The Belly of the Beast

I saw a fury of red across the pond. The red coats fled in fury to the boats. Unlucky they should escape. General Clinton runs with his tale tucked between his legs. The Continental Army let that happen, but I did not.

I looked down at the one red coat who didn't escape. But this one had it coming. He knew what he did.

One down.

A hand grips my left arm so suddenly I quickly raise my hatchet with the right. “What are you doing?” was all Private Edward Williams asked so alarmingly and out of nowhere. I backed down, not realizing how close I put my blade to his throat. You should not surprise someone with a knife in their hands.

“Forget a court martial Sam, they will hang you right away for this. How could you do this?”

I pointed my knife the other way, where the other man lay. “This was him. One of them at least.” The lowest ranking soldier of the group of course. We had only that in common. An odd thing to say about a man who shares responsibility for destroying my life. “Only two remain.”

“It’s too bad you won’t live to see it in a minute,” Edward said looking at me with the coldest stare I ever saw from him, “I have to take you in for this Sam.” It was all he said as he raised his pistol, the flint seen atop his the fully cocked hammer. He aimed between my eyes. “General Arnold said we were to do this without bloodshed.”

Ha. General Benedict Arnold. I had no time to laugh at that. That can difficult when staring down the muzzle of a comrade’s barrel. “To hell with Arnold, I’m going after them.” My mind was made up.

Edward was right, I’d be given no due process. General Arnold likely had a promotion coming up, and I was standing between it. But he had his ambitions, I had mine. I certainly joined to fight the British, I may have fought to reclaim my home of Philadelphia, but I cared little for liberty. Whoever I had to fight for was long gone. As was my father’s tavern. The score had been settled with one of them.

I will not let the other two murderers leave with accounts unsettled.

Edward would not stop that either. The grip on my hatchet instinctively tightened. What did he know? His family was waiting for him safely back in Princeton. “Don’t this Sam,” he kept repeating. “An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.”

Oh Sam. “These particular Brits deserve a worse affliction than blindness,” I reminded him. Edward had agreed with me before and now he loses his resolve. They deserved what they got. And from where I stand, I will get what I deserve soon enough. “I’m going after them. They do not deserve to return to King and Country with their heads held high. Neither does anyone who tries to stop me.”

Edward’s trigger hand trembled as I slowly closed distance between us. He couldn’t do it, even at the distance I was. He was dutiful, but good. I was neither. But once I saw his eyes move to his gun I moved faster. A bombastic booming burst into my ears. I shifted his arm upwards in time to move his line of fire to the ceiling. Disarming him was not difficult, the thought of killing him was. No, this was not his fight. The handle of the musket was sturdy enough for me to strike him unconscious. “Sorry old friend. I wish you good fortune.”

I did not make it three paces out of the house upon being stopped by a regiment. They held me until the figure who rode up dismounted. General Arnold had come. “There will be no good fortune to speak of for you, soldier,” General Arnold had said.

“Execute me then,” I said in challenge, “show the men how you value British lives above our own.”

“I have little value for yours, you insubordinate savage,” he said, “But General Clinton, it turns out, holds more for yours.”

Heaven’s sake, the man would do anything to curry favor from whatever side would please him. I would not be surprised if he betrayed us. He is after all going to make me their prisoner, probably to hold his reputational positioning intact. I may not be the most loyal or obedient to the cause, but a traitor I am not.

“You’ll be their prisoner alright,” the General sneered, “but you’ll be going on a journey with them.”

“To where might I ask, sir?”

“England. The Tarleton Region took a special interest in you.”

Of course they did, I killed one of their best fighters. They want revenge and they wish to rip me from my home. Very well. Take me further into the belly of the beast we call England. I thought desperately of how to get free. Not to be safe, but so my new captors could learn the pain of losing everything from your own home.

It will take more than a minute to reach London. But once I arrive, I will be ready. They will see.

My brother, my father, and the life we built with our families with our families would be avenged. This I swore. It was the last thought I had before I saw the butt of a musket make my world go dark.