The North Star

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Constant sound of hundreds footsteps was echoing the white floor forest.

An army of black marched to the deep of forest. The black didn’t aware of the faintest sound of body movement. Their enemy was camouflaged with white winter outfits around their body. Despite -35 C, the white lied on cold forest floor, restricted their movement to avoid any sounds, and their nozzle aimed to the blacks.

The white commander slowly crawled to front line and observed the current situation through the snow dunes.

The blacks decreased their movement as they met dense pine forest.

The white commander lifted his right hand, motioned his army to move forward. But, half of his army stayed on their places. Died because of the low temperature. Their friends crawled forward and collected the tags from dead bodies.

Now, the white commander clenched his fist. Stopped all the movement of his army. A few of the blacks seemed to catch on and alert.

They murmured something in the distance. One ordered a few to check over the snow dunes. It lied litle bit higher than the forest path. Three of the blacks moved towards the snow dunes, put their guns, and finger ready on its trigger.

Conflict placed upon the white commander. He lost half of the army. Now or never, he thought. He motioned the sniper to take out the leader of blacks.

Thud.

One body down.

Thud.

Two bodies down.

Thud.

Three bodies down.

“Open fire!!” the blacks leader shouted.

Sound of gunfire was heard here and there. Iron smell was prominent on the air. The white and black outfits was colored on red.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Machine gun aimed every single person who stood on its way. Tens bodies down. Hundreds bodies down. It lost its count.

They fought tooth and teeth. Their hearts was beating loudly. Their adrenaline rush overwhelmed their sense of humanity. Killed or to be killed. Both black and white almost had the same numbers.

And suddenly, a cold wind passed the battle.

Swished. Swished.

The coldness sinked to every cell of the black and white. The sky began to grumbled. Snow was blowned on their eyes, gave them a blurry view.

A blizzard was coming.

They needed to finish the battle quick or suffered on the blizzard.

The white act fast. Pushing the black to thin glass of wide lake. The black was surrounded by the white. The white circling the black until trapped on the center of the lake.

The black was hopeless. They tried to struggle but none of act was counted. The black leader gazed on every single of his comrades, locked into their eyes, asked some kind of permissions. The black knew their ends.

The white commander acknowlegded the action. He didn’t aware until now all of his army was on thin ice too.

“Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!” The white commander yelled on top of his lung. His army only tilted their heads, confused due to their commander actions. They almost won the battle. Almost.

The white commander rushed to the center of black. He tried run to the center as hard as he could. Moved to the black leader direction. “Retreat!” His action and his word was contradictive. His army jogged slowly to the ground area. Their eyes lingered on their commander madman run. But then and only then, they noticed the bomb strapped to the black leader vest.

The white commander tried to stop the action. It was too late.

The black leader’s pushed the trigger.

Kaboom.

Fire like a giant mushrooms was erupted. It killed everyone on sight.

The disaster was not ended. Cracked. Cracked. The sound of thin ice was breaking. It was breaking so fast. Sinked everyone who’s on it. Dead or alive. Cry of terror was heard, from black and white.

There’s no distinction between the black and the white. Only dead and alive. Everyone who still alive barely hold their breathe. They was dragged to the abyss in the lake. Dark and cold. The coldness froze their brains, veins, and blood. Mutted their effort to seek of help.

Laters on, five was emerged. Five whites. Four men and a woman. They grasped their breathe like a fish out of tank. Crawled to the surface and headed to a cave. They needed to warm their bodies quick. Before the blizzard came.

They were strangers to each others. They sticked their bodies together. Tried to stay alive on incoming blizzard.

Blizzard was came. The blizzard piled up the lake. As if there’s no hundreds of body in it.

After hours, the blizzard passed. Sound of helicopter approaching was heard. The five stayed alert. In haze moment of their brains, they did not know who’s coming on them.

A few person was coming down from the rope started on the heli. The five relieved when they recognized the same insignia.

“Thank God all of you are alive.” The nearest person to the five said.