Chapter 2: Present Day

The year 2021, Present Day..........

In the distance, the gloomy sky was rolling above her as she kneeled over the freshly dug wet dirt. The rain is pelting down in torrents, lashing against her back with ferocity. It’s bitterly cold outside, but that doesn’t seem to bother her as the pain in her heart appears to overpower all other emotions.

It has only been a day since they arrive in Bunga. The rest of the refugees who boarded with Lockheed C130 Hercules plane came from the east of Azran. They fled since the communist group had taken control of their country and the government had abandoned its people, leaving them to fend for themselves in the face of overwhelming odds.

Rachel and her sickly senior citizen mother were fortunate enough to take the military aircraft as the forces of neighboring countries withdrew their connections with Azrans.

It all happened far too quickly. They were only eating their breakfast while watching the news on television, which was reporting on the terrorist group that was wreaking havoc throughout their country. She is not politically inclined and has little interest in the parliamentary system of their government. The only thing on which she could concentrate was on keeping the roof over their heads, paying the bills, and purchasing the medication that her mother required on a daily basis.

They were living from paycheck to paycheck, free from the extravagance in life, and seemed to be contented with it as long as she had her mother. They’ve always been together since her father died due to pneumonia and promised on his deathbed to take good care of her mother. She kept that promise.

Just then, a sudden loud explosion erupted through the city, shaking the ground into dust. The intense impact knocked Rachel down on her knees, her heart thumping viciously on her chest. Afraid not for herself but to her mother. Quickly she jumped back to her feet and dashed to her mother’s side, who is fortunately still sitting on the chair. She gripped her by the arm and gently pulled her, keeping her protected from the falling debris using her one arm as they got out from their small rental apartment.

Chaos erupted on the street, with people fleeing in all directions in a state of terror. Smoke and clouds of dust blanketed the roads, bringing the cars toa grinding halt as their tires screeched against the asphalt. A few people remained motionless, stunned by what had just occurred, while the sounds of cries resounded all around them—those who were wounded and those who were mourning for the lives that were gone.

The blasts were like a tornado that hit them, sending splinters of both types of wood, metal, and shards of glass hurtling through the air like bullets. The tall skyscraper leveled to the ground, and fire erupted, making the atmosphere in bloody hues.

Even though it was horrifying to look at, Rachel managed to maintain her composure despite her emotions raging inside her. She took a deep breath and looked for a way out, all the while keeping her mother by her side.

Simply motivated by the adrenaline rush, she noticed an unlocked vehicle in the distance. Rachel ushered her inside the emptied door, settling her on the passenger’s seat and securing the straps across her chest before sprinting towards the driver’s seat. Fortunately, the key was still inserted into the ignition, and she didn’t have to go through the maze of wires to get the car to start again.

She immediately twisted the key and sparked up the engine, stepping through the gas and drive off. She wasn’t an excellent driver, nor did she desire to ignore the call for desperation, especially when their life was on the line.

She noticed a stout man waving both his hand in the air through the rearview, motioning them to stop. He was shouting behind and tried to chase them, but she pressed the gas harder, spraying more dust in its wake.

Probably the owner of the car she had stolen.

“I'm sorry,” she mumbles, her gaze fixed on the tangle

of traffic ahead. Steering to avoid being hit or to hit people that were running along the centerline.

With her hands gripping the seatbelt as if her life depended on it, Rachel’s mother shot her an unflattering look, but she only bit her lips and refused to meet her gaze.

Her morals about stealing flew out through the window.

All of them were confused, scared, and desperate to Stay alive.

She followed the rush of the distorted crowd, and it had taken them to the nearby Military Airforce of their city. Large aircraft were already taking off, and the crowds were waiting to board them were crammed together on the steel runway gate. The process of Starting a stampede has begun.

“What are we doing here, Rachie?”

Her mother asked as she was about to click the buckle off from her seatbelt. She looked at her in the eyes. Pair of confused steel grey stared back at her.

“See that, mother? We'll be going to ride one of them and leave the country.” She took her frail hands, clasping at them as she tried to explain to her what was happening.

“Leaving? Where would we go?” Her mother countered, appalled by the idea to leave the country

where she was born and bred. “Away from here, and we'll start a new life.”

“But Azran—”

“Everything is in disarray, and people are fleeing, including us.” She cut her off because she didn’t want to extend their stay in this place any longer than necessary.

It pains her as well to leave the country that she knew of. The memories she had with her father and everything in her life. It was a decision that she didn’t expect she could come up to, but they are in haste, and there’s no time for second thoughts.

Either they lived, or they died.

Nonetheless, at this point, all she wanted to do was get her mother somewhere she could be safe.

Another explosion erupted, hitting the same spot as the first one.

Rachel braced her mother as the car rocked

furiously, and the people around them had been knocked down from the impact. As soon as they recovered from the bow, she helped her climbed down the car, and then they weaved through the throng of eager people. Shielding her mother against the tight bodies that were pressing against them.

They reached through the gate. She begged one of the foreign military men to passed through. They were denied at first, said that no civilians were allowed to enter military premises, but she was persistent and kept on begging. She even asked them to take her mother despite her protest.

Chaos had raged on, ramming the steel gate until it groaned under the influx of the crowd. Rachel took the distraction to her advantage and dragged her mother as they slipped through the military personnel without being noticed.

As the gate collapsed and the camp was breached, some of them rushed to join the others. They race through the last plane. Its ramp was still down, and Rachel urged her mother to hold it into her hands as they ran. Her legs started to falter, her knees buckled, but she kept on pushing and never looked back. As they get closer to the ramp, one of the military personnel onboard manages to reach his arm. She first gave him her mother’s hand to ensure that she boarded the plane safely before leaping and hitching the ramp as the aircraft began to take off and take off.

Relief washed over her when the aircraft lifted from the ground. She hugged her mother and stayed close to each other as they were being transported to another place where they would start anew.

However, this is what she wasn’t expecting.

She never thought that she would be left alone in this new place. She had only fallen asleep, and when she woke up, her mother’s cold, lifeless body huddled into her. She thought she was only having a nightmare, that she hadn’t woken up yet and that her mother was only playing a joke on her.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t play jokes.

Rachel called out for help, and even before they landed, her mother was declared dead.

The feeling of relief had been replaced by one of grief.

She was partly blaming herself for her death. The exertion from running and nervousness must have taken a toll on her life. She was sickly and old, and if only she had listened to her and didn’t leave their country, she could’ve been alive still.

Rachel closed her eyes, her sobs drowned by the rolling thunder that roared above her. Tears were blending with the rush of raindrops rolling on her cheeks as she cried. Dirt was caked under her nails, digging her fingers at her mother’s grave.

“Mother, I’m so sorry,” she lamented, weeping in the middle of the rain.

She was buried along the military base here in Bunga, a privilege given to them by the Bunga government. As an asylum to those who have taken refuge in their country.

Slick footsteps caught her attention, but she didn’t turn around to see who it was. Only then the rainfall parted around her as the silhouette of an umbrella hovered above her head, and a hand landed over her shoulder. Offering as sympathizing pat.

“Miss Dockham, there’s a storm coming. You need to get back inside.”

She recognizes the woman’s voice. The military doctor helped her on the plane when she noticed that her mother wasn’t breathing anymore.

Breathing out heavily, she opened her eyes once more and stared at the single white rose that was placed on top of her mother’s grave.

“I love you,” with a whisper, she stood. Careless with the mud that stained her legs from kneeling too long on the ground before she turned around, urging her feet to take heavy steps back into the tent where she had stayed.

The doctor followed her but didn’t say anything.

Now that she is left alone, Rachel doesn’t even know how to start picking up the broken pieces of her life in this foreign land. But one thing she’s sure of, everything is about to change, and fate had begun rolling her destiny in its palm.