Before the Barricades Arise

Chapter 10

Marius and I are interrupted by someone whistling from outside. "They're coming!" a voice calls.

Everyone starts rushing around the café gathering weapons and supplies getting into position for a fight.

"'Ponine, go back upstairs. You'll be safest there." Marius says.

"What about you?"

"I have to fight this through, I'll be fine."

"Look out for Gavroche, will you?" I say to him.

"Of course." He says, giving me a kiss on the forehead.

He grabs his gun off the table and hurries outside with the others.

I see Gavroche over by the door getting the last of his things ready.

"Gavroche," I call.

He turns around and sees me.

"Be careful," I say.

"Don't worry, I will be." He assures me and wraps his arms around me.

I smile at him and he too, follows the others outside.

I don't want to go upstairs and just be like a princess in a tower waiting to be rescued. I want to help out and do what I can. I want to be a part of this fight too.

I notice Joly is clearing some space on tables for those who will surely get wounded and he is cleaning up his medical supplies.

"Hey, Joly. Do you need any help with anything?"

"You should be resting upstairs. You aren't really in the right condition to be doing anything." He says.

"Please, just little things to keep me busy. Cleaning, organizing anything?"

"Well, if you want you could straighten up the weapons table and move it closer to the door so they can quickly grab new weapons if they need to."

"Sure thing," I say.

"Don't overexert yourself. If you get dizzy or feel sharp shooting pains in your shoulder, go upstairs and rest."

"Yes, monsieur," I say and I begin tidying up and organizing the guns and knives and swords on the table.

Outside, I hear guns firing, shouting, the clanging of metal swords and knives against each other. I can't wait for this all to be over and we can live again in peace and freedom.

I try to move the table over next to the door but my shoulder won't let me and I double over in pain.

Joly sees me. "Eponine, go upstairs. I'll be up in a minute with more medications for you." He instructs.

This time I obey and head up.

I pull the chair that's in the room over to the window so I can see what's going on.

Hand to hand combat, shooting each other, the French army seems to have cannons or something and there are bodies everywhere.

I want to look away but I just can't.

I spot Gavroche sitting close to the top of the barricade. Marius is just below him. He is within arm's reach of Gavroche. I let out a sigh of relief.

But then I see a French soldier climbing the barricade from the other side.

I open the window and holler at the top of my lungs "Look out, soldier climbing up the other side!"

Frantically, everyone below looks around. Marius sees me and waves, and shouts "Thank you!"

The soldier is getting closer to the top and closer to Gavroche.

"Gavroche get down!" I shout.

Marius is also trying to pull down him down.

Gavroche is now sitting on top of the barricade and he starts kicking the French soldier in the face and hitting him with his sword.

"Eponine, your painkillers," Joly says entering the room.

"Thank you, monsieur," I say and he hands me the pills and a glass of water. I swallow the pills and the water and hand the glass back to him.

"I'll be back downstairs if you need anything else." He says.

"Okay," I say.

"Gavroche, stop and come back!" I hear Marius calling to him.

Gavroche is ignoring him and continues to hit the soldier.

"Never kick a dog because he's just a pup so you better run for cover when the pup grows up!" Gavroche is yelling.

Then suddenly BANG!

There is a gunshot that came from the army side and I see the person with a gun pointed directly at Gavroche.

The bullet hits him square in the chest and Gavroche falls limp and falls back into Marius' arms.

I see that Gav is not moving and his eyes are staring into nothingness.

"NOOOO!" I shout out the window.