I woke up from a nightmare early in the morning. I looked at my calendar, May 24. I looked at my clock. It glowed 7:25 am back at me. I get up from the floor. I found this deserted hotel ever since the wars started. The place was run down, broken doors, torn up walls and floors with makeshift patches and fixes. The only light that came in was from the flickering light bulbs that struggled to stay on. Also a few windows that weren't broken or through the windows we couldn't cover all the way. Each one showing all the dust flying in the air, dancing together like royalty at a ball. My family and friends, or what was left of them, took shelter here to be safe from the wars. I slept on the top floor so every day I could go down to make sure everyone else is still here and are okay. We each claimed our own sections of the hotel. Some of us even claimed entire floors. I'm one of them. I like to have some privacy and even be alone sometimes. I searched every floor and counted heads as I was passing by.
Thirteen, fourteen, wait... wheres Felipe? I went and asked everyone around asking where my uncle was. My dad was barely getting up from bed with my mom beside him and said that he went out to get firewood. I heard that and ran to grab my gun. I barged to the main lobby then jumped over the wall that blocked the doors to the outside. It took my eyes a second to adjust to the light as I stumbled through the doors.at the end of the small parking lot was a decaying corpse. I walked up carefully. He looked young. Probably around the age of 15 with a messing leg and slit throat. He was lying on his stomach with his hand in front of him as if he was reaching to the hotel. I made sure to bury him. The poor kid needed help but couldn't call out loud enough or reach us before dying.
After the little funeral, I went on to search for my uncle. I heard the occasional gunshots off in the distance. They all came from the city area where most of the population is constantly murdering each other hearing the occasional muffled screaming of each faction's name. I headed the other direction into the woods. I ran and yelled hoping for a reply. Suddenly everything was mute but quickly interrupted by the noise of a tree falling with a cut-off scream. I was scared, hoping it wasn't him. I found the plain where he was harvesting trees not too far off from where I was. There stood three big men wearing heavy red clothing with a white cape-like cloth with an Egyptian eye in the middle. I hid behind a tree loading my desert eagle I found from a half-blown gun shop back in the city when the raids started. As I was loading my gun I overheard the conversation taking place, "Well we finally got rid of him" "Yeah we killed him for the boss... He was a nobody who disrespected the boss by cutting down his trees" "yeah they're property for The Impure"
What nonsense where are they saying? It enraged me. I took aim then fired at the biggest guy. He dropped quicker than the other ones could react. I ran up to the next one and pulled the trigger again but missed it. He yelled, "You"! He sprinted towards me pulling out his rifle from his backpack and I shot again. The bullet flying straight through his left eye killing him instantly. The other one jumped on me and started throwing punches each one jabbing my skull. I struggled to get him off. He was almost in a psychotic state of mind deadset on killing me. I felt my hand around and grabbed the nearest thing being a stick and slashed his face with it. I grabbed my gun and emptied the rest of the magazine into him. It took me a second to process what I just did or why I reacted like that.
My mind suddenly jumped back into the real world and I ran quickly over to the fallen tree to see my uncle there struggling with every breath he took. At that moment I knew that he couldn't make it. I rolled the tree back off of his body and was drenched in his blood. His eyes were almost lifeless staring at the sky. With his last bit of energy, he looked towards me and said, "Guide our people to peace and guide them to live on. Don't make the same mistakes I did" Then he looked up to the sky then shed a tear and told me, "I have finished what I could. Now you finish what I couldn't" Then his eyelids shivered as they closed.
It's now been a year since that happened. That was my first experience seeing someone die. I was accustomed to seeing them already dead or hear about them being dead. Yet never have I ever seen the very essence of someone leave their body. It was frightening even. I could barely sleep over the course of a year. Since then we lost 3 others in the process to different causes. Each one of them dying in my very arms. Yet that one death changed on how I viewed the entire world. Now I just wonder if it'll all end one day or go back to normal.
I woke up with a loud gunshot sound ringing through my head and jumped out of bed. It was just a dream. I looked at my calendar, January 6th, my birthday. I looked at my clock. It glowed 7:45 am back at me. I looked out the window to see that never-ending war that constantly hangs over everyone's daily lives. I was interrupted with someone barging through my door then I turned around to see a pleasant surprise.
YOU ARE READING
Savior
ActionThe world is coming to an end. War, violence, and death plaques the earth. People are deciding between two civilizations to see who can rise on top as our new society. Our main character, who struggles to even pass by peacefully gets caught in the m...