The Sacrifice

“Please, why are you doing this?”

The man stared at his son who was paralyzed from the waist down. The man had his weapon aimed right at his son’s forehead.

“I’m your son…”

“This is not my choice,” he paused, “Everyone in the village decided this…”

The boy kept begging. The boy was only 12 years old and was a good soldier until he caught shrapnel from the last battle that almost took out the whole village. The battle before that, the boy helped bring down a ship. Some of the aliens were still alive when the village bludgeoned them to death.

Every time a ship comes around and the remaining humans do battle with it, they celebrate the aftermath only when a victory is an outcome. In the last few years, victory has been the only outcome for these villagers, and the boy was rewarded for his partake in destroying the spaceship during that celebration. The boy was given extra food and given rest from chores. The village had its infrastructure and it worked well when warriors fought well. The merits were quite rewarding, and the boy deserved what he had coming after his heroic moves.

Unfortunately, in the last battle, an explosion sent shrapnel flying and caught the boy in the lower back, paralyzing him. The boy was thought to be dead. He was found unconscious and did not come around for a few days. With a bit of bad luck, the boy survived the blow to his back and was now in very bad shape.

The village did not have any healing technology as they did with weapons. Most of the weapons were stolen from the aliens as humans won more and more battles. However, technology for healing was never ever found. Humans would only use what they could scrape from destroyed hospitals when it came to medicine or healing wounds.

The boy was voted for a sacrifice. He was no use to the village as a warrior anymore. The boy was unable to handle any big guns. There were no tanks or any other machine for the kid to handle. He was just straight out of luck. On top of that, the kid healed without any medicine except for the fact that he was not going to be able to walk again. Therefore, the village decided to put him out of his misery. That is the way it was for those who were severely wounded.

“You have to understand that you need to die,” said the father to his boy.

“Dad, you even said that you would split your rations with me.”

“I’m one of the best soldiers we have in this village. I need to be in top shape to help humanity win this war.”

The boy stood there silently. He didn’t know what to say. Tears came down his face as if the truth finally hit his heart. It was useless for him to exist.

The father started to point the weapon at his son’s face.

“How are you going to live with this?”

The father stared at his son’s brown eyes.

“You’re killing your own son.”

The father stood there as if almost like he was showing signs of changing his mind. Then, suddenly he replied.

“God killed his own son. He sacrificed Jesus for our sins. Therefore, this sin is forgiven, especially under the circumstances.”

“Please, Dad!”

“You have to die.”

“Don’t talk about the old book!”

“This is to save the village, and we don’t know how many villages are left in this world,” continued the father, “I’m sure God will understand since he’s done this himself.”

“I don’t think there is a Go…”

A laser beam streaked through the boy’s forehead. The beam went out the back of his head and burned the tree behind him as well.

The last thing the boy saw was a red light coming towards him. Then, it was on to his journey on the other side. The father stood above his dead child. A tear came out as he stared at his boy’s face, a blank stare looking up at the sky. The father picked up his boy and threw him over his shoulder.

The boy was to be food for those who were not close to him.

By Bazooka Teaches