More Than a Weapon

1946

DISCLAIMER: Death, kidnapping, and violence against children.

Her village, it's on fire.

She watches as her people try to help their families get away from the burning embers, only to fail and get swallowed up in the end. A mere 5 minutes ago, her parents were doing the same. Fighting with all their might to save themselves and their children. They failed as well. All that is left of her family is herself. She doesn't know why she didn't die along with them. She felt the burning of the fire on her skin, but the pain went away almost as fast as it came. Her skin was healed and it looked like she had never even gotten burned in the first place.

She backs away from the fire and watches as people in bulky uniforms with guns come closer to her. They are the ones that started the fire that killed most of her village.

One of the men has a silver arm, others have silver legs, and some are just normal. It is very odd. She's never seen any human with silver appendages before. They look hard, not soft like human skin, and the appendages make noise whenever they move. One of the men steps forward, he's wearing gloves and a hat. He looks down at her while speaking to her in a language she doesn't understand. She stares up at the man as she speaks.

You killed my family.

The man's face contorts in confusion. He obviously doesn't understand her language either. That's to be expected when you burn down a village in another country. The man signals to one of his men, the one with the silver arm, to grab her.

She tries to run, but her efforts are futile. He picks her up off the ground and throws her over his shoulder without any effort at all. Even without the use of his silver arm, he's way stronger than her. Way stronger than a normal human. The group of people walks away with her, and as she catches one last glimpse of her village, engulfed in flames, tears streaming down her face, she thinks, maybe they will kill me, so I can see my family again.

She wakes up in a dark room. Looking around, she doesn't recognize it at all. A building like this would not belong in her country, the silvery appliances are very foreign looking to her. She assumes she has been taken to another country, perhaps the one with the weird language.

She is alone, and she is scared. Her family is dead. She is dirty with ash. She prays to whatever god is listening. She doesn't know what to really pray for, but she prays anyway.

Before she's done with the prayer, however, the man with the gloves and the hat from earlier comes in the room. He is accompanied by the man with the silver arm and another unfamiliar man. All three of them stare at her. She stares back.

Finally, the unfamiliar man steps forward and kneels down to her level. He speaks to her. Hello. I know you're scared, but you're in good hands. She understands what he said. But she's skeptical about his words. She looks up at the man with the gloves and hat, then back to the man in front of her. He spoke again. Do you mind telling me your name?

She stared at him for a long time before responding in a very low voice. Anais. The man smiled. It made Anais' skin crawl. Hello Anais. It's great to meet you. How old are you? She wondered why he wanted to know, but she answered in fear of getting hurt. Six. The man with the gloves and hat smiled and turned to the man speaking to her. He spoke in the weird language for a long time. Anais' eyes went to the man with the silver arm. He looked at her with a blank expression on his face. After a few seconds, he looked away.

About five minutes later, the men finish their conversation. The man with the gloves and the hat comes towards her and tries to grab her arm. Anais screams and bites the man's arm. He wastes no time in punching her in the face. Blood runs down her face and the last thing she sees is the man with the gloves and hat grab her by the arm and start dragging her out the room before she passes out.

Hello everyone! I know this is crazy short, I've always been terrible at writing first chapters. Later chapters will be longer, I promise. Let me know what you think!