests and backs, it tangled in their hands. Her dad almost pulled his hair out as he tried to get through, the unmoving wall of scared people. He was yelling over and over again that he has children but nobody reacted, they had children of their own and lives of their own to safe. The wall became to think and tall, no pushing, shoving or squeezing through could get them through it. Her dad frantically looked around, for any exit of this perilous situation, when he saw the fenced off alleyway. Her dad told them to follow him and broke through the door of the fence with a few kicks to the lock and went through it. As they got further in a man appeared he pulled out a gun yelled for them to stop and headed for them. Anastasia could see it in his eyes that he was as scared as they were, the only thing on his mind was survival, he didn’t see people he saw opportunities to live a little longer. His gun shook vigorously in his hands as he stumbled over to them, his legs barely managing to carry his weight. Her dad reacted before the man or anyone could do or say anything, he pulled out a gun. The thunder of bullets roared across the sky. They both reeled backwards. The man died on the spot a bullet in his heart as he twitched the little life that was in him out of his body. Anastasia froze in her spot staring at his corpse, her mouth gaping and her chin trembling. She had never seen anyone die before, it wasn’t something she wanted to see again. His bullet managed to find it’s way to her dad’s shoulder though, barely but it still clung to his shoulder. He reeled back in pain and groaned as the other man fell to the ground dead. Her mom asked if they should rest but he pressed forward saying that it’s not safe. He centered himself again, straight on his feet and pressed forward with all the strength that he had left.

  They came out onto the street once again. Her dad was heavily bleeding, the thick crimson liquid fell down his shoulder and onto the ground in tears. No crowd was present but a few people still lingered, running around them, they looked as desperate as the others, maybe even more so. He tried to press on but it became more and more difficult with each following step, until he shook with his soft steps. Eventually her mom had enough and forced him into a pharmacy to treat his wound.

  The owner yelled at them to get out but after hearing her mom’s pleas for help he relented and went to get supplies to treat her dad’s wound. Her dad sat down, leaned against the counter groaning in pain, his entire shoulder was a dark red. Her mom crouched next to him, holding his hand as Anastasia looked him over, worried. Her mom even more so, she clutched his hand so hard Anastasia thought she would break it. Her dad didn’t feel it though, the gunshot wound took all his attention. He waved Ethan and Anastasia over telling them to come closer. Anastasia was a little scared of him. That man didn’t look like her father, he had killed someone and the sweat on his brow and his paler than usual complexion made him look foreign, she could swear to see the outlines on his skull under his pale skin. Nevertheless he was their dad and they loved him, they came closer and he hugged them with one arm as tight as his wound permitted. Anastasia felt the warmth of that hug and remember the man that had brought her into this world and how he always made her laugh when she came home crying, the same man that sat beside her bed and waited for her to fall asleep when she had nightmares. He softly whispered in their ears that he loved them and that everything would be fine. Anastasia wanted it to be true with all her heart but deep down she had this vile, crawling feeling that it won’t be. It scratched and bit at the back of her head until she could do nothing else but cry. Cry she did, she couldn’t say how long long she cried on her father’s shoulder but her eyes felt dry when the owner of the pharmacy appeared from the back, carrying medical supplies.