"Lunch's ready," a woman's voice echoed.

I turned my gaze from the book that I was reading to the foods served on the table.

There were potatoes. Hot, charred potatoes sat on the small wooden table as if they were proud to be the only delicacy our family had at that moment. I gulped and immediately put away my book.

"Sorry honey, you must be tired of eating potatoes every day. I promise you next week we'll have some fresh bread," the woman tried to cheer me up.

I shook my head. "No, Mommy. I like it. We only have these much anyway. I don't mind."

Mommy smiled upon hearing my words. "My, my. My little daughter always looks so mature."

She playfully pulled at my cheek and I giggled from it. Deep within me, I knew Mommy didn't believe when I said I didn't mind having potatoes every day. It was true though. Having grown accustomed of our family's daily routine, I slathered my portion of potatoes with sauce and took a huge bite.

"Ava dear, it's hot."

"Nggh. It's not. It's not that hot, Mommy."

Mommy put up a thin smile when I swallowed the potato chunk. Having convinced the potatoes were not that hot as she had expected, Mommy took one from the bowl and bit at it.

"...Hot."

"No, it isn't!"

"Ava, you don't have to act tough. Here, have some water."

I grumbled and took the glass of water Mommy had poured for me. Petulantly, I gulped down the water and Mommy sighed from it. We ate the potatoes served while chatting once a while, waiting for Daddy to come back.

"...He's late. Did something happen?" said Mommy under her breath.

"Maybe Daddy is working overtime, like that day," I said.

"......."

The front door creaked and a tall man approached both of us.

"Daddy!" I went and hugged his leg, but his attention was on the window overlooking the street.

He looked grim.

"Dear, what's wrong?" Mommy said to him in a nervous tone.

He bit his lip before answering. "There's something wrong. Johnny told me he saw... tanks, jets... Black military jets."

"It's them," said Mommy sharply, her serious countenance made me shrunk myself behind Daddy.

"There were commotions... It seems like it has begun." He paused. "While I don't think it's the right time for us... we need to make a run for it. At least until we can get into there."

"I agree. But where do we go?"

"At father's place. We should be okay for a while there."

"......."

My mind came up with a few questions. What are they talking about? Why are both of them whispering to each other? Is there something I should not know?

Finally, Daddy came to me and said softly, "Ava, we're gonna be alright. We'll go to your grandfather's house and stay there for a while. Okay?"

I was perplexed. Daddy's and Mommy's prodding managed to assuage my nervousness and in the end, I couldn't help but nod in agreement as well.

It's gonna be alright. Stay close to us. There's nothing for you to worry about.

Their incessant words of encouragement never failed to escape their lips as we exited our house. We were on our way to grandpa's house when the townspeople ran out of their houses as well, screaming. I stumbled upon a young boy who I'd known for two years by then.

"Dale, where are you going?"

"Ava!"

Dale didn't answer my question and followed his parents as they ran in the other direction.

"...Why is everyone running? What is happening, Daddy, Mommy...?"

Before any of my parents could reply, the ground vibrated and I dropped to my knee. Fires broke out in the buildings ahead of us while the tremor grew stronger than before. I screamed and screamed, not wanting to let go of Daddy. Once it stopped, Mommy and Daddy looked at me and then they breath a sigh of relief.

That was when my eyes caught sight of people pouring out in endless streams from the road to our left.

"What the..." Daddy picked me up and carried me in his arms, like I was a princess to him. I felt happy for a moment, but quickly returned to reality when more people hollered their lungs out from every direction. The townspeople poured from all sides and some bumped into Daddy.

"D-Daddy!" I screamed.

"It's gonna be alright!"

However, the ground quivered once again and Daddy fell on both knees when he was running at full speed. He didn't let go of me, but...

"...I sprained my leg," Daddy said.

"Dear!"

"Take Ava to father's place. Now! I'll be fine!"

"B-But Daddy!"

Mommy took hold of me and pulled my hand, as she trudged through the endless wave of townspeople. Unknowingly, my body was carried along with the streams of frightened people and Mommy's hold of me broke. My hand slipped away from her, and I was forced to head back from where we came following the violent rush.

The people pushed me and some even hit my shoulder as they ran.

That was when a whistle sound hovered over me and I looked up.

A flash of light blinded my sight and I closed my eyes instinctively.

Everything after that was a blur. There were explosions one after another and screeching, rebarbative screams of the townspeople. My dainty body moved like I was bouncing on a trampoline back at my friend's house and I bounced and bounced before I fell flat. Then there was this sharp pain that I was feeling. Something just brushed over my leg, grinding against it mercilessly, and when the pain heightened, I let out a piercing scream of my own.

Before I knew it, the darkness embraced me and put my body to sleep.

I thought I had a nightmare.

"Sir! She's just a kid!"

"She's just a kid, huh. Private Derrick Jones, we have orders to kill everyone in this area. An order from the higher-ups is not something you can go against."

"...But I brought her to this nearest base so that she could recover. To find her parents. Perhaps they are among the civilians we held captive in the hangar back at the temporary HQ. She... Ava is just a kid."

"Even if she's a kid. Remember your priorities, soldier. We have dirtied our hands enough by the higher-ups. The life of a single child means nothing to us anymore. Our utmost and crucial order is the extermination of this group living in the area. This place is the only ones left standing amidst the other places that we have come into contact with, so when this is over, you can go back to your family."

"...Did you do this to other kids too? Without us privates and other low-rank infantries knowing, you sullied your hands more in the blood of children?"

"Private Derrick Jones. Another stupid question from you and I'll demote you to second class. Do you understand?

"...I understand, Sir. I apologize for my rudeness."

"Good. Head back to your station."

Someone was carrying me when I heard the conversation. He or she started to move after receiving some form of order. The person was silent.

I could not open my eyes. They were too heavy and I could still hear the clicking of boots surrounding me. Suddenly, this person stopped.

I heard a door creaked open, perhaps a wooden door. In the next moment, I was thrown into somewhere deep before I landed hard on a pile of bags. That was what came first into my mind, but they were not bags. I tried opening my eyes again. This time, wondering why it was easier than the last time, I succeeded.

That was when the sight of piles of bodies enveloped me.

"Erk!"

I jerked up. There were bodies lying around everywhere, as far as my eyes could see.

"No, no, no, no, no, no." I shook my head vigorously and covered my face. It was horrid. I didn't want to see it.

I found myself gasping for air, but as I took in more of it, I coughed. My nose felt like it was burning and I rubbed it hastily. I felt sick. It was hard to get rid of that strong smell in the air and before I could restrain myself, I vomited all the contents in my stomach. It was excruciatingly awful. The air smelled like meat but it was stronger, with a mix of cheese and a disturbingly sweet stench.

I tried to cover my nose with my white dress but it didn't help much. I noticed that my left leg didn't hurt anymore. Curious, I struggled to open the bandages and found nothing.

No wounds whatsoever left on my leg.

There was only cold, dried blood on my skin.

I blinked. "What is happening...?"

I stood there for quite some time, having all kinds of thoughts about how and why it was the way it had been. But then, the awful smell brought me back to reality.

"Mommy.... Daddy... Where are you? Why did you leave me here?"

I cried, but my eyes refused to shed tears. My chest hurt so much. I dropped to my knees and slowly, I hugged myself.

Finally, it hit me that I was truly alone in that place. No one was there to help me. There were no Mommy or Daddy or Grandpa and my friends were not there either. I didn't understand anything that happened so far. Those soldiers came out of nowhere, and after that, everyone started to disappear bit by bit. They left me.

I sobbed. "Maybe they will come to me if I wait..."

At that time, these words I spat were like a lumiere in the darkness, and I took solace from it. I waited and waited for who knew how long.

"I suggest you start moving," said a faint, monotone voice.

I got up quickly and turned around, but there was no sign of another person talking.

The place was a bit dark, and the only area that was visible to me were those bodies.

I scratched my head and found out that it was wet.

"Eeek!" It was a dried patch of blood. But I remembered being attacked somewhat by those soldiers. When that happened back then, I fell down to the floor from something.

"This..."

Carefully, I poked at the spot where it felt painful before, and sure enough, there was no wound. Confusion struck me.

"What is happening?" I said between my sobs.

A moment later, images of my parents slapped me into focus.

"...Start moving," that voice repeated itself in my mind. Along with it came a foreign sense of courage as Mommy and Daddy's images flickered in my vision.

"I have to find them," I finally said to myself. Their happy faces helped me to calm myself down. However, I still gagged at the smell.

"It hurts. I don't like this. But.... They might be looking for me—"

Start moving.

Those two words plastered itself at the forefront of my mind.

Start moving.

I trotted over the bodies trying to look for my parents with the help of a single bulb hung loose at the ceiling as my light source. Though, each of the faces of the dead and their smell made it hard to think. Anguish, grief, sadness, were welling up inside me.

"Mommy..." Again, my eyes refused to shed tears despite the emotions overwhelming me..

"Mommy?"

A strange light flowing from a rectangle line at the end of the room caught my attention. 'It must be a door', I thought.

S—tart mov—ing.

I walked to it, carefully moving my legs over the bodies as I crossed them.

"It's locked. Mommy must be out there!"

Just imagining her face waiting for me behind the door was enough to quell my fears. After all, she was just there. The knob on the door refused to budge. I pushed harder and even slammed my fists onto the door as hard as I could, but it was to no avail.

"Wait, someone's on the door," a voice on the other side stopped my heart for a second.

There were people behind that door, but it was a man's voice.

I was pulled forward when the door opened abruptly.

"What the hell? There's a kid here," said a tall, muscular man in a black jacket. There was another guy behind him.

All of a sudden, I hugged the tall man at his waist and cried. I didn't know why I did that, but it was something I had to do. The atmospheric disparity from the dark room to that new bright, white corridor left me with a little trace of happiness inside. There was no Mommy or Daddy, but even so, I was grateful.

I then realized both of them didn't look like they were one of those "soldiers". Their clothes were casual, namely T-shirts and jeans.

"Damn. What do we about her, Nick? We need to get this to the boss," said the muscular man. He pulled out a disk and showed it to the other man, Nick.

"We gotta do what we gotta do, George. We need to get that info to the group. She'll just slow us down," replied Nick.

"Yeah, I suppose so." George looked at me sympathetically. "Sorry kid." He pushed my body away from him gently and turned forward to the corridor when suddenly, he jumped backward. His figure crashed into a pile of dead bodies in that previous room.

"Put your hands in the air!" shouted someone.

And yet, I saw no one else other than Nick, and it was not his voice. I shook my head and opened my eyes again. It was still the same.

"They're here already!?" muttered Nick in surprise. He tried to make a run for it but his body shook violently before he too crashed to the ground. Blood poured out from his chest and I screamed.

"Kill the kid too," a voice echoed throughout the corridor.

Knowing what would happen, I shielded my face. Afraid of the pain that would strike me, my eyes shed tears as I muttered incessant, incoherent mumbles to no one but myself.

Ah, my time has come at last.

Following the unknown, rough voice in my mind was a red object. It sprouted out of nowhere and a moment later, the corridor was painted in red blood. Three to four soldiers were caught in that mess, where objects that looked like large, red, jutting spikes had pierced their bodies.

The soldiers who were not in the corridor before had suddenly appeared, and in the next moment, they were pierced to death with this object.

The spikes appeared to be connected to my back.

It didn't make any sense.

However, I knew instantly what would happen.

From that day, it was apparent that I was stuck in a nightmare.

And waking up from it was never an option.