Child

Blood

 "Oh my gosh, are you okay?" you cry out, grabbing Nirmal's arm. 

"I'll be okay," he tells you. "it didn't hit anything vital."

"How can you be sure?"

You help it stumble to a sheltered place and lay him down. Then you stick your head around the corner and bend some of the flying bullets into the back of the heads of members of the Space Force. They're not the first people you've killed and they won't be the last. You quickly hide before anyone sees you. Nirmal wraps its flannel shirt around his stomach to stop the bleeding. He's wearing a striped undershirt underneath. He looks really good in its apocalypse outfit. You think to tell him that, but you don't. 

Orso steals a gun from a dead soldier on the ground and starts shooting it at the alien.

"Stop it, Orso!" Idowu shouts. "It's useless!"

You fail to bend the sound of their voices and the Space Force spots them. You run.

"You're not in the Space Force!" one soldier cries out.

"This is no place for civilians. They'll never make it." You hear one of them say. As if they're doing any better themselves. You try to tell your friends to run, but you're not in control of the situation at all. You have no idea what's going to happen next and then it happens. Idowu shoots one of the soldiers. The soldier buckles and falls face first one the ground. The other soldiers watch the soldier fall and then look at the group of three. All the soldiers look over.

And when they think they know your friends aren't on their side, they open fire. Not only blowing the guts out of %75 of your friends, but some of their own troops as well. They're not even fighting, they're just shooting. The General yells at them not to, through the computer.

You expect the world to stand still when your friends die, but it doesn't. It just keeps going without giving you a chance to process what happened. You want to be with Nirmal now more than ever. Nirmal is alive, breathing with a heartbeat. He's seen the same thing as you.

You make sure nobody can see you and Nirmal at all as you try and carry it away from the battlefield. Why aren't you crying? Why aren't you screaming? You know this is really happening, right?

"Billie!" he cries out. "Orso and Idowu!"

You're trembling, but you try to comfort Nirmal. Nirmal might have known those three his whole life. Now they're nothing more than blood and pieces of meat on the ground.

"You know it's okay, Rabbit." Nirmal tells you. "It wasn't your fault." 

You nod, but you're not sure.

Nirmal's bleeding through its flannel and he's trying to cover it with its hands. "I don't want to die." Nirmal says.

"You're not going to die. I'm going to get you help."

"I don't know if that will be enough. It's okay though. I swear." Despite it all, Nirmal is smiling, sweetly at you.

They overestimated me. You think to yourself. What if they hadn't overestimated me? Maybe they'd all be safe at home right now. Nirmal told them the war was pointless and it was even more pointless in person. Not worth killing for. Not worth dying for. Not worth living for.

Away from the battlefield, you lay Nirmal down where he can rest comfortably. "How's that?"

"About as bad as being shot in the stomach." it tells you, humourously.

"I'm going to find a doctor." You tell him. "Stay right where you are." You rush off to the town. There's a telephone booth. You haven't talked on the phone in a long time. Usually you've been too afraid somebody might track your location and arrest you. But this time, It's too important.

You dial the emergency phone number of your area. Someone picks up on the other end. Recites their regular script. "What is your emergency?"

"Help!" You cry. "My friend has been shot! He's still alive though. I need an ambulance."

"Did you shoot your friend?"

"What kind of a question is that?"

You tell them Nirmal's location rather than your own. And then you start running back to it.

"An ambulance is on its way." says the voice on the other end of the line.