I woke up the next day to a feeling of dread. I felt as if something bad was going to happen. I shook the feeling away and went downstairs to start the day. Papa and Ethan had left for work at dawn. Mama insisted Aiden stay home from work to heal. It would get deducted from his paycheck which wasn’t much to begin with, but he needed to get better. After breakfast, Mama and Ava left for their jobs at the food store.
For most of the day, I tended to Aiden and helped May with her lessons. School was only for those who had money. Aiden and I had learned to read before the invasion so I taught my brothers and sister while everyone else was at work. I also packed a few more items in my siblings’ packs. Just in case. When it came time for lunch, I saw there wasn’t much food. In all the commotion of yesterday, no one noticed we were running low. I checked on Aiden then went out to the store.
I wasn’t even halfway there when my friend, Elle ran up to me. She was 18, just a year older than I and therefore had to work in one of the stores. She pulled me into an alleyway. “Anya, they’re looking for you!” she panted. “Your whole family. Soldiers and police. You need to get home.”
“Are you sure?” She nodded, out of breath. I glanced around the wall and saw soldiers running from the station towards town. “Elle, can you warn my mother and Ava? And Papa and Ethan, if you can?”
“I’ll try,” she replied. She gave me a swift hug then peered out of the alley. “It’s clear, go!” I gave her one last smile before we ran in opposite directions. I ran as fast as I could without being too conspicuous.
“Aiden, Simon! Bennett!” I called to my brothers, “They’re coming; we need to go!” I locked all the doors; I knew it wouldn’t stop anyone trying to get in, but it would slow them down. Simon and Bennett hurried to gather everyone’s packs while May got the little food we had and put it in another pack. I rushed to Aiden who had already gotten up and was making his way out of the room. I grabbed the salve and extra bandages. Just as we all met in the hall, we heard a pounding on the door. A muffled shout came through.
“Police! Open your door!”
It was clear we weren’t going out the front door and it was likely they had the house surrounded. The only other option was going through the attic which served as Ethan and Ava’s room. We would have to climb on the roof and escape that way.
All that was needed was a glance toward the hall and everyone understood the plan. Aiden took May’s hand and led the way. I spotted the cord used to pull down the stairs, but was too short to reach it. Aiden’s face contorted in pain as he pulled the steps down. I pushed Bennett towards the stairs first. He climbed up, followed by Simon and May. When I reached the attic, they had already opened the small window which served as a vent. As soon as the stairs had been pulled up, we heard a crash. The soldiers had broken the door down and were searching the rest of the house. Simon climbed through the window and was first on the roof. I lifted up May and handed her to Bennett who was outside now as well.
“They’re up here!” a voice shouted from behind us. A young soldier was pulling down the stairs, revealing us. He came up, flanked by two others. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my twin get out. I swung my arm out using my power to throw the men back down. Hands came through the window and lifted me up. We didn’t bother to shut the window; it would take too much time and it was no secret where we were headed. We ran across the tops of our neighbors’ houses towards the forest beyond the town. Behind us, some soldiers had gotten on the roof and begun their chase.
Suddenly a shingle exploded at my feet causing me to stumble. They were shooting at us! To my surprise Aiden turned around and shot back using a small black pistol. I didn’t have time to wonder where he had gotten it as we picked up our pace, jumping over the growing distances between houses. Finally the distance was too big to jump.
“What do we do?” I asked my twin.
“I’ll jump over then you use your power to ferry them over,” Aiden panted. I hesitated. He was pale, pain etched all over his face. “Anya, we have to.” He was right, it was our only choice.
Aiden took a running start and made it across to the other roof. It took more strength than I thought to lift Simon and Bennett across to where Aiden was waiting. I didn’t notice the shooting had stopped until I heard May’s shriek of terror.
I spun around and saw my little sister trapped in the arms of a soldier. She was struggling to get free, but she was too small. I ran towards her only to have another soldier grab me from behind. I scratched and clawed anywhere I could reach, but like my sister, I couldn’t break free.
“Anya!” May screamed. Fear ripped through me as I saw her being carried to the other side of the roof. Suddenly something jumped into my hand and I rammed it into the belly of my captor. He grunted and his arms fell away. I looked at the object in my hand. It was a knife with a long blade. I glanced down. The soldier who had caught me was now lying in a pool of blood, his eyes staring up into the sky, but not seeing a thing. I had killed him. My throat closed up, my head spun.
I was pulled back to reality by May’s cries. I used my power to pull back the man holding May. I punched him in the face, grabbed my sister and threw her over to where my brothers were watching helplessly. I leaped over the distance and landed on the very edge. I would have fallen if Bennett hadn’t grabbed my arms and pulled me over. Aiden scooped May up and we ran to the last house which had been destroyed in a fire a few years ago.
Part of the roof had fallen and we ran down makeshift ramp and into the forest. We were about 20 feet into the trees when we turned around and looked to see if anyone had followed us. Instead we saw a cloud of fire and smoke approximately where our house stood. It had been destroyed. I don’t know how long we stood there speechlessly watching the smoke rising up into the sky. Our silence was interrupted when we heard May crying. My brother put her down and she ran to me, throwing her arms around my waist.
“Are you alright, sweetie?” I asked once her sobs turned into hiccups. She nodded and I pushed her dark hair, so much like mine, away from her face. Simon and Bennett were sitting on a log not too far away. Simon’s eyes were red from the tears he held in. At almost fourteen, he thought he was too grown up to cry. Bennett was 3 years younger and had no problem crying over the events of today. I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Aiden. His eyes moved toward my left hand. I was still holding the knife. My head started spinning again thinking about the man I had killed. I was about to throw it away, but he stopped me. “We can use it as a weapon.” I tucked it in my belt loop, secretly hoping I wouldn’t have to use it again.
“What are we going to do?” I whispered.
“Papa told us if we got separated to go to Cyre, right? So that’s where we’ll go. We’ll keep to the forest, though. There’s a stream around here and we’ll follow it to Cyre. We’ll find Mama and Papa and Ethan and Ava. We will!” I felt more confident hearing the assurance of Aiden’s plan. I offered to change his bandages, but he refused saying the most important thing now was to keep moving.
It was sunset when we finally stopped. Aiden made a small fire while I took out some food. After we had eaten, I redressed Aiden’s wounds. When I was finished, he stood up and announced he was going to have a look around. “I won’t go far,” he assured me. “Come on Simon.” Simon looked surprised he was going with Aiden, but eager to help. “You still have the knife, right?” my twin asked. I nodded, unable to think about anything at the moment but the man who was now dead because of me.
Noticing my distress, Aiden put his hands on my shoulders. “Anya. If trouble comes, you need to use it. Promise me. Promise you’ll use it to protect May and Bennett. And yourself.” He gave me a quick hug then headed off into the dense forest with Simon.
I huddled by the fire with May and Bennett, none of us making a sound. Finally May fell asleep, her head in my lap. My younger brother was lying on the ground looking at the darkened sky. I sat there watching the wood being eaten by the flames. It reminded me of the house in my old town that had been destroyed by fire. Our house would become like that. Blackened wood, mounds of ash, soot covering the traces of our life. Thinking of all this, it finally hit me: there was no going back. This was not a bad dream I would suddenly wake up from. Everything was real.
My thoughts were interrupted by the return of my brothers. Simon, exhausted, went over and curled up next to Bennett and immediately fell asleep. Aiden sat down next to me.
“Did you find anything?” I asked.
“We found the stream. We’ll follow it north tomorrow. We should get to Cyre in a few days.” He looked at May to see if she was still sleeping—she was. Her face completely free of the fear she had earlier. “The forest is really deep. Simon and I walked a good 200 yards and there was no break in the trees.” I read between the lines: even if we did follow the stream, there was no way of knowing when we actually reached Cyre.
I put my hand over Aiden’s. “We’ll make it. We have to.”

The next few days, we walked all day only stopping once or twice to eat. We made no fire except for at night when we stopped. On the fifth day we had to stop early. One moment Simon was right next to May, the next he was doubled over retching. I ran over to him and held his hands. They were like ice, but when I felt his head, it was warm. Aiden made a fire and carried him close to it. I tried to feed Simon some bread, but he refused. I gave it to May and Bennett instead. “We need to find a town or something where we can get medicine. And food,” I told Aiden. He emptied our food bag nodded hen left with it.
After only a short time, Aiden came running back. “There’s a city close by!” he exclaimed. “We can stay there for the night, re-supply, and get medicine for Simon.”
“I don’t think we should move him,” I said quietly. In the time Aiden had been gone, my other brother’s temperature had risen from warm to burning. He had fallen into a fitful sleep, twitching and moaning at times. It scared me how fast his condition was deteriorating. It wasn’t an ordinary sickness.
“I’ll go.”
“Alone?” I asked. I wasn’t comfortable with Aiden going into an unfamiliar town by himself. But we couldn’t move Simon and I couldn’t go with him and leave May and Bennett alone. “I’ll be fine, Anya. I can get food, medicine and find out where we are.” I gave in, even though there was a part of me that felt like it wasn’t right.
“I’ll be back before you know it.” He hugged me and vanished from sight.
For the remainder of the day, I tended to Simon and tried to calm my feelings of uneasiness. Bennett and May amused themselves by wading in the stream and seeing who could make the bigger splash with stones.
Watching them, a sense of tranquility washed over me. If the rest of my family was present and Simon wasn’t sick, I could see us living out here, happy and way from the problems of the world. However, as night approached, I started to worry again. Aiden had been gone for hours and I could not ignore feeling something had gone terribly wrong.
I made a fire and divided up the remainder of the food. I sat watch, staring into the blackness of the forest. “I’ll keep watch tonight,” a tiny voice said from behind me. My eyes flew open. I hadn’t even realized I was falling asleep!
“No, no. I’m fine,” I told May. “Go back to sleep.” But May just sat down beside me and rested her head on my shoulder.

The next morning I woke with a start. I had fallen asleep! I looked around for my brothers and sister. I would never forgive myself if they had gotten hurt. Instead I found May kneeled beside Simon and Bennett still curled up sleeping. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked my little sister.
“You were really tired, Anya. I figured you could use the sleep.” She was right. I did feel better now that I had slept. “Did Aiden come back?” I asked. She shook her head.
I went to wake up Bennett. “Come on, Benny, get up. We need to—” I stopped because May gasped and I spun around. A dozen men emerged from the foliage, surrounding us. They all had guns. I whipped out my knife, hoping I looked like I knew how to use it. One man stepped forward. When I focused on him, I realized he was younger than the others, about my age perhaps. He had a gun as well. He walked towards us and I positioned myself between him and my siblings. He stopped a few feet away from us and gave a one-sided smile.
“Put the knife down, love. Someone could get hurt.”