Untold Shadows of The Castle

Road to nowhere

Roads of the desert does not show any mercy. The bumps the snakes that litter around every corner and shadow.Dust that could get in anything and the heat that turns the sand in to glass.People could learned how to with stand the desert.But some times you just ordered to live with it. Erdem was a soldier in the grand Ottoman Empire.Turks was in fall long before the war begun. They were trying to get back on their feet but time was short. Erdem was assigned to outpost in the midle of no where to be more specific In the merciless desert. You could hardly call it a outpost it was a sorto fortified old castle. There were 30 souls in it. Army was kind enough that they build a telegraph line to a larger to base to communicate that way when they need some thing urgent they could just use it to communicate to their superiors to require it. But they were at war an the supplies were scares. They hardly got what they wanted. Erdem was lucky he was going to the outpost In a vehicle with a engine in it. Most of the time transports were carriages with horses. The reason why he was going there with jeep was because the army needed to sent a very urgent message there but the telegraph lines were not working. A team was sent to repair it but it needed more time so a fast transport was the solution. Erdem didn't know the contents of the message he was just hitchhiker. The time when he was at the castle his throat was sour as rock. But he knew that his first act as a rookie in the outpost was asking for water was a bad first impression. So he just cleared his throat and stayed still. The leader of the outpost was Kadir pasha. His voice cracked as he spoke it was like the desert him self was speaking.
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"So what did the grand army bring us this time" His voice had a sarcastic tone to it.
"Private Erdem 6st riflemen Brigade sir!"after very short pause "I was assigned here by The army sir!"
"Do you need some water son I am pretty sure that you need some" This time his voice was welcoming
"No sir" as he was continuing the drive came with a closed envelop in his hands and handed it to Kadir pasha.

Mans face looked like he was suprised that he received a envelope but he gently reached out and grabbed the envelope firmly in his hands. He took a step back turned around and pointed some one. A solider came rushing to his side and made a salute.Kadir pasha ordered him to tell the news that at night just before the supper all of the men should gather in the hall. He gently lowered to tell him that he will do it and he walked away.
"Sorry for that, I have problems to attend. Lieutenant Yunus will guide you through" and he walked away in a steady pace. Lieutenant Yunus had dark hair that was nearly resting on his shoulders, a man would thought that living in this merciless heat you couldn't stand with long hair. As the lieutenant telling him about the castle Erdems eyes were roaming around every corner of the castle get a sense what is going to be like stationed here. To his surprise at the back where horses were stationed he saw a antique canon. It was covered with a white cloth but you could still understand the shape. He thought what was its story. He only saw one artillery on in the castle. Massive shells of the beast was stacked near it. That meant it was fire ready when need it.But the odd thing is he never saw any empty cases. That was odd because when fired empty cases were usually never touched or stacked near the artillery. That meant it was not fired recently or a long time. And he never saw any bullet holes either or empty cases of rifle ammo. Erdem knew that moment that this place didn't saw any combat recently he taught he was going to hostile area but the only hostile thing here was the desert itself. The road he took was a road to nowhere.

The time come the moon was shindig with all of his glory to the castle making tall monolith looking shadows on the now cold as ice sand. Fire was still fresh the sounds of crackling wood was a music for soldiers that guarded the horizon. Except for the sound of the fires and some little unintelagble sounds the castle was dead slince. There was tense in the air not that they were excepting the enemy but because of the message that they received. Hall was big open dark room that has a fire place in the middle that lightened the entire room. Kadir pasha was standing up in the middle. His face was kinda sad looking. The soldiers nearly all of them in the castle was here. Apparently the message he received was an important one. The room was silent every one was waiting for him to speak.Erdem was in the back he could nearly saw the man. While the men were gathering the fire crackles was the only sound except he sound of leather boots in the room. The shadows off the solider's were like giants that were watching over them because of the Dom shaped roof. While as the shadows watched them . The man in the middle started to speak. Brothers he said. The message that I have received tells us that the enemy was spotted marching towards us. A bad kind of taste cam in to Erdems Mouth. Next morning they will be on our door step the army said that the nearest platoon that can defend against them is too far to reach us in time and even if we pack up and leave the enemy would catch up on to us we would be a easy hunt. Every one in the room knew that orders for them were stand against the enemy at all cost. Just as Kadir pasha was starting to say emotional a sudden gun fire cam from the out side the many more followed it every one rushed out in a militaristic order some of them forget their jackets in the hall . When Kadir went out side he saw a section off the wall blown up. Suddenly he knew that the Intel they received was wrong they weren't going to die tomorrow they were going to die to night. He ran with all of his power ignoring the sounds of screams and explosions as he made his way to the cannon that was the only leverage they had. He heard the sounds of the tank that was destroying them before reaching the gun it was a bad option but a option none the less the started turning the weapon on the gates of the castle. He loaded the canon and got ready. The enormous tank breaker dawn the gate ass if it was nothing. But it's glory short lived soon it entered Erdem fired the canon directly on the tank. The tank got blown away in fires that sautéed the enemy the blast radius was to close to Erdem for him survive but he knew it would make the distraction needed for some people to escape the outpost and report that the enemy was coming sooner than they thought.As the battle moved on the shadows on hall walls were gone forever.