The Krieger and the Flower

The Imperial guard relief force marched through the city gates, with crowds of native inhabitants looking on. But there was little cheering or celebrating, the grim-looking army were not the angels of salvation that the people had thought they would be, rather they were silent, lifeless beings that spared the people not even a single glance as they marched by. 

The people's faces grew nearly as dreary as the soldier's masks, as they realized that their saviors where not like angels, but more like walking corpses. But through the crowd of bleak and cheerless faces, a bright and sunny one appeared. "Why is everyone so afraid of them?" she thought, "When their here to save us! We should be thankful!" 

She leaned over the and reached out to the nearest passing soldier, holding out one of the summer flowers she had just gathered. "These are for someone else, but you can have one." She said cheerfully. The soldier hesitated for a moment, looking at the gift being presented to him, then he moved back into formation. He did not take it, but she was sure that he wanted to, her grandmother frantically pulled her back and began scolding her. She didn't listen, she just put the flower back with the rest and stepped back, her smile. Unchanged.

Late that night, at the temporary camp setup. The soldier was lying on his poor uncovered bunk, his bag as a pillow, surrounded by his brothers in arms taking in a few miserable hours of rest. He however, could not sleep, for some reason even he didn't understand. the image of this young girl smiling at him while handing him a flower stayed in his mind, normally he would have quickly forgotten this insignificant moment, but he had not, which plunged him into a deep state of confusion. 

His eyes behind the mask starring silently at the immensity of the night's sky stuttered with stars. Why? that was the word that kept coming back to his mind, Why? Why was he still thinking about it? Like all his brothers he was just a number. a number among many, a weapon dedicated to fighting and dying for the Imperium, Nothing more, dying for the cause. Tomorrow he and all his brothers would go to fight the hordes for Orks that threatened this world, and many of them would never come back.

He would surly be part of that mass grave. Because fighting and dying was all he was taught in his life. But while he remained lost in the unusual thought, a light and cold wind rose, which suddenly brought something to him, something small and delicate that settled gently on his chest. This flower, that had been brought by the wind, it was exactly the same as.... looking briefly around him, without noticing anything moving. He held the flower in the palm of his hand staring at it in silence, not really knowing what to do with it.

The next day, lined up in rows and marching in irreproachable cadence like veritable automatons, the soldiers of Krieg left the town to go in the direction of the battles, located several hours walk from here, again a heavy somber silence rained, as the crowd of locals watched the legion departed, walking amongst his brothers, his las rifle on his shoulder, the young Kriegsmen saw among the crowd the same young girl whom he did not know, accompanied by this old women who must have been her grandmother. Like yesterday, the young girl was the only one to show a smile in the middle of all these closed and dull faces. Like. A last source of light and hope. their eyes met again and he thought. 

For a single second. he guessed two words uttered by her lips, something he had never heard in his entire life.

Thank you.

She would never know his name, and he would never know her's. They would never see each other again, both of them, each in their own way, knew that. without a single word, the young man resumed his firm and upright walk, heading towards his destiny as a living weapon in service of the Imperium. But having kept, well hidden in his pocket. This Flower. which although seemingly insignificant for everyone. But for him, for a moment. Had meant the most important thing in the world.

If people like him existed in this pitiless world. It was only to allow people like her to continue to exist.

In Life. War. In Death. Peace. In Life. Shame. In Death. Atonement.

-Death Korps Of Krieg