You walked straight towards the girl. Your father called out to warn you, the guard tensed and eyed your steps. You glared back at them, daring them to approach.
'Marie', you said when you neared her.
She looked up, eyes as deep as the bottom of the sea answered you with questions in her eyes. You faltered, forgetting what you wanted to say. You were caught up in rage, and you forgot them when she looked back at you.
'Marie', you murmured again. The people around her begun to edge away, giving space, privacy that was impossible. There was urgency in your tone.
'Yes', she answered softly.
'Are you okay?', what a stupid question you've uttered, you wanted to kick yourself.
'As fine as I can be at this moment', she replied.
'Are you hurt anywhere?'
'Well, just scrapes here and there. You don't look perfect yourself.'
You looked down at your shoes, your dirty clothes, your dirty hands, and quickly run through your hair with your fingers to rectify your situation.
You sat down beside her, and thought you'd better make light of the situation.
'It's hot isn't it.'
She just nodded. Well, duh.

'Where's your family, I don't see them here. Are they alright?'
'They're not with me, they were out of town when the sirens started. I hope they're fine. I hope they're here, I'm not sure what to hope really.'
You nodded understandingly and tried to swerve the topic, 'Do you have any idea who these people are? Have you heard anything at all from your group?'
'No, I suppose not. Someone had a radio, but it didn't work, there was no station that aired anything. Not a single station, can you believe that? Do you think they will go away soon?'
"Gee, I don't know. But I think not, not if they took the time to gather us all here.'
At that moment someone tapped your back, you looked up and saw your best friend blocking the sun.
'Hey, found you,' he grinned.
'Ern,' you blinked at him.
'Hey Marie,' he nodded towards Marie and sat beside me. 'How's your family?' he asked you.
'Holding up, I guess,' you replied.
'Good. How about a game then, huh? I'm bored to death here,' Ern reached down his pocket and pulled up a pack of cards and smiled to Marie.
There wasn't a person in this prison that could match Ern on keeping his cheerful spirit. He made it look as if you were all there to watch a baseball game or a concert. He started to shuffle the cards. You nervously glanced at Marie, after all she must be tired and uncomfortable. To the contrary, she seemed to accept the suggestion gladly and picked up her cards.

You lost on purpose several times to Marie, Ern won mostly, and you looked like the world's lousiest card player in the world. You could've kicked Ern, why couldn't he lose on purpose?
'Come on, you used to do better than this. What's the matter?' teased Ern.
You glared back at him. Every time Ern won he jumped and woohooed and looked as if you had bet your houses on it. Marie chuckled and the guards shouted at the three of you to shut up. You were uncomfortable, maybe you should look depressed instead, wouldn't they be more upset if their aggression didn't work? Oh well, nothing you can do about Ern. Ern will be Ern. You concentrated back to your cards.

After a few more rounds you excused yourself and head back to your family. Your grandmother was visibly weaker. Her breath came out rasp and labored, she drifted off and on between awake and sleeping. You caught your mother's eyes, she was clearly worried though she didn't say anything.
You took that as a hint and got up to approach one of the guards.
'Hey,' you called.
The guard answered you by pointing his gun to your face. You stopped.
'Can we have some water? I mean for my grandmother. She's sick, she's weak. We haven't eaten or drink anything in awhile you know,' you reasoned.
He looked over your shoulder to your grandmother, lied down half asleep. He pointed the gun at you and motioned you to go back.
'Please, you know. Just a glass of water,' you walked back disappointed.
The guard watched you for awhile, then he shouted at another guard to take his post and went inside the prison building.

After what seemed like a very long time, you saw the guard walked back to his original post. He had a cup of water on his hand. He put it on the ground beside him, and motioned you to take the cup. You sighed a breath of relief and started towards the guard. All the while, he pointed his gun at you just in case you decided to die instead. As you walked back you turned to look at him with questions running through your head, 'Should I thank him for this? Even when he's taking a whole lot other things from us?' You didn't know the answer, so you said nothing and gave the cup to your mother. As your mother tipped the cup on your grandma's lips, everyone around you stared at the cup until it was empty, and no one spoke for a little while.

By night, it was clear that there were no food to be given. You wondered if they were going to starve you all to death on the field here. It has been two days without scarce food, you don't want to think about tomorrow just yet. You lie down and stare at the stars, and listened to Mrs. Green's soft tears.