Mighty In Battle

The first bang goes off around 3 in the morning. Everyone’s quiet conversations come to a halt as we all sit tight, waiting. The second goes off at around 3:10. The silence hangs heavy over us like a weight on our already hunched shoulders. Wide eyes catch the light from the dim lamp that somebody brought, showing me the terror in their mind as easily as I can see the inside of a store by looking through the window. The bangs come every so often moving further into the distance as time goes on. As they do hesitant conversations start up again, stopping every so often whenever a bang is heard. I look around the room, the heavy guns in the corner sending shivers down my spine. To my right is a mother clutching her young baby in bruised arms. My mouth dries, realizing that that child will never have a childhood like mine. It will never feel the soft grass below its feet as it's running into the park to get to the swings first, it will never be able to play games with its friends in the streets or hear the approaching music of the ice cream van as it pleads with its mother to buy some. I look down at my hands, not able to think about it any longer. 

Just 2 days ago, before everything changed, I was going to the mall with Taylor and Beck, complaining that Jacob hadn’t replied to my text. “You’re too good for him,” Taylor had said. I scoffed as Beck put an arm around my shoulder, lightly nudging me into Sephora. I was just being a normal teenage girl, worrying about normal teenage girl things: like guys, my popularity and what I was going to wear to school the next day. Jacob not replying seemed like the end of the world to me back then. Little did I know that I would have bigger things to worry about, bigger than I could ever imagine in my worst nightmares. A bang comes again, snapping me back into the present where I’m huddled with people that I have never met, in a dimly lit, stuffy, make-shift room, carrying my whole life in the backpack beside me. My feet throb from running and walking and then running again. My face collides into my hands as tears start to spill from my eyes. I know Beck didn’t make it but as for Taylor and Jacab, I have no idea. More tears fall. I don’t even know where my parents are, or if they are even still here. I try to stop my mind from going there but it’s too late, I could be an orphan for all I know. Another bang shakes me out of my spiraling thoughts. 

Later that day when I came back from the mall, happily carrying my little black and white striped bag, I would never be able to comprehend what would happen later. I was shaken awake in the middle of the night with my parents' panicked voices ringing in my ears “Matilda we have to go, NOW.” Half-awake and still disoriented from my sleep, I scrambled to put some clothes on and hurriedly packed my belongings into the first backpack I saw. We all rushed out of the house to find a layer of thick smoke concealing the quiet and empty streets. “What’s happening?” I shouted, but I was met with silence, my lungs burning with each the inhalation of the thick smoke. My mother grasped my arm and I jolted forward, blindly following her through the smoke. As we were running, I could feel my mothers grasp loosening, only catching glimpses of her bright auburn hair through the smoke in front of me. 

Suddenly, a bang went off, causing me to lose my balance and fall. My contact with the ground was hard, my right arm sending shooting pains through my body as it met with the concrete below. That was the first bang I ever heard in my life. In the chaos my mother’s grip loosened and I could no longer feel her touch. “MUM, DAD?” I screamed, but my voice was drowned out by another bang, a little further away from me than the last one. I looked around frantically searching for her bright auburn hair, my eyes burning from the smoke around. “MATILDA,” I heard a distant voice shout. Scrambling to my feet, ignoring the pain in my arm the best I could, I stumbled towards the distant voice. However, the smoke that had crept throughout the city made the streets that were once so familiar to me seem like a foreign land. After continuously winding around the maze of streets I could no longer hear the distant calling of my name. Not before long, my breath started to become uneven and my heartbeat quickened. Collapsing onto the floor in the unknown land, I started to panic, my thoughts spinning out of control. I don’t know how long I sat there, thinking the end of the world had come. I still think that but at least it’s easier now. 

Soon enough, someone found me and brought me to this make-shift room, full of people inside. They explained everything to me; that extraterrestrial beings had come into our atmosphere and everyone and everything had gone crazy. That countries had formed different alliances, each group disagreeing on what we should do. I remember my mouth drying as he spoke to me, unable to grasp what he was telling me. I mean I had read about these things in sci-fi novels and seen them in movies but never would I have thought that it could actually become true. “Are they good?” I remember muttering to the man. “Who, the countries? Yes, ma’am I’m asure you that there will be no conflict between th-” he started saying. “The aliens,” I interrupted. His eyes slightly widened before answering that they were extremely harmful and hazardous to our society, and that we should demolish them as soon as we got the chance. His response to my question almost sounded rehearsed, as if someone had told him to say that. Despite being skeptical I stayed in the make-shift room, watching people pile in as time went on, the weapons in the corner increasing with each new person’s arrival. Being sandwiched between sweaty people, with babies crying on and off, I was not happy. 

With each day spent apart from my family, I became even more miserable, yearning for my mother’s bright auburn hair that looked like mighty phoenix’s flames. “You know why we gave you your name, Matilda?” she once asked. I shook my head, giggling, my little feet swinging from the chair, not long enough to reach the ground yet. “Because you love the movie Matilda and you wanted her to be smart,” my dad called from behind the barbeque, pointing the chicken skewer in his hand at her accusingly. She threw her head back laughing, her hair flowing majestically like a river of silk behind her as the gusts of wind gently picked it up and put it back down. “Matilda means mighty in battle. Something that I want you to be,” She touched the tip of my nose softly with her finger “When you grow up to be a big intelligent girl I want you to always look to your name and remember that you are mighty and strong and that you can overcome any problems that come your way,” 

I wipe the tear from my cheek, I really cannot stand this place. If only I could go somewhere and find some peace and quiet for a few hours before I come back again. People have told me what lies near here and I’m sure that by now the smoke has died down. The man told me I should stay here but the chaos outside can’t be any worse than it is in here. And so, I swing my backpack over my shoulder as I quietly creep towards the door. People are too invested in their own problems and worries to care about what is happening around them, so I reach the exit easily. Lifting the flap of the make-shift room, I catch the baby’s wide eyes following my movements carefully. Before stepping outside, I smile at it, receiving a radiant beam of innocence in return. Immediately after I step out, I am met with a breeze of fresh air, my lungs relaxing as I let go of the flap behind me. The fog has not died down as much as I hoped but I do recognize the streets a lot more. Stepping over any debris I encounter, I fall into the rhythm of the familiar path to the park, the one that I have visited so many times, only now with no one by my side. Soon, I’m pushing the recognizable red gate, the metal cold in my hand. I observe the park. It sits unchanged from when I was last here, only now silent with abandonment. The sounds I hear are the rustling leaves on the tree and the slight creaks of the swings from the wind's movements instead of the usual laughter and chatter of excited children. I walk around and sit on one of the swings, falling into the well known motion of swinging back and forth, missing the strong hands that would once push me here as a child here. As I look around, everything is still before me. “What has happened to the world?” I mutter. 

I don’t know what I will do from here. Perhaps I will return to the safety of the make-shift room or I’ll venture out beyond and attempt to find my family and friends. Maybe I’ll come across one of these extraterrestrial beings or aliens along the way and I can see for myself what they are all about. “Mighty in battle,” my mother’s sure voice echoes in my mind. I may not know what I will do from here or what will happen but what I do have is my name, Matilda, sheltering me with protection like a shield in front of me, making me mighty in battle. Just as my mother wanted.