The Moment That Changed Me

"What is this smell?" Was the first thing I thought to myself when I regained consciousness. As if it was all a dream. I had no idea where I was for the first few seconds. After that, it all set in, and my heart sank. 

I pushed off the four or five corpses that were lying on top of me. And I sat up, there was an excruciating pain in my leg. I remembered everything that had happened. 

It was silent. I couldn't hear anybody. No footsteps. Nobody was working, not even the wind. I ripped a leg off a chair to use a stint for my injuries and ripped my shirt to create a makeshift cast. It hurt, but I was able to still walk somehow. 

The light of the new day was settling upon my village. I didn't know if I was asleep for hours or days. But the time was quickly put into perspective when I walked out to see if I could find any survivors. As I stepped outside, across the road, a soldier was walking out of the house, buckling his pants, and wondering where everybody went. We locked our eyes. 

There was a moment's pause that felt like forever. At that moment I didn't know what to do. Do I just let him kill me? Do I try to find someone? No, there wasn't enough time for that. Plus, there wasn't any evidence of any survivors from what I could tell. So, I did the only thing I thought I could do. I looked down at the ground, and found a spear, and picked it up. It was probably two times the length of my own body, and heavy. The man was already charging at me, with the obvious intention to kill me. "What did I do to deserve this? What did any of us do? Why are they killing us? We never venture past our borders and keep to ourselves. It's not fair!" I thought as I stuck the spear way out in front of me. 

I didn't know where to aim. I've never had to defend myself in this manner before. I've never been in a life-or-death situation, where it's either his life or mine. All I knew was that you can't live if you can't breathe. So, I hit him in the neck. The spear went all the way through. He dropped his club, and it flew in my direction, hitting me in the face, and piercing my right eye, with one of the sharp spikes that were sticking out of the side. The man quickly dropped to his knees. He tried to tell me something. But his voice sounded gurgled, and unrefined with a spear sticking through his neck. All I could make out was "Gideon". 

I was in a rage. Half angry at myself for hurting someone. I yelled "Who's Gideon?! Is he responsible for what you people have done to our village?!" 

He responded, in his wet-sounding voice, and said "Yes." 

"Gideon." I burned into my memory, as the gleam of life faded from this strange man's eyes. 

Upon his final breath. I dropped to my knees as well. I let out a powerful scream, with all the emotions that were marinating in my soul. 

"It's not fair! It's not fair! Mom! Dad! Ash! They're a memory I'll make sure you never forget! Gideon!" 

I could never even hurt a fly. But suddenly, the happy-go-lucky kid that I was yesterday seemed to die. And this new version of myself was born. One born out of hatred. I've never hated anything before. But as my father once said, when there's love, there will always be hatred found as well. I loved my family. I loved my friends and fellow villagers. And all that love was turned into hatred for the man that took them away from me. 

At that same moment, I looked around and saw something I'd never seen before. Orbs of the whitest light imaginable were floating out of every household that was once my village. I wondered what it was. But my mind was too confused and shocked to understand. Suddenly, the white orbs of light came in my direction. I was scared so I tried to run away. Hopping on one leg, I wasn't very fast. And the orbs of light caught up to me and went straight into my chest. I felt this overflowing energy. My wounds were still present, but the pain from my eye, and my leg were almost completely gone. 

I felt a danger approaching. So, I left the village. I didn't have time to grab anything. I just walked into the mountain, trying to get to a point where I could see where I should go next, and maybe ask for help. If there was ever any help to be found. I kept thinking repeatedly; this moment would change me forever.