Dawn

"You broke it, Daddy."

Her voice cracked, echoing shards of glass and shrapnel at our feet. I adjusted the shoulder strap of my artillery weapon, eyeing the sliver of bloody sun rising over blown-out wreckage. Unhealed wounds pierced my bones.

"It wasn't my doing." My raspy protest fell flat in the stillness.

"War," she sniffled. "You promised you wouldn't. Now look."

"I had no choice. Would you rather we be taken without a fight?"

"You couldn't win."

Distant explosions throbbed underneath us. A trail of rising dust betrayed the advance of a final enemy battalion. I shook my head and slumped to my knees, slinging the weapon off my back and laying it down.

"I'm sorry." I crossed an arm over my knee and rested my head on it. "I never thought it would come to this. It's all my fault."

She touched my shoulder as a shaft of dull red sunlight slipped through murky, impure clouds to alight on our huddled bodies.

"I tried to protect you," I choked. "I thought this was the right thing."

"What happens now?" Her fear tore through me.

Head raised again, I surveyed the approaching enemy.

"Play dead." I stood up and tugged a grimy, tattered sheet out of a pile of rubble. "Until I can ensure your safety."

I wrapped her up in the sheet and laid her flat on the ground, hidden behind fallen trees and brush. All that remained was to wait silently for the end, praying for the beginning.

A commander, wearing tarnished medals and dusty ribbons, stepped forward to meet me from the grey line of warriors. I lifted my hands.

"I surrender. Please, do no harm."

He held out a sheet of paper.

"An armistice has been signed at the capitol. We come in peace."

I hung back, distrustful, balancing on quivering legs.

"What terms?" My breath rasped in my dry throat.

He ran his eyes over the limp, wrinkled paper.

"Our orders were to find anyone left alive out here and bring them to the capitol, where they will be cared for. Restoration efforts are underway. Is no one with you?"

"A… little girl." I tried in vain to still the tremor in my voice.

His eyebrows lifted as my roiling emotions came through.

"Your daughter?"

I nodded, turning to get her. He drew a long breath, watching me unwrap my child from her shrouded disguise.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did. She needs to be safe."

She clung to me, tearstained face gazing up at the commander with wide, scared eyes. He attempted a faint, reassuring smile which faded back into creases of exhaustion.

"Safe passage for both of you. I guarantee it. We are here on a peaceful mission."

He led us to the front of his line of men. I hoisted her onto my shoulders, where she rested her weary head against mine. We trudged through a light snowfall, feathering the blackened, unclean land with a dusting of pure white.

Words: 500.
Written for "Note: 48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt Deadl..."