The primeval recesses of her soul clinch with terror.

Instinct screams at her, pushes her to get away, to survive before it is too late.

Becky’s innocent gaze darts across the landscape. All she sees are the dark outline of mounds of dirt and massive oak trees in the distance.

Her small white hands clutch at her pink-flowered nightgown.

RUN! her mind screams over and over again.  

She slowly inhales a trembling breath and wills her legs to move forward. She darts out of the line of prisoners that has just descended from the train. She sprints past the rusty boxcars and the three soldiers clad in black, grasping machine guns.

A whistle screeches, and large circles of bright lights dance with the shadows around the expansive train yard.

Cold air stings her lungs as they pump her panicked breath past her chapped lips. Her racing blood echoes in her ears. Beyond a final set of iron tracks, a dark field stretches out before her.

Her muscles burn as she pushes her legs to move faster and harder toward the safety of the trees on the other side of the field. Cold wind whips at her flushed face.

RUN! her mind screams as she obeys its command.

Sagebrush cuts into her legs. Jagged rocks puncture her bare feet. Her heart wants to explode in her chest.

A mustard-colored bulldozer with its broad hydraulic blade sits like a sleeping dinosaur in the darkness ahead.

She runs to the far side of the metal heap and braces her palms against the worn rusty tracks. The bloody soles of her feet throb with pain. Her legs tremble uncontrollably. She tries to quiet her stinging breath.

The glint of a flashlight beam ricochets against the cold, yellow steel of the bulldozer. Her eyes widen at the sound of heavy footsteps.

She buries her pain and hurries into the shadows. 

Her ankle twists under her weight, and she falls on her hands and knees. A hill of fresh dirt looms before her. Impetuously she crawls to the mound.

A putrid stench rises from a large dark pit next to the mound. “UGH!” Her nose wrinkles in disgust.

Sharp gravel tears at her flimsy nightgown as she rolls down the side into the pit. Her body becomes light as it falls into the darkness below. Her back slams hard against the moist ground, knocking the wind out of her. Dazed, she stares up at the cold night sky blanketed with stars.

Loud sirens puncture the chill of the night air. Clutching her knees tight to her chest, she folds herself into the blackest corner of the pit trying to make herself invisible.

Long minutes pass as she strains to make sense of the noises above her. Deep, male voices call out to each other across the crisp sky; boots fall heavily against gravel; gun metal rattles sharply.

Without warning a diesel engine roars to life, smothering all the other sounds.

She feels a grip of fear in the core of her stomach.

All around her the ground begins to vibrate. The heavy machine groans and lumbers toward the pit. Small rocks and soil cascade from the stars above.

“OH, NO!” Becky screams under her breath as the wailing of the bulldozer grows louder and louder.

I’ve got to get out of here—or I’ll be buried alive! Her fingernails claw at the steep earthen walls of the pit as she tries to exit her hiding place. The metal beast roars and shakes the ground. The walls of the pit crumble in. Becky falls backward as an ocean of dirt and rocks crashes on top of her. The weight of the rubble presses hard against her small chest.

Dirt fills her mouth and her eyes.

HELP ME! PLEASE HELP ME! she wants to scream at the top of her lungs, but only mud sputters from her mouth. Her arms flail against the raining debris.

I can’t see. . .I can’t breathe. . . .

Her fingers brush the familiar shape of a human hand. Her heart speeds as she grabs hold like a drowning girl grasping for a life preserver. Through the suffocating grime and darkness she searches for the face belonging to the hand that would rescue her and pull her from the choking bowels of the earth.

The bulldozer growls again. The walls of the pit melt inward. The earth holds Becky’s weak body in a paralyzing grip. She helplessly stops fighting against it and holds onto the hand with all her remaining strength. As the walls of the pit collapse, they release the body of a young man from his grave. He rolls with the heaving ground and settles next to Becky like a limp rag doll. His black, hollow eyes stare back at her….