The buildings streaked against each other, a shrieking, shredding sound as the walls tore open like a paper bag. The ground rattled, and the mound of people slipped. I slipped. My hands gripped tighter around my screaming sister. Someone above shouted, “Throw her over.” A man, standing atop a pile of broken, teetering furniture, his hands just grazing the top of the gate. I put both hands under Rosa-May’s butt and pushed with every ounce of strength I had. She tumbled through the air and landed on the man’s chest.
She was safe. I got her out. My lips pressed together to suppress the panicked howl I wanted to loose. I spun around to tell mother, but she was lost in the sea of slipping, desperate people. People who were now truly panicking. People I was standing on top of.
The houses finally gave way and smashed against each other, a large section of wall shooting up like a buoy released from deep underwater. I clung to the gates as it sailed passed me and hit the wall to my right. Gwen and Denis stood on the other side, their hands wrapped around mine. My face creased with exertion, my breath stinging like pins in my throat.
“Just jump,” Gwen screamed over the crashing. But I wasn’t a grasshopper like her. I wasn’t strong enough. I held fast, unwilling to let go as the world suddenly dropped beneath me. Someone grabbed my leg like it was a rope. My limb stretched and strained as I wound my arms around the gate bars and locked them together, my skin tearing as the weight dragged me down the rusted iron. The person slid down, pulling my sock and shoe with them. My leg felt like it would pop from my hip socket at any moment but then my shoe slipped off my foot, and the weight was gone. My floor of people was gone.
She was gone.
A tight sob caught and made a nest in my throat. One I would never dislodge.
I closed my eyes tight. If I looked? If I watched the source of what was ringing and slicing at my ears? I might as well let go.
The camera above me zipped and focused in on what was beneath me.
I clung ten feet up a gate with nothing but air below me. A neat circle of metal lined the crumbling dirt like a cookie cutter. Water rushed below, the screaming had stopped behind me, but was only just starting on the other side of the gate. On the safe side, where children had watched their parents disappear into the ground.
My arms pulsed. I couldn’t hold on much longer.
I’d lost my mother.
Lost her.
Rosa-May’s screaming pierced my ears and I opened my eyes, searching for her in the crowd. People were running scared. They didn’t know it was just Ring Two; they could probably feel the earth about to dissolve under them. Gwen had been knocked back by the crowd, but she had Rosa-May safe in her arms. Safe.
I’ll keep her safe for you, Mother. I promise.
My thin knees pressed between the gaps of the bars, the cold, and the pain of everything trying to engulf me like the yawn of a lion. Slowly, my body slackened. My arms couldn’t hold on any longer. My fingers loosened. Gwen stood beneath me, screaming, with a small child clutching her who looked just like me but with warm brown eyes. I couldn’t even see Denis.
“Here.” A warm voice, so familiar it was like a blanket thrown over my shoulders. It was a ratty chair I sunk into, arms I sought forever. “Rest your knee on my shoulder.”
I looked down, to see a round, muscled shoulder pushed against the bars. I let my knee fall to rest, my muscles screaming relief.
Old eyes blinked up at me, green eyes with flecks of gold in them. Rippled, golden hair with streaks of grey. A perfect, unbroken nose. The eyes crinkled into a smile and my heart opened, filleted and bared.
“My name is Jonathan,” he said, deep and rumbling, and I almost slid off the bars because I was melting.
I summoned my strength, pulled my foot up to his shoulder, and stood. “You’re Joseph’s father,” I whispered in wonderment. Was I imagining him?
He wobbled a little in shock, and I leaned away from the gate. Strong arms grabbed my ankles.
“You knew my son?” he asked as he helped me climb over the gate.
I love your son.
I reached the top and between bursts of shocked breaths and tears, I managed to say, “I know your son, Jonathan,” as I flopped over the top of the gate and landed on him.
He laughed, and I found it hard not to hug him. To let the warmth of his laughter cover and protect me.
A small, gentle voice came from behind him. “Jonathan, we need to leave.”
He pulled me up to standing, and I rushed to Rosa-May and Gwen. I tugged on her little arms, checked her legs, and squatted down to dust the tears from her face.
“I’m your big sister. My name’s Rosa too.” She nodded shyly, her plump stomach swinging back and forth under a tight grey jacket. “I’m going to take care of you now.”
“Where Mama?” she asked, though I think she knew.
My heart sliced into a thousand pieces, and I handed one large part to her to keep. “It’s just going to be you and me for a while, but I promise I’ll look after you,” I said, barely managing to speak. My eyes connected with Gwen’s, who mirrored my sorrow. But the strength behind them was burning.
“Do you think they’ll follow through with the plan?” I asked.
“They always do.”
Jonathan stepped forward. “What plan?”
“Our friends and your son are going to free us from this place,” Gwen announced.
My eyes followed the streams of fleeing people getting further and further away from us.
The woman tugged on Jonathan’s large arm. “Jonathan, even if it is our Joseph she’s speaking of, we still need to leave right now,” she urged. Her eyes flicked to me briefly. “Please girls, come with us but come now. It’s not safe here.”
“Wait Steph,” he said, putting his hand up. “What does she mean by free us?” he directed to me.
“There’s a lot to explain, too much, but for now… just follow the people,” I said, pointing towards the last stragglers running away from the shattered Ring.
I picked Rosa May up and swung her onto my back. Her wet face rested in my hair. I swore I would find a way to ease her tears but right now, she had every right to them. I dried my own and walked towards the outer Ring. My eyes to the sky.
ROSA
I’m too used to grief. I expect it. It’s a sad friend that wraps itself around my ankles and makes me drag it through the streets. These empty, ghost-like streets.
Back in this grey world, I felt like a child.
“He’s gone, Rosa,” Gwen said lightly, like she knew it would happen.
“Huh?” I could barely concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.
“That Denis guy, your friend.” She swept her head back and forth, her plait snaking up and down her shoulder, an offered rope of safety withdrawn, her eyes running over empty doorways and doors half-cracked. She winced every time she saw a body in the street. Trampled. I swung Rosa-May to my hip so I could shield her eyes.
“He wasn’t my friend, not really.” He used me. I used him. I wasn’t surprised that he took off.
Rosa-May kept saying Mama over and over again as we passed through gate after gate. It was like a steady flow of small punches to the stomach. I crumpled deeper at each repetition.
Joseph’s parents were quiet in their horror. Several times, Jonathan ran to a trampled body to check their pulse. Every time he returned, shaking his head. Steph kept her hand over her mouth like that would stop fear from winning, horror from slipping out. Pau Brazil was now a hollow shell. Footsteps sounded like single stones falling from the sky. Solitary, too loud.