The last night in the ruins was very different from all the other nights we spent here because we were not afraid of the shadows anymore and we were busy packing everything we owned. My brother and Omar were checking the old truck again and they managed to fix the engine using some parts from the broken cars in the market and it made a loud noise that sounded like a song of victory. Everyone was bringing their small bags and their blankets and even the children were helping to carry the boxes of medicine and the clean water we found in the basement. I stood in the middle of the camp and I looked at the broken walls and the fallen pillars for the last time and I felt a bit sad because these ruins were our home when we had nothing else. But then I looked at the faces of the people and I saw so much light in their eyes and I knew that home is not a place made of stones but it is the people who stay with you when the world falls apart. We decided to leave at dawn so we could reach the green valley before the sun became too hot and everyone was talking about the garden we are going to plant and the houses we are going to build near the river.
I sat down on a stone and I opened my notebook to write the final words of this chapter of our lives because I wanted to remember every single thing that happened since the first day we arrived here. I wrote about the hunger and the cold and the fear but I also wrote about the baby Hope and the radio voices and the friends who came back from the dead. Every word I wrote felt like a heavy stone being lifted from my chest and I felt that my notebook is the most important thing we are carrying to the new valley. My brother came and sat next to me and he put his arm around my shoulder and he told me that he is very proud of how strong I have been during this long journey. He told me that in the new valley I will have a real desk and a real lamp to write my stories and that people will read my books for many years to come to know how we survived the silence. This made me cry because for a long time I thought nobody would ever care about our stories but now I know that our survival is a message to the whole world that humanity can never be defeated.
When the first light of the sun appeared in the east the truck was ready and all the families were standing in a long line ready to follow the scouts into the unknown mountains. My brother started the engine and the sound was echoing through the empty streets of the ruined city like a final goodbye to the past and a loud hello to the future. We started walking and I was at the back of the line so I could see everyone moving forward together like a long river of life flowing through the grey dust. We passed the old watchtower and the dry riverbed and the secret basement entrance and we didnt look back because our eyes were fixed on the green hills in the distance. The road was long and very rocky but nobody complained about being tired because we were fueled by the hope of seeing the water and the trees and the green grass. We arrived at the top of the last hill just before noon and we saw the valley below us and it was even more beautiful than the stories my brother told us last night. There was a bright blue river cutting through the middle of the land and the trees were tall and full of life and I could hear the sound of birds singing everywhere.
We all stopped and we stayed silent for a long minute because we couldnt believe that a place like this still exists in our broken world and some people fell to their knees and started kissing the ground. My brother looked at me and he pointed to a small hill near the river and he said that this is where we are going to build our new camp and our new lives. I took out my pen and I wrote the last sentence in my notebook for today and I said that the ruins are now behind us and the green valley is our new beginning. We started going down into the valley and the air was smelling like flowers and fresh water and I felt that we are finally safe and that our long journey of fear is over. This is not the end of our story but it is just the end of the first book because we have a lot of work to do and many more stories to write in this beautiful new home. The sun was very warm on our faces and I knew that tomorrow will be the best day of our lives because we are finally where we belong and we are together as one big family.