[ENTRY A2: THE BOAT CROSSING — REFUGEE TRANSPORT]
Date: Three Days After the Fall
They're using fishing boats to move refugees across the river to Wall Rose. Not enough. Never enough.
I'm helping load people onto a boat. Priority goes to children, wounded, elderly. Everyone else waits. Some have been waiting three days.
A woman handed me her baby today. Just—handed him over. "Take him," she said. "I'll find another boat."
I took the baby. She walked back into the crowd. I never saw her again.
The baby's name is Lukas. He's been crying for twelve hours. No milk. No mother. Just crying.
A soldier next to me said, "Put him with the other orphans."
Other orphans. There are so many they have a category.
I held Lukas until my shift ended. Then I handed him to a woman with empty eyes and a dead expression. She took him without a word.
I don't know if he lived. I don't know if she lived.
I don't know anything anymore.