Orphaned Stars (original title Humanity)

Chapter 6

10th May 2015 - Unknown Destination

Picture this - a handful of survivors sitting side by side in an overcast evacuation truck. Sweat, body odour and depression seeped through the atmosphere as the truck swayed over a few bumpy rocks. Brother and sister sat close, arms around each other and their mother's silent tears fell like parched rain drops from her swollen eyes, thinking all the time that her daughter wouldn't make it. The excruciating heat and the unforgivable Mother Nature's destruction tore citizen's lives around the world.

The small dark skinned boy cupped his right rib cage as Isaac ripped his shirt from the centre into two long halves. He wrapped it around the fragile boy's wounds.

"Keep your head up," Isaac said, half heartedly to the boy and to himself. "I'll do the best I can for your wounds."

The boy kept silent and stared at the mother who had just lost her daughter, that daughter who saved the boy's life, giving up her place so he would have a chance at survival. Why did she give it up? The boy kept thinking over again in his weak mind. He was a nobody, just an orphan, left on the side road to die before a tailor took him into his life and taught him about sewing garments for the rich. Life didn't hold much meaning to him until that very moment.

The boy winced in pain, feeling his bones weighing too much, like a burden.

Isaac leaned back, wiping the sweat of his face and flicking it to the small spaced floor. Pools of sweat poured from the others too. He glanced at his father, concentrated in deep thought and his mother using her once manicured hands to fan her humid face.

"Darling," Mrs Collins called to her husband, briefly shaking his shoulder for attention. "We've been out here for almost two hours and I'm dying of thirst."

"In case you haven't noticed," he half turned to her, "we are all slowly dying of something." He nodded towards the front. "Some of them have lost their loved ones and all you can complain about is thirst. Why can't you just be patient?"

"Don't you dare scold at me David Collins," she irrupted, her grey eyes penetrating her husband's skull. "I'm not responsible for other people. I want to survive this."

Isaac shut his eyes, trying to block out his parents embarrassing quarrel, although no one was listening. He tried to picture what he could remember before his life was torn asunder. For only a moment he could feel the warm hot chocolate mug between his hands and the smell of ignited fireworks illuminating the cold night sky. Glancing from his balcony he saw Shahnaz storm out from the outhouse, anger seething from her harsh face. Isaac observed her often, what she did around the house and on her days off. Most of the time she would sit by the ledge, sometimes in thought of making a list of things to be done. He found himself smiling at her, secretly admiring her manner, her opinions and her work.

The truck ran over a bump and the survivors nearly fell from their seats, but they all held each other up. Isaac snapped his eyes open and was brought back to reality. He watched people, who watched other people, all stuck in a small evacuation truck, all heading in the same direction, an unknown destination, an unknown future.

Isaac faced the boy; well he was hardly a boy when he really thought about it. They may have been fifteen or so, but the boys meek frame made him look undeveloped.

"What's your name?" Isaac asked him,

The boy continued to hold his side. "My name," he said in a small breaking whisper, "is Junayd Darzi."

A/N - hold up! Plot twist! Did you see that last line coming? And the previous chapter was linked to Isaac's memory. Please comment below what you think. Honestly oh ghost readers, don't be silent. Let me know what you think. I do respond to all comments made. =D