The next morning the sun was very bright and we didnt wait for a second to tell everyone in the camp about the voice we heard on the radio last night. My brother stood on a big broken stone in the middle of the market and he called all the families to gather around because he had news that would change their lives forever. I could see the tired eyes of the mothers and the scarred hands of the men but when my brother started talking about the voice and the word "Sanctuary" something changed in the air. It was like a dead fire was suddenly starting to burn again and people began to ask so many questions at the same time and they wanted to know if the man on the radio sounded like he was safe. We told them about the numbers we heard and the calm voice of the stranger and even the small children stopped playing to listen to the story of the radio in the basement. Some people were afraid and they said it might be a trap from the old enemies but Omar told them that we cannot stay hidden in the ruins forever and that we have to try and find the rest of the world.
We decided to start a big meeting to plan our next steps and every single person in the camp wanted to help in any way they could to make our mission a success. The men started looking for more batteries and wires to make the radio stronger while the women began to dry more food and prepare clothes for a long journey if we ever decided to leave. I was sitting there with my notebook and I felt like a reporter writing the history of a new nation because everyone was talking about hope instead of just talking about the war. We spent hours discussing the map Omar found and trying to guess where this "Sanctuary" could be based on the numbers we heard from the static. Some of the old men remembered the locations of the old radio towers and they pointed to the north where the mountains are high and where the signal might be coming from. It was a long day of hard work and many talks but nobody felt tired because the energy in the camp was higher than it has ever been since the day we arrived here.
I walked between the tents and I saw people fixing their bags and checking their shoes and even the children were pretending to be explorers looking for the secret city. We realized that the voice on the radio was not just a sound but it was a bridge that connected us back to the human race and made us feel like we belong to something bigger than this wasteland. My brother and Omar were working until late at night to build a better antenna using pieces of metal they found in the fallen buildings and they were hoping to hear the voice again tonight. I wrote down all the names of the people who volunteered to go on the first scouting mission and I felt so proud of our community because nobody was thinking only about themselves anymore. We were becoming a team with one goal and one dream and the ruins around us didnt look like a prison anymore but they looked like a starting line for a great race.
When the night came we all gathered near the basement entrance and we stayed very quiet while my brother turned the dial of the radio again to see if the man was still talking. The silence was very heavy and everyone was holding their breath because they wanted to hear the proof with their own ears that they are not alone in the dark. We heard the scratching sound again and then a very small piece of music came through the static and it was an old song that some of the grandmothers knew from their youth. Tears were falling down their faces because the music reminded them of the weddings and the festivals and the life they thought was gone for good. We didnt hear the man speaking tonight but the music was enough to tell us that life is still beautiful and that there is a world waiting for us to find it. I went back to my tent and I looked at the stars and I knew that we are not just surviving anymore but we are living for a reason and that reason is to find our way home.