A Woman of Respect

5

[He gestured for the soldiers to leave and Gabriel and I were pulled away to be executed.]

I am not going to lie to. I am terrified right now. The silence was killing me and I didn't know how to apologize to Gabriel. I tried helping them but, end up getting killed with them. I hope they did not burn with the rest of their house. Last I saw, Abigail had the children beside Thomas. Poor Thomas. Oh, I feel terrible. I told them that I would help protect their family. I failed them. 

As we were being pulled, I couldn't help but notice how nervous the Lieutenant was. He was looking around like there were colonials everywhere. I was right. When I looked back up at him, a tumultuous gunshot and blood was coming out of his mouth. Gabriel and I looked at each other and we heard 2 more shots. He jumped in front of me quietly said "Get down!" I complied and ducked down by the cart. He joined me. I whisper yelled, "Do you know what's happening?" He shook his head and replied with "Stay behind me ok?" He leaned down next to me. Out of instinct, I held onto his arm with my bound hands. It was a habit I guess you could say. 

Out of oblivion, we saw Benjamin jump down. He started shooting at all of the soldiers. There were still more gunshots coming from the trees. I was trying to find the location but they were invisible. Like a ghost. I kept my head low and was trying to make sense of everything. Nothing was coming together. I looked under my arm to see what was going on. 3 sets of feet were visible to me. I had a quick idea and I punched one soldier in the knee. He fell backward and I hit him in the head with a rock that was sitting nearby. Just within reach of the rope attaching to the back of the wagon.  

When he hit the ground, another soldier grabbed my arm and held a sharp knife to my throat. I was struggling to get out of his grip but it was no use at this point. My life had flashed before my eyes in that moment. Benjamin threw a throwing ax planting it right in his forehead. 

The body of the soldier slowly fell down, grazing my neck with the knife. I felt the skin tear and the blood trickle down my neck and soaking into the canvas of my shirt. I made sure the knife was out of the way enough not to make me drown in my own pool of blood when the soldier fell limp on the cold, hard ground below us. 

Just as I feared, there was another soldier still alive. He was running. Benjamin took notice of this and grabbed the ax lodged into the dead soldiers' head and ran after the fleeing Red Coat into a nearby creek. I quickly turned my head to the feeling of my hands being freed from the rigid bounds of the rope. I was happy to see Gabriel and his two little brothers standing in front of us. Gabriel was loosening the restraint and getting it off my worn and bloody hands. We all turned in Benjamins' direction to find him ruthlessly stabbing the runaway Red Coat. It was not a sight that Nathen and Samuel should have seen. 

Benjamin soon came out of the channel covered in nothing but blood and sweat. There was something in his eyes. It wasn't vengeance. It was fear. He didn't like to kill these men. He was afraid to find another one of his children dead. I had the same fear. I promised him that I would keep his family safe, and I failed. Thomas is now dead because of me and there is nothing I can do to bring him back. There is nothing anybody can do to bring Thomas back. We all have to keep moving forward now. 

We walked away from the scene with our minds unable to comprehend what had happened. I could feel the fear of the younger two brothers of Gabriel. Those feelings were rightfully felt. What they had just witnessed I bet was petrifying for them. I know how it felt to kill a man. I learned that feeling today when I hit that soldier in the head with the rock. I could hear his skull crack and I saw the life slowly creep out of his eyes. I knew the guilt. I knew the horror of taking a life. Those boys were too young to have their innocence of life taken away. They will not know the importance of life and how much it could mean to a person. I sure know now that life is a precious concept and should be treated with all the care in the world. My only hope is that we all can forget this traitorous war and live our lives to the fullest. 

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Hey sorry, this update is so late. To the people who actually read this, school had gotten in the way of my creativity and this quarantine is a big reason for my writer's block. And I also apologize for this chapter being so short. I felt like it was a perfect place to end just like how it ended in the movie. But ya! Have a good time reading this if you do! And maybe give it a vote? I would love to see this go somewhere! Until next time Sharks!

-Skye☁☼