They're here. I can hear the cars approaching, the engines stopping, the doors opening.

I tap my sister awake.

She opens her eyes soundlessly. There's a question in her eyes and I simply nod. No words are said. She knows.

Footsteps pad to the house as we leave the barn through the little hole in the wall.

Our sacks are already packed. We never expected more than a few seconds warning. I toss the blanket over my shoulder.

We slowly creep through the grass, then we break out into a run into the plains.

My sister is the first to give out. She's smaller, her legs don't reach as far.

"Come on!" I say, and I crouch down, and she climbs onto my back.

The stars have begun to come out, and I can hardly continue to run. My legs are burning, my lungs burn for oxygen.

Nights are cold, awfully cold, and we need shelter. We come across some train tracks and follow them west, hoping to find a station, find anything.

But nothing comes.

In the end we find some modicum of shelter in a little mound of earth. We duck into the crevice and huddle together under our blankets.

We share an orange. I don't have a knife so I peel through it with my teeth.

I try to stay awake, straining my ears to hear. The cold bites my clothes. I let my sister keep the blanket.

But eventually I succumb to sleep.

---

I'm woken by the sound of dogs. My sister is already awake.

They're close. I am aching everywhere from yesterday, but I have to get up.

We grab our stuff and run.

In moments we can see a hound bounding behind us. We hear distant barking.

My sister screams and runs faster, I try not to outpace her. She drops her pack and throws it at the hound.

We splash through a stream.

We hear shouts. Barking.

We dash through grass, leap through trees.

And we stop. Far, far beneath us we can see the ocean.

They're coming closer.

We lock eyes. We have a better chances with the ocean than with them.

I grab my sister's hand, and pull her towards the cliff edge with me. She nods slowly in my direction. Then we jump.