She Took an Axe

Tati left the bunker as quickly as her frayed limbs would allow. Swollen, cuts in small 'x' patterns across the thigh.

She hobbled against the wind until she was forced to crawl. She had no destination in mind, but the food had been gone for 5 days now and Tati was growing desperate.

Back in the bunker, she had left her brother Tom to watch over the rotting corpse of their mother; they hoped to bury her once the ground was no longer frozen. IF the ground would ever unfreeze.

Tati knew she would need to hurry. Tom was growing weaker and she herself was no longer feeling like a teenager. Crawling inch by inch, she managed to drag herself into a clearing where a young boy appeared to be stuck under a fallen tree.

"Hey. Hey! can you help me please? I was cutting down this tree for firewood and, well, it crushed my legs," the boy called out to Tati. She paused in her tracks. The boy didn't appear to me in much pain, but Tati assumed that was due to the fact he could no longer feel his legs.

A few feet away from the accident lay an axe. Sharp enough. Good enough. She looked at the axe and then at the boy.

"Can you just cut the tree and maybe I can drag myself out? I don't know what the damage is yet," the boy said. He looked pale: whether from the injury or the cold Tati couldn't tell.

She nodded her understanding to the boy and went to pick up the axe.

"Maybe you should close your eyes. This might hurt a little bit," Tati said with a wry smile. Tati limped up to the stump and to the boy with his crushed legs. She swung the axe.