Intuitions of War- chapter 3

Intuitions of war

Chapter 3: Rude awakening

Some time after the beginning of the French raid on Newgate...

"Ugh…" Harper was beginning to stir, his body willing him to wake up. He was currently lying on the floor of what seemed to be a cage. Harper tried standing, but his body was still heavily weak when it came to doing anything.

'Why am I still alive, or is hell simply a cage?' Harper was confused at the turn of events. The last thing he remembered was being found out by a French soldier when he was trying to play dead, and that's about it.

'Wait… yeah, that's right, the one who seemed to be above the rest muttered some French, and then I got knocked out by some crazy blow to my head…' Harper was beginning to remember the events of the restaurant, but even now, everything was still confusing.

"Then, why am I still alive?" Harper kept thinking about why the French would want someone like him alive. He was just a homeless kid who slept at the docks with the others.

'Perhaps my parents were the king and queen or something? Hell if I know…' Harper tried teasing himself, but realized how stupid it sounded. He threw the thought away, and began thinking seriously.

'There's no way I can get out of this cage right now, I don't see anybody around.' Harper looked around, and realized that he was in the middle of the street. It seemed to be night-time, and the lights were on inside the buildings on either side of the street.

'What is going on right now…?' Harper couldn't quite comprehend the situation, so he simply lied down at the realization that he had no choice when it came to what would happen next. He began to try to fall asleep again, but a man busted out of one of the buildings that had light in it, and Harper was given hope.

However, as soon as he saw what the man was wearing, he lost all hope.

'A damned french soldier… wait a minute.' Harper began to comprehend the situation, why all the lights were on, why it was night time, why he was in a cage, everything.

'The french have taken over Newgate, and are now camping it out in the houses? No, that's only one of two possibilities. The british army might have been dispatched here, and they are currently in the middle of a battle?' Harper looked around, trying to see any sign of the latter possibility. However, he didn't see british soldiers on rooftops, or anything.

'Now that I think about it, why would a French soldier just burst out of the door if there were British soldiers who would shoot him on the spot if he did… it's obvious that the French soldiers have taken over.' Harper now fully understood the situation, and just sighed.

"I'm screwed aren't I?" Harper began to give up on hope, realizing the reality of the situation. He couldn't do anything, he was stuck in a cage, he was still weak from before, and there didn't seem to be any british soldiers coming to save him.

'Actually… that can't be the case, not right now at least. The British surely wouldn't just give up Newgate, one of the cities with a port? That would make them lose an access point, and give the French a location to stock up on supplies and dock their boats!' Harper still couldn't fully understand the situation at that point in time, or why anything was happening. He just began to fall asleep.

However, the French soldier who barged out took a look at Harper and noticed that he was awake, and wasn't planning on letting that happen.

"Il est réveillé!"

The French soldier began to yell some stuff, and two others barged out of the same door that he came from. They also sneaked a peak at Harper, and seemed to realize that he was awake. They both immediately caught up to the first French soldier, and together, they began to scream some random stuff at Harper.

"Vous êtes juste une écume britannique!"

"Tu mérites de mourir terriblement!"

Harper, being the uneducated child that he was, had no idea what they were saying, but it was pretty obvious that some insults were currently being thrown at him.

'Either that, or they're trying to interrogate me for something I probably don't know…'

"Commençons par l'exemple."

The one who came out first said, and the two others ran into different houses to try and wake up more soldiers. After what seemed like a minute to Harper according to his knowledge, many more French soldiers began to burst out of the doors of the buildings.

"Shit…"

Harper didn't know what was going on, but he was pretty sure he could assume absolutely nothing good was happening.

Three soldiers went on any side of the cage, and everyone worked together to lift it. After struggling for a bit, they finally lifted it altogether. Harper, who didn't know what was happening besides him being lifted, was beginning to give in to his anxiety.

'Crap, what the hell is going on?!' He couldn't comprehend the situation in the least bit, but he knew that nothing good was at the end of it.

'I have to ge-'

"Excuse me, you speak english, yes?"

One of the French soldiers caught Harper's attention, solely for the fact that he spoke english.

"Tell me what's going on!" Harper was absorbing fear and anxiety into him, leading to an ugly looking face that was terrified of what was to come.

"You are to be used as an example, we will hang you on a stage we just constructed, to motivate the rest of the French soldiers." The French soldier was merciless as this sentence left his mouth, disgust all over his face when he looked at Harper.

"No… this can't be…" Meanwhile, Harper finally acknowledged the situation for what it was, and all his hope dropped down into the pits of hell.

'Now that I think about it, I don't see anyone else being used as an example. That must mean they're all dead…' It struck him like a thunderbolt, the fact that he didn't see anybody else besides him who didn't seem to be with the French.

"Everyone at the docks.." He muttered, anxiety blossoming once again. Though he was usually a slouch and lazy around them, that didn't mean he didn't care. He grew up with all of them there, and whether or not he liked it, they were essentially a family for him.

'No, no that can't be it. There's no way they're all dead. At least one person must have escaped, surely.' However, Harper, the one who always took things the realistic way, gave in to to the hope within him, the hope that at least one person at the docks had survived.

At the very least, one was all he needed.

---sequence 2---

It had been like this for a long time. Harper lying on the cage, the soldiers lifting him, and many more surrounding him. It was still night, and they were walking down the stoney roads of Newgate.

After a bit, Harper began to hear a sound. No, instead of just a random sound, it was more of a cheer. Harper took in the sound more and more as it grew closer, and he finally realized what the sound was.

'It's the rest of the French, waiting at our destination!' Harper was closing in on his destination, the area of his hanging. He knew that those cheers were the French awaiting them at the area, ready to witness him hanging.

He looked up, and noticed a plane floating above him.

'They even brought in blimps, we must've already lost Newgate to the French…' Harper acknowledged the presence of the plane and the significance of it. It represented that the French had definitely conquered newgate, if they were secure enough to bring in a blimp.

'Wait… why is the British flag on that blimp?!' Harper continued to observe the blimp, and saw the British flag on the side of it. His jaw went slack, surprised at the turn of events.

"No no no no no.... this can't be real! What do I do?!" Harper began screaming like a lunatic, but it wasn't without a reason. In most cases, if the British brought in a plane, it was usually to drop bombs on the battlefield.

'They're planning on bombing Newgate to rid it of the French!' Harper didn't know what to do, what to say, or how to just function anymore. He didn't want to be bombed by a British plane, as he was British himself.

'I know they sacrifice their own people to win things, that's how war works, but even a kid like me!?' Harper began to think, but immediately retracted the thought. First of all, how would the British even know he was here? They were likely to just randomly be bombing, on the assumption that all the innocent British people were dead.

However, he didn't quite have the time to think, as he saw the bombs begin to drop already.