Alex smiled and let the last of the tension drain from his body. As he drifted off to sleep, he contemplated that all he’d done the past few days was sleep. In the past it was hard to drag him out of bed, yet now he was ordered to rest and all he wanted to do was get out and about.
Smoke billowed in thick columns from the village, birds of prey circling high above as if sensing their time to feast was not long off. Flames licked up the side of the town hall in the centre of the village unabated. Screams of pain, mingled with sobbing and wailing, could be heard.
A woman was running from the village, cutting across the ploughed fields toward the road that led to a neighbouring village, the bundle of her baby clutch in her arms, a small leather backpack strapped to her back. She glanced bac
