To Live Her Life

Oceané walked through the woody area about a half dozen miles away from the base camp where she started. Aleia's small hand was permanently attached in her own as Ibrahim walked just about 3 foot in front of the two girls; his small head going back and forth, from left to right, taking everything in.

On Oceané's back rested the rather large duffel bag, which had been slowly but surely emptied with the passing of the prior three days. At first the bag was almost too heavy to lift so she had to drag it for a while, yet with two growing, (about) 2 year old children, the food was disappearing quickly. She was beginning to realize that rationing their food is going to have to start very quickly or else they will starve later on.

-

Three days ago Mayine left her and the twins beneath the supposed “safety” of a crumbling building. Minutes after he left a bomb of some sort landed on said building, making pieces of rock and sand blast everywhere around them, causing the building to start crumbling before their eyes. She grabbed the small children and duffel bag, narrowly escaping the building that quickly flattened to the ground behind their backs. She will never forget that day.

It haunts her.

She spent what seemed like hours trying to navigate through the smoke ridden area, the blackness encompassing them, encircling and trapping them in their spots. Mayine was no where to be found and gunfire sounded everywhere around their bodies. At some points the shots rang so loudly in Oceané's ears she was sure the bullet shot right past her ear over her shoulders. Aleia scared, was picked up after that particular shot and Oceané held in her arms. Ibrahim, holding tightly onto her hand and walking flush against the side of her body only made the traveling harder for everyone but Oceané hadn't regretted taking them with her for a million dollars. She couldn't stand to think about anything happening to the two of them, she needed them to be safe, free from harm.

And then it happened

Aleia started screaming bloody murder...

Not knowing what had happened or what was wrong, all Oceané could do was coo in the younger girls ear and try to calm the toddler down. In all honesty Oceané was just as scared and frustrated as the children were. She wanted to cry and curl into a ball and stay there forever, away from all of this. But she had to stay strong for them.

The shots seemed to have at one point gotten closer with the noises being made by them as they tried to escape. Namely the screaming and crying being done by Aleia. However at the same time Oceané hadn't had a clue where she was going. Yet they continued forward until eventually meeting the edge of a field of some sort.

The smoke was becoming less dense however their eyes were already blurry, teary and burning too much to open and actually see. Nevertheless, Oceané had no choice but to do just that, keep them opened as the children whimpered from the burning their eyes were experiencing. She had to try and clean them out with a bottle of water and explain to them what had happened with the ash.

It was also around then that Oceané felt the sticky, wet substance dripping onto her hand supporting Aleia's body up onto her hip.

Red poured from Aleia's arm

Oceané was stuck at a crossroads. Travel on into the woods that looked to be just beyond the field, or wait there where the three of them were. Both she and Aleia were bloodied, she was barely able to walk because of her wound let alone stay walking much longer... Looking behind her, over her shoulder were huge smoke clouds, red and orange colored blasts and fires taking over buildings, people were running around crazily and others were left for dead on the dirt covered ground.

She kept going forwards through the field, ushering the children whom walked beside her each had a small hand in her own, ever keeping a close eye on the wooded area before her.

-
Oceané found out quickly that the duffel bag held a few medical supplies as well as the already found water bottles and food stuffs. She likewise found out that Aleia had only been grazed by a bullet or some other object for that matter. She wasn't sure of the actual cause of the wound, only that it was shallow and it quickly quit bleeding on its own. Only a few stray drops fell on Oceané's hand after it had happened. With 3 small band-aids vertically on Aleia small little upper arm, she was perfectly fine. It was almost like it never even happened. Luckily it wasn't worse although now Oceané had to be more careful of her if she bled as much as she did with a shallow cut, it could turn out badly if it were a bit deeper. She could easily loose too much blood..

Nothing is ever easy after all.

As for Oceané, the gash from her ankle to the back of her knee had scabbed over some with clotted blood. Yet with the enormous and endless amount of walking she has been doing, it continues coming open rather easily; usually a few times throughout the day. Each time she tries to ignore it though she can feel the large amount of blood seeping through the bandages and the pants covering her leg. Accompany that with stinging pain and light-headed bouts and you know you are in trouble.

Walking through a less dense part of the mountain's side in the woody area, she mentioned that they needed to take a break. Ibrahim had another idea in mind. Long since disregarding the previous events in the past he has become extremely interested in all the nature around him as he walked in front of the girls as a sort of scout if you will. He kept wanting to go, go, go; like the Energizer Bunny.

“ابراهيم يأتون إلى هنا" (Ibrahim, Come here) Oceané moved her hands in a motion towards where she and his sister were sat on the ground. Ibrahim turned, mumbled a “هو لامعة" (Is shiny) and pointed to a random spot on the dusty, fern littered ground. He ran off towards it before Oceané could tell him “no.” She made a move to stand up, though he stopped not too much farther away and bent down. Then the small boy ran towards her, stumbling over his own feet, waving an object in the air. He came straight towards her and eagerly pounced on her lap resting against her chest, making her let out an 'oomph' sound.

It was a tiny matchbox looking square item; silver and was only the size of a ring box. Ibrahim dropped it into her open palm as Aleia leaned against her shoulder staring at the object as well. Inside was a folded up piece of paper, a note, in Arabic.

But Oceané couldn't read it...

Frustrated she huffed angry at herself, pocketed the flimsy piece of paper into her pocket and laid the tiny box back in Ibrahim's hand. Upon doing so, of course Aleia, cranky as she was from lack of sleep began whimpering as tears flowed from her eyes. Oceané sighed.

“Aleia ، ماذا يكون الطفل على خطأ؟" (Aleia, what's wrong baby?) She whispered as she hugged the crying toddler to her chest. Her only response to that question was a mumble in her slurred baby voice, something about 'him getting the pretty thing but she didn't.' Oceané just rolled her eyes, knowing that she once did the same thing at 2 years old when her older brothers had something she couldn't, but that she wanted. However, now she understood the other side of the jealousy and childish antics, it was as if she were the parent to the two of them. In more ways than one, she may actually end up being one to them as well...

She wasn't sure what to do. How do you explain to one child that their twin gets the “toy” so-to-speak because he was the one who found it first? It just wasn't happening. Not to a 2 year old. So Oceané fingered the locket around her neck for the trillionth time that day (the action has grown into a bit of a “bad habit” over the past 3 days) and she slipped it over and off head head; replacing the long chain now around Aleia smaller neck. Just seeing it made the baby smile and giggle which was Oceané's goal in the situation. Mission accomplished? Ibrahim meanwhile could careless so it obviously was. He was a typical boy after all, they don't care about (in Aleia's words) “p'itty 'fings.”)

~~~~~

Mayine had been walking through and around the base for days.

Left for dead he stayed back at the base the first full day without moving an inch. It was then that the Ukrainians had quickly disappeared, leaving only he and his people behind. The Ukrainians seemed to have fled as quickly as they could in order to just save themselves, forgetting all about all their other 'mates.

Mayine, lay during that time, limp on the ground. A bullet lodged somewhere in his stomach/ ribcage and the other in his back almost directly centered between his shoulder blades. His people found him by searching through the base and found him barely alive.

That first day he had been patched up. The bullets removed, him bandaged and made to rest in an uncomfortable cot-like structure in the new makeshift camp site that was set up in the destroyed city. The very next morning he was able to sneak out and search himself for her. Asking if anyone had seen a young woman with purple-ish colored eyes. He had nothing else to go by. If he had told anyone of the clothing she was wearing of any other attributes of her the consequences could be astronomical not only for her, however for him as well. He had to find her, not kill her.

And he couldn't do that if he were imprisoned or killed either.

He searched high and low, searching grossly through even deadened bodies just to try and find her.

He hadn't

At least he had a hope they may be alive.

That second day she and the twins were missing, in the afternoon he searched around the base. His hopes both raised and dropped upon seeing a trail of blood leading away from the base and into the field. He had this feeling that it could be her; yet it may be someone else as well, an enemy who retreated. Thus he would be wasting quite possibly, extremely precious time. Still, he knew Oceané had been hurt which could account for the bloody trail... Even if, she was bleeding heavily... Would she even be alive? If it were her that is.

He made his way slowly back to the once again Arabic city (no longer being captured by the Ukrainians) with a heavy heart.

After consulting with his fellow Arabian's, he decided to forget about it. Oceané.

They all had a point, she was only a female. And although he had these sort of “caring” (if you will) feelings towards her, he couldn't waste his time on her... In dire situations like this, with a war going on, one missing woman and two children without any known birth parents were the least of their problems. Mayine had no choice but to let the three missing people fend for themselves. Law wasn't going to allow otherwise. Women weren't worth wasting time over in any circumstance in any regular day either so why would they be considered now at a time of distress.

This was never something Mayine wanted to have to do to anyone.

Since he was legally bonded back to the Arabic government the moment he was found, he had to obey.

But he wasn't about to give her up easily; she would continue to haunt his thoughts throughout the rest of that day, the next and most likely would continue into the future...

~~~~

The sun was high in the sky later on in that third day. Heat poured down on them, beating and slowly sucking the life from their already tired bodies. Oceané no longer had the strength to carry both the duffel and one of the children, namely Aleia so instead she went on slowly with only the duffel. Up ahead of her about 5 feet walked Ibrahim and Aleia, hand in hand. Aleia skipping and Ibrahim trying to keep up with his sisters giddy demeanor. All Oceané could do was simply smile slightly at the sight of them, she couldn't even laugh like she was in her head. She was exhausted.

As the sun got higher that afternoon, the heat rose. You could see it coming up from the earth in waves of white/transparent colored sizzles. Dizzily, Oceané tried to keep going but it was getting harder and harder to stop the land from spinning around her shaky body in circles, around and around and...

The last thing she remembers was falling to the ground.

Briefly opening her eyes she seen a path of some sort of foot prints, a freshly traveled one that looked to be traveled often for that matter. Muffled, echoing screams came after as her eyes closed again; slowly silencing as she felt her body being shaken back and forth after a bit of light pressure landed on it.