Alone

Alone
A soldier stands alone on an empty battlefield. Surrounded by bodies of the fallen, he can see the carnage around him.
As he stares into the cold set eyes of a young soldier whose helmet is dented and torn to pieces. He can feel the fear, the agony and the chaos that the young soldier must have felt, as though he were standing by his side during battle.
The lone soldier turns and the sun glints on his spotless armor as the shield he once held proudly falls to the ground. Battered, bruised and slashed in several places, a familiar face stands out among the sea of the slaughtered.
Though his once blonde hair is matted with blood and his face is slashed, the solider can still recognize him. His face frozen, eyes closed and mouth wide open in what could only have been his death scream.
The soldier falls to his knees, no longer able to support himself and overwhelmed by emotions. Tears flow from his eyes as he screams one word to the heavens:
"Brother!"
The soldier knows he is too late now for the war has been fought and lost. The soldier sits and weeps into his hands. He had never wanted any of this.
He had never wanted to be a soldier.
He had never wanted for his brother to get hurt.
When a couple of soldier's in charge of recruiting men for the army came to him one day threatening to harm those closest to him. That meant his brother. He was forced to join to save his brother.
The brothers had always been close. When the soldiers' younger brother turned to him and said he would join the army too, he had agreed thinking that this way he would be able to keep him safe and out of trouble.
He realized now that it was a mistake.
Looking up from his grief something caught his eye.
Getting to his feet the soldier started walking towards his brothers' body. He quickly gained speed as he could see his brothers' chest rise and fall. The lone soldier got within ten meters of his brother when he saw his eyes open.
Overjoyed and relieved, the soldier closed his eyes for a mere second.
It only took a second though.
The soldiers' foot came down on a rock and he lost his footing on the loose turf. Stumbling for a moment he fell to the ground landing on another fallen soldier with a sickening thud. He landed facing his brother, thinking that he was merely winded.
Smiling up at his brother, the soldier was shocked to see the look on his face: it was sheer horror.
Confused he tried to push himself up but only managed to make it to his elbows. Through his armour the hilt of a sword dripping with blood. On impulse he reached down grabbing the cold sword and slowly removed it. He smiled back at his brother as the tip of the blade came free. The smile lasted only a second for as the blood seeped from his open wound his face hardened into his own death mask.
He fell to the ground for a second time with the sword in hand.
This time he did not rise.