MASSACRE

I saw people crying and running everywhere. There were soldiers slaughtering innocent people. They were burning down all the houses. Looking at them, they were from the other nation. I hurriedly went to my parent’s room. My father and mother were already awake and my little sister, who was born a couple hours ago was crying from all the uproar that was happening outside. My father was peeking through the window, observing the situation.

“Dad, what are we going to do? I asked anxiously.

My dad grabbed his sword and ordered me to also grab mine.

“We must leave this place. We can’t go from the front, we have to leave from the back,” said my father. I never saw him this serious before.

“Dear, I’m scared. I don’t want anything happen to our kids,” my mother worryingly said.

“Don’t fret. I won’t let anything happen to us,” my dad said with a determined face.

“I will be behind shielding you two. Anant, stay close to your mother and protect her from even the slightest thing,” my father ordered.

“Yes dad,” I said in reply.

My father opened the back door slowly. There were people everywhere running for their lives. I ran alongside my frail mother who gave birth couple hours ago. Khushi was in her arms, crying. My father was behind us making sure we don’t get attack from behind. I was holding my wooden sword in one hand to protect my mother. There were corpses everywhere but we had no time to pay them attention, as the only task we had to do right now was to run; run as fast as and as far as possible.

While I was running, I suddenly heard a buzz sound and felt a gust of wind passing by my right ear. It was like something just passed by at a high speed. Out of nowhere my right ear started ringing loudly. But all of a sudden, the boy who was running ahead of me fell and I tripped over him.

“Anant!” my mother cried out loud.

“Ouch! What th—” before I could even finish my sentence my father grabbed me and ran. While I was on my father’s arm, I saw the boy who fell and realised why he fell. There was an arrow stuck on his lower back. Someone shot an arrow and it struck him. Realising how close I was from practically getting my skull open, shivers ran down my spine. While father was running, carrying me in his one arm. Suddenly I saw a soldier aiming his bow at us.

I screamed, “Incoming from behind!”

The soldier before shooting let out a gust of wind from his arrow holding hand to accelerate the arrow and shot at us. My father at the nick of time pivoted towards right and missed the arrow by an inch. But it hit some other unfortunate person and they fell to the ground.

My father quickly put me down and said, “You run with your mother. I’m right behind you.”

As I was going to reply, my father blocked something in an instant. I couldn’t even see what he just blocked. I then saw the ground and there was a broken arrow lying down.

Wait, did he just block an arrow without even looking at it?

My father screamed, “Go!” and I ran to my mother who was just few meters away waiting for us.

VISHVA

After I sent Anant to his mother, I quickly grabbed one part of the broken arrow, influenced the wind around me and threw it to the soldier who shot at us. The broken arrow pierced through his forehead. But there were more soldiers coming from behind. Without wasting any time, I ran to my family. There were people everywhere— screaming, running and dying.

As I was running, an arrow came towards me from my right. I blocked it with my sword but at that moment I sensed multiple arrows being shot from my left. Thinking what to do I saw a body of a dead woman lying at my right foot. Feeling guilty I quickly carried the body and turned to my left. I used it as a shield and took cover under the body to protect myself from upcoming attacks. Five arrows were shot and all of them hit the body. I then sensed wind particles around me to see paths of disturbances left by the arrows and from where they were shot. After making sure their positions, I took the arrows out of the dead body and threw them by using wind magic one after the another. I heard groans coming from each of their locations. Wrapping up my work here I joined my family in the escape.

While I was running, I kept my eyes on the surroundings for any upcoming attacks. There were soldiers everywhere killing whoever they like and see.

What is happening here? Where are our troops? Was this a surprise attack? Questions running on my mind.

As I was thinking I saw a little girl of my son’s age, crying amidst this chaos and a soldier charging towards her with a sword, killing everyone in his vicinity.

Shit! What should I do? Should I save her? But right now my only priority is to save my family.

As I was faced with this difficult dilemma, I remembered something. I taught Anant to always have the courage to do righteous deeds. If I don’t have the courage to do so, then how am I quailed as a teacher, as a person and as a father to teach him those things?

Making my decision I ran to the little girl.

Seeing me run away my wife screamed, “Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry about me. You just run. I will be behind you,” I replied.

Just as the soldier was about to strike her I blocked it with my sword and pushed him back. Seeing me, the soldier conjured a spike of Earth that emerged from my behind. Just as the spike was about to pierce me, I grabbed its pointy edge, used it as a support and leaped over it. While my hands were on the spike, I shattered its pointy tip and threw it to the soldier with all my might piercing his neck. He was down. The little girl seeing the soldier’s dead body became more scared.

“Aahh! M-mom, d-dad,” she said while crying.

“Don’t cry. I will take you to your mom and dad,” I said before lifting her with my one arm.

Amidst this chaos, I ran searching for my family. While looking everywhere, I found them. My wife was running with Kushi in her arms and Anant was also running beside her with his wooden sword in one hand. But as I started rushing towards them, I saw a soldier in my far right who was about to shoot towards my family with his large crossbow.

Shit! I will neither be able to reach my family nor the soldier in time. What do I do?

As I was thinking what to do a sudden thought struck my mind. But it meant losing my only weapon and become vulnerable in this dangerous situation. Since I had no choice, I decided to do it anyways. I raised my sword pointing towards the soldier. Harnessing all the wind I can in the palm of my hand, I threw my sword at the soldier with all my might. The sword, as if slicing the air itself, pierced through his head. But it was too late. He had already fired the crossbow and the arrow went straight to my wife’s direction.

In fear I cried, “SUMATI!”

ANANT

I was running with my mother when suddenly I heard my father’s scream from behind. I turned back and saw an arrow coming towards us. It was about to hit my mother in the head. Gathering wind on my two little foots I jumped in the air, gripping my wooden sword tightly with both hands I barely managed to avert its direction. But in the process my wooden sword got shattered into pieces and due to the impact I got knocked down a few steps away.

My mom hurriedly came over and asked anxiously, “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“I’m okay,” I answered.

I saw my father rushing over to us but there was a little girl in his arms. He put the girl down and hugged me tightly.

“Thank God! You both are safe,” he said.

As I was about to ask him about this girl multiple soldiers came from our behind.

“We should get going before more enemy comes,” said my father.

We ran just like the people around us, who were all running desperately to save their lives. All we could hear were the helpless cries of people. While running, my father suddenly stopped us.

“Stop!” he shouted.

“Why? What happened?” my mother asked.

“I suddenly sensed a strong disturbance from up ahead,” my father said cautiously.

“Wha—” I was interrupted mid-sentence by a large flame from ahead. We heard painful screams of people, crying and begging to stop. As I was wondering where that flame came from, I got my answers. It was a soldier. He conjured a ball of flame that engulfed everything in its vicinity. But what I saw after that made me almost throw up. I saw the ashes of people who most likely got trapped in that fire. But some people who didn’t have the luxury to die such a painful death were left in a more horrifying state.

My father shouted, “Left!” and we ran that way.

But soldiers were also there killing everyone. Since we were surrounded from all three directions, we had no choice but to run towards right. From all the massacre, only a handful of people remained that were running with us. While running we heard a big explosion and a war cry that seemed to be coming from the centre of our town.

“It’s about damn time!” my father yelled in frustration.

Wait, does that mean our troops have finally arrived?

Seeing the soldiers were now rushing towards the explosion’s direction, my guess was most likely correct. But not all of them left. Some were still chasing us. Suddenly the girl, who was running with us this whole time screamed in joy.

“Mom! Dad!” she rejoiced and started running towards the people, who from her words seemed to be her parents.

“Alya!” her parents also screamed in delight and started sprinting over to her.

As they were about to hug each other something devastating happened. The moment—which was supposed to be a happy reunion—turned into their worst nightmare. I saw the girl’s and her mother’s head getting pierced by arrows in an instant, followed by her father getting hit at the chest. The whole family who just a second ago was rejoicing their reunion got completely wiped out in an instant. This frightening sight made me stumble to the ground. My heart beating non-stop, sweat all over my face, as it could also happen to us at any second.

My father quickly lifted me from the ground and said, “There’s a small forest up ahead. They won’t be able to chase us there. Just run as fast as possible and don’t look back.”

We ran as fast as we could. I could hear the screams of people dying around us, but I paid them no attention. But one familiar scream got all my attention. I looked back and saw my father has gotten struck by an arrow on his calf due to which he was plummeted to the ground.

“Dad!” I screamed and rushed to rescue him without thinking. At that moment I couldn’t hear anything what was going on my surroundings. My only focus was on my father. While I was on my way to rescue him he yelled my name—like he was warning me of something and at moment when I looked above, I found myself face to face with an arrow.