Greek

The Belly of The Beast

 The helicopter landed in the middle of a war zone, gunfire sounding from every corner of the blocky encampment, which had once belonged to the Athenians, but was won by our troops several years ago. The only Spartan victory on Athenian soil, which annoyed the higher ranked generals to no end. We landed and I was uncuffed, given a bag of essentials, and pushed out of the Helicopter with little more than a "Try not to die". I looked around as they took off again, and, seeing a Woman in a Brigadier uniform running to me, I slung my bag over my shoulder and saluted her. After all, I was still a soldier in my bones, nothing, not even the level of distrust thrown my way, could stop that. She gave me the signal to relax, then pointed at the building

"As you can see Corporal, while we would like to give you a warm welcome to our little base, we're a little bit preoccupied, The armory is in the heart of the building on the left hand side, I don't care what the higher ups say, or why you're here, grab rifle, get to higher ground, and show me why you were sent to my camp," She then smiled at me warmly, which was a welcome change

"Don't worry, we'll have a party as soon as we take out the Carney's," I thanked her, then ran to the camp.

I somehow managed to avoid coming under enemy fire on my way to the building, weaving through mine traps and corpses littering the ground. Yet, when I got into the camp, it was almost worse, tighter quarters, more concentrated amounts of enemies, but I hugged the wall and got past the worst of the fighting, eventually coming on to the hallway where the weapons were. But something was wrong, there was a Spartan soldier running in the opposite direction of the weapons, without any weapons. I stopped them, a girl, only a few years older than me, but still a Captain.

"Why is everyone running away from the armory," I asked, she nodded, towards it, her eyes stony and determined

"I'm sorry, ma'am," She said, seeing my uniform,

"The others told me to go get a higher officer, somehow a Carney got into the weapons bunker and is shooting everyone who steps through the door, we don't know what to do" I nodded

"Come with me, we'll think of some way to get rid of him," She agreed, and I headed towards the armory, her close behind. When we got there I pushed my way through the crowd and looked into the dim room, in the center was a child, eight years old at most, teary eyed and shaking with fear, holding a rifle, swinging it wildly. I stopped dead in my tracks, the Captain almost running into me.

"What's wrong?" She asked, I looked at her, her blond curls escaping from her ponytail

"What's your name soldier?" I asked quietly, she frowned but answered

"Lacy ma'am, Lacy Emeralds," I pointed at the boy

"Does that look like a soldier to you Captain? Because to me, that looks like a scared little boy," I said, my voice stern, she looked confused

"But ma'am, we have younger soldiers then him, and he's carrying a firearm," She said, which would have been completely logical, but I still felt like I was killing a scared child. I walked up to the door with my hands up, placating the shaking youth

"What are your demands soldier," I said in a calm voice, his eyes swung from the few soldiers in the halls, to me, and back to the soldiers

"I-I-I Just wanna go-o home," He said pitifully, I walked into the doorway, and he raised the gun higher, shaking like a leaf

"It's OK kid, I wanna get you home, but you just gotta trust me, surrender, and you'll be with your family in no time," He seemed to be considering shooting me, but he nodded and let me slide the gun out of his hand. I smiled, then picked him up