Ebott Chronicles

Preservation Corps/Last Day of the First War

-Una's POV-

Two thousand years after the war began fighting still raged on every day, uncountable trillions of lives lost on one side and seemingly no visible loss on the other. The worst part was whenever one of ours died they'd come back just to fight us, so after the first ten years we had been almost entirely fighting our own soldiers. Still we continued pressing on for all that we had lost was nothing compared to what was at stake if gave up. It didn't matter much to me though, I only fought because that's what I was told to do, by the time I was old enough to pick up a weapon everything I cared about had already been destroyed. My home was destroyed in the first years of the war, and as the only survivor of the attack was left to watch and listen to the screams and cries of Agony as my friends, family, and neighbors were brutally killed all around me.

It was weeks before I was found in the safety of a hidden room beneath my home and was rescued by a recovery team, of course it wasn't out of the kindness of their hearts, the price of being rescued was of course military service. Even if I was just a kid they needed soldiers, so by the time I was able to run and carry a knife I was sent into battle. It was supposed to be an easy task, assisting the medical corps miles from the front lines, I was too young to know better though. Nothing was ever easy back in those days. It was only a few days before the front lines were overran by the reanimated corpses of our fallen comrades.

When the Medical Corps retreated I was ordered to stay behind and wait to link up with the retreating forces to establish new lines. We had just one tent left for us at the top of the hill we'd set up on to wait for reinforcements. Just ten of us were left behind, every person that could be spared to try to rebuild some sort of fighting force. We knew something was wrong when they were a day late to the rendezvous so we slept in shifts to not be caught off guard. Five of us would sleep and eat during the day then stand guard at night, and vice versa. We knew that light and darkness did not effective them like they did us so we expected an attack in the dark, so I was put on the day guard shift. Understandably they did not want the child to be the first line of defense in case of attack.

How right they were, on the third night we were awoken to shouting of the night crew for us to get up, that the reinforcements had finally arrived. I think we all knew the truth, but nobody wanted to give up hope that easily. We all quickly got dressed and grabbed our weapons, getting outside to see hundred waiting for us. At the bottom of the hill stood hundreds of soldiers wearing the same uniform as us, unmoving, just watching us. Knowing something was off the archer of the group ignited one of his arrows and took aim, firing it just in front of the crowd to lite them up a bit more so we could get a better look. Despite the full moon it seemed almost impossible to get a good look at them.

Not one person flinched at the arrow as it landed just inches from them. Reaching down the largest man picked up the arrow, bringing the flaming side close to his face which allowed us to see the black eyes that were set in his head. Rather, not see them, while the rest of his face was more visible his eyes were still just as dark before. Putting a hand up he snuffed out the flame and in an instant the sound of hundreds of bowstrings being drawn was heard, there was no chance of running away. Behind us was uphill and in front of us was the enemy.

I could do nothing but watch as hundreds of hours rose from the mass of people and began falling down towards us. My eyes locked on to one coming right for me, in fear I closed my eyes tight just hoping for it to not be painful, but nothing ever came. The sound of Arrows landing all around filled my ears, and then something hit my nose. Not something hard, or sharp, or cold. But warm liquid. I didn't want to see but peaking open my eyes the tip of an arrow was inches from my face, what was dripping on my face was the blood of the man who stood in front of me to avoid me getting hit.