Part 4

Yael's father is invited for dinner.

After weeks of wandering around aimlessly in the hot sun, we were almost out of water. When we came across a makeshift fort my dad was happy and scared at the same time. The fort had high tin and cinder block walls, and a big gate, all of which was topped by razor wire.

There was a small group of trees not far from the walls. My dad wasn’t sure about the people there so he told me to hide in some bushes in the trees. I cried and begged him to not leave. He told me he would be right back, and to not come out unless he told me to. I asked him how long it would be. He just smiled and said, “Yael, what do I always tell you? Keep your hopes high and your head low.”

After that he kissed my cheek and walked to the gate. He yelled for someone to speak to him and was met by four men with guns poking over the wall. He asked if they were accepting new arrivals. When he saw children on the other side of the gate he told the men that he had a daughter. The men looked at each other and disappeared behind the wall for a few minutes before walking to the gate with a woman.

I heard the woman say that they would take care of us for as much as they could. She asked where I was and he pointed towards a shed near the wall. I wasn’t sure why he lied to them about where I was, but I assumed it was because he didn’t trust them. The woman nodded and sent two of the men to check for me. The others patted him down and walked him through the gate. After looking around for a while, the guards looking for me gave up, walked back through the gate, and locked it behind them.

I waited for hours to see my father again. I was expecting him to come get me at any minute and let me know it was safe to come out. But he never came. The sun went down, the night crawled by, and I had to cry myself to sleep. I woke up with my heart pounding out of my chest. I thought he had come back and woke me up, but I looked around and there was no sign of him. My heart sank even more when I realized I was woken up by the gate screeching open.

Two men with long shovels over their shoulders walked away from the wall started to dig. After a few hours they were waist deep in the ground. They climbed out and went back inside. I waited and watched, expecting them to drag a body out, but they never came back. The sun went down again and I was in for another night of crying myself to sleep.

The next morning I woke up to the same sound. I looked and saw the two men from before carrying a big tarp to the hole. They dumped something out of it into the hole, filled it in, and carried the tarp with them back through the gate. I tried my hardest to not think about what they dumped in the hole, but I knew I had to find out. I waited until it was dark, and then I snuck over to the patch of loose dirt.

I used a garden shovel that we brought with us from the house. I dug until my arms felt like they were going to fall off and I finally hit something. I thought it was the root of a nearby tree and tried digging around it. It didn’t take long for me to realize I could pull whatever it was out of the dirt. I pulled and it slipped at first, but after a little more digging it came free. I wasn’t sure what it was, but then the clouds moved away from the moon and I saw that what I was holding wasn’t a tree root.

I was holding what I could only assume was one of my father’s leg bones. It took everything I had in me to keep from screaming and muffle the sounds I did make. I was bawling and vomiting and trying my hardest to convince myself it wasn’t my father. I stumbled back to my hiding place. Unable to escape the truth, I wasn’t able to sleep all night.

Early in the morning the gate opened and a few men walked out. They started looking around the area for who was digging in their waste dump. They got closer to me and I didn’t know what to do. I started crying and had to muffle myself with both hands. Luckily a dog came running out of the bushes nearby. The men turned their attention to the dog, decided that it was the one responsible for digging up bones, and went back inside with the dog.

I stayed until sundown, still hoping to see my dad walk out. But I forced myself to accept the reality of the situation and leave. It had been years since I lost my home, my mom, and everything I knew as normal. Now I lost my dad, my dog, and my hope. I was all alone in what was left of the world. As I stumbled down the road the next day, I just prayed the vultures would put me out of my misery.

Author's Note

It's supposed to be a first person narrative. I want to flesh it out as much as it needs. Let me know what you think needs changed, dropped, or expanded on. Be critical.

Note from Part 1: This is both a turning point in her life and the story. From this part onward her memory is a lot more clear(despite my current lack of information) so I have a lot more room for expansion.

Reviews

[Andrew Leister-Frazier]

I like the writing style. Meaning the simple way you explaining events. Though I feel it reads more like a summary to a story than an actual story. I feel a lack of attachment to the characters.

[Jordan]

Thank you for reading. And this is pretty much a summary.

It started when creating characters for another story. I made biographies for everyone and Yael's became so long and detailed that I adapted it into this. I'm currently editing this into something between a novelette and a novella. It goes into a lot more detail, will be a lot better, and have a lot more character development that I hope helps the reader feel a connection.

I'm currently working on revision 1. And I've only done two parts. I was working on part 3 but my schedule went crazy and I'm having trouble getting to it at the moment(that should clear up soon and it will be full steam ahead).

I appreciate that you took time to read at least this far and apologize that the story doesn't have more to offer at the moment. The first two parts of the revision are floating around on my profile somewhere if you would like to check them out. Hopefully you'll like them better.