Hope you enjoy...this whole sucker took me such a long time to write! You may view part 1 here
http://www.writingforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=9402
She pushed open the door and saw her stepmother lying in the corner, sobbing. Her father lay on the floor, unconscious, with a large bruise on his forehead. Amina handed the bread to her mother who in turn rose slowly and divided it, tears dripping from her eyes. From past collections, Amina knew that the best course of action was to head to her small room without saying a word.
Several weeks later, Amina was walking to work with her head down so that she would not trip and hurt her leg again. She had been successful at arriving early to work every day because she was determined never to be late. General Jakol was suspicious of various adults in town, and he ordered Bailo and Juga’s parents to be taken away because they were aiding terrorists. Her two friends had to leave, and Amina never even got to say good-bye. She missed them because the other children were to wary of danger to even step foot outside. Her perusal was interrupted as a yellow piece of paper caught her eye. She picked it up off the ground and looked at it. It had writing that was her written language. She also saw a much different form of writing that she couldn’t recognize.
When she arrived at the outpost, Amina showed Jakol her treasure, and he promptly snatched it from her hand, demanding, “Did you read it?” before tearing it to shreds.
“No, sir. I cannot read! Will you please tell me what it said?”
Jakol spoke nervously, “Get back to your station, you stupid girl!”
Amina ran to the armor shack and received her gun. Then she went to her usual post on the outskirts. For the entirety of her seven-hour shift, she felt ready to explode with curiosity. If something could make the great General Jakol so fearful, Amina felt she must find it. Her shift ended with the usual congratulatory speech, and she headed for home. As she walked out of the outpost, she noticed Jakol staring at her angrily. Amina decided to run as far as she could in fear of the man, and when she felt she was far enough from him, she began hunting for another piece of paper. Unfortunately, an hour of searching yielded no treasure for her, so she returned home to see her parents playing scraps sullenly. As Amina told them of her find, they looked at her confusedly. Apparently, they had not seen any pieces of paper, so they were not very curious about it. They offered her to join their game, and Amina joyously accepted.
Hours melted dusk into the night. The three Tengo’s sat playing the game, and the parents tried their hardest to forget their difficult days and talks of the invaders. Amina’s mother jumped when a knock came at the door, saying, “Nobody is expected today!”
The door opened, revealing the collector who walked toward Amina. Her mother hugged the girl just before the collector threw her aside. He picked Amina up and began to walk out, shoving her father to the floor when he stepped in front of the collector. Soldiers waited outside as he stepped out. They had orders to kill anybody who tried to stop the collector on his mission. Amina’s parents huddled together, shivering in anger and sadness.
The tanks rolled into Kazurk slowly, for the rubble had served to hinder the movement of the division because every single pile needed to be inspected for insurgents. Sergeant Toalit was in charge of forming squads to scout for enemy positions, and Bill King, Tom Bridges, and William O’Toole were the best recon men Toalit could drum up. The battlefield of Kazurk was extremely quiet, and the men grew more anxious and scared when no enemies were found. They knew enemies were hiding and that the locals were not happy with their arrival, for they had found caches of their golden leaflets torn to shreds. Bill climbed to the top of the mound first and saw one of the leaflets skewered on a rusty nail. He picked it up and read it to himself.
“People of Ilan! Throw up your hands and lay down any weapons you own, and we will not harm you. We come to free you from your oppressive government.”
Bill assumed that the scratchy writing above the English was the Ilanian language. Tom and William finished climbing the mound, and the three gave the signal that it was safe to pass. The division continued its mission toward the center of Kazurk.
At night the men laid down wherever they could find rest. Some would be so scared they sobbed and moaned for their mothers. Others slept soundly. Bill and a few others were appointed to take the night shift for guard duty. While on patrol he saw a man in the alley fiddling with something on the ground. He apprehended the tall, black haired Kazurkian and took him to the resident translator and interrogator, Kotha. The two spoke for a few hours, and Kotha told Bill later that this man was a general of Kathgar’s army, and he felt quite certain that he could dredge hatred for the invaders by blowing up houses. “He certainly is a prideful man! He made it a point to tell me he was the only man who could operate bombs in the city! At any rate, it’s a good thing you caught him, Bill. We don’t need the civilians against us any more than they already are.”
Bill felt quite proud of himself as he returned to his duty. The remainder of the shift fluttered away uneventfully until he was relieved to gain some sleep. As he lay in bed, he began to think again of the intelligence they had on Kathgar. The bastard was taking children and putting them in buildings with weapons so that the invaders would not drop bombs on them, and Bill also feared what would happen to the children if their army became too close. It would be a matter of ease to massacre so many people in such close quarters! Kathgar also promised that every single Ilanian would go down with him, fighting or not. Bill had yet to see a single person roaming the streets of Kazurk.
In the morning the march continued, and the division was finally close to the center of town. Another large pile of rubble halted the way, and Bill, Tom, and William were once again assigned to scout for enemies. Bill cleared the mound at a run and tripped over a large piece of concrete. He felt blood trickle from his knee as William ran up the hill shouting, “You alright, Bill?”
Bill could not get up for the pain as William bent down to picked him up. Bill heard a whizzing sound followed by the thud of William’s body hitting the ground, head widely opened from the bullet wound. Bill quickly rolled himself down the mound to the rest of the men, receiving scrapes and cuts along the way from the rough debris. He touched a wet spot on his cheek and realized that it was William’s blood splattered on his face. Amid the pounding gunshots of combat, Bill fell into a stupor, nearly fainting. The other men could not tell if he was injured, so they did not try to move him.
“The bastards got Tom!”
Bill could hear the yells of his friends and the screams of the wounded as clearly as a death knell.
“Joe! You ok?!”
“Kotha! Get down!”
“Don’t worry! He just got my arm, sir!”
“AAAHHH!! My stomach!”
Eventually the firing ceased, and Bill stayed sprawled out on the ground with another man’s blood caked onto his face. The screams of enemy soldiers and their incoherent rambling echoed just as loudly as his friends’ cries of anguish. The fighting stopped, and the enemy retreated from the center of town. He saw Kotha bringing Tom down over his shoulder and laid him on the ground gently. Bill got up to watch as the medic cut open Tom’s shirt, multiplying his yelling at the sight of a large hole in his abdomen as if it were made of tissue punched by a fist. Kotha gripped his arm tightly to stop the flow of blood, and he watched with stony eyes as his friend fell into shock and died within minutes. Bill got up and did his best to help carry the wounded from the mound, limping up and down the rubble.
The men who remained traveled over the mound to survey their taking of the center of Kazurk. The wind rustled scant trash, scattering it about the cracked pavement of the plaza. Bill felt his stomach shudder in fear, for enemies could be hiding in the houses waiting to massacre all of the soldiers. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a person rushing him, and Bill turned to fire. He saw it was a woman with her hands raised, tears pouring from her eyes and babbling madly in her own tongue. Kotha appeared with his arm in a makeshift sling and spoke with the woman. “I can barely understand her, but I think she wants us to help her daughter.” The babbling continued, and Kotha said, “The guards have left the house where the children are being held.”
Word rang joyously through the division that the enemy had truly retreated from Kazurk, and Bill accompanied the woman and Kotha to a disheveled building across the center of town. The mother pounded desperately at the blocked door. Bill moved her aside and smashed it open with all the force his body could muster.
Bill saw the children’s’ eyes squint as fresh beams of light flooded the room except for those who would never open their eyes again. Bill stood in the doorway staring at the children cramped together in the little room with barely enough energy to stand. He heard a slight clopping of wooden shoes, and he turned just in time to catch the little girl as she fainted
Amina woke up in her bed a week later. Her recovery had been a lost memory, but somehow she knew that her sleep had been long. She turned to see a meal sitting beside her bed on the table. A man in green who wore a sling asked her how she felt, and Amina tried to get up. The stranger helped her to rise and handed her a pair of boots, saying, “These will not fit you by a long shot, but they’ll be much better than wooden sandals.”
Amina tried on William’s boots and found that they were indeed much too big; however, they were quite comfortable compared to her makeshift shoes. Soon, she recollected her ordeal in the collector’s prison. She was able to spend time with Bailo and Juga before they were consumed by fatigue and dehydration. Walking outside, Amina tried not to remember her trials.
As the sunlight poured into her tired eyes, she crossed the center of town. Men in green stood next to large boxes handing out packages of food, and Government’s men in black were nowhere to be found. As she walked in the direction of her house, she saw a man with a large hammer smashing the plastered face of Lord Government. She also saw her stepfather walk by the wall and spit at it before catching sight of Amina. He ran to her more excited than Amina had ever seen him. Her heart raced as she ran –albeit clumsily in her new boots- to her loving stepfather. Her heart raced in joy as she hugged the man, and soon her mother appeared to offer hugs and kisses. Mrs. Tengo wept in joy for having both her loves in her arms again, and Mr. Tengo sobbed quietly as Amina asked why Government’s face was being destroyed.
Thanks for reading! Please give me critiques...what can be improved, what is good, bad, etc.
