INDIGO CHILDREN

It was a cold and brutal night, and unlike any other moment this particular night will forever be the most horrific. But I never thought that this event would be the changing tide of the war,... "I see you're wearing your father's locket again. Don't you think it's time to put away that silly little thing, Solomon?" "Zachery, you know how important this locket is to my family and me because of the honor it represents for my family." " But, Solomon, we have heard from the other men that went off to fight six months ago!" "They are probably. Solomon interrupts Zachary before he could get the words out, "Don't even say things like that! They are coming home!" "I'm trying to get you to face reality and the sooner rather than later."

Even though I want to remain optimis tic I knew what Zachary was saying held some truth. I didn't want to say they are gone out loud. My thought was interrupted when we heard a noise in the bushes. I point my assault rifle in the direction of the noise, and Zachary does the same. Zachary signals to others in the group to come closer as back up, but I tell him no with a shake of my head. It is better if they stay with the group while we check it out. As we near the bush to look for the cause, we find there is nothing there. Before I could ask Zachery what's going on, we heard screams coming from the camp. We ran back to the camp as fast as we could. As we were running, I hoped that our small forces could defend our people without casualties. My hopes were quickly dashed when Zachary screamed in pain that he was shot in the leg.

I quickly stop to see how bad the wound is, and the look on Zacharys ' face tells me that this is the least of our problems. I slowly turn to see that we have several men pointing guns at us. We are quickly led back to the camp, and my heart drops at the scene before my eyes. Our captors had all the women and children in one group and our force laying face down on the ground. "What is the meaning of this?" I asked the guys that led us back to the camp. A tall guy with muscles, tattoos on his face, army gear, and spiky hair stepped forward. At this moment, one of the guards kicked me down. Great, now I have to look up this guy as he stands over me smiling. "Who many people do you have in your group, and where are you from?" "I'm not answering any questions until me who you are and what is it you want?" Solomon was buying for time, hoping to find a way out of this situation. "You can just call me Leader and answer my questions, or your people will pay the price!"

Solomon had his family's honor to uphold, so he stood to his full height and leveled the "Leader" with a glare. "I'm not telling you a damn thing!" That earned me a knock in the head by one of his henchmen. This action caused my locket to jump on my neck. The Leader grabbed it, and you could see the gleam in his eyes. "What do we have here? This looks like it could earn me a pretty penny." As I pulled it away from his grasp, he snatched it back, breaking the locket off my neck. As I was about to lunge for it, his henchman kicked my leg, causing me to fall to the ground. Zachary reached out to stop me from getting back up and showed me the flash grenade he was hiding. We gave the eye signals we developed over the years during training. I know this is a risk for all of us, but more so for Zachary because he has a chance of getting caught. We didn't have much choice at this point. Without any more discussion, Zachary threw the flash bomb, and all hell broke out. Gunfire and yelling were what he heard at as back. Solomon had only hope that Zachary got away too, but he could look back because his people counted on him to lead them to safety.

When I turned to see if everybody was heading in the same direction, I saw the "Leader' grab Zachary by his wounded leg. I knew I would never see my best friend alive again. I was rooted to the spot until Zachary gave the nod that I should go. I turned with a heavy heart to lead my people back to safety. The walk through the forest to our small town felt like walking through thick mud. I'd hope that I could get everyone back by morning safely. I keep replaying the look on Zacharys' face, but nothing could prepare me for the state of our town! I could see smoke, busted-out buildings, and dead bodies in the street. I couldn't believe what I saw. I walled the streets in complete shock and confusion on who would do this. When I looked up, I knew Zacharys' body was bloody and hanging from one of the street posts. My knees buckled from under me and all I could do was scream. I felt a hand on my shoulder before I heard my mother's voice, "I'm sorry, Solomon, we heard the commotion and hid." "If we had known they had Zachary, we would have come to help," my sister told me.

I couldn't hear their words over the rage that was building within me. It pushed me to go and get more guns because I had to find this "Leader"! My mom's words finally go through when she was in my face screaming, "Where are you going?" "Why do you have those guns?" I leveled her with a stare and said, "I'm going to get my locket!"