Run

                                                                        RUN

Run. Run. Do not stop and never look back. You just keep runnin. You just run and you don’t stop running until you fall down. If you fall down, you crawl. And you crawl as far as you can. Do you hear me? 

The boy nodded quietly, totally unsure of what was happening and why his dad was bleeding. He held tight to the toy his father had given him some years earlier. A truck that had long since lost the color. The rear wheels had been replaced twice by the same man who was now standing over the boy with a large, bleeding head wound. 

“Son, I need you to live. I can’t go with you. I am,” the father struggled to find the right words, “like your truck. I have some damage-only there is no one that can replace my wheels. I know this is scary. I do. But if you stay here the people that hurt your father will hurt you too. So I need you to run. With the other children. You run with them and you help them. But you need,” the father’s eyes welled with tears and his voice became thick. The sight of his father crying made the boy’s eyes fill with salty tears. He held onto the truck a little tighter. “Daddy?” He asked, “How will I know when I’m safe?” His father grabbed up his boy and squeezed him so tightly. “You’ll know when the guns stop.” 

The father put his son back on the ground, cleaned up his shirt and jacket. He helped the boy put on a backpack and he put the truck in the compartment. The boy turned around and wiped his face with the back of his gloves. “Daddy, I love you.” The words stabbed at the father and his heart exploded. He told his son that he loves him and will always love him. “Now,” the father said, “you have to run. Run, son. RUN.” 

The boy sprinted as fast as he could with other children. The sound of gun fire and rockets filled the air. A girl, about the same age as the boy, grabbed up his hand and held on to it tightly. The two of them ran into the woods. Behind them, their parents met violent ends to the government forces. Ahead of them was an unknown future. But the boy and the girl would run. And they would run until the guns stopped.