Free Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story by Laura Franklin Page B

in her arms. Then she flipped over into a sprinter’s starting position. And she used it. She was gone into the darkness in a flash. This time, she was keeping her focus. She could just see outlines of trees and rocks in the cloudy moonlight. She leapt, dodged and sprinted like a deer. She heard them calling to her, but none of it was sinking in until finally she realized that the voices were very far behind her.
     
    Kim slowed to a walk. She checked the moon and tried to figure out where north was and head that way. Inside she was saddened and still. She had not had the imagination to realize this could really happen. She now understood she was the only one in her group who had been fooling themselves. They had known, they were trying to get to a zone of safety, a zone that Father Polus said he was being guided to. They were all walking on blistered and sore feet.
     
    Blisters! She allowed her mind to reach down to her foot. Oh, yes, it was there and throbbing. She closed the pain off from her mind and kept walking. Now there was no pain. This is what the Father was trying to get her to do for days. She couldn’t keep a sob from breaking out of her.
     
    Wandering alone in the night. She would never have believed it. Now she had to decide if she wanted to sleep and go on in the morning; or walk all night. This is crazy; my life could depend on how I decide this.

     
    In the end, as the moon was setting and she was shaky and exhausted; she crawled into the corner of an old barn and covered up with hay. She had learned the hard way not to bull her way through the forest.
     
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
     
    As the moon rose that night, Steve said a prayer for Kim. He was disgusted with her. He did not like her; but she was not an evil person. She was just self-centered and had been taught to value things that were ultimately meaningless. He did not hate her and felt he had failed because he had been unable to get through to her. He had not been able to show her this was no joke, that lives were cheap right now and they had to look out for each other.

     
    The rest of the group seemed to feel the same. They were not celebrating that Kim was gone, but no one said a thing; certainly not about going back for her. There was not much talking as they settled against a cliff overhang far back from the road they had been traveling. No one mentioned Kim as they mumbled quietly through their dinner and the mood was somber. It was a very long night.

Chapter Nine
     
     
     
    Ferrisburg was a town clustered along Rt 7. A tall man in a Smokey Bear hat stood behind a barricade of a big truck turned on its side. Mick was riding up. He brought Lady to a stop, leaning forward patting her neck. Meanwhile, using these few seconds, Mick took in those broad shoulders, the ragged beard. The man was standing with his legs apart and solid with a stone expression on his face. He was tall too. Oh, boy, this could be trouble.
     
    “Hi there.”
     
    “Who are you and what are you doing in my town?”
     
    “I’m Mick. We are just traveling north. We’re heading to Burlington. We don’t want any trouble, we just want to follow the road so we don’t get lost.”
     
    Humph. The sound was low and full of disbelief. Mick was searching his brain for more to say. He didn’t want to come out and say he was, or had been, in the army. He didn’t know if this guy would think it was good or bad. What a frigging tightrope.
     
    The man moved his rifle to his other hand. The movement brought Mick back to full attention.
     
    “Um…” he started and was interrupted.
     
    “You all come up through Middlebury?” The voice was a growl that matched how he looked.
     
    “Oh.” Mick paused. Again, what should he say?
     
    Doug did it for him, by hanging his head.
     
    “You seen them hanging then?”
     
    “Yes.”
     
    “How’d you sneak through there?”
     
    “We…we didn’t, we ran right into two college boys and had, well, it was nothing but a