Woken

Woken (story)

A web of fear. A strike in the hearts of the innocent. A never-ending war, born to terrorise. This is what life has become. This is what I was born to. This is the reason I will die.

It all began in the year of 2943, the government of Giltop wanted to enhance the planet's breeding programs and make genetically modified babies- to be able to create a life born to do only one thing- a thing that they would assign to them. That's how the war started. Welydm, the continent that I come from, never wanted to be able to control people's lives, never wanted to dominate peoples' lives.

It has been seventy-three years since the war started, seventy-three years of torture and pain, seventy-three years of suffering, and of death. That's what this war brought. Pain, suffering and death. Neither side had surrendered, neither side had given up. Endless fighting for your life, never knowing how long you've got left.

I was the only one of my family that survived the bombing of our village. The only one left. If it wasn't for my new family, I would have just given up. They gave me hope. Hope that this war would end, one day. Hope that somehow we would survive, to awaken and see the new world that can be built from the ruins of ours.

It is now 3016, and those that were left stuck together. There were five of us here, in our shelter. Mo, the oldest of us, at twenty-nine years old, Reyn, the second oldest at twenty-two, Bell, the second youngest at nine, Jasp, the youngest at seven and me, in the middle at sixteen years old. We were like a family. Our own little family of survivors, living on, hoping against hope that we would all live to see the next day.

"BOOOOM! BOOOOM!"

The bombs had started raining down on us again, trying to end us, trying to kill us all. I hate the war, I really do, but I had grown accustomed to listening to the horrid sound of bombs dropping, gunshots and the screams of the innocent. I don't think my mind would have coped if it wasn't for these sounds, keeping me awake of the horrors of my own people. I never wanted anyone to die, no, but these sounds, the sounds of terror kept me alert, kept me vigilant, kept me alive.

I looked around, silently, already knowing everyone was okay, the bombs were quite far away and the worst that could have happened was a bit of debris flying in our direction. No one was even fazed by the explosions and none of them even looked up from what they were doing.

Mo was designing a new way of making second-hand bullets from the ammunition left behind from old bullets or whatever's left inside unexploded ordinance. Reyn was looking at old maps to try and see if there was a way to infiltrate the Giltopian government without letting them know. Bell was on the last surviving computer that we had and was trying to hack into the Giltopian government to try and find out what their plans are with our planet. Jasp was sitting on a box sewing up some of our torn clothing after the last battle. And I, well I was sitting on my favourite box sharpening my swords.

"PEW...PEW...PEW...PEW"

Great...just great....now the foot soldiers were coming. While the Welydmian army was still up and running, we tried our best to defend ourselves and our homeland so that the army wouldn't have such a big task.

They kept firing in our direction, obviously knowing there were people hiding out here.

"PEW...PEW...PEW...PEW"

They were getting closer, one shot at a time, as we prepared ourselves for the upcoming battle. Jasp got his first-aid kit up and ready for any injury, Bell set up some lasers that she had found to distract the enemy. Reyn was counting the size of what we were up against and trying to create a strategy against them. Mo was putting together as many magazines, guns and rifles as he could, ready to fire as I was readying my sword and my gun.

I ran outside, into the commotion, ready to fight for my life, and theirs. They came in the thousand, soldier after soldier, bullet after bullet. I dodged and weaved my way through the destruction as I pierced through their armour with my double-edged sword. Soldier after soldier came, and soldier after soldier fell to the doom of my blade.

I danced my way through the soldiers, slashing my sword into each one that came too near. My blades were covered in blood, every body that fell just staining it more with crimson markings. I had lost no blood, had gained no wound and yet I had made more than a hundred Giltopian soldiers into corpses in front of my very eyes. It was this sort of thing that I lived for; the excitement of a battle, the adrenaline of a war, the despair of ending a life. This is why I hadn't given up with everything, why I kept on fighting.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

I swiftly swung round, attempting to see where the scream had come from. The soldiers kept coming, and now that they saw me distracted, came faster with their guns blasting away. I didn't pay attention to them though as I recognised that scream, that voice pattern. It was Bell.

I hurried off, towards her, having listened to the scream and known where it came from. It was a few minutes before I spotted her, on the floor, covered in blood. She had a gunshot wound to the abdomen, she was dying. I quickly scooped her into my arms, tried to stop the bleeding as I was screaming for Jasp.

"No, no, come on Bell, don't die on me now, eh. Come on Bell, hey, you always said that they would never get to you, right? Hey, don't give up now, not after all this time. Not after all we've been through. Please, just stay awake, just...just stay awake for me, please Bell, you can do this, just one more day, come on, just one more day, eh?"

"Run...run...y..you...brill....brilliant...girl..a..and...re..remem...remember...I...I...I..lo..love..y..you"

Her last words. The last words she was ever going to say to me. I screamed out in agony as I rocked her body back and forth, not really able to believe that she was gone.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

After a few minutes of despair, I looked up, and it seemed that the Giltopians had ceased fire and were looking on in sorrow as I mourned the girl that was like a sister to me. I stood up, brought my sword and my gun up with me and started to fight. I didn't care that they had stopped, they hadn't killed me in my moment of anguish, I was just too angry.

'Anger is always the shortest distance from a mistake.' Bell always used to say that. When I got too filled with rage, Bell would come up to me, hug me and say those lines. I knew she wouldn't want me to do this, to take revenge on her death like that.

So I did only what I could at that moment: I sank down to my knees, sobbing over Bell's cold lifeless body. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Over and over again, I repeated that line, over and over again I apologised for what I had done.

The Giltopians behind me seemed to understand that I was just resigned, that I hadn't meant to attack them like that, that those were the actions of a desperate sister, just trying to accept reality; reality that my Bell would never come back.

Even through this loss, I was able to see, we had finally woken.