The Gun of the Saint Short Story

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 22^nd 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 21^st 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.