United We Fell
an excerpt

Shakily I push myself up onto hands and knees, then from knees to feet. In the flame-lit darkness I see that there are others following my dark rescuer. All around me arms are reaching out to arms, hands grasping for hands. Like a relentless column of army ants we, the new exiles, pick up, climb over, and press forward. Truly now we are bonded into a lost family, a lifeline taken in exchange for all of the family we have now lost.
I will keep my eyes glued to this stranger's back, for I refuse to falter again. He is right, the truth will live or die with me. It will live or die with each of us in this rag-tag band of refugees, and can only grow stronger as we do. With the strength of the truth we will somehow manage to keep putting one foot in front of the other, hay foot straw foot, left right left.
Where to? West. It is the only direction left for us. Into the city, through the city, and onward into the unknown. Onward into freedom.