Sharp

A civil war during a fictional time period, not unlike medieval times

Before he could be struck, Thomas turned around, pointed the arrow at the man with the axe right behind him, and shot him in the neck. The man fell down, dead. Thomas was a fantastic soldier, and the north was lucky to have him in their army. He was quick-thinking, fast acting, and stronger than most. Still, he knew for this battle, he had to be at the top of his game. He wasn’t sure exactly what the war was over, though. He knew it was a territorial issue between the north and the south, but that was all he knew.

Even though he had to be focused, his mind couldn’t help but slip. He kept thinking about about the day he was drafted. He was nervous and scared, and felt everything he was sure everyone else felt. It was strange to him, because, all anyone saw was the fact that he was such a great soldier. The other soldiers saw how strong he was, and how skilled he was, like he was born to do this. They wouldn’t think for a second that he was just as scared to be doing this as everyone else was.

It was clear to everyone on both sides that the north was out of their depth in this war, and had no business fighting. They were so desperate for soldiers, it was nauseating for Thomas to think about. Most of them were strong, young men like was. There was David, his old friend from school, and Gregory, a kid Thomas used to fight for food all the time when they were younger. Thomas hated Gregory, but that didn’t matter here. There were also some other guys he knew, like Bradley and Benjamin. Still, these guys and the hundreds like them were apparently not enough for the north. There were several women fighting, such as Greta, Holly, and Denise, who Thomas had casually seen around his town. There was George, a ten year-old kid, and there was also Edward, a frail older man, who used to fight very well when he was younger, but was until now, a retired soldier. Thomas had glimpses of all of these people run through his head as he was fighting, but these glimpses were only brief, because Thomas had to concentrate on the fight.

All around him, he could see soldiers from both sides, north and south. Very close to him on one side, he saw Holly. She was down on her knees, holding up her sword as a soldier from the south was pressing down on it with his axe. He had her at his mercy, until Thomas went over to try and help. He stabbed the soldier in his side, and the soldier fell forward. As he fell though, the axe fell back behind Holly, hitting her in the back of the head and killing her. Thomas looked at the mess in front of him. He noticed that there was an arrow sticking into the dead soldier’s side; the side other side from the one where Thomas stuck the sword.

Thomas looked up and saw a southern soldier refilling his bow with an arrow. When he saw this, he knew that the arrow that hit the southern soldier was meant to hit him, and so was this new arrow. Thomas pretended not to notice, and as soon as the southern soldier shot the arrow, Thomas held up his shield. The arrow hit the shield and fell to the ground. Thomas quickly grabbed it, put it into his own bow, and shot the southern soldier as he was trying to run away.

As soon as he saw the soldier fall down, Thomas looked up and saw what looked like hundreds of arrows falling from the sky. In the very little time it took for the arrows to fall to the ground, Thomas saw his northern friends either running scared, or continuing to fight, not knowing what was happening. He saw the ten-year old George run toward a nearby cliff, hiding under it in a cave-like area for protection. He saw most of the southern soldiers bent down, covering their heads with their shields. In that moment, he knew this was a pre-planned attack on the part of the south.

Thomas quickly acted as the southern soldiers did, and put his shield over his head. When all the arrows fell, Thomas got up, and saw a large group of southern soldiers on the cliff. Each soldier on the cliff was riding a horse, even though everyone on the ground was on foot. Thomas looked around him and saw Bradley dying on the ground with an arrow sticking out of his back. Not too far away from that, he saw Greta dead on the ground with an arrow sticking straight out of the top of her head. He heard a scream from behind him.

“Thomas!” It was David’s voice. Thomas turned around and ran over to his best friend. He was bleeding severely, and tears were in his eyes.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be okay,” Thomas said, looking over his shoulder with his bow and arrow raised as he said it.

“No, that’s not it, dumbass” he said jokingly, as he pulled a folded piece of paper out of

his pocket, and gave it to him. “I wrote this for my mom. I want you to give it to her.” Thomas could have argued and said something like, “You can give it to her when this is over,” but he could tell that that wasn’t what David wanted to hear.

“No problem,” he said. He caught a quick glimpse of the folded note, and saw the words “I’m sorry” written on the front. Thomas started to get a little choked up.

“What are you sorry for?”, he said. “Having a son who’s such a piece of s**t he can’t survive a silly little war?” David laughed.

“Don’t worry about what it says,” he told him. “Now get out there and don’t f**k this up.” With that, Thomas put the note in his pocket, let David die where he was, and stood back up to rejoin the fight.

As he was standing up, he saw that Gregory, the person he hated most in the world, and who hated him just as strongly, was watching this exchange the whole time. Gregory gave him a brief look to express his sadness, and then quickly turned away to continue fighting.

Thomas started vigorously running around and waving his sword around, hitting everyone he could with it, as long as they were southerners. He noticed that Denise and Edward, the old man, were standing next to each other. They were being confronted by a large southern soldier. He saw Denise load up her bow, while Edward slowly tried to grab his sword. Before either could happen, the southerner shoved Denise to the ground. Once she was on the ground, he instantly killed her by slamming his axe down on the top of her head. Once Edward saw this, he stopped bothering to grab his sword, as if he knew this was the end for him. However, the southern soldier did not bother to kill Edward, merely pushing him to the ground, before moving on.

All Thomas could think about now was how outnumbered the northern soldiers were. As soon as this thought came to his head, the southern soldiers on horses who were on top of the cliff, were now riding into the battlefield, where everyone else was. It seemed like hundreds of horses, running through the field, trampling anyone who got in their way. Thomas did the best he could to avoid them. He started running toward the horses, rather than away from them. He stayed in between them, until he got an idea.

He made sure to duck down low, with his sword ready. He waited for a horse that was going slow enough, and eventually he saw one coming his way. Once it got close enough, he quickly jumped forward, plunging toward the rider with his sword out, so that the rider would not have a chance to react. Thomas planted the sword right into the rider’s neck, and then quickly hung on to the horse. Thomas was holding on to the side, as the dead body was taking up room on top. Thomas used whatever energy he had to push the body off of the horse, and then climb on. Thomas was now riding a horse, for which he had no experience or training, but he had no other choice but to be able to do it, and do it well, and so he did.

Thomas thought about shooting some soldiers while on the horse, but he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself, so he just held up his shield in case someone would shoot at him, and he kept riding. He kept riding through the noise and confusion, and thought about the people who have been killed, and then he thought about what he was actually fighting for. He wondered what it meant to be the best soldier, as he supposedly was. He wondered if it should really feel like an accomplishment to be able to survive where all his friends would die, all for a purpose he wasn’t even sure of. He thought about David, and wondered what he must have been sorry for. He thought about the women who fought to prove themselves, and may have just been targeted early because they were perceived as easy targets, whether they were or not. He thought about how Edward was probably trampled on and dead, and how a man who had dedicated his life to fight for the north as many times as he had, would see his life end here, by basically being thrown to the wolves just so the north would have more numbers on its side. He wondered why the fact that the north thought they needed to resort to drafting him for numbers wasn’t an indication that the north may be fighting a losing war. He wondered what the north was fighting for that was this important to fight for, or if it was just a matter of being afraid to retreat. Had the north already gone too far in over their heads, that they can’t see a way out?

Eventually, the horses slowed down and stopped. The southern soldiers stopped their horses, but Thomas did not know how to stop his. It was silent now, except for the movement of Thomas’s horse. This drew everyone’s attention. Thomas knew that they would be targeting him now because of this, but luckily, his horse had now run past the other soldiers on their horse. Thomas was now ahead of them all. He could have keep riding away, fleeing the war, but the more he thought of it, the more he realized that that was not an option. He didn’t care about whatever the cause was anymore, but he was fighting for his friends who died. He wanted to at least attempt to win the battle for them, however unlikely that was. He didn’t want their lives to be wasted, and he figured if he won the battle, he would feel a little less like that was the case. With all this in mind, Thomas turned his horse around to face the other soldiers, and held up his shield. As soon as this happened though, the horse just kept running. In order avoid going back into the group of soldiers, where he would surely be killed, he jumped off of the horse, making sure he had his shield, sword, and bow and arrow with him.

He fell to the ground, and then stood up. He looked at all the southern soldiers, just sitting on their horses. He saw all the dead bodies on the ground beneath them, and he could make out that many of them were southerners, sacrificing their lives for an easy win. Other than Thomas, everyone was was alive was on a horse. Thomas could see that that meant there were about thirty southern soldiers ready to pick him off. He didn’t have time to think of the other northern soldiers who were now dead. He saw the southern soldiers slowly riding toward him. They formed a circle around him.

“So it’s just these two, then?,” one of them asked. Thomas was confused, yet intrigued at the word “two.”

“Yeah,” another replied. “That one jumped on one of the horses, and this one ran away before the horses made it here.” Just as he said this, he threw someone into the circle with Thomas. Thomas looked to see who it was, and noticed that it was Gregory. Thomas and Gregory used to fight each other, usually violently, for meals. Thomas knew that Gregory was an excellent hunter, even hunting in dangerous areas. It didn’t surprise Thomas that Gregory would be able to recognize a dangerous sound from far away, and run from it.

No matter what problems the two of them had with each other before, they looked at each other, relieved that the other was alive. They sat there for a few seconds, waiting for some sort of conversation for the southerners to have amongst each other about what to do with them. This was a clear lapse in judgment, as before Thomas realized it, several arrows started flying in each of their directions. Gregory held up his shield as soon as he knew he needed to, while Thomas dove out of the way, closer to where Gregory was, but not close enough to be hit by the arrows that were aimed at him. They both covered themselves with their shields. They looked at each other behind their shields, and Thomas could see that Gregory was trying to tell him something, so he listened closely.

“Stand directly in front of one of them for a few seconds, and then jump down,” he told him. As soon as he said this, he started crawling away behind his shield, toward one of the soldiers, as arrows were flying. Thomas wasn’t really sure what Gregory meant, but he followed his lead.

They each stood in front of a different horse. Thomas saw that Gregory was jumping up and down, and that his shield was behind him, rather than in front of him, in order to protect him from the soldier behind him. Thomas followed Gregory’s lead on both accounts. Then, the second he saw Gregory duck to the ground, he repeated this action. Before he knew it, he saw an arrow flying over his head, hitting the soldier behind him, and killing him. The same happened to the solder behind Gregory.

The soldier next to the now dead soldier who was behind Thomas saw what happened, and swung his axe at Thomas’s face. Thomas quickly crawled under the horse. He was now lying face up under the horse, and he could see the horse’s face, but could not see the rider. Thinking quickly, he shot an arrow into the horse’s neck, crawled out of the way, and the horse fell dead, the rider falling with him. Right when the rider fell, Thomas cut his throat with his sword. Gregory saw this, and stabbed the horse next to him in the stomach, and repeated the process of cutting the rider’s throat when he fell to the ground.

However, the horse did not die. Rather, the horse became angry, and out of control. He ran into a horse across the circle. This horse, with a rider on its back, rose up to fight the horse who hit him. The rider fell back on his head and died instantly. This riled up the other horses, and soon enough horses were throwing riders off their backs, killing some instantly, and trampling the ones who survived the fall. Thomas and Gregory tried to run away, planning to come back after things settled down, to see what remained.

As they ran, they looked back and saw two of the riders taking control of things. They were keeping their own horses at a safe distance, while shooting arrows into the other horses, or otherwise killing them with their swords or axes. Eventually, all that was left were these two men and their horses.

The two men saw that Thomas and Gregory were running away, and so they chased them down. Thomas and Gregory could see them coming, and they both looked at each other, knowing they had to stop running. They turned around and aimed their arrows at the horses. They waited until the horses came closer, and they both shot at the same time. Both southerners dodged the arrows aimed at them, right before riding right up to Thomas and Gregory. One southerner held his axe over Thomas’s head, while the other one held his over Gregory’s.

“If you either of you start to load another arrow, you’ll lose your head before you get the chance. Drop everything you have.”

Thomas and Gregory looked at each other again, and knew that what the man was saying was true. They could have just tried to shoot anyway, just because they hated the idea of giving up, but it was pointless. That wouldn’t be what their friends would have wanted. They slowly started to drop everything. Gregory dropped his shield, sword, bow, and container full of arrows. Thomas did the same, but as he was putting the container of arrows down, he was able to sneak one into his sleeve. As far as the two southerners knew though, everything they had was on the ground.

“Good. Well done, gentlemen. You fought hard. I have to respect that.” Thomas didn’t really know what to think of that comment. He learned to see the men as evil, and wrong, and yet even he wouldn’t have thought to congratulate them, as they were congratulating him.

“Alright, get on. We’ll take you in as prisoners,” he said, as if he were inviting them over for drinks. Thomas got behind one southerner on his horse, while Gregory got behind the other.

“Thomas,” Gregory said, to which Thomas responded by looking at him.

“You dropped this when we were running,” he said, and handed him the note that David gave him. Thomas smiled at him, and accepted it. As he went to put it in his pocket, the arrow in his hand started to slip out of his hand. He quickly reacted to grab the arrow before it fell, and he accidentally dropped the note on the ground in the process.

Thomas slipped the arrow out of his hands, and was ready to stab the southerner in the back of the neck with it. He lifted it up, and just before he was going to act, he saw that Gregory was trying to tell him something. He looked closely to see what he was trying to say.

Gregory mouthed the words “kill me” to Thomas, and Thomas thought about what Gregory was saying. They were about to be taken prisoner, and no matter what happened, they were going to have to live lives with the memories of this war, and all they have lost from it, even if they were to survive prison. Thomas thought about suggesting that Gregory reach into the container of arrows that the southerner in front of him was carrying, just at the same time Thomas would stab the southerner in front of him. Then Gregory could shoot the other soldier, and they could be the only two survivors from this battle, and if they still wanted to end their lives, they could make that choice later. Then he thought that there was no way that would work. Thomas realized that the second he stabbed the soldier, the other one would be able to kill both of them. Upon realizing it, even he wanted to kill himself with the arrow, but he thought, after all Gregory did for him, he owed it to him. He slipped him the arrow, and Gregory stabbed himself in the throat. The two southerners reacted to this immediately.

“He f*****g killed himself! They’re still loaded!” one of them yells. They didn’t rationalize the situation at all. All they realized was that the northerners were slightly more threatening than they thought, and all other rationale went out the window. They immediately lifted up their axes, and Thomas saw the southerner who was now riding solo swing his axe towards Thomas’s face. Thomas fell to the ground and everything else went black.

The two southerners put their axes away again, and rode off, away from the battlefield. They began to rise towards the cliff from where they started. Just as they came close to the cliff, one of the southerners saw an arrow fly right into the forehead of the other southerner, whose horse ran off immediately when this happened. Shocked upon seeing this, the last surviving southerner stopped his horse, held his shield up in front of him, and looked around. He looked back to the battlefield, but saw nothing. Suddenly, an arrow stuck him in the back of the neck.

Right after he fell dead, his horse went off in the direction of the other horse. The entire area was silent. After a few minutes, George, the ten year-old boy who ran under the cliff, walked out. He immediately dropped all of his weapons, and his shield, and left them on the ground. He slowly started to make his way onto the battlefield, among his dead friends and enemies, all their weapons, shields, and horses. He saw David’s note and, not knowing what it was, he picked it up, and put it in his pocket. He continued to look down at everybody, and thought different things. He looked at Gregory, was impressed; not because of his ability to fight, but because of his consistent ability to recognize a situation for what it is. He looked at the women, and was empathetic. He didn’t know why, but he believed that he could relate to them more than anyone else. He took a look at Edward, and spit on his face. Then, he thought a little more, and wiped it off. Then he looked at Thomas, and was in awe. He had nothing but respect at first, and the more he thought, he started to shake. Tears started filling his eyes. He was seeing someone he had known to be indestructible, destroyed. It made no sense that a dumb kid like him was still alive, while someone like Thomas was not. Then he felt even worse, and spoke out loud through tears.

“I hid in a cave... I hid in a f*****g cave.” He stood there, in the center of the battlefield, waiting for something to happen. He started screaming, still in tears.

“Hey! I’m still here! Come on! Stop hiding! Come and get me, I bet you can’t!” He stood there in the silence. “Come on!”