The Little War Girl.

She stood.

Barefoot she stood in the jagged rubble that had rained down, and now sat, eerily motionless, in the silence that had descended on the land. Quiet, like a red hot poker, had seared its way through the clamour that had preceded it.

She cried.

Relentlessly, heartbreakingly, violently she cried. But not even her deafening, banshee-like, bloodcurdling cries could drown out the hollow void of silence in which she had been abandoned.

Alone.

Cold.

Scared.

That morning her siblings had gone to play ball with their friends, carefree and joyous. Mama and Papa had been cooking and cleaning in their beloved home. She had been sick. Too sick to go out, but who could resist the allure of children at play? In the town she loved, with the people she loved.

Happy.

Safe.

Warm.

Then it came.  Hellfire and brimstone broke loose on Earth as the first house was struck, collapsing like an under baked tier cake under the impact. Boom! Another house in the distance caught aflame and shattered, porcelain struck by solid metal.

'Run! Run!'

A tidal wave of people scattered like a flock of sheep scared by wolves, screams cut through the air, icy shards of fear slicing through her heart.

'Mama!'

Boom!

Panic. The air filled with thundering bangs and blasts. Dust flew into the air, filling her lungs, choking her. She froze petrified while a shard of building flew past, cutting her cheek. Red, hot blood flowed, she cried out

'Mama!'

As if by whispered by a ghost in the wilderness, or a thirst induced mirage in the desert, the lilt o her mother's voice wafted to her ears.

Through the blur of dust and smoke the shadow of her mother approached her. Like a newborn pup yet to open its eyes, she stumbled towards her mother's call.

Boom! Closer.

Boom! Closer.

Boom! Black.

Black. Hazy, foggy black followed by ringing so loud that she could no longer hear anything but the ringing, and the booming of explosions that were dulled as if the were now very far away.

'Mama!'

When the black stopped, and she was able to open her eyes, the ringing remained. The dull explosions ceased, dust settled. The air was still and dry, stealing any moisture to quench its insatiable thirst, drying the blood on her cheek and ears. She stood. Barefoot in the rubble, her shoes missing. Somewhere, somewhere in the hellscape she no longer recognised as her own.

'Mama!'

She walked. She stumbled to where her home once stood, and she heard only silence where once there were giggles. She cried. Bloodied hands reached from under thick concrete, unmoving, cold, stiff.

'Mama.'

In the distance gun shots pierced the all consuming silence, tanks rumbled along body covered ground as the little girl stood.

Alone

Scared.

Why would this happen to me?

Soon she would ask this again, for all the world to see, behind the unsympathetic steel og chicken wire cages, begging to be let in.