Database

Prologue

   A family around the kitchen table, eating. Laughing. A girl holding a newborn baby in her arms, the face of the girl slightly smudged. The family conversing in what looked like a living room. Someone was handing the family drinks, but they had been ripped out of the picture. Another picture of the two children, one girl, one boy. Around eight and four. Another picture of the older girl. She was around ten in this photo. Another. And another. The book was filled with pictures of the older girl. It's cracked spine was peeling and the once beautiful leather binding was smooth from use. This book, along with many others were piled in the centre of a few poorly made tents. "NO! IT'S THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT!" A boy strained against two people holding him back from the pile. His tears falling onto the cracked earth. A group surrounded the books, staring as though saying goodbye to a precious childhood memory. The boy yanked his arm free of one of his captors, and he grasped for the book. The woman who had been holding his arm back grabbed it again and pulled him back. "Listen here boy, do you want those mechs to find us? This fire's gonna keep 'em distracted. This is your sister's way of saving us. Her way of saving you. Those photos ain't gonna last forever, instead of obsessing over the past, let her save you in the present the only way she can." The woman muttered to the boy. They both bowed their heads as a lit match was thrown onto the precious books. As the books were consumed by the flames, the woman let the boy go. Instead of continuing to try to retrieve the book, he turned away from the pile and ran. The woman watched him leave and turned back to the group as they began to jog in the opposite direction. A tear ran down her cheek as she followed the group.

They didn't get far.

In the ashes left behind, one page from one book survived. It was a picture of the older girl, smiling. One that no one had noticed before. The girl's smile almost seemed to widen as a faint voice drifted across the ground, carried by the wind.

Godspeed lil' bro.