Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

Aiden ran his eyes across the chaotic scene on the overpass. From their high vantage point, the road winding down from the crest of the hill was a picture of utter desperation.

It was a sight Aiden and Damon had never thought they would find in their own country, and it reminded them of scenes after a car bomb in Baghdad or Kabul.

Dogs, pensioners, kids in school uniforms, adults still in their bedroom attire; every eye showed grief and every soul clamoured to and fro in the search for safety.

"Are you ok Darlene?" Aiden rested his palm on the old lady's shoulder as she edged forwards, partly to guide her onto the path and also to save her from being sent asunder by a man who rushed past near her.

"Yes, yes. Are we on the bridge yet?"

Darlene's armed flailed around to her front searching and probing for unseen obstacles, her pain subsiding in the face of overwhelming fear of the unknown.

"No, but we are almost there."

The group slowed as Darlene was warned of a kerb she had to negotiate and once she regained her footing they set off in earnest.

Damon was the first to see the raging torrents that once was a meandering creek. Its churning anger ripped at the banks and tore at the roots of trees. Like matchsticks they tumbled into the small valley and added their weight to the brimming mass that searched violently for an outlet to the sea.

Damon couldn't help but notice the irony; how well it mirrored their own predicament.

A river of human despair seeking an outlet to safety.

When Tao and Freida saw the sight it froze their hearts. The rumble of the crashing waves shook the ground beneath them and the sound as they approached grew into an all encompassing roar of death that terrified and awed all at once.

Aiden saw a different sight that caused his heart to fall away. And yet no one could hear the girl. Yet from the way she yelled the words Aiden knew exactly what she was crying out.

"Momma! Momma!"

On her back the girl, who looked barely eight years of age, carried her younger sibling, who seemed in a state of shock.

Quickly he sought out for the mother but no woman looked as though they had lost their child, no one cared.

Aiden turned back and saw a black 4WD hurtling down the road, on a path that sent everyone scurrying like rats in its wake. One body was flung into the air and landed roughly on the bonnet before rolling lifeless off to the side. Then another. Someone running disappeared in the crowd, obviously dragged under when the 4WD bounced over the carcass as though going over a speedbump.

Its headed straight for the girl on the road and Aiden yelled as loud as he could above the seething rivers deafening roar, but she couldn't hear.

No one could hear.

No one cared.

The little girl noticed the parting of the crowds and as she momentarily stopped crying her eyes widened in shock, wondering which way to turn.

Behind the tinted glass of the 4WD Aiden could barely discern the figure of a man committed to his wanton act of destruction. A woman in the passenger's seat was hitting him in spite and anguish, but the man disregarded her; disregarded the sanctity of life that broiled and heaved around him.

And then it happened. A woman at the prime of her life rushed to push the two sisters out of the way, and in that act gave her life so the girls were saved.

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⏰ Last updated: Dec 29, 2010 ⏰

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