Page 2 of Shattered Home

Without another word, Rainer walked back to his side of the fire, Murphy joining him while the twins skipped over to their parents. Mina and Sasha murmured under their breaths, their foreheads touching.

The clearing we lived in was small, the area around the fire even smaller, and yet I could have been thousands of miles away from everyone. My heart ached harder than my stomach, wishing my family were by my side. Wishing that we weren’t even out here to begin with.

The sky darkened, the nine of us eating in silence as we did every night. The only sound the scraping of plates as we tried to take our time to savor each piece of food we had. The world around us was being destroyed each day and yet we continued to try to survive, holding onto the small parts of humanity we still had.

Chapter Two

Isat at my parents' kitchen table, home for weekly dinner, my mom inviting me over after a long day at the hospital. I had just recently started my new nursing job in the emergency department and so far, I loved it.

“I’m so proud of you, Alessia. But you look so tired,” Mom cooed as she rummaged around the kitchen, prepping sides for the meal.

Tipping back on the island stool, I smiled. “That’s to be expected, Mom. I signed up for this.”

Mom shook her head as if to argue, but said nothing. Instead, she turned toward the backyard, calling for my dad and two brothers to come inside for dinner.

I waited for the telltale sound of footsteps pounding against the wood floors, but they never came. Instead, a gunshot echoed throughout our home. And then an earth-shattering scream bled from Mom’s lips, a sound that would be imprinted on my soul for the rest of my life.

Terror coursing through my veins, I turned my head toward the yard, my dad’s lifeless body bleeding out onto the concrete patio. My brothers both stood still, wide eyes claiming their entire faces.

“Run! Get out of here!” Mom screeched, her shock wearing off as her gaze bounced between her three children.

Her words were urgent, but my body was frozen. My dad was dead. Someone had shot him. Were they going to shoot the rest of us?

Cold hands gripped my arms, Mom’s chocolate eyes spearing me, her mouth moving, but I didn’t hear a word she said.

Pulling me up by the arm and dragging me through the house, she pushed me out the front door, continuing to shove until I was on our driveway, chaos surrounding me. People were running out of their homes, barefoot and shouting, large flames licking at various houses and the endless woods behind them. What looked like an army littered the streets, armed men and women storming through our small town.

“Run, Alessia!” My mom shouted one last time and finally, in control of my body, I took off.

Even in my haze, I knew the streets weren’t safe, and I ran toward the woods, hoping to blend in with the trees. The heat of the fires surrounded me, the blaze helping me ignore the cold Montana air whipping against my bare arms.

I ran for hours, tears streaming down my face. For days, I continued to run, the noises of death and disarray fading the further into the forest I went. I only took breaks to sleep, my energy waning as each day came and I had no food.

Although I could see the tower of flames in the distance, the warmth had faded, and the March weather took effect deep in the forest, away from the sunlight. My lips were cracked, my body frigid, and my stomach cramping. And worst of all, I was lost and alone.

On day five, when my body’s self-preservation prevented me from moving any further, I figured I was going to die out here. And then two men approached me, frowns on their faces as they took me in.

My eyes were blurry, but my body jostled as one of them lifted me, holding me close to his chest as he walked. I must have passed out on our walk because the next thing I remembered was an older woman forcing me to drink water and wrapping me in a large sweatshirt.

The forest around me was burned, charred debris littering the ground, but I didn’t mind. Letting my eyes flutter closed once again, all I could think about was that my family had never followed me and what that meant.

The early morning sun was just peeking above the horizon, the forest silent. My body ached from laying on the ground and my heart throbbed from the painful memory that appeared nightly in my dreams for the past three months.

Peeling my eyes open, exhaustion settled deep in my bones. All I wanted was to sleep for more than a few hours, but that wasn’t possible out here. We woke with the sun, the bright glare waking even the deepest sleeper.

Not that many of us were sleeping throughout the night. If it wasn’t the nightmares, it was the eerie sounds of the forest. Every snap of a twig had my eyes popping open. Every rustle of the trees sent a shiver up my spine. The worst part was I didn’t know what I was more afraid of. The wild animals roaming undetected through the shadows of the trees or the idea that they would find our camp and we’d meet the same fate as my dad.

None of us spoke about what we had seen before we made it to the woods. I didn’t know if anyone else had family die before their eyes or if they were forced into the trees by the endless fires. And I wasn’t going to be the first one to ask.

Sitting up, I stretched out my limbs, trying to ease some of the tightness in my muscles. My eyes scanned our clearing, but akin to yesterday, almost everyone was gone besides Elizabeth and her kids.

The two of them were still sleeping and a pit formed in my stomach as I realized I was being treated the same as a child. Everyone else was already up for the day, doing who knows what, while I slept.

“Do you need any help?” I kneeled beside Elizabeth, watching as she roasted some deer meat over the embers of the fire.

“That’s alright. I’m just trying to get some food for everyone when they return. A few went fishing and the rest went to try to pick up a radio signal.” Elizabeth smiled warmly at me, but there was a tightness in her gaze.

I briefly wondered if she also felt that she was taking care of a third child. Shaking my head at the thought, I stood back up, pacing back and forth. I debated going to the creek where we washed dishes, bathed, and fished, but I knew nothing about fishing.

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