Soldier

Seven o’clock news:

“Two hours before the big earthquake happened in Oklahoma, a soldier died for her country. She was proud to be a part of the National Guard. She saved the life of a four-year-old girl before dying. This little girl's name is Avery and she is special; she has the personality of a butterfly, so gentle and caring. Avery has been in and out of foster care her entire life, not being able to find a permanent place to live. The place she was living in when this happened was with a man named Chad Richmond. He would abuse her for small, little things like not sweeping the floor properly or not dusting. She was a maid in his mind and that was all she was to him.

Marissa was the name of the soldier that saved her. All she had was adrenaline running through her veins before the gunshot. Marissa is the kind of person that would help a person without a skip of a heartbeat. She joined the National Guard at the age of seventeen not knowing where that path would lead.

It was a raining miserable night when the base got a call saying that there was going to be a possible terrorist attack. Marissa jumped up, got her gun, and was ready to help in any way she could. The generals were all in a meeting discussing what they were going to do. When word got out that there was a little girl involved in the chaos, all Marissa could think about was 'we need to get that little girl out of that situation.' In twenty minutes all of the soldiers were in the truck and ready to stop this from happening.

When they get there, Chad has already killed three men and two women. Fear strikes across some of the soldiers' faces as they jumped out of the truck, hoping they won’t get shot or die today. As Marissa jumps out of the truck, she gives a big hug to her best friend before getting in line with the rest of the soldiers. The only thing that is on her mind is to save the girl and get out of there alive. Then she catches sight of Chad and starts to get worried that Chad is going to kill her. One of the soldiers walks up carefully to Chad and is trying to calm him down only to make him angrier. She looks away in search of the girl not being able to find her.

Then finally she does, Avery is behind a pile of old dusty boxes. Once Marissa gets her attention, she waves her over hoping that the other soldier has Chad’s attention long enough for her to run over to where she could be protected and away from Chad’s danger. Avery shakes her head knowing that she would not make it before being caught. Marissa tries to reassure her that she will be safe. Once Avery gets enough confidence to run out of hiding she does. She runs at full speed but to only stop halfway, scared that she will be caught by Chad. She is frozen with fear staring into the eyes of a killer. It feels like time slows down and almost freezes.

Marissa does not think she just acts, throwing herself at Avery hoping to get there in time. As she grabs hold of her she drags her to the ground and covers her with her body, hoping her small body is enough to cover her. A shot rings out of Chad’s gun hitting Marissa in the back of the neck, shattering her spinal cord into pieces. She dies in an instant not having to feel the pain. The other soldiers, including myself, tackle Chad to the ground hoping that would stop him from hurting any more people. Chad is taken into custody and Avery is found a good, caring family to live with on the base.

That is the heroic story of how Marissa saved a little girl and risked her own life to do so. Centuries from now Marissa will be honored by many people for her heroic actions. She has been written in the books as a legend. This is the seven o’clock news and goodnight."

~Natalie C