Holiday Short Stories

Stay The Course July 2018

Hey everyone! So this year I thought I'd branch away from the Valiant characters and do something different as I'm inspired. So for Independence Day this year - 2018 - I wrote a short flash fiction from the movie called The Patriot, featuring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. Let me know what you think! This does contain spoilers! Enjoy :) 

Knees pressed into the dirt beneath him, Benjamin's hands trembled and his breathing came in harsh wheezes. Sorrow formed a lump in his throat that choked him and stole his breath away. How many times did a man have to bury someone he loved? How many children would Benjamin have to bury before this godforsaken war was over?

The men had already broken camp and marched onward nearly an hour ago. Benjamin stayed behind to bury his eldest son just like he had buried Thomas a few years ago. Both of them, killed by the British.

What the colonies wanted was impossible. Freedom, liberty - none of it meant anything. Benjamin recalled words he had spoken at a vote in what felt like years ago:

"Mark my words. This war will be fought, not on the frontier or on some distant battlefield, but amongst us. Among our homes. Our children will learn of it with their own eyes. And the innocent will die with the rest of us."

Thomas had been killed in front of his other six children - shot in the back by a ruthless British Commander. Gabriel had just gotten married a few days before. His new wife and her entire family had been locked in a Church with the entire town.

The same British Commander had burned it to the ground.

When Gabriel had found out, he'd been distraught. Benjamin hadn't found him in enough time to stop him from riding off after the British Dragoons. By the time Benjamin had arrived, Gabriel lay on the ground with a stab wound, slowly bleeding out. Everyone else was already dead.

Benjamin blinked back tears as a soft breeze blew his loose hair around his face. The bright green leaves in the tree above Gabriel's grave softly whistled as the wind danced around them. Heart heavy, Benjamin made his way to his horse lethargically. Gazing out at the beautiful golden prairie, Benjamin sighed. How could the world continue on as normal when his entire world had been blown apart?

Years and years ago, he had lost his wife and buried her too. His wife and two of his sons. Dead. Gone. Buried in the ground. Thomas would never marry. Gabriel would never have children. Benjamin leaned on the flank of his horse. Part of him expected to feel angry or full of rage. Yet, he simply felt empty inside, as dead as Gabriel was.

Suddenly, his eyes found the worn, battered flag that Gabriel had on his person. Benjamin pulled it out of the satchel beside his horse and stared at it for a long time. Splotches of dirt and grime littered both sides of it. A portion of the white stripe had been sewn in.

Red, white, and blue. Thirteen stars for the thirteen colonies. A cause - nothing but a lost cause. Benjamin's fists clenched around the so-called American flag as he almost threw it to the ground.

Gabriel's voice echoed in his mind: "A world where all men are created equal under God."

Freedom. Liberty. The colonies. The cause. Perhaps it wasn't lost or perhaps it was. Did it truly matter? Gabriel's own two hands had carefully patched up the old flag. Benjamin clutched it to his chest with a violent sob. His chest and throat clenched and he swallowed deeply.

A world where all men are created equal under God.

If Gabriel believed in the cause, then Benjamin had to. For Gabriel's memory, for Thomas, for his wife. For all the innocent men and women who had lost their lives in this war. So many people had died in the name of liberty and freedom, given their lives for the colonial cause. Benjamin owed it to each and every one of them to honor their beliefs, their memory. The grief overcame him and he stared at the flag, at the colors and what they meant. It seemed so simple, such an old, tattered flag and yet it meant so much more.

The crimson stripes reminded Benjamin of all the blood that had been shed. The blood on his own hands that he had spilled, the blood his sons had shed. The white ones reminded him of the pure and joyous country each of them so desperately longed for. The blue reminded him of the kinship between them, between the men who had become his brothers as they rode off to their greatest battle. How could Benjamin leave them behind, leave the cause, leave the course and everything his sons had believed in, behind? The answer was simple in that he couldn't, he wouldn't.

His eyes flicked to the stars dotting the blue corner of the flag. This time, in Benjamin's mind, he no longer saw the thirteen colonies, but each star became a face, a loved one.

His wife. Thomas. Gabriel. William. Susan. Samuel. Nathan. Each one of his men until there were rows upon rows of people standing before them. Tears in his eyes, Benjamin glanced up at the prairie before him, the soft grass being blown about by the wind. That was how he felt; just a simple blade of grass, being blown and trampled upon.

Thomas and Gabriel appeared before him, reaching for the flag. They held it up with proud smiles upon their faces.

"Stay the course," Gabriel said.

"Stay the course." A sweet, new voice reached his ears and Gabriel and Thomas parted. Benjamin's wife stood behind there with a sweet smile on her face. "Stay the course, Benjamin."

Swallowing back the lump in his throat, Benjamin nodded, carefully folding the precious flag and setting it in his saddle bag.

Benjamin hopped on top of his horse and urged her forward. Galloping across the prairie, he chased after the soldiers.

"Huzzah!" First one, then a dozen other voices rose in a wild cheer as if they knew the choice he had just made. The voices of his men, of soldiers riding off into what could be their last day to live cried out for freedom.

Benjamin joined his men and rejoined the course that he was meant to be on. I will, he mentally promised his wife, Thomas, Gabriel and even God. I will stay the course.