I feel like a traitor.
There had been a military tribunal, and the officer acting as judge declared guilty. Death by firing squad.
I take a deep breath while the soldiers line up. What a way to die. Every soldier was given a gun with a bullet, some blank while others are deadly. But someone has the gun which will kill.
“Aim!” an officer shouts.
I struggle to keep my eyes open.
“Fire!”
I pull my trigger, and the man drops.
Was it my gun that held the bullet that killed him?
Did the judge know he’d condemned me?
***
This was written for the March 4th Carrot Ranch prompt, “Fire.”
As a brief update, I am finally returned from my sojourn to Orlando and the ACS conference – maybe I’ll be more available again!
- Photo by Ivandrei Pretorius on Pexels.com
Let Me Tell You the Story of... 
Brilliant take, HRR. And glad to have you back.
Good to be back!
Excellent…
Thank you!
That was really good. I love stories where it makes us contemplate the true horror of Human nature and our own actions and thoughts. Psychologically disturbing. I love it.
Thank you! I wanted to have a story where it flipped who the victim was, but it still feels unfortunate for the sucker that died!
I think you captured that perfectly! Amazing piece. I will have to check out more of your work 🙂
Thanks!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Yep, that works well. 🙂
Thank you!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we’ve all got sweet little flash pieces… 😀
Back at the ranch – haha, your comment made me chuckle!
Nice use of the word fire. I hadn’t thought about it in that context. I like how you thought the narrator was the condemned but turned out to be one of the shooters. Nice.
Oops used “nice” twice there. I really wish we could edit our comments sometimes.
You can if they’re on your own page!
Yay! I had hoped to get that bait and switch to work, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded!
Welcome back! Hope it was a good conference! I love the twist in perspective. You open it with enough ambiguity that it seems like the narrator is the one found guilty, yet when we realize the speaker is part of the firing squad, we understand the feeling of condemnation. Great writing!
The ambiguity was exactly what I wanted – I’m so glad it came through.
I’m not the best at conferences, but it definitely didn’t fail as badly as it could! I think it went well enough!