Every Man a King

Our patrol through the Red Zone started off quiet and uneventful. We stayed spread out around our truck, just in case a Syndicalist threw a satchel charge or fire bomb into the middle of us. Every man had his rifle at the ready and his eyes watching the windows.

We had just entered the intersection of 3rd and 4th when I heard it. A soft crying, like that of a child. I looked around, trying to find the source. The sound seemed to be coming from the old hotel on the corner.

I walked over to the hotel and stepped inside, followed by my squadmate Jake. The crying sounded like it was coming from upstairs, so we headed that way slowly. Once on the landing, we saw a room with the door slightly open. I went up and pushed it all the way open.

Inside the room was a young woman, maybe in her late teens or early twenties. She was holding a little girl in her arms. Both were thin, as if they hadn't had a decent meal in months.

The little girl was the source of the crying, sobbing into the woman's chest. I could hear the woman whispering while she tried to comfort the child. "It's okay...we'll find the others...get you some food…"

I coughed, and the woman looked up at me and Jake. I saw fear fill her eyes for some reason. I brushed it off and grabbed my canteen, holding it out to the woman.

She held out her hand to take the canteen, and I saw the red armband on her jacket sleeve. A Syndicalist armband. This poor woman in front of me, holding a crying little girl, was my enemy. But I kept my arm out, offering the canteen. She may have been my enemy, but she was still human.

Jake had other ideas. The woman's fingers had barely brushed the side of the canteen when a gunshot boomed. She stiffened and fell back, a hole between her eyes. As the blood began to pool around her head, I turned to look at Jake, his pistol still smoking.

"Sic semper proditores," he said. "Thus always to traitors." Words that I had seen or heard many times. On posters denouncing the Syndicalists. In newspapers when detailing their executions. And in speeches from politicians when talking of our superiority to the Syndicalist threat.

I nodded, slowly reaching for my own pistol. "Sic semper proditores," I replied. Another gunshot rang out, and Jake slumped back against the wall. I holstered the pistol and looked at the little girl, who was covering her ears and crying even more.

I crouched down and looked at the little girl. "I promise not to hurt you. Or let any bad men out there hurt you either. Okay?" She nodded, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

I went over to Jake’s body and pulled off every piece of gear I could carry. I looked at the body of the woman on the floor. It would be shameful to leave her, but I didn’t have a choice. I took the jacket off of her and slipped it on, glad that it was big enough for me. When I took the jacket off, I noticed a heart-shaped locket hanging from the woman’s neck.

I reached down and picked up the locket, clicking it open. Inside was a picture, obviously of the woman and the little girl, probably from a few years earlier. They were both smiling, and looked to be having fun. On the other side was a note that read “For my two princesses, from your king. Love, Daddy.”

I took off the locket and slipped it into one of the pockets on the jacket. I heard the rest of my squad come into the hotel and start coming up the stairs. I looked at the little girl and said “I’m going to get rid of the bad men. Cover your ears.” She nodded and did so as I picked up a grenade from Jake’s belt, pulled the pin, and threw it into the stairwell. The explosion rocked the building before everything went silent.

I picked up the little girl and carried her down the stairs, keeping her face in my chest so she wouldn’t see the carnage. We got outside and I set her in the back of the truck. I grabbed a ration and handed it to her, helping her open and prepare it. “I promise I’ll get you to a hot meal, little one.”

While she ate, I got in the driver’s seat of the truck and drove deeper into the Red Zone, where I knew the Syndicalists were. We were barely a few blocks deeper when a group of them came out and stood in the road in front of the truck. I stopped the vehicle and showed my hands out the window when they ordered me to do so.

“What’s your business here, Unionist?” one of them asked while aiming their submachine gun at me.

“I’m not a Unionist. Not anymore,” I responded.

He lowered the weapon slightly. “Then why are you here?” I noticed his tone was less threatening and more confused.

“I came across a Syndicalist woman. MY squad killed her, and I killed them. I have a little girl in the back that was with her. I just want her to be safe.”

He nodded slowly. “And what about you? Will you join our cause?”

I thought for a few moments. I had already branded myself a traitor in the eyes of the American Union State. But I didn’t hold the same values of the Syndicalists. I just wanted the little girl to have a safe place. To have a family again.

I shook my head. “I’m not joining any more causes. I want to be my own person again. To have my own cause.”

The man nodded again. “Well, if you want any extra weapons, ammunition, or fuel, we have some to spare. Always willing to help our fellow man.”

I smiled and said “That would be helpful. Thank you.” I climbed out of the truck and walked to the back, dropping the tailgate. The little girl looked up from the ration she was finishing. “It’s time for us to part, little one. I’ve brought you to some nice people.”

She shook her head and quietly said “I want to stay with you.”

My eyes went wide at the words. “But...why?”

“I feel safe with you. Like how I felt with my big sister.”

I smiled slightly and said “Okay. I’ll let you stay with me.”

She smiled back. I helped the Syndicalist group load the back of the truck with supplies and thanked them for their assistance. One of them gave me a radio and said “If you ever need help, just contact us on this radio. And good luck to you.”

I smiled as I drove away from the Syndicalist group. I thought about the saying that had been told to me from the day I became a member of the American Union Army. Every man a king. Well, this king now had a princess. And he was going to make the other kings pay for the pain they had caused.