"FIRE!"

"FIRE!"
a short story by Wolf Larsen

The crowd of protesters, some of them veterans, stood facing the soldiers. The crowd of protesters saw a row of machine guns pointed at them.

One of the protesters yelled out, "I'M A VETERAN! I WAS A SOLDIER, JUST LIKE YOU! ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO SHOOT ME?!"

The soldiers stood facing the crowd. They knew that some of the protesters in the crowd were veterans. The soldiers' fingers were at the trigger all ready to kill.

The commanding officer of the soldiers gave the order: "FIRE!"
Silence. Not one soldier fired his gun.
The commanding officer repeated his order: "FIRE!"
Still more silence. Still not one soldier fired his gun.
The commanding officer yelled: "FIRE! FIRE I SAID! SHOOT THEM! KILL THEM!"

That was when in one spontaneous action the soldiers turned around and aimed their guns at their commanding officer. The officer stared in wide-eyed panic at all the guns pointed at him.

And that's when one of the soldiers yelled out: "FIRE!"
The commanding officer fell to the ground dead.

The crowd cheered with joy. They would survive! They weren't going to get shot down after all!
Then the soldiers started cheering with joy. They just couldn't stomach the idea of killing all those civilians, some of whom were veterans.

Word spread, all throughout the armed forces rank-and-file soldiers and many of the lower officers turned against the generals & the country's rulers.
The country's rulers could no longer control the situation, they can no longer control the country.
The workers and the soldiers together formed workers councils to run the country. Soon the former rulers of the country would be arrested.

Copyright 2012 by Wolf Larsen. Advance permission is given to anyone wishing to publish, distribute, and/or read out loud to an audience this work to do so as long as no alterations are made to the work, and credit is given to the author.

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