Never

I had to keep on running. I couldn't stop. My feet were covered in bruises and cuts but I didn't feel anything.
I knew that the pain I would get when I stopped from fear and guns poking into my back would be much worse.
My dress was tattered and ripped from tripping over tree stumps. The weight on my back shifted as Elsie started kicking and screaming.
I wish I was a four year old again and I wasn't the one running from the people that I used to trust, the ones I thought would keep me safe. A coughing fit wracked Elsie's
body. I felt Elsie's warm breath on my cheek. “Are we ever going to see Mum again Abby?"
"We will Elsie, we will."
Images of last night filled my head. The screams as Mum was dragged away. Our town, glass scattered everywhere house burnt down. Children and families desperately trying to escape into the forest. The sound of gunfire.
It was all the brotherhood's fault. They wanted power and they were prepared to take as many people prisoner until they got it.

They had hundreds of prisoners. Everybody they wanted they got. Except us.

They got Mum first. She was the last out. Elsie and me had only just scrambled out the shattered window when they grabbed her.
She told us to run and not to stop until we got there.
I don't know where 'there' was but I'm guessing it's somewhere safe and faraway.

Suddenly I had to stop running, my legs collapsed underneath me. Elsie began to scream and tears streamed from her blue eyes leaving trails in the thick dirt and grime that covered her tiny face.
"Come on Elsie. It’s okay. I’m here,” I whispered as I placed her in the inside of a hollow tree. I climbed in after her.
"It's okay,” I murmured as I pushed her golden locks from her face.
That's how I woke up this morning. Elsie’s tiny hand gripping mine still fast asleep.
I untangled myself from her careful not to wake her and jumped out.

There were trees and bushes filled with berries. Birds sang and tweeted in surrounding shrubs .
Elsie's tiny voice drifted from the tree. "Abby, Abby where are you?"
"Here Els,I'm just outside the tree."
I shoved my hand inside to prove it .
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"Really?"
"Yes, even come and look."
"Lift me out."
Two lilliputian bruised legs poked out of the trunk. I wrapped my arms around my younger sister's tired body.
Elsie's arms gripped my neck. I lowered my sister onto the ground.
"I'm hungry," Elsie announced.
I ran my fingers through my dirty, knotty, once blonde hair.
As I reached toward a bush piled with juicy, fat pink berries a scream of pain came from behind me. I turned with fear making my heart heavy. A rough, big hand landed on my shoulder.
He wore a ring on his middle finger. A brotherhood ring.

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