The Insurgency

Chapter 1

It was a torturous night. Never in her life had she experienced something this horrific.

Delilah found herself hiding in the basement of the house, near the secret door of the room, opposite to the main one.

The door was safely shut with many heavy trunks against it, while, under the midnight moon, the heavily armed mercenaries trained by the enemy soldiers from the neighbourhood kingdom Panasa violated the ceasefire and attacked Brimlyn.

"I am scared, Deli." she heard a soft, scared voice beside her.

Clutching the merely five-year-old Timothy close to her heart, she whispered, "We will be alright."

"What about mum?"

This made her heart clench in pain, knowing that the chances of her mother being alive were thin. Though, for the sake of her innocent brother, she assured him that she must be completely fine; trying to gulp the lump formed in her throat.

Shrieks and shouts of men and women outside almost deafened them as the enemies showed no mercy. They killed the men at once and took the women and children with themselves.

Heavy banging on the door instinctively made her press her palms against her brother's mouth to make sure he does not scream.

"This room is not opening!" yelled a voice just outside the door.

"Leave it, moron, see it's locked from outside. Nobody's in. We still have a half of village to kill."

Delilah closed her eyes and tears rolled down her cheeks when she heard them walking away. Hugging the trembling body of Timothy, she simply prayed for the blood-drenched night to end.

The next morning, Delilah stepped out of the basement with Timothy behind her and climbed up, entering the main area of the house.

A gasp left her lips when she saw the horrendous condition of the room.

The beautiful blue curtains were torn into pieces, the wooden walls of the house had splatters of blood on them.

Delilah hastily turned around and ushered Timothy out of the house from the back door.

A painful silence prevailed the surroundings when they stepped out of the house. Their once lively village now was rendered merely a shadow of past, ashened by the soul tearing events that took place last night.

Homes were burnt, dried blood covered the ground sinfully. Dead bodies were scattered here and there; some on the ground, some hanging on the trees upside down.

Soldiers worked quietly, helping the civilians in need, along with the other civillians who were in a better position.

Delilah sucked in a sharp breath and quickly approached one of the middle-aged soldiers near the banyan tree who had just made an old man sit there.

"Sir." she spoke softly, yet an undertone of desperation was easy to detect in her voice, "Could you please tell me where the injured civilians have been kept?"

"They all are in the community hall of the village," he replied.

Thanking him, she turned around but the soldier stopped her, "I hope whoever you are searching isn't too young or, worse, a female, child. The young and the women faced the worst."

Delilah tensed and could almost feel the questions bubbling up in Timothy's innocent mind about the words of the soldier. So she simply nodded her head at the soldier and started walking with Timothy towards the community hall.

"What was he sp-"

"No questions, Tim."

They soon entered the community hall, surprised to find very fewer people. Her village, Neerongi, was a small village with merely some two hundred people living in it, so she knew many of the people by their names and most of them by their faces.