The
Gun of the Saint
By:
Gustavo
Simmons
In
the country of Liberatus, there was an ongoing civil war between the East and
West, the feelings of separation between the country were every day striking
the fragile stability within the republic. Some people were arguing that the
federalist ideology was the reason on why the country was crumbling into
pieces, others where mentioning that it was on an administrative division on
why the civil war started.
A
hidden reality between the problematics in the country, is that there was a
chase for some ancient artifacts that could give the people who found them a
series of skills that could be used to subjugate large groups of population
with extreme ease.
The
objects were known as the Storm Arcana, 22 in total, each of them had different
effects on the users, the myths said the powers that granted were individual
but it was the last object, the 22nd in number that could move
mountains without the necessity of having faith.
Part
of the myth came that within an area shaped as a hexagon, the body of the first
user of the Arcana, a man who used to go by the moniker of Barry exhibited
great abilities and it was the last object that was buried with his tomb. Those
where the fragments of the legend that made President MacLeod to pursue the
artifacts and try to end the civil war that divided the nation beyond the two
fragments; as there was a third division within the Central region of Liberatus
in which it was a point of neutrality in which every now and then some combats
occurred.
That
last artifact was known as the Gun of the Saint; it was the treasure the
Hunters wanted the most, but also it was the most problematic to obtain, not
because of the location but rather it required five of the other artifacts and
they were spread also everywhere and much of them weren’t even sure if they
really existed.
Donaldson
was 21 years old, he was the oldest of 10 children and one of the three that
helped his parents with their cattle ranch that was in the middle of West
Miames, essentially the lived in a zone where there was no conflict but on
occasions several bursts of violence appeared and they were on several
occasions to lose the little that they had.
It
was December 21st of 1885, Newton County was in rubbles, Donaldson
was running as quickly as he could as the Liberation Fronts were creating chaos
around the province, he didn’t know if anyone of his household was dead or
alive, he was just worried to find a shelter and try not to be killed.
The
attack happened out of nowhere, he was one moment on the town grocery store
buying a few items for dinner and suddenly a squad of M.4 Sherman’s came out of
nowhere and started aiming at everyone; within a few hours the county was
destroyed and the chances of survivors seemed to be one to none.
Donaldson
found himself in the Kankakee State Park, he was hiding from the Liberation
Army, from what he heard they went to exterminate and conquer Newton County as
it was a part of their expansion to finally take over the Federalist government.
The
soldiers where on his tail, he didn’t know what to do except for hiding. The
park was being surrounded by the armed forces of the counter revolution, he was
running out of breath, and he didn’t know where to go or hide so at the he
surrendered, even if he didn’t commit any crimes.
“What
I had done?” He said.
“Existing,
we were ordered to exterminate everyone in this county” The nameless soldier
replied.
“Why?”
“None
of your business” the soldier aimed his musket but the bullet didn’t hit Donaldson
as time froze before his eyes. A wheel was standing in front of him, there were
markings in front of the wheel that mentioned life and death, and some others
that he couldn’t decipher.
He
was enchanted and grateful for that moment, he got saved for some reason and he
couldn’t have understood why?
“My
child you always been lucky” a disembodied voice appeared from nowhere. “please
take this treasure that we give to you” Donaldson touched the wheel, he
realized he was in control of other people’s faith but he was wondering if
there were going to be some backlash against him”
He
touched the wheel and suddenly time regained its flow; he forgot the bullet
that was aimed at him and he only heard the noise of it impacting the ground.
After that he heard screams “He got one of the treasures”, he knew his life was
going to change.
