Gunshots pierced the air, women and children scuttled like roaches across the city streets dodging bullets. An occasional scream of agony as flesh and bone was shattered by flying shrapnel and debris. A woman lay in the middle of the street, one leg was trapped underneath huge concrete debris, and her free leg was broken with a bone protruding. She lay there with white bright eyes in shock. Her lips moved with the speed of light producing no sound, her hands patting her chest with similar speed to the movement of her lips. Tears flowed down the side of her eyes to the soil. Her charcoal black hair now doused in white dust, she was pale.

A creaking sound could be heard, a piece of large debris the size of a boulder was rocking above this woman, her eyes were fixed on it. A whoosh was heard. Heads turned to the direction the sound came from and heads moved to follow the rocket-propelled grenade that struck the upper columns supporting the building which stood next to this grotesquely injured woman. Flashes of fire and smoke and a gush of debris spilt with a muffled blood-curdling scream.

The colossal rocking debris had now changed location. Its new location was covered with blood splatters and the muttering injured woman was no more. Women elsewhere let out screams of agony and pain, with pockets of hysterical wailing and panic. One child emerged from hiding behind a building and walked to the blood covered boulder and tugged limply at the dead hand beneath the great mass of concrete. The child lay right next to the boulder and lay next to the woman, his hand on the limp hand and began to call out; “Mama! Mama!” Till he fell silent from exhaustion.

The ground began to shake as jets whizzed by in the air claps of thunder could be heard followed by violent explosions with more debris flying everywhere. Bodies lay strewn on the streets, brain matter on broken shop windows and on military tanks now parked on top of saloon cars.

The ground shuddered and a rhythmic stomp moved closer, the little boy did not stir. Then chanting could be heard. Women sat still now completely hapless. A flag could be seen waving in the clearing in the distance toward the town square which was at the clearing of the street.

“Blood! Blood! We poured! We conquered! Blood! Blood! We won! We reclaimed! Blood! Blood!” A crowd chanted inching closer to where the boy lay. The stomping multiplied as the crowd inched closer to the armed troops carrying rocket-propelled grenades on their shoulders. Some had kerchiefs on their heads; others had them wrapped around the lower half of their faces as masks only revealing their eyes and ears.