An Anthology

Surrounded Squad

Prompt: "Sir, we're surrounded" "Excellent, we can attack in any direction"

"Sir, we're surrounded." Alphonso twirled his head from side to side, his eye twitching as he realized their situation.

"Excellent, we can attack in any direction!" The captain, as optimistic as always, grinned a wide, toothy smile, and unsheathed his sword, twirling it around once before taking a fighting stance, back to back with Alphonso.

Alphonso let out an exasperated puff of air, his eyes trained on a particularly buff bandit with only a club for a weapon, "But sir, we only have seven men on our team! They outnumber us by nearly twenty!"

"Have no worries, Phonso, they don't call me 'The Lightning Fast Swordsman' for nothing!" The captain looked about ready to pounce on the nearest bandit, clearly revved up for some action.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but nobody calls you that."

"They don't? Well, they will after this fight is done! Attack, men!" At that order, the shivering soldiers let out war cries and set off in all directions, towards what could end up as deadly battles.

The only thing, it seemed, that kept each man from dying was the fact that none of the bandits would move from their spot in the circle. And so the soldiers were trapped within their ranks. But that way, they couldn't gang up on any of the soldiers, and each soldier could choose which of them he would battle on his own.

Unsurprisingly, no one chose the buff man with only a club that Alphonso had been eyeing up earlier.

"Anyone have any idea why none of them are moving except to defend themselves?" The youngest of the soldiers, nineteen-year-old Jackson, shouted out from the northern corner of the circle. He was currently fighting a thin, bony thief with a sword thicker than both his arms put together, but although Jackson was much better built, it was obvious that the thief was a master at using that thick sword to his advantage, and was therefore overpowering the teen.

"Everyone back away from your fights! Let's see if they change position!" The captain shouted, making sure all his men could hear him. The thieves must have heard the captain as well, but none made any suggestion that they would act any differently according to what orders had just been issued by the enemy.

"Three! Two! One!" The captain counted down and as soon as he had finished, every soldier backed into the center of the circle.

All together, they stood back to back, making their own, smaller circle within the larger one.

"Sir, they seem not to want to move," Brent said what was on every soldier's mind, "Do you think they may be trying to trap us here?"

"Are they waiting for something? Or someone?" Alphonso's voice shook along with his knees, and he held his blade aloft. It was his first year on the field, and so far it hadn't been a great one.

"I reckon they're waiting for their leader to arrive. Then they'll loot us and kill us off. No thief wants soldiers to live. Their lives would be a lot easier if we were gone from this world," The captain grinned again, as if he had just told the world's funniest joke. What he had said, however, was most likely to be the direct outcome of this disruption in the end, all jokes aside.

"I don't want to die!" A cry came from Jackson's right, from a small man by the name of Abraham, who was a quivering mess of emotions.

"Well, you'd better get used to it! This is simply a day in the life of a soldier," Jackson slapped him on the back, and the pain of the smack seemed to knock a bit of sense into Abraham, whose grip on his sword tightened to the point that his knuckles had turned a snowy white.

"I don't wanna be a soldier! I want my mommy!" Came a cry from another voice, this one the weakling Tomas's as his eyes began producing fat, wet tears.

"You are thirty years old and a man of your own, don't start screaming for your mommy now!" Philip answered, who was the most courageous of the bunch. That is, after the captain himself, of course.

"Get it together, men! We'll be out of here in a jiffy!" The captain hoisted his sword into the air, then charged forward without another word.

"Are we supposed to back him up?" Jackson asked, puzzled at the lack of command.

Abraham chuckled nervously, "I'd rather we stay right here in our safe circle, what do you say, men?" There were mutters of agreement from all the men still remaining in the circle.

"We only need to break through one man to break their circle. Do you think we could perhaps gang up on just one man?" Alphonso had begun his strategical thinking, and hoped that this would get them somewhere.

The more courageous of the men began nodding in agreement, with approving grunts every so often as they all thought of possible outcomes of this plan.

"If it doesn't turn out, we can simply retreat back to the center. I say we gave it a try!" Brent unsheathed his second sword, and his twin blades glowed in the light of the sun. "I say we go for the one Cap's got under his blade right now. Try to break through their ranks. Maybe even take on the surrounding men as well."

The six other remaining men nodded in response, and soon they all were clunking over to the captain's location, their armour weighing them down.

The thieves were talented, but they only had take one down to escape the circle prison.

"So glad you decided to back me up. I must say, I have been struggling with this one here. In fact, I've been struggling with every one that I've tried intercepting so far. They're all quite talented." The captain grunted, but kept a smile on his face as sweat dripped down his brow.

Swords clashed and spark flew as the soldiers tested their theory. As they had assumed, no other men from the circle left their spots, as if they were rooted to their positions.