Before You Start A War

Chapter Three

Niall eyes up the group. Most of them are sending him looks of hatred, but a few seem indifferent. However, there's always one set of eyes that captures his attention. The one pair of eyes that look at him curiously, the one person that always thanks him whenever he gets his ration. He has set up camp just next to the door, and he's the first person Niall sees whenever he opens it in the morning. He doesn't know his name, and probably never will, but it's nice to know that someone appreciates what he's doing.

Niall opens the jug of water after breaking the two loaves of bread into thirteen pieces and placing them on a cloth off to the side, allowing each man to come up to get their bread, and then make their way to him for their canteens to be filled. Each canteen can be filled about halfway now, and Niall feels it's enough to hold them over for one day.

The men travel in unison over to the cloth, each picking up one piece of bread. A few start eating immediately, while others would rather wait for them to get their water before they start, and very few savor the food and the water with small bites and sips.

Two men approach him simultaneously, their canteens open and waiting to be filled. They battle slightly on who got their first, one of them shoving the other back so he falls to the ground.

"That's enough, men. Everyone gets their share." Niall calls over them, grabbing one of their canteens to start filling it. Suddenly, the man that was knocked over jumps up and tackles the other man to the ground. Niall shifts slightly, trying to stop the canteen from falling to the ground, but is unsuccessful since the other man still had a grip on it and tugged on it as he went down. The canteen falls and the water begins to spill, creating a small puddle in the dirt.

"Look what you did, Dakota!" The man that was tackled yells out, shoving the other man off of him.

"What ya get, bastard. I was in line first."

"Men," Niall tries.

"And you, butterfingers! Now there won't be enough for everyone because ya dropped it!"

Niall sighs, "Keep it up and you won't be getting anything. Either one of ya." The two men's eyes meet, before turning back to Niall with wicked looks on their faces. He looks between the two of them, before shifting off to look back at the canteen in his hands. He closed the lid and puts it back into the sack. "Get moving. Other people are waiting." Niall looks over at the line that's formed to the side.

The two men in front of him send him nasty glares as they storm away, leaning against the left wall together and muttering to each other. Niall shakes his head and motions for the next person to come up, picking the jug up again and opening it.

Harry was the next person to get his food and water. He watched the scene play out, and was really expecting the two men to hurt Niall when he challenged them. Niall smiles at him as Harry opens his canteen, holding it out for Niall to take. Niall fills it up, halfway, and sends Harry on his way with a nod.

"Thank you," He speaks, a thick rasp to his voice since he hasn't spoken much throughout the day. Niall nods again, grinning.

The next person in line arrives with his canteen still closed. Niall looks down at the cap, then back at the man, before handing it back. "Open it."

"I can't, it's stuck. I thought maybe you could get your boys to look at, see if they could fix it." He explains, handing it back. Niall looks back down at it in his hand.

He turns it onto its side, seeing a prominent M.T. carved into the metal, probably the man's initials. He begins to try the cap, gripping it tightly.

Harry's eyes flash back and forth between Niall and the man. The man is sending him a sinister sweet smile, his hands held behind his back. Harry takes a sip of his own water, wondering if Niall will be able to open it. However, he's weary. This man is one of the men that was part of the trio that planned to escape. Maybe this is just the start, since he thinks if they were going to escape, they would have tried it already.

Right as Harry realizes it, Niall gets the cap off the canteen. It didn't take much, just an extra bit of pressure. He looks back up at the man, planning on asking what was so hard, when suddenly he's being pinned to the door, the wood creaking behind him. The canteen slips from his hands, but he tries to keep the jug from falling, not wanting to waste the clean water.

The man had pinned him while he was distracted, and the two other men that got in a fight earlier run up on either side and help the man restrain Niall. He resists, pushing against them with one hand, the jug in the other, slipping from his grip. One of the men grabs his forearm and pushes it up against the door as well, and the water sloshes around in the jug, spilling out and onto Niall's clothes. The water falls to the ground, creating muck underneath him, and eventually he has to let go of the entire jug in order to combat the men.

"Get the rope, tie him up." The older man orders, his dirty hands pressed over Niall's mouth and nose so he can't breath. Niall's newly freed arm squirms around, reaching into his pocket where there's a knife kept, that he forgot to take out when he entered earlier. Thank god he didn't.

He pulls it out, flicking it open with his thumb and thrusting it forward. The man holding his arm curses, letting go and stepping back, hands pressing to his stomach. With his arm completely freed, he slashes again, this time aiming at the man that initially pinned him, hitting him in the shoulder blade, and then his collarbone, just barely missing his neck.

The last man seemed to have realized that Niall was armed and tries to step back, but it's too late as Niall swings his arm around, slicing the man square in the face, narrowly missing his right eye and instead drags a long cut across his cheek. The man reels back, letting out a cry of pain, hands shooting up to his cheek to hold onto it. Niall considers slashing again, just to get the man to back up even more, but decided against it when he notices that more men are beginning to come at him. Niall pulls the knot loose on the door, thrusting his knife out to keep the enemies away.

Harry watches on in horror, jumping up as soon as the first man was cut. Harry wanted to run over and help, but honestly, he didn't know who he'd be helping; the three men, his allies, or Niall, the enemy.

Before Harry can even make a decision, Niall has slid back outside into the cold, dark night, slamming the door closed and locking it up, boarding it, and making sure it doesn't budge even when the men throw themselves against it to get out. Niall's knife is bloody and his heart is racing. He didn't even think to grab the jug of water that he dropped, or the cloth, or even the sack that would be refilled when he went he next night to get their food again. Hopefully they'll understand that he'll need a new one.

Niall can hear the yells of the men on the inside, and can hear as they pound on the wood and throw themselves against it, angry that Niall hurt their men and even more desperate to get out.

Niall doesn't feel remorse for what he's done, not even when he hears one of the men crying, sobbing loud for everyone to hear.

The next morning, when Niall peaks inside, two out of the three men that he injured are still corpses.