Blood Lines

Battle Battalion

Marco:

I woke up with a headache, a terrible headache and my body felt drained of energy. I got up from the floor slowly, being careful because my body felt like it might collapse. I couldn't tell how much time had passed while I was unconscious, it was morning when I passed out, and it looks like its late afternoon now. All I could remember was being chased by the lion and then my body heating up....wait lion..... why wasn’t I dead yet. I look around and saw nothing but a mound of ash in front of me. I take a step over the mound and almost fall to the ground, my whole body inflamed with pain as I had taken that step. I stand still for a little while and wait for the pain to go away, after ten minutes panting I try to take another step but the pain returns. The pain travelled from my left leg to my stomach and then back again, so I waited a little more. My leg wasn’t broken because I could stand on it at least, I have to move, I need to move, or otherwise what happens if that lion comes back. I clutch my stomach with one hand and the other over my left leg. Then walk. The pain started up again but I wasn’t going to give up this time. With each step my leg felt like it was being hit on the bone with a hammer and my stomach felt like my insides being burnt with boiling hot oil. Ten more minutes had passed before I had struggled to make it to the end of the alleyway and then I realised that I’m lost. How far had I run? I had two choices, go left or right. I decide to go right because I think that is the way I had come from, or was it the other way, it doesn’t matter. As I walk back my leg slowly begins to feel better but my stomach still throbs with pain.

For about another ten minutes I walked hopelessly lost in the alleyways, it was like a giant damn maze. I never knew the city had such a large alleyway system. My leg had stopped hurting but my stomach still felt pretty bad. I double over in pain, sweet all over my face and running down my body.

"ARGGH Forward” (swords clashing) “Forward....hold the line we can’t lose this fight".

I look up in the direction of the voice, where did that noise come from. I stumble towards the sound of the fighting. I turn around a left corner, then right, left, right again. I hear people; maybe they can help me get out of this place. I turn left one last time and I didn't believe my eyes. In front of me was a fully fledged battle taking place. There were like 20 half goat half human things fighting against 13 men in ancient bronze Greek battle armour. Swords were meeting swords, spears hitting shields; blood was all over the floor. One guy saw me and shouted out towards me but I couldn't hear him. He tries to shout louder but he is distracted by me and one of the goat people swings a wooden club and smashes it against the side of his head. ‘Crunch’ was the sound the club made as it hit him. As he falls to the ground the line of men wavers back a little. One man in blue armour runs back twenty meters and then turns to the others, "Form up you lazy swines, straight line, we must hold off the monsters until the transport arrives", I look towards the man, his voice was the one I heard earlier. At the sound of his command the other men fall back to him, spread out into a straight line, lock there shields together and stamp their feet into the ground all at once. The Man stands behind them and pulls out a watch from his pocket and looks to the sky. I watch from behind the line of men in horror as the horde of half goat half human things charge in a bloodlust frenzy. Closer and closer they came and the line of warriors was doing nothing. At the last minute the line of men lift their spears and throw them towards the horde. The horde unable to stop their charge, run straight to the line of spears which impale half of them. The remaining half of the goat men look at the line of men, now realising that they had fewer numbers than them, retreat to the other end of the alleyway and disappear around a corner.

"YESSSS, WOO!". Cheers and sighs of relief fill the alleyway as the men celebrate their victory; I was just in total shock. The men all throw their shields on the ground and high five each other. They still didn't realise that I was standing there with my mouth open. The man in the blue armour looks back into the sky and then back at the others. "This isn’t a time to celebrate, we have failed our mission....we are stuck in a monster hot zone...... and you lot are just sitting their cheering and yelling, attracting whatever other monster is around" the man then points behind himself without looking ( which is towards me) and says "What if something had come up from behind us". The other soldiers started to smile like children one begins to laugh. "What’s so funny Luke", “do you want to come up against a Niemen Lion in this maze" yells the man in blue armour. The man that must have been Luke points to me and laughs "Something did come up behind us Jono, but don’t worry it's no trouble I'll protect you", the other men burst out in laughter and some have laughing fits and roll on the floor. The man in blue (who must be Jono) spins around and notices me for the first time. "Who are you and what are you doing here?". I take a step towards Jono but before I could reply Luke draws his sword. "I might have been wrong look at him, looks sick.... like plague sick". The other men stop laughing and have a closer look at me, and then all at once they pick up their weapons and re-create the battle line they had earlier. "No no I swear I don’t have the plague I’m just tired," "My name is Marco, the store manager called me a bloodling after I was pushed into one of his statues, he then turned into a lion and chased me into these alleyways and I ran until I was cornered." the men said nothing.  "When the beast cornered me something happen and I passed out." "When I woke up the lion was gone and I have been wondering the alleyways ever since, please believe me I’m not making this up." Luke had his mouth open like he had never heard anything more stupid in his life, the rest of the warrior men had gone completely silent and unmoving, and only the man named Jono spoke. "Before you passed out, did have a burning sensation throughout your whole body?". "Yes" I replied. "And did your whole body felt like it was hit by a bus then you tried to move after you fainted?" he asked, "yes" I replied again.

A smile appeared on Jono’s face.  "Then I welcome you to First Charge, Battle Battalion of the 9th Bloodling Army.”