I woke up. Even more gun shots. Mary was starting to wake up. The sun was rising. Mary smiled when she saw me. "Good morning," I said.

"Good morning," she said as she yawned.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Fine," she told me. The gun shots stopped. I helped Mary get down. We started walking in the mud again. My legs were already covered in dry mud, so the wet mud made my legs itch. Mary could barely walk, so I had to help her. Suddenly, the mud got deep and went to my waist. I had to put Mary on my shoulders again. Mary kept cheering me on. The heat was getting bad and I was aching. The mud was warm and suddenly, I saw it. A small kitten.

The kitten was a small black one. It was stuck in the mud. I ran over to the kitten. It was meowing. It was covered in mud and needed something to eat since it was very thin. I picked it up. It meowed. "What should we call him or her?" Mary asked.

"Since we can't tell if it's a boy or girl, let's call it a name that can be either gender," I said. We thought about it for a minute. "Why don't we just call him or her Blackie? It can be a boy or girl name, right?" I asked.

"Sure," Mary responded. I handed the cat to her. "Wait, do we have to take care of it? We barely have enough food for ourselves!" Mary said.

"We need to take care of Blackie. Blackie is just a kitten," I told Mary. Blackie meowed again. Mary held her. I began walking again with both of them on my shoulders. I looked up at the sky. It was about midday. I heard Mary whispering to Blackie, who just meowed in response. Blackie was cute.

As we walked, I noticed something shiny. I carefully reached down and grabbed it. "What did you get?" asked Mary. I held up a string with two tiny bells attached to it. Mary took it from me and tied it around Blackie's neck. As I walked, it jingled. The sound reminded me off the tiny bells on my dad's Santa Claus hat. My dad would dance around the house with it on. My mom and I would laugh and join in. Soon, we would be singing Christmas songs and eating gingerbread men. I smiled at the thought.

As the day went on, we kept on going through the swamp. Mary eventually could walk again, and she still carried Blackie, who finally fell asleep. Mary gave Blackie some food, so that's probably why Blackie is sleeping. Suddenly, we heard sounds. Strange, yet familiar sounds. "What's that noise?" asked Mary.

"I don't know," I admitted. We ran towards it, curios. We ran and we saw it. A giant city ahead of us. Giant buildings and towers with shops. It was East City. I couldn't believe it. Mary and I hugged. We made it.