The Traversing Book I

Chapter 9

I wake up to the sound of thunder and rain showers. I hear the raindrops hit the windows in the vestibule, the sharpness of the sound was almost like daggers trying to shatter the glass. The wind was blowing steady, and random leaves and small branches would fly by. I close my eyes. I always hated thunderstorms.

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"Mumma, can you make it go away?"
"Well, sweet pea, we need the rain for the beautiful wild flowers. There is nothing to be afraid of, I will always be here with you."

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Lolly sits up and I look at her. She looks so tired, so sad. I wondered if I looked the same. She lies back down, telling me she is not ready to get up yet. I know that my back and sides ache from sleeping on the hard floor, and I noticed yesterday that I was getting a big raw welt on my left hip. I get up and walk to the bathroom and lock the door. I shut the toilet and sit down on the edge of it and take my phone out eagerly. I see that there is a message. My text had gone through somehow! I started to get so excited, and as I began reading it, a great explosion came from the back of the building knocking me off the toilet. I lost grip of the phone, and it went spiraling down to the floor, smashing the screen on the hard tile. It didn't shatter, but it was damaged. I quickly hid it back in my sweatshirt and opened the door.

The guards step in and yell "everything is alright." And that was all. I ran to the kitchen and tried to peer out the window, and as I stretch to look, I see that there appeared to be one of the army jeeps on fire. That must have been the explosion. My mind started going to Trast and thinking about if he was OK and still alive. I hoped so.

I went into the little pantry in the kitchen and sat on the floor. This had been my go-to place, my alone place. A place where I could think. I took out the phone and peered at the screen through the now cracked slices. I tried again to read the message.

"Kokia. I am on my way home. I managed to get Sepa, and we are heading to the house. You are not safe. They might bomb the Arena, so get out..."

He wrote more, but the phone shut off before I could finish reading it, so I just put it back in my sweatshirt with a big sigh of disappointment. They are going to bomb it? Our government or...? I was confused. I decided I needed to talk to Amir again.

I again waited until everyone was asleep and tiptoed over to Amir, who was smiling and he lifted his eyes as if just the thought of me coming toward him excited him.

"Hi Amir," I say in a soft tone.

"Hi Kokia. Just so just so you know, some idiot left his cigarette going in the truck on the seat, and it caught fire. That was the big bang earlier," he said, turning his full body toward me.

"Oh, OK. Yeah, I was wondering about that." I then turned to look him in the eyes.

"Amir...." I start to say, stammering a little. "Amir. Are we safe here?"

"Safe? Completely safe? No. But I am going to try and keep you safe," he said and gingerly touched my hair, winding his fingers through it and letting his hand gracefully run over my shoulder and down my arm. I felt a jolt of emotion, and he shot a look at me when I sucked in my breath at his touch. He knew I felt it too.

"I want to tell you that I did not want to fight. A lot of us didn't. Unfortunately, they have completely taken over most of the major cities," he says, searching my eyes. "You have to believe me that I am against this. Killing in the name of revenge. It is senseless."

"I agree," I say, then added, "And I will not give you away. I do not want you killed," I say as I step closer to him. I could feel the heat from his chest almost leap out into mine.
Amir quickly takes his hands and cradles my face and pulls me to him. His lips touching mine was like an explosion of pleasure, and my body betrayed me and started to kiss him back. The feeling that I was experiencing can only be described as a celestial experience, our bodies were the only ones in existence in that moment. There is something happening inside of me that is allowing this. How could I be attracted to the enemy? How could I do this? My mind struggled to say no. But my body just melted into his, until I felt him gently pull away.

"I am falling for you, Kokia. You have to know that," he says to me, his hands still cradling my face. "Just trust me," he says and takes his hands away and out of habit, re-checks his gun and ammo.

"Trust is a hard thing...." I start to say, when I notice that someone in the room had stirred awake, and was walking towards the bathroom.

I quickly move away and look toward her direction, but it doesn't seem she had seen our kiss.

"Amir, why are your people so mad at us? Why this level of destruction?"

"No easy answer to that. Just so many things have been festering I guess. I will tell you, Kokia, that every single person, these millions of people, are all willing to sacrifice their lives for this mission. This is how brainwashed they are. This is why they will push and push and not care if we get blown up. A thousand lives are worth one American. That is their thinking. That is why this is so dangerous. I really don't want to die. Just know I will try and protect you, however I can."

"Let's talk tomorrow, Amir," I say, and then give him a small smile as I walked away. And what scared me more was that I was missing him already.

"I shall wait all day," he says to me and then turns around to look out the window and at the rising smoke spewing in the distance.

This is it. We need to escape.
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I woke up in the very early hours of the morning and noticed something. It was quieter for some reason. I peered slowly into the vestibule and saw that there was only one guard at the outside door, not the usual six. I turn over and start to shake Lolly.

"Lolly, something is different. Something is wrong! The trucks are gone and there is only one guard outside. We need to go, now! We cannot wait until tonight," I whisper, clutching her arm.

Lolly sits up, pushes her hair out of her eyes and says, "What?"

"Lolly, I have a bad feeling about this. Let's try to sneak down to the basement. Grab some more food if we can," and I motion to the other side of the gym. She nods her head and stands up. She then points down at Magzi and I made a question face. Should we or shouldn't we? I then shake my head no.

Lolly gathers up the food we were hiding and puts it in her sweatshirt, ties it and slings it over her shoulder. A couple of the girls had already gone into the kitchen to start breakfast, so I hope they didn't see us.

The hallway was dark, and I tried to remember which door in the back would give us more coverage as we left. I am so frightened, not knowing what was happening and hoping my instincts were right.

All of a sudden there is a big thud coming from the back of the Arena. It was almost a deafening sound, so piercing that I put my hands over my ears and Lolly fell to the ground. There was now screaming and crying and a sort of whoosh sound in conjunction with the sound of breaking glass.

I grab Lolly and run down a flight of stairs, then another, looking over my shoulder as we race two steps at a time. I look and see that the last exit on the right had some flowering bushes near it, so I run out the door, practically pulling Lolly with me and noticed that my legs felt wobbly, but I keep pressing on. When I turned to look around, what I saw made my mouth gape open in horror. The Arena was on fire.

The wind started picking up, and the crackling from the fire made it explode in a large fire ball over the front of the Arena. I see the girls running out the front door, screaming, and then being shot by the Skins that have assembled around the front and side of the building. I pull Lolly down to the ground by the bushes.

"We need to make a run for it in the woods. That's the only option for us," I say and look over at her. She is crying softly and there is so much dirt on her face, it streaks down in almost perfect lines. She was trying to be so strong, and was glad she was there with me. We hold hands and then make a fast dash into the woods. Because of the fire, the smoke provided a lot of coverage, and I don't think we were seen. The Skins were just too busy with all of the other girls. I motion up and we climb a big maple tree until I feel safe. Lolly struggles and is having a hard time climbing.

"Hurry!" I yell to her. "Come on! You can do it!"

"I don't know if I can do this!" she cries, weeping even harder now.

Lolly has been my best friend since she moved to Bridgeport. She has been there for me through so much, I don't know what I'd do if I lost her. I climb a little ways down and extend my arm to help hoist her up, which she accepts. We both lean our backs against the tree and look down. The landscape is something that I could hardly comprehend. There were places that had little fires going, there were trucks lined up, driving down the highway to somewhere. And in the back of my mind I wondered where Amir was and how I would be able to confide in Lolly about our special relationship, and where Trast fit into all of this.

"Think Trast is OK?" I ask Lolly.

"Yea, I do," she whispers. She turns her head away from the destruction before us and just stares at her hands. She looks so scared.

We both sit in the tree for a while until the Arena is completely engulfed in flames. Big flames of orange and yellow puff out, rising in long arcs as the wind blows. I watch as the many trailers and cars leave the Arena, only leaving some Skins behind, circling the perimeter. I close my eyes and cry softly. I knew some of the girls in there, and they didn't deserve this. I open my eyes and look at the landscape, all barren and flat. Why this city? Why us? There had to be more populated towns in the U.S. like New York City? Sacramento, California? I didn't even think that Connecticut was very political, or stuck its neck out in the problems with the Middle East. We just were a peaceful place. I turn to look again at Lolly and she is in shock. She starts breathing faster and faster and faster, and I was worried she was going to hyperventilate, so I touch her hand.

"Lolly we will get out of this. We will," I tellher, then gaze back at the Arena. I just hope I am right.