The man with a gun (standard:science fiction, 1386 words)
Author: Roxana Brinceanu	Added: May 27 2003	Views/Reads: 4082/2344	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
For the first time in her life, a young aristocrate faces war. It is a bad thing. But she will have a big surprise when a friendly soldier saves her out of the ruins...

THE MAN WITH A GUN 

They rose the hell last night. The bombs had digged deep craters in the
pavement, the houses in the industrial area - evacuated just in time - 
had been almost completely destroyed, in the morning the main warehouse 
and the offices of the plant had been set on fire and black heavy smoke 
clouds had reached the districts still populated by civilians. 

Elloria the aristocrat descended for the first time in her life in the
refuge, dragged by force by her brother, as she was claustrophobic. So 
she added to the nightmare of war her personal one. In the low room 
with gray concrete walls, with no windows, but a single narrow metal 
door, crowded all the family, the full-time employees of the house and 
some refugees, and Elloria was convinced all the time that she would 
die there suffocated long time before the attack had stopped. 

The siren announcing the end of the bombardment was a saviour sound, and
Elloria managed to move by herself the heavy door and run outside, 
overlooking any precaution. She insatiably took a breath of the dirty 
air, coughing, her eyes shedding tears, her throat smarting, but for 
nothing in the world would she have got down in the underground again. 

After a few moments she realized the size of the desaster. Although the
attack had as main target the industrial area, the residential district 
was also touched. The gardens were covered by dust, the windows of the 
houses had been broken by the blast, and some fronts had been bitten by 
shell splinters. A large piece had been pulled out from the roof of the 
next house and thrown exactly over the roses from their garden. Elloria 
almost cryied of anger. 

Soldiers in purple uniforms had appeared in the street. They were
carrying guns. Elloria wasn't afraid of guns, her father had one too, 
he sometimes shot rabbits on the family's land, and he also taught her 
how to use it, she shot big round targets with coloured circles, or 
empty bottles that sounded crystal when she hit them. Then, when the 
war began, the authorities took it from him. The civilians were not 
allowed to carry guns. 

The purple uniforms didn't pay attention to the civilians, they just
cleaned the streets of obstacles, a military convoy was likely to pass. 


She crept behind the house, from there in the neighbours' garden, then
to the new villas where her friends lived. She felt the smoke 
thickening, there was a car burning somewhere near by, and suddenly it 
exploded in a deafening sound splashing the air with pieces of burning 
metal. The shock wave hit her down. Elloria feared fire almost as much 
as she feared to be closed in a limited place. And around her it was 
raining fire. Overhelmed with horror, she ran like crazy for a 
longtime, and when the tiredness made her stop, she realized she had 
been lost. She didn't recognize the neighbourhood, or maybe the houses, 
much more injured there, had lost their personality. There were no 
civilians, only soldiers in purple uniforms. She hid behind a half 
ruined wall, waiting to catch her breath and hoping for the soldiers to 
leave so she could find the way back home. 

A slight noise made her turn around. A soldier in purple, with a strange
gun in his hand, was looking at her incessantly. The girl screamed, 
stepped backwards, stumbled and fell. The soldier said nothing, just 
kept looking at her. Then he made her a discreet sign. She was afraid, 
but she stood up - without taking her eyes of him - and followed the 
indicated direction. He walked beside her, guiding her with light 
movements, till they reached a street that Elloria could recognize. It 
was very close to her family's villa. 

Behind them they heard a powerfull explosion. A delayed bomb had
destroyed the place where they had been only a few moments ago. 

Elloria's nerves cracked, she fell down and started crying with sobs.
Her brother found her, took her inside and he hardly managed to calm 
her. 

It was bizarre. A stranger, an enemy, had saved her life. How could he
know who she was, where she lived, how could he know exactly the moment 
when a lost bomb would explode? 


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