Why Me

Someone elbowed me. I must have fallen asleep. I look over and the person in the seat next to me had accidently elbowed me. I shrug. I then stretch a bit and look around me. Steph is asleep, and Robby is looking out the window. I look at the digital clock by the gate. It says it is 1:00. Only an hour left to go. I stand up, grab my bag, and head towards the restroom.
There aren’t many people in the restroom, so it’s kinda quiet. Except for the occasional toilet flush.
I put my bag down next to me, by the sink. I turn the faucet on, and splash some cool water on my face. I then take out my face wash, and start washing my face. This makes me feel a little bit better.
I reapply my makeup, and then brush my teeth. While brushing my teeth, a lady comes out of her stall, and smiles at me.
I spit and smile back at her.
“Where are you headed?” The lady asks.
“I’m on my way to Allenvill Texas.”
“That’s great! Helping all those people clean up that small little town! You must be very brave to do this. But you’ve probably already seen bombed out cities and towns before, haven’t you?”
“Ya I have. But I really didn’t have a choice in this matter. Allenvill is my home town. I’m not going back there to help clean up. I’m going there to see what’s left, and burry my friends and family.”
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” I could see that the lady really felt bad.
“It’s ok.”
“No it’s not. I feel awful!” She looks at her watch, “I have to go now, I don’t want to be late. Nice to meet you.” She leaves.
I pack up my stuff and I go back to the gate. That’s when I remember that I was going to take pictures for everyone back at camp. Steph is up now, so I ask her to come with me to get the camera. “Sure!” So we go to one of those random stores.
We pick out a 27 picture disposable camera, deciding that on the way back, we can go into town and get it developed.

On our way back, I start thinking about the morning before we heard of this bombing. I turn to Steph, “Remember when we were talking about that rummer about this war being almost over?”
“Ya, why do you ask?”
“Because I don’t think it’s almost over. With this bombing here in the United States...”
“I don’t think so ether. Well I guess it was just a rummer!”
“Yup.” When we get back, it’s almost time for us to go. Me, Steph, and Robby are the only ones going on this helicopter. Robby is now standing my our bags, waiting for us to get back.
When we get closer, I realize that he has a really serious face. “You guys, come with me.” He picks up our bags, and we follow him out a door.
We end up going out side. I look at Steph, and she shrugs her shoulders. We have no idea were he is taking us.

We walk for a little bit, and I realize that we are walking to the helicopter. Half way there we are met by a young man. He looks like he is in his early 20's. He takes some of the bags from Robby.
Once we get to the helicopter, he takes all the bags and puts them inside. He then turns to us. “Hi. My name is John. I will be your escort.”
I’m kinda confused. I look at Steph, “I thought Robby was our escort.” I kinda have to yell, it’s so loud.
“Robby and I are both yall’s escorts.”
“Oh, ok!” Steph and I then board the helicopter.

The helicopter ride takes about three hours to get to Allenvill. I’m reading from a magazeen. Steph taps me on the shoulder, “Fae, we’re here.”
I look out the window, and what I see makes my heart sank.
Almost everything is gone. All of the buildings are crumbled. A couple things are burning still. It all looks like a bunch of dirt from up above.
“We will be landing very shortly!” John yells from up front.
I try and look for something that looks familiar. Steph is taking pictures already. She hands me the camera so I can take some from my side.
Soon we did land. We landed in a field near by, just in case something, or someone was in the rubble.
I don’t want to get out. Everyone is waiting for me outside of the helicopter. The engine is off now. I just can’t get myself to move.
Steph climbs back inside. “Fae, come on. You have to go sooner or later.” She was right.
I got up and walked back out with her.
I looked around me.
I recognize where we are. We are in front of the main road. We start walking forward. I see very few people help clean up. I can’t bring myself to help them. They all look at us. Some smile, but most start crying, thanking God that we are there. John then yells, “Everyone! We have food and water in the helicopter! We also have some fresh clothes, blankets, and a bunch of first aid kits for anyone or anything!” I look at him, realizing why he was there. He was there to help the people.
Everyone then went running towards the helicopter.
We kept walking. “Why don’t you guys go do what you’re here for. John and I will help these people, and help clean up. We will be here if you guys need us.” Robby then turned and walked back to the helicopter.
Steph and I then kept walking. I recognized everything around me. We were taking pictures like crazy, thanking god that we had another one in my bags.
“Fae?” I heard someone say my name. I turned around to see a man by one of the crumbled buildings. He was bleeding very bad, but he looked familiar.
“Yes.” I say.
“Oh my god. Fae! I bet you don’t recognize me!” He starts slowly walking towards us. “Fae, it’s me Andrew. Andrew Elm. I went to school with you!”
I finally recognize him. I heardly know him, but it is him. “Do you mind if we take a picture of you. It so people know what happened here.” Steph asks.
“Sure. I don’t mind.” She took a couple of pictures.
“Wow you are bleeding bad. Sit down, and we will help bandage you up.” I say, getting out the first aid from the bag.

“Thank you.” He sits.
We bangage him up, and tell him to go to the helicopter for some more help. “And tell the officers there that Fae and Steph bandaged you up. Cause they will wonder how you got bandaged up.”
“Ok and thank you!” And with that, he left.
“Old memories, huh?” Steph says.
“Ya.” I look down at the ground. “I think we should keep going.” I turn and start walking. Steph follows.
I then came up to a street that looked familiar. It was my street. I think Steph saw it in my face, cause she grabbed my hand. “Fae, lets do this together.”
We start walking down the street. And I found my house. “This is it.”
“This is your house?” Steph asks.
“Ya.”
“Well lets go see what we can find.”
I take a deep breath, and I walk towards what use to be my house.
We start shifting through the rubble. Looking for anything that I could save.
I found really random things. I found some pens, pencils, a shoe. I found a stuffed bear, my mom had given me when I was young. I found a picture frame, it was a picture of when I turned 18. My parents were in the back. I was in the middle. My sister and Mark were next to me. Katie and Henry were on the other side. I had a big birthday cake in front of me. I had a black eye. It was the year before my sister died.
Seeing this picture makes me smile. Remembering that birthday party.

~Flashback~

“Fae! Fae! You have to hurry up! You’re gonna miss your cake!” Katie yells from the other room. I am trying on my new clothes I had gotten as a present from my sister. The pants are way too big, but I can live with them.
I start running down the stairs so I wouldn’t miss the cake, but I tripped. I fell and hit my head on a plant, causing my eye to become brused.
My mom runs in to see what happened. Katie follows her, followed by Henry. “Fae you look like you got into a big fight!” Henry yelled.
Katie punched him in the stomich. I laugh.
“Come on Fae. Lets eat some cake and we will ice that eye.” My mom says, helping me up.
We hurry back down, and Mark’s friend takes the picture.

~End Flashback~

Tears start falling. Steph comes over to me and gives me a hug. “Lets put that in your bag.” She takes the picture from my hands, brushes it off, and puts it in my bag.
We don’t find much else, except for a couple of photos, and some juice. Steph finds something, but claims that she didn’t find anything.
We walk out of there, and down the street. Steph is still taking pictures.

We walk down another street that looks familiar. I realize that it’s Katie and Henry’s street. I find Katie’s house first. Her car is only half there. I walk into what use to be the house. Steph and I start shifting through things.
Steph is the first one to find a body. It is Katie’s mom.
I help Steph pull her out to the street.
We the look again, finding Katie’s dad. We take him out too.
Then we find Katie. I could hardly recognize her. Her hair is all madded with blood. Her leg almost burned off. We take her to where her parents are. Steph snaps a picture.
We find a cart, and we put them on it.

Next is Henry’s house. We find Henry’s parents together. And Henry in the back.
After we found them, I realize that I hadn’t found my brother. We start searching everywhere. Finding lots of bodies. But we never found my brother. ‘Where could he be?’ I wonder.
We then find a place to burry everyone. It’s a nice pasture with what looks like a barn next to it. While burrying everyone, I realize that the barn was the stables. I feel a tug in my chest. We keep going.
“Fae, do you hear that?” Steph says.
“What do you mean?”
“I think I heard something coming from that barn.”
“I think your hearing thin....”
“Shhhhh! I hear it again!”
I listen, and sure enough, I hear it to. It sounds kinda like a whine. I get kinda curious. “Hey Steph. Stay here and keep doing this. I’m gonna go see what that is.” I start walking towards the barn.
The closer I go the louder it is. Then it stops. I turn and look at Steph. Shes busy. I keep going though.
It’s quiet till I get to the barn. The barn is destroyed. I see a few dead horses. I see Trixy, Shadow, and Thunderbird. I see a few others that I don’t recogize. They must have been new.
I hear the noise again.
I start walking towards the noise. It’s coming out from under the wall that had fallen. I see a lead rope, and I figure it must be a horse. I then yell, “Steph come quick and help me out would ya!”
She starts running towards me.
Once she got there, she helped me lift the wall up. I look down.