Child Soldier

whats next

I find Aafreen outside leaning against the building.She jumps up when she sees me."You good."

"Yeah."

"Well I should show you around properly."

I think about Altair when she mentioned it. I could have just gone with him. I give her a small smile. Aafreen takes her through every inch of the camp. People stared at me while I pass, others I had caught giving me dirty looks. But that's not I was thinking about. I still can't believe that I got in. My mom had always doubted me. Never thought I was smart enough. My brother and sister had got into a good collage. So I had all the pressure to be as successful. I got tired of her telling me that I was a failure and I was not as good as my siblings. And I got enough of it. I found out on TV that a couple of girls got taken. And I thought about it. Joining it.

I see Alexander not to far away. Aafreen yells out his name. He turns around and waves. He smiles as he sees me. Aafreen looks at me. I see some kind of jealously on her face. We kept moving on. "You and Alexander, you know together?" I ask.

"No. But I have been eyeing him though. I have be given no signs back though."

"Oh, I see."

She stays silent. We stop at a building, smaller then the one I was at first. We walk in. Weapons all around.Guns to Knifes to anything you could think of. "Pick one." Aafreen says smirking. I look over to the guns then at the knifes. I had always preferred knifes . I find a black bladed KA-BAR military knife. The hilt and blade black. I whistle. My brother had one of these. He would never let me touch it. But same went with him, he never touched it. "And a gun to." Aafreen says.

"No I don't like guns . They are dirty weapons. They are not fair."

"Oh. I see."

Aafreen says something in another language to the guy at the desk.He looks at me then back at her. They talk while I study the knife. The number one carved into the bottom of the blade. "Raven let's go." Aafreen says after a little.

We get back to the building that we were first at. Altair stands outside talking with Josh. I scurry towards the shade. "Damn it's hot."

Josh laugh's. "Better get used to it. If you want to be out here."

Altair looks at me. Then looks at my knife holster. "You already got one?"

"Yeah Aafreen took me."

"I would have expected you to be a gun girl."

"She doesn't think guns are far." Aafreen says joining the conversation.

"Right." Altair looks at me.

"Not all American's are with guns. Some like knifes,bows, and guns." I say.

"Bows?" Josh asks.

"Yeah. My sister's boyfriend did bow competitions. But it was a combat bow. Anyone could hit a bulls-eye on their first try."

I think back at it all. All the things that I left behind, like my dog Tom. All the friends as well. First I thought about leaving on the week of my birthday. But that would have been bad. I had thought about doing it all. My friend Jack is the only person I told that I was leaving. He was going to come along, but he chickened out at the last minute. He said it would be a to big of a risk. We could die or something could happen, what if the US finally stopped this terriost group. We got into a big fight after I left.

"So what do we do?"I ask.

"Hey! Hey you bitch!" I hear someone behind me. I turn around. A guy comes towards me."What did you call me?" I say. As he gets about a foot away he swings at me. I duck the first one but the second one hits me square in the face. It knocks me off of balance. I lay on my back. I see the guy above me, and nobody helping. It's a test. I put one of my legs in front of him and with the other kick behind his legs. His knees buckle and he falls. I get on top of him and start punching him. As soon as I see the blood the others probably seeing it to, Josh and Altair come froward and take me off the guy holding me back.

I see around that everyone was looking. I hear slow clapping to the side of me. I look. A young twenty year old man comes. "Well done truly. First you kill the kid now you surprise everyone by doing martial arts."

"I have been doing martial arts since I was four."

"Really? Aafreen come."

I look towards her. "Yes of course." She walks forward.

"Fight her."

She looks nervous as she faces me. "Let her go guys." The man says. Josh and Altair let me go. I don't want don't wan to fight her. She swings first. But not as sloppy as the guy I first fought did. She kicks up sand. I can't really see anything, but by her shadow I see what she is going to do before she does it. I move out the way making more sand go up in the air. I kick her. We stand still as a hard wind blows by making a wave of sand go over everyone but by knowing the sand won't settle yet for another ten minutes we will keep fighting. Until someone ends up on the ground. I try not to cough by all the sand in my throat, it would give away my place. I see another kick come towards me. It hits me hard on my thigh. I run towards her jumping up in the air for my superman punch. It lands straight to her face, and she drops like a fly. I pant, sand going into my lungs. Burning them like if on fire. As the sand starts to settle I see that people had gathered around us forming a circle.