41
Tracy slowed and looked at her watch. It was just a few minutes past midday. She called the children to a halt and waited until all the children had stopped and were sitting, gathered haphazardly together on the hot desert floor. This was the third rest break they had taken since they left the place that had been their prison for the last five days. With the back of her hand she wiped at the perspiration running freely down her face and into her eyes.
The ground was hot and uncomfortable to sit on but the children needed to rest. A few even laid down, their heads in the crook of their arms and their eyes tightly closed shutting out the glare of the scorching midday sun.
The water reserves they carried with them were getting alarmingly low and, despite the moans and groans of protest,
