3, 2, 1.

Shiloh ran the emerald grass between her neatly painted fingers and toes, marveling at how soft it felt and how, until this moment, she had never noticed it was just so comfortable on the skin. It had never crossed her mind to simply lay in a patch of freshly cut grass before. She took in a deep breath inhaling the scent of nearby dandelions and honeysuckle. When was the last time she got to just relax like this?

Suddenly, a bang, followed by a golden flash of light. As the earth beneath her began to rumble ominously, she felt a familiar hand grip roughly onto her shoulder.

“Shiloh, c’mon we have to go!” he screamed. “Shiloh get up! Why aren’t you moving?”

Shiloh tried her mightiest but could neither lift her bottom nor legs from the grass.

“Oliver, I can’t move!” she cried.

Panicked she swiftly looked behind her for her older brother’s calling voice. She felt him grab her by both arms as her body began to rise from the grass. Suddenly another bang and she was back, in reality, sitting up in her bunk in the darkness of the early morning.

She gasped for air immediately, as she did Oliver awoke with her and sat up next to her, reaching for her hand.

“Shiloh, you’re okay, it was another dream.” He soothed gently squeezing her hand. Shiloh released her breath and then his hand.

“…I know, I know” she reached for her flashlight under her pillow and illuminated the room. Once her vision had cleared, she made her way to the room’s single window and opened the blinds as hazy light filled the room.

“Another foggy day” Oliver mused as he stretched.

“At least it’s another day” Shiloh replied.

***

The rest of their 7-man group was already ready and waiting in the shelter’s quaint kitchen when they had finished readying themselves to head out. The largest of them, Dax, stood up when they arrived and ran a hand through his thick, silver beard.

“Well, good morning to the Beauty and the Beast” he playfully tousled Oliver’s long brown hair.

“That was my favorite movie when I was growing up” Shiloh smiled weakly.

“…When you were growing up…you’re 14 right? You’re still growing up, kiddo!” Dax laughed.

Shiloh considered her childhood officially over when she was 12 and she and Oliver were separated from their parents at Mexico’s border. The family had traveled from Chicago to the area in hopes of somehow getting across the border wall. The word was that Mexico had only a single hit when the magnetic field first reversed and that roughly 80 percent of the country was safe from particle storms and cosmic rays. This compared to the 15 maybe 20 percent that was estimated to be untouched in the U.S., seemed more than promising for a better life.

Today would be another day of attempting to cross the wall or at the very least locate their parents. Modeling the U.S. response when Mexicans were fleeing to America back in the 2010s and 20’s, Mexico chose to be equally sympathetic to escaping Americans as the decades swung into the ’30s and ’40s. Their austere immigration cap had already been overwhelmed by the time the 2nd particle storm hit the U.S. This led to an incredible shift in power and thousands of Americans still trying to find a way into the country years later. Funny how things work out.

As the group piled into the beat-up, sand-incased, jeep Shiloh recalled her first attempt to escape the country with her parents 2-years ago.

Her father had been laser-focused on the disintegrated road ahead.

“I've always wondered what would happen if the U.S. was ever in Mexico's shoes,” he had stated plainly. “Now I don’t have to wonder.”

Her mother, in the passenger seat, had turned to look at her children and smile.

“All that matters is that we are together, and most importantly that we are safe.”

Shiloh found her mouth turning up at the memory as she looked out into the flash of the desert. Back in the moment, she nudged Oliver next to her in the jeep’s truck bed.

“I know we think they came back looking for us, but what if they didn’t?”

“What?” Oliver yelled through the wind incredulously.

“How could you even say that?”

Shiloh turned her face from his, her auburn ponytail whipping around her goggles.

“The more I think about it, the more I think it makes sense. Why would they risk their lives just to see us separated again? The deal they struck was for two people. Maybe it made more sense for them to take it themselves. Maybe they believed we’d find another way in? The way Mexico was prioritizing children at first-”

“You’re wasting energy.” Oliver interrupted blankly, raising his hands. “Why does it still matter to you? Do you think we're never getting out of here?” he asked.

“No, but I just want to prepare myself, if we never see them again…I don’t even have a picture” Shiloh started, as a lump began to rise in her throat.

“We’re going to. Don’t even think of the alternative, it’ll put you off your game.” Oliver advised.

After a moment of silence, Shiloh nodded.

“You’re right, we are going to see them again.”

Oliver’s stopwatch read 11 am by the time they had the wall insight. The road behind them was nothing but dust and ash.

“So, we all know our markers, right?” Dax boomed over their handheld radios as they approached the wall.

The group all raised their thumbs just in sight of the rearview mirror as Dax slowed to a stop. Ash and dust floated through the air around them. What remained of old trees and shrubbery crunched under the halting tires.

There was an unbelievable stillness in the air that made Shiloh’s hair stand on end. As the particles in the air began to settle, she noticed something even stranger, no one else was at the wall. There was no human nor vehicular form in sight. The group glanced at one another in shared confusion. Shiloh looked into Dax’s nervous eyes through the rear-view mirror when suddenly a shot rang out.

A massive bullet shot its way up through the center console of the jeep nearly striking Dax’s arm. The team rose at once, brandishing their weapons.

“Drop your weapons, hands up, Nobody Move!” A man's voice boomed from somewhere in the distance.

The group complied, resting their weapons below them with their hearts racing. Out of the fog came a small group of people walking towards the back of the jeep, two large men and two women. One looked more like a girl, no older than Shiloh herself with her hair in two braids.

Shiloh and the girl found their eyes fixated on one another when suddenly a round sliced through the air sending glass flying, striking one of the men opposite them in the arm. The woman next to him screamed seizing onto him as he dropped to his knees. Dax had shot through the back window. In an instant, the dusty plain erupted in chaos.

“Get down!” Oliver screamed to Shiloh as he reached for his gun and hopped out of the truck bed. Shiloh obeyed and laid just flat enough to grab hold of her handgun off the jeep bed’s floor and place it within her waistband. A storm of shouts and gunfire rang out as she covered her ears and remained still.

“I’ll check the car!” she heard a young voice shout.

The braided girl.

Shiloh slowly crawled her way to the jeep’s back hatch with one hand on her gun, ready for the worst. As she peered over the edge a flash of golden light captured her eyes.

The braided girl wore a locket so large and so gold; it reflected the little sunlight in the sky across the desert field. Shiloh felt all breathe leave her body as it dawned on her.

Her mother’s locket.

Without a thought, Shiloh found herself jumping over the hatch and in a trance-like walk towards the girl. The girl spotted her at once and held out what appeared to be a yellow taser.

“Don’t come any closer, what supplies do you have?” she demanded.

Shiloh couldn’t shape her mouth to form words, she could only stare at the heart-shaped locket. The locket Oliver and she had given their mother 6 Christmases past, that had sent her into a flurry of laughter and kisses. The Locket that had housed all their family portraits since she should remember. The locket she wore every day including the day they last saw her.

The braided girl looked around fearfully as Shiloh strode closer.

“I said stop! Do you want to get hurt?!” she yelled in disbelief.

Wait. It couldn’t be. This girl just had the same locket. Still, Shiloh felt herself moving, until she was mere feet from the braided girl. At last, she was close enough to see the engraved initials, S.M.

Solana Martin.

The girl placed the taser against Shiloh’s chest and pinched her eyes.

“I don’t want to hurt you!” she cried out.

“Your necklace, it's my mom’s,” Shiloh murmured as she pointed at her mother’s locket. Just as she spoke the girl released the taser’s trigger and the probes sent a blinding shock throughout Shiloh’s small frame. Shiloh’s body crashed to the ground, but she barely made a sound.

“Th-this isn’t your mother’s locket, it's mine.” the braided girl looked down at Shiloh, her large brown eyes seemed frustrated or distraught.

Shiloh looked up at the girl, her eyes wet with tears. Suddenly she felt an overpowering sense of rage rise from her stomach to her heart. She moved her shaking arm towards her waistband and pulled out her handgun. The braided girl gasped taking a step backward, but it was too late.

Shiloh sent a single bullet through the girl’s calf causing her to collide onto her on the ground. The braided girl grabbed hold of the crimson wound and shrieked in pain as the other large man ran hurriedly towards them. Shiloh lifted herself to her knees and reached for the locket with her open hand, grabbed the heart of the locket, and gave one hard yank, the clasp broke at once.

“Please, it's empty now, the pictures are gone….it isn’t what you want!” the girl shrieked, as Shiloh brought the locket to her heart.

“It’s still ours!” Shiloh cried as she felt her brother suddenly behind her, his familiar arms cradling her off the ground.

“It’s still ours!” she croaked, her vision tunneling.

***

When Shiloh awoke, she was in the candlelight of the shelter’s bathroom, her head propped up with a pillow. She sat fully clothed in the tub, Oliver gently washing her arms her exposed skin with a sponge.

“Your back.” he exhaled pulling her towards him.

Shiloh whimpered against his filthy t-shirt.

“Her Locket, I found mom’s locket.”

“I know.” A tear flowed gently down his dirty cheek. “I have it right here, I can’t believe you noticed it.” Oliver pulled the dusty locket from his jean pocket and placed it into Shiloh’s open palm.

“What do you think this means?” Shiloh asked peering into his bright eyes.

“I don’t know yet…, but I need to go tell everyone you’re awake.” He said.

“Everyone?” Shiloh smiled.

“Everyone.” Oliver replied as he rose to his feet to share the good news.

Shiloh turned her attention to the locket, it was still in perfect condition. She closed her eyes and took a breath knowing that the locket was empty, she prepared herself for the disappointment of opening it and seeing nothing in her family’s place. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, lifted the clasp, and slowly opened her eyes again.

A small timer flashed in red.

“3…2.…1.”