White Knight

Flatline

Your Pov.

Pulling yourself out of a small bed, your feet only just reaching the floor, grabbing a hoodie and the old pair of trousers from the floor. Grabbing the rucksack from the corner of the empty room. And walking out the door and heading down the stairs silently. "Boy! Where are you going?" A man's voice booming over you his figure looming over you. The coldness in his eyes and anger in his voice makes you tremble. "To... The umm library if... umm that's okay?" You stutter and stumble over your words lowering your head to look at your feet. "Leave and come back before 6" He steps toward you making you cower as you step back. "Yes sir." sprinting out the door. Making it to the library head buried in a book looking at the clock reads 6, throwing your books in your bag and sprinting back to the orphanage, opening the door and slowly closing it hoping he wouldn't notice your late. You are grabbed by your collar and thrown down the stairs and into the basement. The punches and the kicks, coughing up blood the pain causes a blackout.

A firm hand around your shoulder with a backpack on your back and thrown out into the pouring rain. "Happy Birthday Boy" the door behind you slamming in your face, walking into the town centre and an army recruitment office. Stepping into the warm and light entrance to the building causes you to squint, the shivering of your body stops as you start to warm up. Dripping water all over the floor, a soft knock comes from your hand, walking in men in uniform coming to face you. Motioning for a chair they lead you in, you sit and fill in all the information you can provide. They ask you to come back in a week for your training. Standing up and shaking their hands with a thank you. Leaving the office, heading to the railway bridge not too far, rain pouring down your face, shivering as the rain has soaked your clothes. As you huddle into a ball on the floor under the bridge teeth chattering freezing on the wet floor, the sound of trains passing above you ringing in your ears, the rain dropping down beside you. As the night gets darker, your body only gets colder to the point you eventually fall asleep on the cold ground huddled into a ball.

Surrounded by gunshots and screaming, in the middle of a hot desert, the sand uncomfortable in your boots. The derelict building ahead of you, firing down at you and your men. Pinned down unable to move, all trying to fire over the sandbank that is sheltering you. Leaning the barrel of your rifle over the bank. Using the scope to try and identify the enemy. Your captain gets shot beside you making his scream in pain. The determination fills your body as you start to pick off all of the enemies that have shot and injured your team. After the last shot is fired, you look down at all of your wounded, with gunshots to their shoulders and arms. Removing your shirt and cutting it to strips with the knife on your leg. Moving to each of them to try and prevent the bleeding and acting as a temporary bandage. All of you are now mobile again and move forward into enemy lines. All of them now dead you search the area and find an old truck. Fixing it enough to make it mobile the 6 of you pile in, with you driving. Making your way back to the main camp your radio in. "Charlie One, too. Alfa Zero. 5 wounded, arriving in an old vehicle. 5 minutes out. Over." Just as a response comes through your radio your whole body goes numb as an explosion flips the truck into the air. The ringing in your ears constant as your shouting for a response from your team. There is no response, a team of medics stream out the base to pull you out placing you on a stretcher, the others are pulled out of the burning wreck, and are put onto stretchers with blankets and tarps covering their dead bodies. Tears stream down your face. The pain in your body shuts you down knocking you unconscious.

You open your eyes the pain in your body aching, you can feel the blood on your lip and the knife at your throat, you being tied to a chair, looking around the cold and empty room you see other members of your team from Iraq, all dressed in their combat gear, bloodied and bruised on the floor in stress positions. "Tell us everything" An angry voice spat at you from behind the knife at your throat, the spit from his mouth landing on your neck. "I don't know what you want to know," I say calmly your voice not wavering or showing fear like you had been taught by the army. "Pathetic British, Why are you here? What is your mission?" He spits at me pressing the knife at my throat, causing a small cut and blood to seep down my neck. "I'm sorry but you know neither my friends nor myself can and will not answer these questions." he snaps the ropes and my wrists and ankles dragging me into a small black room and pushing my head into freezing water, making me choke and splutter to the point I drowning. The water entering my lungs a third time, causing my brain to fog and my vision to fade my body goes limp as the rescue team charged through the doorway.

The rain dripping through the thick tree leaves above you the think rain forest loud and noisy with the sound of animals in the trees, bugs chirping and frogs croaking. Hidden in plain sight as we had for the last month, everyone around me tired and hungry, watching the guards of the strange building in front of us, we waited until dark the noise around us setting on small hums of creatures around us. Slowly and as quietly packing up our watchpoint all of us moved thicker into the rainforest. "Lieutenant, now we are no longer in enemy territory can we rest and set up for the night we are tired hungry and wet?" The youngest of the soldiers asked as he made his way to the front of the group. "Of course, everyone has enough food, water and clothes?" Get some rest Myself and the Sargent will take watch through the night." setting up in a small formation the youngest approaches me alone. "Sir... I am out of rations and Blake has no dry shirt to wear...." He hesitates as he states his problems. I reach into my bag and pull out a packet of rations from my supply and a dry shirt for Blake. I hand them to the young soldier. He thanks me and heads back to his little tent-like shelter. "Lieutenant? I take it you now don't have food or a shirt of your own?" My Sargent lets out a sad chuckle beside me. Knowing the answer he sits beside me offering half of his food. As we watch over the young men sleeping, soundly beside us. I lean my head against the tree and my eyes close. Now surrounding in darkness.

"Get up!" a loud bang comes from the metal door ahead of me as I'm stood in the grey cell-like room. Thrown to my feet by the noise and jumping into my T-shirt and trousers. Making my bed. My door swings open as I snap to attention. Being lead to the main room, there are training mats led across the floor. Myself and other young men and boys are stood against the wall, we are "100 & 101." the boy next to me steps forward at the same time as me and we are stood opposite one another. "Winner Eats!" a clap rings out from the room and the boy lunges for me, I spin to dodge his attack. As he stumbles to the ground I landed on top of his back throwing punches to his face until he is knocked unconscious. Some men drag him from the mat back to his room. "102!" is called and he swipes my leg and pummels my face until white stars appear in my eyes and then fades into black.

With a black hood covering my face we enter a room of ballerinas, they swiftly leave and return in clothes more suitable for a fight. Names are called and paired, there is one girl left while I am the only Knight in training left. "Ah, our best can fight your best," the sinister chuckle of the scar-faced man says in the corner of the room. My eyes snapped to hers, the green eyes filled with determination, with the bright red hair brushed into a tight plat on her head "NATALIA" the same female voice calls as she had done previously. We both stepped forward, my eyes flashed blue and the memories of her being starved and cuffed to her bed flooded my mind. I spoke to her through her mind and we fought, I slowed myself and allowed her to win. I dragged out of the room after being shamed in front of everyone, my body thrown into a wet room that smelled of blood and mould, my shirt and hood cut from my skin chained to the wall, I was kicked and beat into oblivion as I thought it was over. The boys from this morning enter the room and sliced their swords and knives down my back. After the last boy, the pain was unbearable, blood covering all the trousers still covering my lower half. I collapsed only held up by my arms from the ceiling. Darkness filled my vision again.

James appeared in my vision, leaning over me plunging a sword into my chest and everything went dark again.