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Red Midnight Chapter One
Soldiers in the Night

May 18, 1981
Dos Vías, Guatemala

I try to forget the night they burned my village. Those memories are like clouds in my mind. But sometimes the clouds lift, and again I hear screams and soldiers shouting and guns exploding. A dog barks. Another shot echoes, and the dog is quiet. Then there is more shouting and killing.

I remember my mother waking me that night. Fear makes her voice shake as she pushes my little sister into my arms. "Santiago, wake up!" she whispers loudly. "Run! Take Angelina with you. They have come to kill us. Run!"

And my mother is right. As I stumble barefoot toward the trees holding Angelina's hand, soldiers appear behind me. They carry torches that show their laughing faces as they run through our small village burning every home.

Our homes are very simple, with dirt floors, thatch roofs, and walls made of dried cane stalks that burn easily. When families run from the flames, the soldiers kill them. Their guns sound like machetes hitting coconuts.

In the dark, I run hard, pulling Angelina by the hand. But I trip. When I fall, I drag my sister under bushes at the edge of our village. I look back and see the flames, and I see what the soldiers do to my family and to my neighbors.

I have two younger brothers, Arturo and Rolando, and two sisters, Anita and Angelina. I am the oldest, twelve years old. This night, all of my family dies except Angelina. They are all killed as I watch. I see rape and I see torture. I see things happen this night that I can never speak of.

The night is filled with screams of fear and pain. Tears fill my eyes when I see my grandfather, Adolfo, try to run. He is old. I look up at the sky because I cannot watch when they shoot him. Above me the sky is cloudy. A thin moon shines through the clouds like a ghost, and I know that tonight the soldiers do not aim their bullets at the moon.

Angelina clings to me in the dark, and I cover her mouth so she cannot scream. I try to cover her eyes, too, but she will not let me. She knows that something very bad is happening.

Something moves in the bushes near me, and I hold my breath. I think it is a soldier, but a voice that I know whispers very loud, "Santiago, keep running!" It is the voice of my uncle Ramos. He lies near me on the ground. His deep breaths sound like a sick horse when it breathes.

"You must come with us," I say.

"No, I am shot."

"I will help you."

"No," he says. "I am already dead. But you are still alive. Go!"

I nod, but I do not know where a twelve-year-old boy can go with his four-year-old sister. There is no place to run in a country like Guatemala, where everyone is afraid. "Where do we go?" I ask.

"Leave Guatemala. Go as far away as you can and tell what has happened this night."

"But, Uncle, nobody will listen to me. I am only a boy."

Pain makes Uncle Ramos bite his lip until it bleeds. "What you have seen tonight makes you a man," he says, his voice weak. He rolls his body over until he can look into my eyes. "There is a wind that blows and tries to help this country," he says. "Go now! Be part of this wind. You are the only person who can tell of this evil."

"But where can I go?" I ask. "To Mexico?"

Uncle Ramos shakes his head. "There are many soldiers north of here. Go south to Lake Izabal. Take the cayuco and sail to the United States of America." Uncle Ramos lifts his chin. "In my pocket, there is my compass. I have shown you how to use it. Now take it."

I do not argue. The cayuco is a sailing kayak, something Uncle Ramos is very proud of. I reach into his pocket and find the compass. It feels like a large watch.

Uncle Ramos coughs blood from his mouth. "Remember, the red end of the needle always points to the north. Remember that. Now go!"

I let go of Angelina's mouth and stand. As I turn to run, a soldier sees me. The burning flames from the village let him see my face well, and he raises his rifle. I run once more with Angelina into the forest. Behind me the rifle fires again and again. Bullets hit the trees around me like rocks.

I do not stop or look back. Death is as close as my next breath tonight. I run fast into the black night because I know this trail very well. Many times I have carried heavy loads of maíz,/i> along this trail, from the fields to my village.

"We will find you!" the soldier screams behind me. "Then we will kill you!"

Angelina cannot run anymore and so I carry her. I run even when I cannot breathe, because I am so scared. I do not stop until only the sounds of frogs and crickets fill the night behind me. Then, for the first time, I look back.

The world is not right. Above the trees, I see flames from my village jumping toward the stars. The night sky glows red as if it is burning.

Red Midnight. Copyright © by Ben Mikaelsen. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.