Emyr marches forward with one hand on his sword, one hand on his pistol, his eyes constantly searching the streets and buildings, his heart pounding against his rib cage in fear and anticipation. He reminds himself to breathe as he leads his army through the dark streets, he thinks about how filthy everything is and how they will have to have a citywide cleaning once the battle is finished. The buildings look as though they are falling apart, covered in dirt and bullet holes, their residents have long since escaped or died within their walls. Emyr wonders how many bodies are still inside these buildings that were once beautiful and at one time were filled with happy people who loved this city, who would take care of each other. However, these buildings have been empty for at least a decade. They, like the rest of the City, have been reduced to crumbling shadows of a city that once existed. Emyr looks at the shattered roofs of the houses and spots shadowy figures making their way across. One of these figures stops, signals to him, and disappears behind a chimneystack. Emyr stops immediately, listening to his soldiers stopping behind him, and watches until he sees a sniper fall from a roof a few houses down and the shadowy figure appears again and signals for him to continue the march. This process is repeated as they make their way through the streets since Emyr’s army is just for show at this point; Anna’s army is clearing the way for them until they get to the house for the actual fight. He knows that Anna is somewhere in the City, but she didn’t share her plans with him, let alone anyone else, since her battle plan is the one that will win them the fight and if the enemy found out the details it would be a little more difficult (never impossible). Emyr wonders where Anna is, whether she is up on a rooftop watching for snipers, or maybe she is the one killing them.
The streets are a peculiar place at this time of night, especially with snipers and assassins on the rooftops and an army in the street, but the most disturbing part is the fact that the buildings are empty even though many people live in the city. Everyone knows about the battle so they have either fled or removed from their homes in order to make the fight go smoothly without the obnoxious and unnecessary interference of screaming and dying people. Emyr knows that this is why the city is empty, but it doesn’t reduce the disturbing emptiness of the city he is fighting to save. It would be great for his soldiers to see the people they are going to fight and die for, but for now, all they have is their faith in Emyr and their belief that they are fighting on the right side. Hopefully, their faith is all they will need in the upcoming battle since Emyr can’t save both his army and his city tonight.
The soldiers march onward, trying not to let their fear and doubt take over, as they look at the empty buildings of this city they want to rescue. Of the 150 soldiers, 19 are unsure of whether they are fighting on the right side and are wondering whether they will accidentally destroy the City instead of save it. 60 soldiers are confident that they are doing the right thing and are excited to see what the city will look like once Anna an Emyr take over. There are 14 boys aged 18-22 who are terrified about what will happen in the battle since even though this is the first time they have ever held weapons outside of the training rooms. A group of 22 men is walking together, as they always have, since they have made a pact to stay together no matter what so that if any one of them survives the night he will be able to take the letters they all wrote back to their wives. The last line of the army is made up of 17 soldiers who have each considered turning around and running away, since they’re at the back then nobody would notice until they counted the bodies in the morning, and at least then they would be alive. There are 18 soldiers in this army who, although they are spread out in the group, are keeping an eye on each other since they have promised each of their mothers’ to bring home all their cousins. In this army, there are 150 soldiers, each one is thinking about their families and how creepy the City is right now, but most importantly, each one of these soldiers is a brave human being who has accepted death and still marches behind Emyr towards the house, towards death and the freedom of this city.
A shadowy figure on a rooftop stands still, facing the army, as more figures appear forming a line in the dim light. One by one, they bow to Emyr and his soldiers before disappearing once more. Emyr stands tall and walks forward with a purposeful stride as he turns the corner to face the house. The house looks like a normal suburban home, except that there is a ring of men and boys holding rifles standing around it and a gun is pointing out of every window. Emyr stops the march so that he stands on the sidewalk across the street from the house, watching the men guarding the house, noticing how exhausted and scared they all look as their guns shake in their hands. His soldiers line up all around him as they wait for a signal, hoping that it will never come, analyzing their enemies and holding their own guns tightly as they wait for the first shot. Emyr steps off the sidewalk and the men around the house stiffen and point their guns at him; immediately, his own soldiers point their guns at the men around the house and Emyr realizes that the shooting will start soon but he doesn’t want to give the signal just yet.
As everyone points their guns, some of the men surrounding the house begin to feel just how tired and cold they are and their hands shake more than before. One man decides that he has had enough of all this standing around and starts to pull the trigger to end it all, kill Emyr and the battle is over with one death. Once he is dead, that army won’t know what to do and maybe they’ll just leave. Suddenly his gun is on the ground. He doesn’t understand how it happened, but now he is falling forward into the man beside him who stumbles into another and another. Emyr watches as the men start to lose their balance and fall over each other in their exhaustion, as he watches them he calmly walks forward and knocks on the front door. The door is opened a minute later by Anna, wiping off her dagger, who smiles and walks out of the house. She faces the men who were guarding the house, who are scrambling to get back on their feet and understand how she got into the house, and says, “I know this has been a very stressful night, and I know you think you need to fight us to the death, but I am going to offer you a couple other options for you to consider. First, you can fight us, but I hope you know that it won’t go smoothly. Second, you can put down your weapons and go to your families and we will let you go and you are welcome to continue living in the City. Third, you can leave the city now with the understanding that by doing so you are declaring yourself an enemy of the City and if you ever return you will be treated as a criminal. Take your pick, but I really hope you each choose the option that you actually want and aren’t just doing what you think you should.” Emyr motions for his soldiers to lower their guns as they wait for the decisions.
After a few minutes of stunned silence, the men realize that she was serious and begin discussing the options among themselves before it is obvious that they have made their decisions. A small group gathers up their weapons and begin the walk out of the city, leaving behind their families and their lives; these men believe that they are doing the right thing because they are being loyal to their leader who would never want the City to be destroyed by these people, and because they hope they will be able to raise an army to take back the City. The majority of the men who still stand around the house put down their weapons and spread out in different directions to find their families and prepare for the changes that will undoubtedly come with this new leadership. The remaining men cling to their rifles, shaking from exhaustion and cold, stand as tall as they can and form a proud line before firing at the army standing across the street. The gunfire lasts for a couple of minutes before their bloodied bodies fall to the ground. Emyr’s soldiers, now the only soldiers around, watch their new leaders as they wait for a sign that it’s all over. Emyr steps forward, “Alright, then! That was a little anti-climactic, but at least we made it through the night. Now we are going to start cleaning up this mess!” He starts assigning each group a different job so that the house can be cleaned and the sunrise will bring light to this new City.
Not Stories Yet 