The Commoner

Chapter One

I run around doing what my mother orders me to do, my arms and legs moving like I'm a puppet on a string. My body doesn't want to do anything, but my mind knows it has to. I have to. We all have to. We all have to get out of here know!

            My hands shake like a leaf as I tie the cloth around a large loaf of bread. Nerves take over me like a title wave. The minute I woke up the title wave came. No one expected this to happen. It was in the back everyone's mind that it might, but no one actually thought it would happen.

            They definitely took us by surprise that's for sure. Our army wasn't prepared at all. The militia was prepared, however. They were the ones fighting now, waiting for the trained army to come.

            I freeze at the thought of the militia. My only brother and my father were out there. Were they alive still? Will they come home? Will I ever be able to tell them I love them ever again?

            I shake all those thoughts from my head. This is not the time to be thinking about this. I have to stay strong for my youngest sister, Lily. She will not handle this well at all.

            "Violet, are you done yet with that bread yet?" my mother says in a calm yet nervous way.

            "Yes, I just finished," I answer.

            I run over to were my mother and sister are waiting. Lily is crying into my mother's skirt and mother is on the verge of tears. Her face is pale and she looks very tired from lack of sleep and from the cancer she has which is always dragging her down. I choke back tears as well, but I have always been able to hide my emotions quite well.

            I put the three loaves of bread in a large bag filled with food. This should be able to keep us full for at least a week. I grab my bow and arrows from their peg by the door. If we run out of food, this will be our only hope.

            "Ready?" I ask.

            My mother nods her head.

            We almost get trampled as we step out of the house. Hundreds of other families are fleeing as well. Crying children, mothers trying to quiet them, the crunching of stones beneath people's feet. All these sounds fill my ears.

            "Come on," I say grabbing Lily and mom and bringing them close to me.

            We walk with the flow of the crowd. We all have the same destination in mind: the woods, safe, not really, but father away from the Rebel army. That's all we want to do. Get away from them and all will be fine.

            "Will we come back?" Lily asks me in a small, quiet voice.

            "I don't know," I say. I have to tell her the truth even though I don't want to. She's only ten and this is too much for a girl her age to be going through. "We just have to hope we will."

            All of a sudden, screams erupt from the crowd.

            "The Rebels!" someone screams.

            Terror runs through me. If they have advanced this far does that mean the militia is dead? I shake that thought from my head. I can't think about that.

            I try to grab hold of Lily and mother's hand, but the crowd starts to panic and everyone goes crazy. Someone pushes me to the ground on accident and I start being trampled by people. I get kicked in the head, stepped on, and kicked everywhere else. The crowd goes even crazier for some reason. I don't know what it is because my face is in the ground. People scream, gunfire erupts, and everything goes black.