Sed of Red.

Innocence in the midst of war. a social action piece.

The scattered beams of sun make spotted patterns on the floor, and rapidly become more intricate as each new hole is added. I try to make a picture by connecting them, but they make their holes too quickly, and the blast from the guns makes it hard to focus. I keep low, like mother taught me, even though she is not doing so. She is sitting in her chair, slumped over. I watch as her precious scarlet rubies drip to the floor and flow in a river towards me.

The noise outside dies. The walls and I hold our breath. I had almost forgotten the way the silence is louder than the bark of the guns. Then there are new noises, men’s voices. The strange men approach the doorway and step over the splintered fragments of wood and metal, stirring up bits and pieces of my house. The dust swirls around, illuminated by the sun beams that light up the dark room.  In the light I see my father, slouched in the corner, a bullet bit a hole through his chest and a waterfall of crimson tears are falling from his mouth into a lake of red beneath him. Looking around I see that my uncle, cousins, and brother, all have similar fates. I try to stay quiet, but they find me.

 “Hostile survivor. Young girl. Unarmed. Over.” One speaks to a black box. It gargles something in reply.

“Are you hurt?”

One of them speaks to me, but I do not understand, I stare blankly trying to comprehend what he is saying. His clothes are the color of sand, and his face is covered in flecks of sand and blood, his eyes are hidden by dark glasses.

The man behind him answers him instead, “Man, she doesn’t have a clue what you just said.”

“Let’s get the f**k out of here then.”

They turn to walk away, but the man with the black talking box turns back and looks at me.

 “God Damn it! We can’t just leave her here.”  The other turns around as well but he does not look at me, “What the hell are you talking about? For all you know she could have a f*****g bomb strapped to her.”

“Dude F**k you, she’s a little girl. I have a niece back at home her age.”

 They both turn towards me and the man with the hidden eyes speaks to me again.

“Can you walk?”

“S**t Dude, I told you she doesn’t know what we’re saying!” the other man kneels down and holds out his palm, takes two fingers and begins moving them one by one across his palm,  saying the strange words that the other man said before. I know what he wants now, but I do not want to move, so I stare at him blankly. A shout comes from outside and they whip around; the guns are beating at walls again.

“We need to go. NOW.”

 They reach down, grab my arms roughly and pull me towards the doorway. One of the little metal beasts bit me in my leg and I cannot walk on my own. I drag a trail of blood as oceans fill my eyes and spill over into the sea of red.

The brightness of the sun blinds me as we go through the doorway. The strange calmness that engulfed my house vanished. Through the noise and blinding sun I see giant machines making their way down the street, breathing out blasts of fire from long straight tubes. The people are running as fast as they can away from the chaos, but they do not make it very far before the machine turns towards them and they fall to their knees, begging, or praying.

Through the madness I see my friend Kahkusha lying on the ground near her house. Her arm is bent underneath her in a strange way and the sand around her is stained red. I see one of the machines rolling towards her, I shout at her to move, but I am too far away for her to hear me. I watch helplessly as it rolls over her house and she disappears into the debris. I cry out screaming her name but I know she can’t hear me.  I try to run to her but the two men continue to pull me away. Everything becomes a blur; I look down at my leg where the wound has spilled out a river of blood down my once white dress. Seeing the flow makes me realize how dizzy I feel, and how numb my body is. The noises that surround me are distant, and the people are just blurry ghosts. The sun beats down on my face. The warmth that has always comforted me in days past, now only brings me sadness.

 

Author's Note

It starts off a little strange, but I didn't want the reader to know what exactly was going on at first so, that is what I came up with. any thoughts or ideas, good or bad are welcomed.