Borderline

As I walked across the border, I had already imagined the sound of the gunshots as they were fired off at me.

I thought back to the day I was told of the plan. My father, a well-known gang leader in the Mexico City streets, had told me he made a deal with another leader. He told me that I was to lead a group of people over the border and that it was to pay off his debt.

Now you could say that it isn’t that bad of a deal. I lead some random people over the border, and I get to live a better life in the U.S. However, there was one catch.

I had to walk first, and everyone knows that the first to walk was always the first to be shot.

I had been so mad that I walked right out of the door. I had thought to myself, what kind of father just agrees to let his on daughter die just to save his own ass?

However, as I walked across, all I heard was the rustling of the tumbleweeds around me. In my head, I had heard the dogs barking. I had felt the bullets piercing my skin, but as I walked nothing happened.

That was until the group behind me screamed in joy. This seemed to set something off. The gunshots sounded, the dogs barked, but nothing hit me.

On the contrary, I couldn’t say the same for my group. I watched as they were all gunned to the ground. I sat there wondering where the bullets to pierce my skin were, and why the group behind me was shot down first.

As I looked around I saw all the bloody bodies of the group that I never made an effort to know, and silent tears streamed down my face.

I looked over at the little boy who kept the whole group’s spirits up, and I realized I never even knew his name. I thought about how caught up in my own self-pity I was, that the only word I said to them was a measly, sarcastic,"Hello.

The little boy’s body was lying beside a woman who I assumed was his mother, and I thought about the fact that he never had a chance to start a new life outside of Mexico.

As I came back from my thoughts I saw a tall man in camouflage walking towards me.

(edited)