Huston and Feld had not moved from the ground outside.

The sun was high in the sky and Huston could not feel his knees. The tears on his face were frozen and he felt weak. He had nothing left. His mouth was dry and his legs were stiff, everything was cold. He looked up at Feld. He was no longer crying either, just staring blankly at the ground. Huston wondered why no one had come to check on them after all of this time. 

They were alone.

There was a sound that started like a low rumble and came from over the top of the mountains. It was the same sound as before. Huston heard screaming coming from the other streets. People were running and hiding, doing anything they could to escape. 

The rumble became deafening like the scream of some gigantic monster and Huston looked over to his brother who seemed entranced by the sky. He scooted over and grabbed Feld’s hand and held it close to his heart with their mother in between them. He did not look up, he just looked into Feld’s eyes. Feld looked afraid, so Huston smiled.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

The second set of explosions knocked Feld up into the air and he fell fifteen feet from where he was sitting. Fifteen feet from the body of his mom. There was smoke and fire and people were screaming now. Everywhere. He could not see anything in front or behind him. The sounds were so loud that he could not hear himself think. He put his hands over his ears and pressed as hard as he could and closed his eyes and hoped that when he opened them everything would be different.

It was not.

It was chaos. Through the thick dust and smoke, he saw objects flying over his head and legs stumbling past him. There were more people lying on the ground between him and his mom. They were not moving either. Other explosions off in the distance were making the ground shake after each loud boom echoed in his ears. He felt tears welling up because he did not know what to do. 

He screamed out for his brother.

Huston would know. 

He just needed to find Huston.

He wondered if anyone would be able to hear him. There was already so much screaming and the people that he could hear sounded like they were in pain. They were screaming out for life. They needed help. Feld only wanted help. He started to think that maybe it was selfish to be screaming out. Maybe he should try to be brave and find his own way. He could find Huston later.

He stayed low to the ground. He crawled on hands and knees in the direction he thought was the forest. He thought he would go back to the river and wait there. Huston would know to come there.

He tried to keep his head down as he crawled. One movement at a time. One hand in front of the other. Careful not to bump into anything or anyone. Moving in as straight a path as he could.

It took Feld fourteen minutes and seven seconds to reach the edge of town on his hands and knees. There was much less smoke where the trees started and the screaming seemed like a whisper comparatively. He stood and turned around.

Hillston was destroyed. There were barely any buildings standing and he could barely recognize the ones that were. It was a different place. Like something Feld had only seen once in a nightmare. Fire coming from everywhere and people running in all directions trying to find the people that they loved.

He did not know what to do next. But at least he was out of the town. At least he was alive. 

He hoped that Huston was on his way. He was afraid of being alone. The forest was thick and dark even in the daytime. And he did not think he could bear to lose two people that he loved in the same day. 

Feld stared out at the devastation in front of him and breathed through the tears and tried to be strong.

He heard a twig crack behind him and turned around quickly. Huston was limping from the stream toward him.

“I’m so sorry,” he heard Huston wheeze through a clenched throat. Feld could hear the relief in his voice. “I thought you might have come here so I ran to the stream and then I didn’t see you and I was…”

And Feld was hugging his big brother. He breathed in the smell of Huston and immediately knew that everything was going to be okay. He dug his fingers into Huston’s back and never wanted to let go.

There were more twigs snapping in the forest. These ones were further away and Feld could only hear them because one of his ears was pressed up against his brother’s chest and the sound of the town burning was muted. He pulled his head away and saw, far off in the distance, a group of people moving toward them. Feld could tell it was more than twenty even though they were wearing clothes that made them disappear into the white and brown. He looked up at his brother and tapped his arm and pointed in the direction of the people creeping toward them.

They ran.

Back toward the town but only enough to cut up the hill toward the house where the nice man used to live. As they were running, Feld remembered that it was the same hill they climbed to the house on that morning.

Huston led them to the garden where the pole holding the dried burned body of the man was still standing and they crawled into the furniture underneath it and they hid. The furniture was burnt on the outside but as they crawled in they scraped off some of the burned bits and saw that it wasn’t burned all the way through.

No one came at first but Huston did not let them speak. Whenever Feld looked over to and tried to whisper to Huston, he just held a finger to his lips. They laid in silence for what felt like forever. Just the sounds of fire and a constant cracking sound from far away. The cracking sound was not like anything Feld had heard before. Sometimes it was fast but sometimes only one would ring out.

Feld started to get bored. He kept looking over to Huston in hopes that he would get the sign that it was all over. He just wanted to leave even though he did not know where they would go. But Huston did not make eye contact. He just scanned around them in every direction.

After fourteen minutes, Feld fell asleep.

He dreamt of the man who lived in that house on the top of the hill and about the time they had seen him at the market the day before he was killed. The man had a smile that looked  kind to Feld. And he had smart eyes. Feld could imagine the man doing important math problems at an old wooden desk in his gigantic house. The man smiled at them and they all said hello. It was Bridgett who spoke first because she was the oldest and she asked the man how his morning was going. He smiled.

“It is going very well so far. Thank you for asking.” He had a soft, happy voice.

And Feld looked at his bag and saw that it was filled with wine.

“Are you having a party?” Feld asked.

“Yes, in fact I am,” the man responded, “I hope it will be a very big party.”

And then Feld got excited

“I love parties!”

“Oh you do?”

“Yes,” Feld replied, “I once had a birthday party where all of my friends came and we played in the forest.”

“He doesn’t want to hear about your lame birthday party, Feld,” Bridgett said as she stepped forward. “I like parties as well. But our mom says that drinking is not okay.”

“Well, your mother is correct. Drinking is not something that young people should do. It is only for when you get older.”

At this point Feld turned his head away from the man and noticed that they were not in Hillston. This was someplace different, someplace that Feld had never been. There was a big building at the top of a hill but it was much closer and much larger than the man’s house would have been. It was a castle. And it soared into the sky in impossible ways with hundreds or thousands of people that he could see through the windows doing strange things. When he turned back, the man was staring at him. But it was different. The man was different. He didn’t look as happy. Bridgett and Huston were gone now and it was just him and this man standing outside of a castle. The man looked confused and waved his hands through the air.

Huston shook Feld awake and he opened his eyes. Huston put a finger to his lips, his eyes raised in alarm, and pointed out. Feld saw a group of masked people walking through the area. There were a lot of them. Feld recognized the guns they were holding from books he read in school. They were older, from over fifty years ago.

They looked all around, exploring the garden and the yard. They were talking casually and laughing. Feld counted fourteen of them, all wearing mostly matching clothes.

After three minutes, most of the soldiers went back into the house after someone far away whistled. Three of them5123 stopped and Feld held his breath as he watched their old leather shoes shuffle slowly closer. The hole at the tip of their guns was casually directed at Feld and Huston. He looked up and saw that they were pointing and laughing at the old dried and burnt body of the man above them. He turned to Huston and saw that his eyes were closed tight. It occurred to Feld for the first time that they might die here.These people with the guns had the power to stop Feld from existing. It was scary. Feld felt his heart beat faster. He focused on staying still and started counting again in his head.

The feet in front of them turned and walked toward the house. When they were gone Feld started to move but Huston placed a hand to stop him.

“We should wait until it’s night and then go,” Huston whispered. 

“And then we can go home?”

Huston let out his breath and shook his head.

“We can go back down into Hillston.”

“Why not?” Feld heard his voice get higher. He knew that their home was gone but there were other places in Hillston. They had friends. Their mom had friends.

“These people stopped there first. Those were gunshots, Feld.” Tears welled up in his eyes and Huston hugged him close. “It will just be like we’re on an adventure for a while. We will visit somewhere new.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know, buddy.”

“But it’s cold. It’s winter.” Feld was whining. Huston shushed him.

“I know. But we’re dressed warm and we have all those snacks in our pockets. Plus, I know all the good places to hang out in the forest.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. What do you think I do with my friends when I’m not with you?”

“I dunno.”

“Huston?” Feld whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Are we going to die?”

And Huston was silent for a second and Feld could see him thinking about whether or not he was going to lie1387.

“I don’t know, Feld,” Huston said. He didn’t make eye contact and Feld knew that he was ashamed of his answer. But it was the answer that Feld wanted to hear. He scooted closer to his brother.

“I guess I better nap then if we’re going to die later.” It made Huston smile.

And Feld closed his eyes again.