The Civil War by Eren Gul

The Civil War
There is nothing civil about war.

War……….war doesn’t change, but men do.

On a tired battlefield an ex-military serviceman who has seen enough bloodshed to last him several lifetimes again finds himself in the middle of a conflict, not knowing quite where it will take him. His extensive skills are no match to the new recruits he is sitting next to on the truck. They are currently being transported to the frontlines of the raging battle between the divided brothers of East and West. Our merc, David, looks around for a second to examine the battleground and execute his orders to perfection like he has done many times before. He only takes a few seconds to do this, but it seems as though it is in slow motion and taking minutes, but he knows very well that spending a second longer than what you need, to do something can result in death.

They arrive at the frontline and dismount. They are greeted by bullets and haze. No wonder why nothing good ever came from war, he hears grown men screaming in pain, and crying for help, but its nothing that he hasn’t come across before. He presses on to a point where he and a fellow soldier are pinned down behind a wall by heavy gunfire. The soldier beside him is young, in his 20’s maybe, 25 at the most, but the main thing that separates these two men from each other isn’t their experience on the battlefield; but their reasons for being there. The young man has lost all his family when opposing soldiers came in the middle of the night to his small village and killed everyone but him; he survived just barely with gun shot wounds to the shoulder and legs. But that night the young man lost everything, his mum, his dad, his younger sisters. The soldiers of the West burnt down his whole village, by the time he came to and was able to walk, there was not a single sign to show that his village once existed, everything was burnt, shattered and broken leaving behind smolders and rubble. The young man collapsed at the sight of just horror and devastation, he felt powerless and so a sense of guilt overwhelmed him, and from that day on, he vowed to himself that until he draws his last breath on this world, he will fight to regain his honor and avenge the deaths of his loved ones.

There next to our merc, sat a changed man, a young man who has nothing left to lose, and so with that in mind the soldier leapt from his seat, lifted his gun and fired away, our merc had never seen such a thing in his life, even under tremendous amount of fire the soldier killed 3 of the opposing militants and was not hurt himself, it was like he was being shielded from all the hurt and pain because he had a personal reason for being there, one that he believed in. The merc stood still in despair, while the soldier ran across the battlefield while under fire to another wall, bullets hitting the floor and raising the dust, despite all that he made it and signaled the merc to follow while he provided covering fire. The merc made it one piece. They both now stood side by side looking at the enemy dead in the face, thinking that they will be victorious, but there are no winners in war, only losers, and war doesn’t determine who is right, but only determines who is left. The young soldier had shown great courage under fire, he turned to out merc and said “wow that was lucky.” To which David replied “there is no such thing as luck on the battlefield, only those who have and show great skill and those who die.”

Now it was time for our merc to lead and show the novice how combat is supposed to be undertaken, he was on point and gave the signal to follow. The two men supported other fighters to run the rest of the scattered enemy infantry out of that area, but it was pure mayhem, and chaos. It was every man for himself, as all the soldiers of the East move on through the area they encountered pockets of resistance, but they have received some casualties. Finally they had achieved what they wanted and drived all the enemy out of the area, big cheers, shouts and songs of joy followed as they all started to relax a little, but this was short lived, because suddenly mortar strikes were inbound, shells were hitting the floor all around them creating clouds of dust, blood and death. They soon realized that the enemy had withdrawn not because they were retreating, but to gain a strategical advantage by getting them into the vulnerable open. Their location had been zeroed; the mortar shells landed with deadly accuracy, everybody ducked and ran for cover. Again more ear deathening explosions and screams of soldiers were being heard by our merc, he and the young soldier were also exposed, and they were headed for some cover when the screeching sound of a mortar shell slicing through the air came closer and closer. And BANG! A mortar round had landed near them; the impact was so bad that the smoke did not go away for a minute. When the smoke lifted there was no sign of either of them, could it be? Has the legendary merc finally been killed on a battlefield he spent most of his life on? But a rugged figure in the distance rose from the floor………it was the young soldier, he stumbled over to the place where the merc lay, his ears ringing from the explosion and his body shaking from the blast that sent him flying. He again found himself on his knees, feeling powerless; the merc had severe injuries to his whole right side, half his face was burnt to an extreme state, his torso ripped apart from the shrapnel, his right arm and leg cut and blood everywhere. His last words were “listen kid……create your own luck on any battlefield, fight for what you believe in.” the soldier was in such a state that he could not reply, he just shook his head in agreement, still while this is going on around them more shells are exploding, and finally the merc says “go!” and the young soldier has no other choice but to leave the merc to his inevitable fate. Amongst all that anarchy, the merc lay feeling cold and in a solitary state. He contemplates if this was all worth it, well…….was it worth it? The whole point of life is to live it for yourself, to teach the next generation right from wrong and to leave behind a legacy, your legacy. He had wasted nearly his entire life fighting, and all for what?

I know the story of that lone merc, because once a great man told me to fight for what I believe in and so I am, I’m putting up a fight in another battle, but this battle is called life.


War……….war doesn’t change, but men do.


By Eren Gul