Over the water chapter 1

May wrapped her shawl closer around her shivering form, the biting wind shoving against her back. The young girl's dress flapped violently in the gust. Her vision was obscured by her red hair. May curled her bare toes into the wet grass, trying to see through the storm of murky fog; the stories of children who tried to pass the bridge that now lay in front of her haunted her mind. To get away from the diseased village, the people had to cross the river that surrounded their village: the only way to do that was to go over the creaking metal structure.
Through the mist, some way away, there lay a town of rich folk; the kind to employ a service of people to cook their rich foods for them. May's mother was always in the small handful of villagers to genuinely believe that the townspeople would help the poor, sickly villagers. When more and more died most of the village fled, towards town.  May has no idea what happened to any of them. Her family were going to flee to the town but just as they were going to leave Mays mother had fallen ill, the illness came upon her in a rush. There was no way that the family could leave the village with her in such a state. As she grew steadily worse, waking up in the middle of the night with strange nightmares and not being able to move herself much. Mays father felt it was unnecessary to worry over the matter. It was clear to him that she was near dead, after arguing one day with May about it he left the house with a shout. Never to return.