WW 31/08/04, Don't fortget now, 15 Minutes only! Options

[bart]

Equal

[Jerry]

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I apologize if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes

QUOTE

As the sun peered out over the horizon, bathing the dawn in golden light, Kim tightened her hold on Merissa, sighed to herself, and continued walking. She had been a sole survivor, a single memory, an only relic left from the tremendous disaster that had struck the previous night. She could still not believe how a single bolt of lightning had caused it all about. It seemed like it was just a minute ago, when she witnessed her beloved town engulfed in flames... It was a day like any other, minus the heavy downpour of rain outside, soaking the forage bushes and corn crops. Kim stoked up the wood in the fire, tended to the cottage, and made sure the two dogs received equal portions of food, lest a fight would break out. Sending her three-year-old Merissa to bed after dinner, she went over to the kettle and poured some water into a cup. She rummaged in her drawers and came up with a dusty, grimy tea-bag, which she put in her cup for three seconds, then withdrew, so it would continue to last, like it had before. With an audible sigh, she plopped down on a shabby chair. "Life is not easy being a single mother", she thought to herself wearily. "It makes day-to-day tasks all the more difficult", she noted silently. She may have wallowed a bit more in self-pity, but just then a particularly violent flash of lightning hit a nearby tree. Jumping to her feet and chancing a glance outside the door, she saw, with horror, the condemned tree fall upon a house nearby. Stifling a cry, she threw caution to the winds and ran to try and help the trapped people inside, but it was too late. The tree fell right over the fireplace, which begun to grow in size and heat, spreading to nearby huts and sheds, devouring everything in its path. Hurrying back to her home that was starting to smoke, she grabbed her child, slipped a few coins into her pocket and ran. Ran away from the heat, from the smoke, from the heart-wrenching sight of seeing the place where she grew up consumed in a whirlwind of flames... Trying to push these thoughts away, she clumped Merissa tight to her chest, and kept walking. She did not look back once. The smouldering remains of her town were part of a life she no longer had... or will have.