The Youngest War

By Thomas McClure

The charge continued, there were only few of them but that didn’t slow them down even slightly. These soldiers were not ones to retreat, for this was a war for something greater than land, than wealth, than rights, than victory itself. Right now, this war was everything for them.

“WATCH OUT, BLOODSUCKERS!” Eva shouted as she dodged to the side, the others followed, just in time too, they almost ran into it. Eva spun around with her weapon and stabbed it in the back. “Got it,” she said, the others nodded and got ready for another charge, “where next?”

Visibility was poor; some could see some things and others could see other things, but no one could ever see the same thing for sure, so they had to keep relaying their visuals over to each other. There was only eight of them, but in battles like these that was considered a lot for a single squad. They held no banners, praised no flag, wore no colours, and had no patience. This was no ordinary war.

Eva often led the charge, with her cousin and coleader Jamie right behind her, after him was usually Meeks, determined but reckless, behind him came Ozcar, the weapons guy, and he was followed by the older more experienced soldiers like Alex, Alf, and Kye, who were always ready to cover the rest when needed, and behind them was Cobe, the most inexperienced but the most important since he carried The Doomsday Exploder. They all lay close to the ground, looking around. They could hear the screams and yells of others around them but ignored them as they usually did.

“Captain Eva!” came a voice behind her, she looked back and saw Meeks crawling up to her, “these stupid punks are everywhere; we’ll get swarmed if we run for it.”

“Don’t say ‘stupid punks’, Meeks” Jamie corrected him.

Eva got onto one knee and examined the battlefield, “He’s right, the big fight in the middle of the field has too many for us, we won’t get through.”

Jamie got up too, “Look at the speed of those cannon bolts that they’re hitting, we’d get destroyed if we get hit by that!”

It was true; Eva could hardly see the large white energies as they were shoved back and forth at great speeds across the field. It was too dangerous. However, the battlefield was a rectangle; there were hardly any forces from the others at the sides and at the back, where their target, The Oak Tower, sat. All they had to do was throw The Doomsday Exploder into The Oak Tower and the threat would be wiped out. She relayed this over, along with her plan, saying “If we split then we might be able to get there, the enemy won’t know who has The Doomsday Exploder! Who’s going where?”

“I’ll take Cobe and the device, it’s more important so we’ll go the shorter way, the right side, where there aren’t as many guys.”

“Okay. Who’s coming with me?” Eva asked.

Ozcar, Meeks, and Alex raised their hands. The teams were sorted; Jamie would take Cobe to The Oak Tower with support from Alf and Kyle, while Eva was to distract the enemies by launching an assault around the other side of the field with Meeks, Ozcar, and Alex. They gave each other a nod, and with that they were off.

Various formless enemies drifted towards them, Eva didn’t stop running and instead immediately started swinging her swords. The smoky creatures evaporated after each swing. A formless arm swung out at her from below, knocking her to the ground. Her swords flew from her hands.

“Careful there, Eva” said a passing supervisor who watched over them. Eva ignored him.

Shots rang out as Alex swooped in, unloading into the attacker until it was gone. Eva was about to thank him but she felt something crawling up her arm, she looked over and saw a swarm of baby bloodsuckers. Long, slimy, bloody, dirty creatures that burrowed from the ground to consume any young soldier it can find. More smoky beasts appeared from around the corner of the main battlefield, charging with their weapons raised high. Eva shouted for the rest to cover her, and Meeks immediately leapt over her, swinging his guns around and firing indiscriminately. Eva started to wipe the worm-like pests off of herself, crawling back to escape the swarms of the rising bloodsuckers. Ozcar crouched beside her and launched a rocket straight ahead, it flew past Alex and Meeks as Ozcar shouted for them to get down. Eva couldn’t see what happened but she knew the formless enemies were toast. Ozcar turned to her and helped her pull off the last of the bloodsuckers. She got to her feet and saw Meeks and Alex standing uneasily, covered in mud and ghost blood.

“What do you see?” Eva asked them as she pulled out her pistol.

The air was thick, it was hard to breathe and harder to see. The layout of the grounds were clear, but the enemies were allusive, hiding in separated fragments between their visions, she could only see what they told her they could see, and vice versa. It was no wonder this war was mostly invisible to the elders, rest their souls. Clouds covered the sun, the lands grew dark as a chill flew down their spines.

Meeks gasped, turned around, pulling up his guns, and shouted “Ninjas!”

In an instant they were all ready. Silent swords sliced near their faces as the black-cloaked assassins materialised around them, now finally in their shared sight. Eva leapt back and started firing. She realised too soon that her weapons were useless up close against swords. She ducked and rolled as seventeen blades lurched at her, to her that was the highest number she could count, at least. She tumbled along the grass, taking on bloodsuckers as she went, with the ninjas trying to keep up. She rolled onto her knees, back where she had dropped her swords earlier. She looked up and saw Ozcar dealing with a similar problem, using his heavy duty weapons in melee against the countless attackers.

“Ozcar, here!” she shouted as she slid one of her swords across the grass. He reached for it and started slicing. Eva stood and faced the many ninjas that surrounded her. She was never the best fighter, but she refused to ever accept defeat. She brought her blade up and attacked. With each loud swoop of their thick make-shift cutlass against the air, another ninja fell, but with as many swings as she could, there were still more ninjas.

“Watch out!” called a voice from the pitch.

A cannon bolt shot right back Eva’s head, nearly grazing her face. She threw herself backwards to the ground as she saw the ninjas around her dissipate from the blast. The cannon bolt, after smashing against a nearby wall, bounced back towards the main battlefield where it was collected more experienced soldiers fighting in the more brutal parts of the war. Eva was dazed, it hadn’t hit her but it was close, the bolt was as large as her head, it would have obliterated her if they had touched. By the time she gathered herself again she was surrounded once more by ninjas. She gripped her sword tightly.

“Come on then, do your worst!” she shouted.

The ninja’s sprang for her, but were met by a hail of bullets. Meeks and Alex dove in from her sides, Ozcar grabbed Eva and pulled her to her feet, telling her “We leave no man behind”.

She was about to say that she was a girl but didn’t want to spoil his one-liner.

Now that the ninjas were pushed far enough back, Eva took her pistol and started firing into them. They all rained heck down upon them until there were no enemies in sight. Meeks dropped to his knees, exhausted. Ozcar did the same. Alex looked back to Eva and asked “Do we push on?”

Eva turned to see The Oak Tower, she expected Jamie and his men to have reached it by now but she couldn’t see them, “Where’s Captain Jamie?” she asked.

“Oh no, over there!” Alex told her, pointing to the opposite side of the battlefield. Everyone looked and saw that Jamie, Alf, Kye, and Cobe had only made it a few feet from where they left them, and they were all on the ground being covered in formless enemies.

Eva turned to her loyal soldiers, “We have to save them!”

“How?” asked Ozcar, “It’ll take too long to go all the way around the field.”

“Can’t go over it,” Eva started, readying her sword and pistol, “can’t go under it.”

Ozcar and Meeks stood, readying their weapons, as Alex finished the saying; “We have to go through it”.

Eva turned to face their fellow soldiers in need, straight across the field. She smiled, they could get themselves in deep trouble for this, but it was worth it, for their friends. Alex, Ozcar, and Meeks came over to beside her. “CHARGE!”

The four sprinted onto the field, immediately being met with cries and calls to get off by the older brutal fighters. Several enormous beasts raced to get in their way, swooping their arms around to sweep them up, but the young soldiers ducked and dodged, using their size to their advantage. More titans began to react but they were already halfway through the field.

“Get off the pitch!” an older girl shouted.

“Keep the ball still! No!” another called.

They heard the cannon bolt being launched; all four of the young soldiers fell to their knees and slid along the grass, the great black and white ball of pure energy flew right over their heads. They had never felt so alive, the danger was real! They got back on their feet and cross the white line, now on the other side of the field, safe from the titans.

“And stay away!” shouted the older girl.

Jamie was on his back, kicking and swinging his arms and legs at the ravenous enemies that surrounded him. Eva swung kicked at the nearly invisible beast, dissipating it instantly. She started to swing her sword around as she fired her pistol. Meeks and Ozcar started to tackle the beasts off of the other young soldiers, holding the enemies down with their knees as they brought their firearms out to shoot them.

Alex started to pull their friends back up onto their feet. Now all eight of them were back together again they quickly dispensed of the remaining enemies.

Jamie thanked them before asking “How long do we have left?”

Alf looked to is watch and said “Less than a minute!”

Eva looked towards The Oak Tower, she saw piles upon piles of formless faceless monsters blocking the way, a mob enemies as tall as the hall’s walls. She told them what she could see, so they could see it too. Ozcar asked how they’re going to get through it, Eva told him “Together”.

She dropped her weapons and took Jamie’s hand in her right hand and took Alex’s hand in her left. She told everyone to link up. They all started to drop their weapons, but Alf didn’t participate, “Why are we doing this?”

“They disappear when we hit them right?” she said, Alf nodded so she continued, “So we link up and run right into them, break through them with our bodies. We link up so no boy or girl is left behind.”

Alf wasn’t too sure but he joined in anyway.

The eight of them were in a line, joined hand to hand. Jamie, Eva, Alex, Cobe, Kye, Ozcar, Meeks, and Alf. “CHARGE!”

They rushed in head first, the horde in front of them charged too. The great smoke cloud smashed into them, evaporating through them as they broke through the enemy lines. Soon enough they were close to The Oak Tower.

“Launch Cobe at The Oak Tower!” commanded Jamie.

“What happens when The Doomsday Exploder hits it?” Ozcar asked.

“It blows up the field, killing all the bad guys” Eva said, still head-butting through the layers.

“Us too though? Alright then.”

“At least we’ll go out together right?” Jamie laughed.

Jamie and Alf, the two at each end of the line, ran full sprint forward, with Eva and Meeks pulling up behind, and Kye and Alex pushing forward, both holding Cobe who still had The Doomsday Exploder on him. The eight young soldiers wrapped around The Oak Tower, interlocking around it as Cobe pressed into the wooden core with The Doomsday Exploder.

Everything went dark. The soldiers collapsed. A loud ringing was heard, and then there was silence. The eight of them didn’t move. The war was won, they could rest.

“Come on you lot, the bell has rung!” shouted an adult.

“We’re playing dead” Eva shouted back.

“You’ve had all playtime to play dead, it’s time to line up. Come on, back to class!”

The kids groaned as they all slowly started to get up.

“Hey,” said Jamie, “at least it was fun right.”

“Yeah, that was great!” Eva said, “We fought ninjas!”

“Aw cool!” said Jamie.

“That was me, I came up with that!” Meeks boasted.

“Guys, I used a rocket launched and blowed a bunch of bad guys up!” Ozcar said.

Kye helped Cobe, the youngest, up, “Great job Cobe, you won the battle!”

“Oh yeah, great job Cobe!” Eva said, others also started to praise Cobe, this was his first time playing with them so they had to give the best part to him.

“We charged across the football field, it was epic!”

The eight good friends started walking to the school entrance together, talking about how grand their battle was. They may be the youngest pupils in the playground, but their pretend war was as important as any real one. They fought for each other, for their friendship; their first chosen connection that they would willingly fight for each and every playtime.

The End

By Thomas McClure

Word Count: 2,343