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Eric in San Diego wrote:

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The pain was always there, her constant companion. No matter, she had to keep going...pushing through the agony clutching at her heart. As she staggered through the dark guided only by the star...north, always north...the memories sprang into her mind unbidden, relentless. The face of her love, twisted in death...the mouldering bodies piled haphazardly along the wayside...the unconscionable odors assailed her even though the village was far behind her now. Tears rolled silently down her bloodied face, her breath caught in her parched throat. No time for grief, no time for rest; she knew that to stop now would be to invite failure...a failure too horrible to even contemplate. Onward...north, always north. A SOUND!! From ahead on the roadway. Silently, she slipped into the deeper darkness of the trees, the AK-47 slipping from her shoulder and into her hands in a much-practiced move...sorrow forgotten, replaced by resolve.

The child sat, alternately crying quietly and pounding it's fists against the slumped figure beside it. The woman appeared beside the waif without warning, stifling the terrified shriek before it could escape. Hugging the child to her, she whispered soothing words trying to quiet the terrors. The child, a young boy around five or six, became still and stopped struggling against her. In the distance, the shriek and thud of incoming artillery continued. The woman turned to the body beside the boy and bent to see what aid could be given. None could...the teenaged girl was clearly dead, her lifeless eyes turned toward the sky. Without another word, the boy took the backpack from the dead woman's side and stood...looking to the new arrival for guidance. She held out her hand, he took it, and on they went...without another backward glance.

North, always north...

You wrote this?

I think it's pretty good. Maybe with a little polish, you could get that published as a flash fiction piece.

I would lose the ellipsis, though.

Flash fiction is a complete story (or powerful vignette) contained in a page or less, generally 1000 words or fewer. A lot of publications like flash fiction because it's easy to find space in the publication for it whereas it's much more difficult to get room for a longer pieces of fiction. If your story is 5-10 pages long, it takes up a lot of space. Flash fiction is something they can just tuck in anywhere, as needed. There are also a lot of contests popping up for flash fiction.

You might check out Poets & Writers' call for submissions - they change frequently, and there are often calls for flash fiction.