12

Raj

When Raj opened his eyes, a thin haze of dust hung over the room, sneaking underneath the threshold, filtering through whatever small crevices it could find. He cleared off his sand-splattered goggles and did a slow inspection of the room.

"Is it over?" Samel whispered, still huddling close.

"I think so," Raj answered, blinking hard at his brother.

He said a silent prayer, thanking the heavens that the roof and walls had held.

"Do you think everyone's all right?" Samel asked.

Raj paused a moment, listening for voices outside, hearing a few echoes between the walls of the neighboring houses.

"I hope," Raj said. "We need to find Helgid. She's probably worried about us."

Raj slowly got to his feet, stretching his cramped legs. He walked to the doorway, with Samel behind. Looking over at his brother, he verified he was unharmed. The story of that young boy came back to him, as he recalled the child buried beneath the wreckage of the storm, but Samel seemed fine. He looked like a strange insect in his shawl and goggles. If the situation were different, Raj might've laughed. Reaching the door, they paused.

More voices came from outside as people emerged.

"Keep your face covered," Raj said.

Samel nodded as Raj opened the door to daylight. Memories of the fitful night's sleep came back to him. Each time he'd felt sleep coming, some new screech of the wind had ripped him awake, or the pelting debris on the roof made him fear it would collapse. He blinked his tired eyes under the light of a new day.

A thicker mist of sand permeated the air, transforming the houses around them into silhouettes. The sand between the mud brick houses was higher next to the dwellings' walls, as if the storm was a strange creature, trying to scale the stone. A few of the scarce, green weeds that grew between the homes had been torn up and cast aside. Pieces of stray fabric stuck in the branches of the scant few trees that occupied the colony, not yet burned for wood. A piece of a pot that must've been left out was partially buried, poking up from the landscape.

Hearing the creak of a door, Raj looked over at his neighbor's house. A young woman stared through the threshold, fixing the goggles on her head.

"Are you okay?" Raj called to the woman.

She nodded.

More and more people emerged from their houses, craning their necks and peering cautiously about. Children hugged their parents' waists, inching out nervously. Some of the elderly opened their doors just wide enough to glimpse the outside, as if the raging sand might return and carry them off. A few of the earliest—and bravest—of the colonists were already sweeping off debris and assessing the damage to their homes. Raj saw a few holes in some of those dwellings' walls, where the fierce storm had torn a new opening.

A sandstorm was always a harsh, powerful lesson.

Raj said, "We should look for anyone else who might need help."

"Dad always said that, didn't he?" Samel asked.

"Yes," Raj repeated.

Raj doubted Samel had many firm recollections of their father. His little brother had only been four when Pradeep left.

"Dad was a good person, wasn't he?" Samel asked.

"Of course he was," Raj said. "Why do you ask?"

Samel looked as if he was working on a troubling thought. "Those kids said he left because of us."

Raj bit back the anger the storm made him forget. "You know that's not true."

"Are you sure?" Samel looked over at him.

"Dad left because he got sick," Raj said. "He did it for our own good."

"I know it is the honorable thing, but I can't understand why," Samel said, confusion crossing his face, as it always did.

Trying to keep the sadness out of his voice, Raj said, "We didn't have a lot of food. He didn't want us to have to take care of him. He wasn't going to survive the sickness, and he didn't want us to catch it." He watched Samel's curious face as he processed it. "That is what the noblest people do, so their families can eat."

"Couldn't the healers have saved him?" Samel asked.

"He was beyond that," Raj said. "Everyone knew it."

"I wish he was here. And I wish Mom hadn't died, so I could've met her."

"So do I. But we have Neena and Helgid," Raj said. "And we have each other."

"I guess you're right."

Raj swallowed the lump in his throat. In the beginning days after their father's departure, the neighbors had helped, but eventually the free meals had ended. Nobody could afford to feed another family when they could barely take care of their own. Neena's hunting sustained them, and Raj did his best to stretch the Green Crops they received from The Heads of Colony. That was all they could do.

"Come on, let's get to Helgid's."

They walked past some of their neighbors, calling out to verify they were all right. A few seemed relieved to see them. Others cursed the storm that had given them a pile of work to do. Cutting down a perpendicular alley, they passed a home with several holes in the side. A group of people circled around somebody near the entrance. Creeping closer, Raj saw a boy his age spitting out sand.

"Is he okay?" Raj asked the boy's parents with concern.

"He's fine," said the boy's father. "He got caught underneath a piece of the roof when it fell. He lost his shawl. Thank you for asking."

Raj nodded and tugged Samel's hand. "Come on."

A few people acknowledged them with commiserating glances. Others were too preoccupied with checking their loved ones, or tending their houses to notice a few parentless boys. Raj and Samel wound through several more homes, watching a few people clean off the cracked places in their roofs, or walls, getting ready for a long day's work of patching. They had just passed a family, brushing off their door, when Raj heard screams.

A creeping fear skittered through his stomach.

"What's going on?" Samel asked.

"I'm not sure."

Raj pulled his brother through the dust-filled pathways toward the noise, struck with the sudden, terrible premonition that Helgid might be in danger. But the noise was coming from another direction.

"This way, Samel!" Raj called, leading his brother east and toward it.

They followed the shrill cries until they found a house with a thick cloud of dust around it. The roof had caved, creating a large barricade of mud brick in the center. Down each of the structure's sides, small, recessed gaps remained. Raj could see nothing in those dark, rubble-strewn holes. A young woman knelt at one of the recesses, digging frantically.

"Help!" she screamed, removing a large chunk of brick and casting it aside. "My grandmother's inside!"

"Where?"

"I'm not sure! I can't find her!"

"Stay there, Sam!" Raj called.

His heart slammed against his ribcage as he knelt down on the left-hand side of the dwelling, pulling away some broken bricks, creating a hole he could worm into. Rubble scraped his knees. Sharp rock tore at his hands. Panic hit harder as Raj kept digging, finding something hard that wasn't a brick. After a few more tugs and some digging, he pulled out a dented pot and set it aside. His heart pumped. The debris was everywhere, and it was more than he could clear himself.

He could already hear others' voices, drawn toward the commotion, but he didn't stop.

Raj pulled away sand and stone, uncovering several pieces of cookware, another blanket, and some rags. Underneath the shadow of the collapsed ceiling, Raj felt as if he was in some deep, dark cave. From the other side of the building, he heard the frantic young woman crying as she searched.

Raj's hands met something soft.

A hand.

"I found her!" he screamed over his shoulder.

Frantic, he tried pulling, but there was no way he was getting an adult from beneath a pile of fallen stone. He squeezed the person's fingers, hoping for a response, but the person was lifeless, still. Raj dug at the sand around the body, hopelessly trying to free the person.

Shouts echoed behind him.

A group of people crawled in behind him, barking commands and lifting bricks.

"We've got it!" someone yelled, patting Raj's shoulder and taking over.

Raj backed up and scooted outside, allowing the people access. A growing crowd appeared. More people hovered around the broken house and the opening Raj had created. Some people jumped in to help, while others shook their heads, or held their hands over their shawl-covered mouths. A few parents shielded their children's eyes. Raj looked for Samel, finding him in a cluster of others, wringing his hands. Raj hurried to him and held him close.

After more digging, the rescuers pulled a sand-covered body from beneath the rubble, carrying it out. Raj watched as the rescuers dusted off a person's face, body, and clothes.

An old woman stared blankly at the sky.

"Do something!" the frantic young woman screamed to the rescuers.

The people bent over the body, yelling, wiping the dirt away and asking if the woman was all right. Wispy gray hair framed her dusted, ashen face. Her mouth was agape, filled with sand.

Eventually, the people helping wrung their hands, and someone made a pronouncement.

"She's dead."

Raj pulled Samel tighter.