Katyusha Babies

Their raggedy ride was an old worn Suzuki compact car. Everything had been ripped out of the car including the door paneling. The beige color blended perfectly with the used up everything of the car. The car teetered up the serpentine turns of the mountain. Meryem slowly gained her vivid consciousness. She puked once from the head trauma. Every once in a while, they could see far down the mountain. A truck loaded with Pesmerge soldiers was following them close on the heel.

A little past the lake that they had bathed in, the car ran out of fuel. In panic with little thought, they ran up the side of the mountain helping Meryem as best as they could. Looking over their backs, they could see the Pesmerge stopped at the car, yet not advancing. Odd!

Half hour later a sound came out of the sky. It sounded like someone had shaking a carbonated drink very well and opened the hissing bottle. A second later, explosions of mortar shells blew up trees and rocks without discrimination. That's why the Pesmerge had not followed them.

They kept on moving through the forest, climbing over rocks, sliding down dirt. Two hours of thirsty and dusty running, they arrived at a rock field. The rock field was the base of a steep mountain slope. At the top of it was a black hole, a cave. Perhaps, if they got deep enough into the cave system, they would be able to hide out for a few days or even weeks.

They scrambled up the rocky slope. Fingers got scraped. Clothes were ripped from little tumbles. They were fully exposed to a sniper. Layila could clearly see them with her binoculars. Despite her comerades calls to stop, Layila put her knife in between her teeth and started running after them. Her heavy combat boots crushed holes into the forest soil on her sprint to hunt them down.

Reaching the entrance of the cave, they found a man. It was a Chinese man. His eyes looked Asian. His head hair was skinny. He wore a dirty white wife beater shirt. A half burned cigarette hung from his lips. He wore a little pink back pack that said 'Hello Kittie,' whenever he turned to look inside of the cave.

He waved them to follow him deeper into the cave. He had a bandana wrapped around his thigh perhaps to heal a wound or simply for adornment. His greasy face showed that he had spent much time in the cave system.

"I am the last American."