No Good Men: Volume One

Chapter I: This Cruel World

Uncharted Village, Southwestern Askarai

The distant clash of steel and iron echoes through the air...

A gentle breeze flows through a small village, weaving through the paved dirt streets. At the edge of the village in a small clay hut, the sun begins to shine through a window next to an elderly man whispering to himself.

The sounds of belligerence outside slowly grow closer, but the man continues to murmur whilst staring at the wall across from him. A deep cut on his waist bleeds through a temporary bandage and onto his brown shirt, but he remains motionless and undisturbed. Light slowly pours into the room, and shines across the floor of the hut. The warm glow forces the old man to shut his eyes and recoil in disturbance as his incoherent rambling is interrupted.

Left of the old man, a young woman sits up against the adjacent wall with her feet pressed up to her body. Next to her, a clutter of chairs sit atop each other braced against a door. The woman's disheveled black hair flows down to her shoulders, and onto a long white dress stained with blood.

Across from the elderly man, and next to the woman on the other side of the room, a young boy sits crouched on the ground with his head down. In front of him, flies hover over around a mashed pile of vegetables, spilt onto the ground from a recent scuffle. A cooking pot lies on the ground next to charred logs, and a warm soup flows across the floor.

The old man breaks from his trance and glances at the woman, whose body shakes as the sounds of battle slowly get closer. He slowly raises himself up from the floor with the help of a small table beside him. His body jumps as he starts to cough erratically, and the woman instantly turns to the man and whispers in a shaky voice,

"Da! I-is everything alright?"

The man waves down at her with a disgruntled face and continues coughing towards the ground. He gently places his hand over his wound and lets out a faint grunt.

Again, the young woman quietly pleads, "Da, we need to stay quiet! They...they may not check here!"

The man slowly recovers his breathing and grumbles angrily at the woman, "Your ignorance for what's coming...disappoints me Nia."

Nia sharply replies, "I'm trying to save us!", she stretches the fabrics of her dress and rubs her hand over a small hump on her stomach, "I'm trying to save my child. Maybe they'll show mercy..."

Her father angrily interrupts, "After everything I told you about how the outside world is, you really think these soldiers won't search here? Silence will do nothing but lead to your death Nia!"

He takes a deep breath, "That same silence is what brought out this cycle of violence."

Tears glisten in Nia's eyes as she sits back against the wall. Trembling, the boy looks on from the other side of the room as the sounds of battle grow louder. A heavy thud from and the distant maniacal laughter of men echoes from outside.

A tear rolls down the old man's cheek and he looks up at the ceiling, "Listen to me Nia. I've lived sixty-seven years in this cruel world."

Nia looks up at her father with a confused look on her face as she wipes her face with a loose piece of cloth from her dress. She quietly listens as her father solemnly speaks.

"I have lived throughout all of Askarai my child. Growing up, I was the pillager of many settlements throughout this land. I've killed women and children in service of what I once believed in. When I grew older, I turned to becoming the savior of those very people. I felt guilty, and wanted to atone for the crimes of my past. I pitied the men who fought against me, because I knew...they were simply doing what they felt was right."