The forty-three-year old lesbian gulped down the glass of water that had been brought to her. The glass shook noticeably, and the knuckles on both of her hands were scabbed over numerous times. The skin alongside her left eye still stung from where she’d gotten it caught on a low hanging branch not two hours earlier. 

She was wearing the last pair of jeans she owned that didn’t have blood on them. A plain black tank top stretched across her bruised but muscled torso. Water dribbled down her chin and neck from the glass, but she made no move to wipe it away. Her dark hair had been pulled back into a tight braid at the beginning of the day, but several pieces had now begun to come loose.

She finished the water and handed the glass back to the young boy who had brought it to her. 

“You know how long we’ve been looking for this place?” She asked the other handful of people who stood in front of her.

“Too damn long?” A tall black woman asked. She wore loose fitting linen pants and a loose blue and purple tank top. Her hair was braided into countless thin braids, and all pulled back with an elastic band. 

“Too damn long,” the lesbian agreed. She moved her left arm, testing it to see how much it hurt and winced when the muscles screamed. “Where’s the kid?”

“Hospital,” came the response from a short, fat man in denim overalls. “They’re gonna be fine, but it looks like they took quite a beating. Looks like you all did.”

The lesbian let out a laugh, then felt her throat clench. She hadn’t cried since this whole thing began, but somehow, now that she was safe, she was about to lose it.

“And the others?” she asked.

“They’re around,” the black woman said. “Getting something to eat, or being checked on by the healers. You’re the only one who won’t sit still long enough for someone to look you over. And that dog of yours hasn’t stopped looking at you since you all crawled in here.”

The lesbian looked down at her feet where a black and gray mutt sat looking up at her. The dog was also covered in scratches and dried blood, but he appeared willing to do it all over again for his mom and her friends, his family. She smiled at his mismatched eyes, one brown one blue, and reached down to pat his scar covered head.

“Best damn dog I’ve ever had,” she said, her throat constricting once more.

“Where did all y’all come from?” Another woman asked. 

“Where didn’t we come from is the better question,” the lesbian said. 

She looked down at her busted knuckles to see that her hands were still shaking.

“Why don’t we go get you something to eat,” overalls said. “You can meet up with your friends over there, and you can all go see the kid in a bit.”

The lesbian felt her stomach growl at the mention of food. Real food, not stale granola bars or cereal out of a box. She thought she’d smelled hamburgers when they came in through the gate.

“That sounds perfect.”

The black woman and the man in overalls led the lesbian out of the tent they had gathered in and across the street to what appeared to be a diner. Inside, the smell of hamburgers assailed the lesbian along with onion rings, french fries, and at least three different kinds of pies. For the first time in a very long time, she finally felt that she could relax and let her guard down. 

Gathered around one of the tables was the group she had spent the last several months with. Strangers that had become acquaintances that became family. A chair was kicked back for her, and she all but collapsed into it. Her tired, green eyes cast over her party, the ones who had made it this far, and her mind drifted. It drifted to all they had been through together, but especially to the one of them who was currently in a hospital bed somewhere in this strange town.