Anna looked around their surroundings while she watched her daughter play on the swings. Nothing was the same after the flare, life had gotten increasingly complicated and people kept vanishing. Watchers walked around with riot shields and people were confined indoors.

Her daughter loved the park though, before the flare Anna took her everyday. She looked over to her black haired, blue eyed, beautiful little eight year old. She was smiling, oh Anna would do anything to see her smile like this.

The wind rustled the trees and her attention was broken. Everything was cause for alarm.

“Mom look what I can do!!”

Her daughter ran over to her with a toy car wheel floating between her open hands. Reclaiming Anna’s attention.

“How are you doing that?”

She looked closely as it flipped and turned unattached to anything at all. And her daughter, the smile was undeniably growing.

“I don’t know. My hands feel tingly when I do it.”

Anna looked around again then back at her daughter.

“What else can you lift? Did you try a rock?”

She was filled with concern and excitement, and her questions were without number. She watched as her daughter tried item after item each one bigger and heavier than the last. When the girl focused onto the tree making the branches move Anna noticed her straining. Her face scrunched as she focused on each branch, and she began to grunt as they moved.

“Baby I think that’s enough… you might hurt yourself. “

Worry hinting in her voice.

“No…. I… think… I… can…”

She took a loud breath between each word as she struggled to move the tree.

“Enough, you aren’t listening to me. I said to stop!”

After she yelled fast footsteps could be heard behind them as soldiers came from the forest. Anna looked at her daughter, an expression of panic painted on her face. She jumped off the bench she had been on to wrap her daughter in her arms as they were surrounded.

“Under paragraph J, subsection A5, line seven you are under arrest for the endangerment of others. You will be sentenced post your trail.”

The soldier speaking was reading from a piece of paper, not lifting their gaze until they finished. This one was slightly different than the rest, his helmet was red with a purple strip down the center where the others had plain black.

“Please, just allow us to return home, it’s not far away… we haven’t been gone very long…”

Anna’s eyes were teary as she held tight to her daughter. The soldier with the purple strip made a hand motion and two soldiers stepped forward taking Anna by the arm.

“No… let my mom go…”

Anna tried to shush her, trying to say they’re fine, everything would be fine, but her daughter got louder.

“LET HER GO!!! MOM!!!”

They started to pull the two of them apart when the unthinkable happened. That little body let out a scream so loud and powerful the trees surrounding them buckled and snapped. Splinters went flying through the air and the booming sound of the trees breaking was like a bomb.

Some of the soldiers ended up with large pieces of wood sticking through their bodies. She continued to scream and the riot shields shook with the force, some of the soldiers even knelt because they couldn’t stand it. She didn’t stop until every soldier was on the ground helmets off ears covered.

Her mother had her ears covered before anyone else because they all had helmets and she didn’t. The moment she was free she ran to her daughter standing behind her.

“Okay love we gotta go!”

She yelled to make sure her daughter could hear her. When her baby turned around she gasped, there was blood flowing out of her nose and she collapsed. Anna gently picked her up and ran into the woods towards their home while the soldiers were recovering from the ordeal.

“I’ve got you baby… I’ll keep you safe…”

She whispered as she ran.