At the clinic gate, a 7-year-old collapsed, crying, “Mommy has been sleeping for three days, please save them.” The doctor rushed to help the newborn twins, but as he lifted them, his hands shook. Underneath the babies was a handwritten note from the mother that made the doctor freeze in terror…

it backward, dragging me down into the earth.

A pickup truck rattled down the dirt road in the opposite direction, kicking up a choking cloud of red dust. I waved my hand frantically, screaming through a cracked throat, but my voice was a pathetic rasp. The driver, a shadow behind a dusty windshield, didn’t even slow down. The dust washed over us, coating continue reading …