Al Qusayr, Syria; Doctors Without Borders

6

me that each step would have given me from a mile away to an enemy. This was unsettling but I knew it would be worse for the small girl in the pile of rubble. Because of this I prevailed through the darkness.

Eventually I came to the same demolished house. I whispered loudly, "Hello? Is anyone there?" To a passing stranger I probably would have looked like a crazy man trying to make shy remarks to a pebble but I knew, or at least thought I knew, that someone was there. I waited a few seconds and then repeated myself. "Hello?"

Suddenly a raspy voice came from the rubble.The voice was that of a young girl but it didn't have the same vigor. The voice was pained, "Marhabaan?" I recognized the word from the manual I was given on Arabic phrases. The girl was trying to say hello. Immediately upon recognition of noise I stumbled forward, climbing through rubble. Whence I came to the spot I thought I heard the sound originate from, I looked around. Slowly I started to make out the shape of a head, then a neck, and then a torso. The girl's legs were covered by a piece of a wall. There were small trickles of blood coming out from under the rubble.

I hastily set to work on taking the weight off the girl's legs. From what I could tell, the girl was nine or ten, not a good time for mass-blood loss. I knew that if I didn't get her out of the house quick enough, she would die.

The work was tough and my weak muscles quickly began to cramp immediately. I quickly put up a mental barrier between the pain and I. I knew that this girl's life depended on me getting this rubble off of her.

After what seemed like an eternity of trying to get the large hunks of rubble of her legs, I finally was able to drag her away from the scene. Right when I could I hoisted her up on my