Run Away

"Run.."
A night of running away had finally paid off. She had reached a settlement and hoped they would be kind enough to take her in. The horrors of the past events would never really be wiped from her memories.

"Run..child"

The old lady whom she crossed roads with had been shot by the war soldiers and she stood by helplessly hiding, watching. The lady's voice whispering ''Run'', the soldiers pointing their guns. It all had happened so fast, she didn't even have time to think about it. She ran. Ran as fast as and as far as her legs could take her. And now, she had hope. Hope of getting shelter and filling up her resources once again.

"Run.."

With every step she was inching closer to the closely packed group of tents. Panic struck her. What if they're not nice? Would they...She refused to finish that line of thought. She was met with a grumpy old man and a boy of her age at his side.

'What do ya want from here, eh laddie?'

'I'll take it from here Dave. The name's Wil. Now, surrender all your weapons or turn around and go back the way you came.'

Wil and Dave had a sense of protectiveness that Genesis understood. People would never recover from the post--war trauma. No one could trust anyone anymore.

'I'm Genesis. Just to give you a heads up, there's army around. You might want to set up defence precautions.'

Dave eyes opened wide in horror and the flash of emotion passed as quickly as it came.

'Why should we trust you?', asked Wil, who didn't seem to like the idea of taking in a stranger.

'They killed a woman, right in front of my eyes. Don't think I would ever forget that and I ain't that smart to make that up.',

Genesis replied, tears welling in her eyes. Blinking them away, she looked straight ahead, closing off the conversation.
Dave watched in silence, then nodded. The man wasn't so bad after all.

Movement. The sound of tires on sand. Dave perked his head up, Wil looked worriedly at Dave.
Focusing his eyes back on the potential intruder he replied grimly,'Take her in.' Wil snapped his head to Dave, protesting. Dave raised his hand that stopped Wil even before he began. With a sigh, he gave in.
'Follow me', he said turning around.

Genesis had won them over. But now she had a feeling she would be running soon.