I felt Mathers start shaking me by the shoulders, ordering me to get up, but his voice was weaker, it trembled in fact. It was barely detectable, but I felt it reverberate through my very core. As he shook me, I let my head loll uselessly until - I saw it. Something. Movement. It was more than scorched strands of hair rippling strenuously in the breeze. It was a hand.
Peeling Mathers fingers of my branded skin, I focused my attention on the hand. The head tilted. I saw a faint glimmer in the eyes. She was alive.
'Look. You've seen it. Let's get out of here,' I urged with a bitter impatience.
'Yes, - yes, I'll, um, take the picture and we can get back to god's own country, eh?' I sighed with relief.
'I thought you wanted to leave? You're taking an awfully long time Jones.'
'Yes, ah, um, I just need to refuel, actually. I'll sort the can out and follow you in a minute.' Mathers raised an eyebrow pointedly at me.
'Right. Well, you better not be trying to play hero or trying any funny business, ok? Because I will find out, and God knows you don't even want to speculate what I'll do to you then. See you at work.' He slammed his aircraft door shut with a renewed vehemence, and an eternity later, took off, while I mimed filling up my fuel tank. The can nearly slipped from my grasp due to the droplets of sweat perforating from my skin.
It took me a few minutes to relocate her. The site was an acidulous mix of tangled corpses and brick dust. But- there she was! Not so much as a follicle had moved since we'd left. I prayed, overwhelming every atheist bone in my body, that she'd still be alive.
I lifted her into my throbbing arms, feeling her body slump lifelessly, as though she were merely a doll. Using my thumb, I removed some of the stubborn blackened soot impressed upon her face, revealing fragile, porcelain skin. I knew, if I were to drop her, she would shatter. I held her tighter, encompassing her with my arms, her skin on my skin; it felt the most natural thing in the world. From the darkest depths of my mutilated soul, I felt an unprecedented desire to protect her. We were the only two in the world. Until I saw the eyes.
Of course a crowd had gathered. They were wondering where their children were. And on closer inspection, speculating as to the explanation for the buildings no longer standing. I'd be held captive, questioned, tortured if they caught me. So I did the only thing I'd ever been even slightly proficient at; I ran.
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