Sarah was jogging again throughout the city. This time she couldn't run at full speed since she had something on her arms that couldn't be harmed by any means.
'Why am I so weak willing!? What kind of responsability do I have towards a baby that is not even mine? The paramedics, police or firefighters would arrive at any time, wouldn't they? So why…?'
That was an useless question and Sarah was fully aware of it.
More than a lawyer, a woman about to marry, or a survivor, Sarah was a human, and of course she would feel empathy for the ones around her and try to help them as she could, even more when it was just an innocent baby that, if died that day, would have lost an entire life to live, to be happy, to cry…
Once she looked at that baby, she couldn't help but think about her family. If she was the baby and her mother saw her in that state, she doubted if the same would be done with her.
Sarah didn't want to be like her mother, not even in an Apocalypse.
'Now… I can't understand something that happened back then… When I was uncertain whether to catch the baby or not, when I thought about my mom, I am sure that something lit up on my heart… It burnt. I even wondered if I was having a heart attack or something, but that wasn't the case for sure…'
Even though that feeling was a bit painful and her heart seeming to be highly hot wasn't a comfy situation, deep inside Sarah wanted more of that feeling.
Once she felt like that, her legs regained strength, her breath was back in no time, and she got confident that she had power enough to protect that child.
It was something she never experienced before.
As Sarah was jogging, she saw that things on the center of the capital were two times as worse as in the other parts. Maybe it was because there were more buildings and establishments gathered on that place and, for consequence, more people.
While in the parts further away from there the destruction was chaotic, that one was far beyond it. At some point, she couldn't help, but walk through and between the remains of the numerous buildings that collapsed around.
Also, she felt insecure walking around there. The heavy clouds where still above the capital and the forest around. The winds were going more crazy, even dragging enormous rocks with it, and launching people in middle-air.
The flames and explosions were endless as well and, at some point, Sarah was sure that she heard another factory exploding, or something with enough chemical substances to cause an explosion similar to that.
In that part of the capital, where wreckage was everywhere, there were no crowds of desperate people running around, nor more risk of constructions collapsing, since them all were already on the ground.
However, what was more concerning about that place was how unsteady those ruins were. It was very tricky to walk on top or between those things.
'It's still the best way to go… The best way…' Sarah repeated on her mind, jumping from rock to rock, sliding, and covering inside some portions of huge pieces of concrete and asphalt when something strange was happening.
'I could advance 80% of the way very fast while running. But since I got this baby with me and entered into this zone, it's getting more and more difficult to pull through. I am already in the center of the capital, but not in the area where my fiance works…'
Trying to ignore the crying baby on her arms, Sarah kept going through the wreckage and doing her best to not harm herself doing something reckless.
'Oh, crap!' Sarah needed to jump from the amount of rock she was on top, somersaulting while covering the baby's head to prevent him to hit something on the ground while she did so.
Once she could get steady on her feet, she burst forward, pushing herself to the max.
However, she felt a huge pressure in the air, as if it was getting heavier.
In a moment, she was running normally; in another, her feet was not on the ground anymore as she was being pulled backward while strong wind gusts punished the place around.
A tornado was forming right behind her, lifting the wreckage from the ground and devastating even more the points where it was passing.
Sarah got paralyzed for a moment, just as if she couldn't believe that such a thing was happening. Her mind went blank for a while. It was too much pressure on her.
'AWAKE! Don't lose the grasp on your life!'
She shouted when coming back to her senses.
Sarah protected the baby with one hand, and with the other she found an iron part of the structure of a building and held it thigtly.
Her hand bleed when holding it so strongly, as the iron piece was slightly sharp, but she endured the pain and stayed still.
Just as she exerted more strength on her grasp, the tornado seemed to suck even stronger and was finishing to form itself completely.
It came to a point where Sarah's shoulder was about to dislocate.
She was grimacing hard, feeling a lot of pain crossing her entire left arm and back. She let out a scream, calling out for the last few grains of strength she had left in whatever the place of her body.
Just as Sarah's shoulder dislocated and she lost grasp on the iron piece, the tornado moved too far away already, completely formed and out of her way.
Sarah felt that pressure ending all at once, and she fell to the ground.
The baby was crying even harder now, which gave her headache. Also, she couldn't feel her entire arm from shoulder to the tip of her fingers. It was completely numb.
It was consequence of the amount of strength she put on it before, and also her messed shoulder.
'Godness gracious…' She sighed, letting a tear run down her face. 'I am freaking alive… Man, I am alive. The baby as well, he is okay…'
Nonetheless, she knew that her happiness wouldn't last for too long if another random tornado appeared near there, so she must have to left that place as fast as she could.
She raised from the ground, looking to a rock that was similar to a smooth wall. She let the baby on the ground for a while, holding thigtly her left arm, trying to put the shoulder back, but it was too stiff for her to do it being so weak at the moment.
"C'mon, just do it! Go ahead, Sarah. Otherwise…' She rushed towards the wall. 'You won't be able to meet him, and save this kid!'
When she was a meter away from the wall, she kicked the ground with both feet and slammed her shoulder against it.
Another wave of pain made her scream, but her shoulder wasn't fixed at all. Not in the first try.
She repeated the process several times, once finally she heard a loud CRACK!
'F-finally…' She was painting heavily and even dizzy because of that painful experience.
Sarah got the baby again. Her left arm was still very bad for use, but not useless, at least.
She looked into the baby's eyes, she was still crying and screaming nonstop.
'I scared him even more with my strange behavior, for sure…'
After a bit of time catching her breath, she began her walk again.
This time, it didn't last for too long, and she was already where she wanted to be.
Sarah needed to do some rounds and turns, and after some minutes she finally spotted him: a tall and muscular man, with his skin black as chocolate, but barely visible because of the heavy firefighter uniform he was wearing.
He was wielding a red axe and seemed to be in alert.
The other firefighters near him where taking their distance, feeling insecure.
Sarah spotted that a huge black dog was rounding her beloved, who in exchange stared back at the animal and followed him with his body.
That dog had his eyes completely injected and red, and there was foaming coming out of his mouth.
'Does the dog… went crazy?'
Just as she thought it, the dog barked and jumped at Scott, opening his mouth.
Sarah closed her eyes, and just heard his single moan before being hit.
When she looked back, her groom was looking at her. He spotted Sarah, somehow.
Scott looked to the dog laid on the ground. The animal wasn't decapited or something, but Scott struck him hard on his head. He wasn't dead, just got knocked out.
Sarah used her last strengths to run towards him, holding her baby thigtly and then being involved by the arms of Scott.
"Sarah… Sarah, I thought you were already dead at this point… I am so relieved…"
The two of them kept embracing each other, just as if the world wasn't falling apart in the background.