The horror of war

“Erik, Tessa, this is it. We’ve held them off for about…six days so far, right? Plenty of time to give the army a decent head start. The next time we attack, we die. I’ll give you two a few minutes to…prepare. Meet back here in ten, agreed?” Without waiting for an answer, Paulo ran off. I looked up at Erik in fear. Not scared for myself but for him, how could life go on without him? The world should explode. “Tessy, we’re not dead yet. While you live, I live. While I live, you live. Agreed?” Through the tears in my eyes I saw him smiled slightly as he continued speaking “Besides, you promised remember?” his soft hand touched the ring on my finger, I smiled slightly, nodding through my tears. “ ‘Till death do us part’ that was the deal and you are not leaving me this quickly. Besides, now we’re married, your mum can’t stop us from doing anything…fun can she?” I laughed, a choked sound which made more tears cascade down my cheeks. With Erik’s arm around my waist, my hands in his hair we turned to face Paulo as he ran in, “sorry guys, I know you wanted a proper goodbye but…they’re bringing the attack here, we have to fight” Erik rose instantly, pushing me towards the tent. I hurried in and looked at my stuff, a small pack with enough food to last a week and spare clothes, two daggers, a bow and quiver half-filled with arrows and my cloak/sleeping mat. After thinking for a few seconds, I slipped my pack on over my shoulders, slid the daggers into my belt and pulled the cloak on. After attaching the quiver and bow to the modifications to the back of my belt I headed back outside
“Promise me you’ll take Tessa with you if I die, promise me you’ll get her out alive!” I froze at Erik’s angry voice, instantly catching the gist of the. Paulo’s voice was resigned but agreeing “Erik, calm down ok. If you die I’ll try to get Tessa out, hell I’ll try anyway. You’ve got to accept the fact that if you die she might not want to live, I’ll do my best but that’s all I can say” Erik’s muttered thanks drained away as I came running forwards, we both looked at Paulo, in less than a second the three of us changed, Paulo wasn’t my best friend, instead he was my leader, the boss. Instead of a lover, Erik was a soldier. And me? I became calmer, stronger, able to face my death but not Erik’s, I wasn’t that strong. I would never be.
“Formation Alpha12, ok? East, North-East, South-East, spread out and run if you can” by the way he said ‘run if you can’ I knew he was only talking to me, even as I opened my mouth to tell him that I wasn’t running, Paulo headed off towards the East. I looked at Erik and kissed him once, no time for anything else. Spinning around I ran after Paulo, without turning I knew that Erik was beside me, this was something we’d been trained to do, born to do.
Even though I was no genius I could tell that Paulo had chosen a good place to defend. Plenty of bushes, trees and two huge boulders which would force the enemy into a line, almost single-file. Easy to shoot. The tree I chose was in the perfect position, almost impossible to aim at from in-between the boulders but easy to shoot from, the leaves would stop me from being seen but I’d be able to see through them and after a leg up from Erik, I could climb up easily. Stopping only to kiss Erik on the forehead, I hauled myself up the rest of the way and out of sight.
Time seemed to slow down as I waited, every second like an hour, too quick though, much to quick. The man’s footstep was quiet, normally un-hearable, in the silence though it was as loud as a shout, the arrow notched in my bow flew instantly, hitting the man in the chest, without waiting to see if he was dead or not, I drew another arrow and fired it near the first, a cry of pain and shock told me I’d managed to hit someone else. Five arrows flew towards me as the enemy archers fired their own arrows, I pressed myself against the branch I was on, making sure I didn’t rustle the leaves. I quickly examined the formation of the enemy troops, too tightly packed. Selecting three of my arrows, I fired them at the same time, one missed but the other two each hit a different man each, not killing just hitting their arms, injuring them. It would be a waste of the twenty-odd remaining arrows if I continued to do that so I set up a steady stream of singular arrows, most of which hit their targets. With only seven arrows left, one of the men flung a dagger at me, I instinctively flung my arms (and bow) up to protect my face, saving my life but cutting my bow in half. “Tessy, are you ok?” I heard Erik’s anxious whisper, a question I couldn’t answer, not yet. Drawing both my daggers, I tensed, waiting for Paulo’s whispered command to enter stage two.
“Now!” without hesitating, I dropped down from the tree, landing as I attacked. Paulo and Erik ran forwards as I dropped, attacking eagerly. While both boys favored long-swords, I preferred either long-range or dual-handed weapons, Paulo’s double handed claymore was too heavy for Erik so he went for the more traditional approach of a simple long-sword. Parrying a thrust from a sword, I spun towards my opponent, ducking in too close for a sword I slashed at the man with my daggers until one of them knocked him over. Without bothering to check he was dead, I kicked him in the chest before moving on.
It wasn’t one-on-one fighting, most of the men had charged Paulo and Erik, thinking that the dagger had killed me. It didn’t take long before my entire body was covered in blood, slicing off another man’s head, I couldn’t help but notice the way all his blood seemed to aim itself at me, almost as if the man’s last wish was ‘I hope you drown in blood’, spitting it from my mouth, I heard a shout of pain, a cry I instantly recognized as Paulo’s. Turning, I slid under someone’s legs (not forgetting to slice upwards as I went) and ran to my friend. He was dead before I’d even moved, tears running down my face I attacked Paulo’s killer in anger.
Glancing around I knew it was hopeless, without Paulo, Erik and I just had each other, two against…against too many. Finishing off the man I ran towards a throng of men surrounding Erik, only now realizing that most of the men had focused on the two boys throughout the entire battle. Somehow managing to push my way towards Erik I froze in horror. It was obvious what had happened, Paulo’s cry had distracted him, not for long but long enough for someone to deliver a death-wound. Dropping to the floor beside him, I ignored the enemy surrounding us “Erik” I gave a cry of despair, he couldn’t die, not now, not yet. There’d been so much to do still, he was only eighteen. I tried to tell him, to explain my feelings, the light started to fade from his eyes as he coughed up blood “I love you” I tried to tell him, my voice choking on the words, he raised his hand raised slightly, whether to protect himself or to touch me I didn’t know, then fell down as he died. Time seemed to stop again, with no beginning and no end, what was the point? Everything had already ended, it was too late. A hand touched my shoulder, spinning around I rose up, the men stood there, still in a circle, still with their weapons drawn, I hated everyone of them. I took a step forward then hesitated, was it was better to die next to Erik than to die fighting? To die fighting, it was what he would have wanted. Raising my daggers, I attacked one of the men, taken by surprise I managed to get one strike in before I was knocked back down onto the floor. My daggers which had dropped down next to me were picked up by someone, I didn’t bother to see who. More time past, my mind seemed to have fallen asleep, everything going slightly faded.  Without Erik, there was no point in life, only point in death. Holding tight to Erik’s arm, I allowed my world and life to fade into blackness.

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