It is daytime, but the sun is blotted out by any number of smoke columns rising towards the sky. Buildings everywhere in an eastern European-like city are either demolished completely or just barely standing. There are puddles of blood just about everywhere there is a body- some of it has caked into the ground. Many of the bodies are bullet-ridden, others are crushed underneath buildings, and some are just lying there from starvation. A young boy- no more than eight or ten years old, around four feet tall and sporting white hair- is rummaging through those bodies for anything he could use. Whether it be food, clothing, or medical supplies, he needed it, and he needed it badly. He comes across a body with an assault rifle strewn across it, an AKM to be exact. He picks it up and examines it. He hears some more of the men who were here earlier and hides. The soldiers pull close to the boy's location and also start ransacking the dead, but in a more disrespectful manner. One of the armed men says something to the other in a Bulgarian dialect. The other responds and they all fan out, arming themselves with their own assault rifles. The young boy recognizes one of the men, one with a red snake tattoo, as the man who killed his family only two nights ago. He is about to pull the trigger, ready to kill the man in cold blood, when all of a sudden, gunfire erupts from the other side of the men. A man, tall and blonde-ish haired- equipped with a heavily-modified AKM rifle kills all the other men, and spots the boy. He starts to speak to the boy in English. The boy just stands there, both astonished at what the man did for him, and confused, because he cannot understand his speech. The man tries again, but this time, in Bulgarian.
"I'm sorry, young man, but did you want to kill one of these men yourself?"
The boy just nods.
"Which one?"
He points at the one who has the tattoo.
"Ah, I see. Revenge?"
The boy once again nods.
"Don't let it get to you, young lad. Where are your parents? I want to take you home to them."
The boy just drops his head. "I don't have any. They were killed a few nights ago by that man there"
"Don't let revenge cloud your judgement, boy. What's your name?"
"My parents called me Gavril."
"Well, Gavril, you can call me father now. But most others call me Solidus."
To be continued...
