I am awoken by the barking voice of Commander Boyle. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t joined this war so that I wouldn’t have to be awoken by fear of fellow comrades. “Lieutenant Daniel Baines! Get yourself dressed and fall into formation this instant!!” barks the Commander. Another reason why I wish I had stayed. Mother wouldn’t have yelled at my lazy butt this much. But I had to leave; in order to defend that everybody should have their own say, with no limits.
I step out of the greased stained tent and into the solemn gray skies, taking in the smell of smoke from what’s left over from last night’s campfire. I wipe off the filth from my hands onto my trousers. I fall into line next to Private John Hernandez. Private has been my neighbor ever since his family moved into San Diego and from that very day he became my best friend. Though being a few years younger than me, Private reminds me so much of my older brothers nowadays which saddens me. I don’t want to lose him to the other idealists just like how I lost my brothers.
“HEAD TO THE BARRACKS, SUIT UP AND GRAB YOUR WEAPONS!!!” barks the Commander. “MARCH!! MARCH!! LEFT…LEFT…LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT!!” I enter the rustic barracks, put on my over-weighted jacket and gather up my cold steel gun that has the lingering scent of gunpowder from the last battle and march back to formation.
“It is predicted that the BOET Battle shall happen today! You have all been prepared for this battle! Remember, our goal is not to kill, but is to stand for what is right! We will not have the other idealists outdo us!” BOET Battle? I know I have read about these types of battles in the old days in the classroom, but I never really paid attention to the material taught about BOET Battles. Seeing the look on my face, Private whispers softly in my ear that the BOET is where almost all idealist parties come to one location for one massive battle. Ever since the war had started there had been thousands of BOETs. The idea of all idealist parties being there frightens me. If all of the idealists were going to be there, then my brothers would be there. And knowing their aggressive history and their intention to leave home for the other idealists, they would kill me if they have to. They have always intimidated me, but they were family and I loved them.
Our entire unit turns in unison and march at the same beat of what could be all of our death march towards the blood-brown skyline over the city. As the pounding of our feet echoes into the air, I know there’s no turning back. Many deaths will be upon us all, quite possibly my own and it may even be at the hands of my own kin.
I hate battles, even though I joined the army in order to protect those who did not want to be controlled. I look left and right noticing the exact same thing. While we all are built and muscular, we all have the face of a little child who had just had a nightmare. We’re all scared. Every battle that we’ve been in, we’ve been scared. After all, we did not know what was to become of us.
“Halt!” We all stop in a simultaneous step, standing at the exit of the woods. I look outwards to the dead grass and see an ocean of people, each in groups with different colors of uniform. I look down at my plain black uniform that matches my comrades and I realize that all of us idealist armies had one thing in common: we are all willing to die for what we believe in. We all joined a different group and the color of our individual uniforms reflecting that we had a reason to fight. For once in my life I have respect for them.
“Stay here!” the Commander orders as he jogs out towards the covered middle of the field with a briefcase of resources, where all the other commanders seem to be meeting.
We wait minutes for the commanders to end their discussion and it seems like the meeting isn’t going to end soon. Several comrades have already sat down for they too know that the negotiations were going to last forever. I, however, remain standing, gun at the ready.
“Look, in case we don’t make it, I just wanna te-“ Private is cut off when a shot is heard. I look to the center of the field and see three corpses collapse to the ground, one of them being the Commander. A sniper had shot down three commanding officers with one single bullet.
That one echoing bang causes all hell to break loose with some of my comrades scrambling to their feet, barely getting a grasp onto their weapons. Private and I charge together towards the center of the field to grab the resources used for the negotiations. We stop dead in our tracks when we see the deadly weapon drop in front of us. “Grenade!” We quickly turn and run in the other direction. The blast of the grenade knocks us off balance, but we get back up. We continue running towards the center of the field, shooting down those enemies who got in our way. Rainbows of uniforms with bodies inside are collapsing all around us. Navy-blue; marine-green; khaki, red; another khaki. One by one they fall.
As we keep running, a bullet whizzes by, skimming my ear and landing on the chest of Private. I quickly stop, pivot, bellow out Private’s name and sprint towards my friend who is now lying down. I slide to the ground and hold his dying body in my arms.
“John. Hey, John. Stay with me.” The words come stumbling out of my mouth. “Stay with me, buddy. Don’t you dare die on me!”
“Danny, yu… you were th… the closest thing I had t… to a brother,” mumbles Private. “G… go find you… your brothers. I…I’m sure you ca… can reason with them.” And with a final breath, Private dies in my arms.
I close his eyes, gather up my gun, and start sprinting ferociously. I shoot down anyone who stands in my path, not even realizing if I kill some of my fellow men. My fury is just too congested inside of me like a bird banging against the cage to be set free. If I had acted this way at the camp, I’d be scrubbing every single bunker with nothing but a toothbrush. I’m near the center of the field when a man in a sun-dried yellow uniform pops up in front of me. I kick him to the ground and knock him in the head with the butt of my gun. I look up from the unconscious militant, and start to break down. I see not just one, but both of my brothers wrestling with each other. I stand there just staring before I come back to Earth. Regretting it already, I cautiously saunter into the action
“Well, lookie what we have here,” my oldest brother, Adam says as I walk into the central area of the field. “You look all stupid with that gun in your hand.” My other brother, Charlie cuts him off by punching him in the jaw. Adam’s attention is driven away from me and back to his brawl with Charlie.
As I continue to approach my brothers, several other militants enter the center. I shoot each militant down like a robot, one after another for none of them are going to interrupt my fight with my brothers. The fight is only to be between my brothers and me.
It isn’t long before I realize Charlie’s all bloodied up in the face, and being held at gunpoint by Adam. I can’t believe that my brother is going to spill the blood of someone related to him. I have no other choice but to shoot Adam. I point the gun at my oldest brother and shoot him in the hand and he cries out with pain.
Then in a swift movement, Charlie sweeps Adam off his feet. Charlie brother firmly presses his foot down on him to keep him from getting up, and then quickly takes out his own gun and shoots me in both legs to knock me down and keep me from getting back up.
“Little Danny thought he could save the day,” taunts my second eldest brother as he brushes his hair out of his face. His is hair is brunette like mine. He and I look so alike. “You know, I admire your bravery for even coming here to the war and I’m surprised that you shot Adam in order to save me. For once in my life, I receive attention. Now look at this; I have our ‘perfect’, muscular-built brother underneath my boot, finally appearing to be the weak one. Moreover, you, the well-loved, pampered child are stuck with my pistol pointed at you, ready to fire. After all these years I am on top of both of you. I have become the one who will defeat you both and kill you.
Charlie has a comrade dressed in the same red camo as him take his place of holding my brother down.
“I think I’m going to start with you, Daniel because I’m tired of you being everyone’s favorite since you are the ‘baby’ of the family. Don’t take this the wrong way; but I love you, brother. Always have. But that doesn’t mean I’m not sick of you. I need you gone. Goodbye, Danny”
In the distance I think I hear an aircraft. Then bang! A white light flashes and I black out.
…

I wake up to a cold and dark enclosed room. As I am confused about what happened to the BOET, I try to move but my wrists and ankles are caught in stone-cold shackles. I yank my arms to try to pull free, but all I get is the feeling of sharp pain.
“Don’t even bother,” a familiar voice moans. “We’ve already tried breaking free.”
“W-we?” I stutter, still wincing at the pain. I look around the dark-squared room and I’m able to make out three silhouettes. Two on either side of me chained to the sidewalls and one directly in front of me on the parallel side.
“Yes, you nitwit,” states Adam. “Charlie, Mac and me.”
“M-Mac?”
“Yes, Mac. Charlie’s comrade who nearly crushed my ribcage.”
“I would’ve,” says a deep voice, whom I’m assuming is Mac. “If that light didn’t knock us out.”
“Shut it!” Charlie shouts in a hoarse voice. “If y’all haven’t realized, we’re all about to be killed.”
That had crossed my mind, but what I am focused on is my brother’s words that he said right before I was knocked out. I am about to call him out on it when I realize I shouldn’t start another argument. I ponder more on what Charlie had said and realize how torn up my brother is. He received nothing from Mother when Adam and I had received everything. He was stuck in the middle of our attention. I cannot think of any way to make up for it, except apologize.
“Hey, Charlie. Look, I just want to apologize for everything. I am sorry for not making you feel loved. For making you feel like an outcast and separate from the rest of us. I’m sorry for taking away all of the attention. Charlie, I’m sorry for not loving you the way I should’ve.” My voice had started to crack on that last sentence.
“There’s no need for you to apologize. It’s all my faul-“
“It’s not your fault,” I interrupt.
“It is my fault. I was just jealous. I was thinking about what I did not have when I should have been thinking about I did, for example, I was the top of the class. Sorry, I had to brag about that. But anyways, I shouldn’t have said the things I said on the battlefield. You were not babied and spoiled. I should have never threatened to kill the both of you. My emotions and of anger and hatred and the feeling of war just got the best of me. I’m sorry. I love you both very much.”
“Well, since we’re getting all sappy, I’d like to add my own apologies,” states Adam. “I’m sorry for picking on you guys and using you as my targets. I’m sorry for always hurting you guys. It wasn’t until Mac was crushing me when I realized what you two went through. I’m sorry and I love you, brothers.”
I wipe the tears of happiness off my face with my ripped-up clothed shoulder. It is the first time in a very long time where I feel joyous. I have my brothers back again with me.
“Aw, that’s so sweet,” gushes Mac. “I’m sorr-“
“Oh don’t even start Mac,” my eldest brother firmly states.
The metallic door bangs open and in came a light, blinding my eyesight. The dark figure in the doorway emerges and reveals his face.
“C’mon boys!” my former Commander yells. “Time for your execution!”
The Commander comes over to each of us with a set of keys. The shackles break free from my wrist and feel that my skin had imprinted by the cuffs. I look up to the Commander and give him an evil look, shocked that not only he is alive, but that he for Civil Order. He picks me up by placing his firm hand onto my wounded shoulder, causing me to wince and takes my brothers and I outside.
I never really liked Commander, but now I realize why. He never really truly believed in the people having a representation, but believed in civil order. He hated how we did what we wanted at the camp and that he always wanted us in perfect formation. He’s one of those sun-dried-yellow-camo-civil-order-goons.
Commander is walking in front of us with a man who has a bandage wrapped across his head. It’s probably the guy I knocked unconscious right before the overemotional brawl. We walk down the hallway that is filled with nothing but white walls and big bright lights. We stop at the end of the hallway where there is a metallic door. Bandage-Head presses his thumb on the wall and the door creaks open. As we step inside, a gun goes off and we see a woman in khaki falls to the floor.
“That’s what you’re gonna do?” chuckles Mac. “You’re gonna shoot us? You could’ve done that while we were unconscious on the battlefield.”
“Okay,” smirks Commander. “Since you seem like you want to die, you can go first.” Commander and takes Mac and stands him in front of the executioner and steps out of the way. The gun goes off and Mac collapses.
“Next, we’ll have the Lieutenant.” Commander grabs my wrist and pulls me over to the kill spot. I look around to get in my last glimpse of life. This room is very dark and is only illuminated by the spotlight focused on me. My brothers’ faces are full of agony.
As Commander steps out of the way, Charlie exclaims, “Wait!” He jogs over and takes place right next to me. “I’m not letting Danny die before I do.”
“Me neither!” Adam comes over and stands on my other side. All of us are ready to face death. And you know what? I’m glad that I will be dying. Better now that we are a family. Who knows what is to come of the war. I’ll be in a place where I’m happy.
“Alright fine,” humphs Commander. “If that’s what you want Sargent Charles and Lieutenant Adam Baines He walks over and picks up a gun and so does Bandage-Head. The executioner, Commander and Bandage-Head point their guns at us. “ON MY MARK! 3…2…1!”
“I love you guys,” I say. I’m delighted to be here with my brothers.
“FIRE!” My mind goes back to the little arguments with my siblings as children, our soccer games played in our backyards, the fake war games we played as children, the day my brothers left for Strength-Ruled and Intelligent-Ruled idealist parties, my training camp, Private’s death, the quarrel on the battlefield, the reconciliation with my brothers. It all flashes before me. And then a white light. I go off to join Private, my brothers, and Mother.