July 9

6:52 a.m.

Fifteen miles east of Sauropolis

The full rays of sunlight peaked over the mountaintops that protected us. I dusted the…well, the dust, obviously. As the light of day made itself manifest upon our country, I saw…burned buildings, debris all over the roads, and…enough bodies.

We had just finished clearing the last UN base. We had just loaded up the last group of captives. "Shall we take them to the Court Prison, sir?"

I nodded. "Yes, please do so. We'll do the interrogations later." The prison truck left me alone on the field. The late summer breeze started to flow through my hair. I'd been sitting near that rock for about three hours. We'd recovered all of our ground and managed to capture to majority. The rest we had to execute because of circumstances.

I waited there for about a half hour more. I just needed some time to myself. So much had happened in the past few hours. Now that we had achieved victory, it was time to bring our enemies to justice.

(SEVERAL HOURS LATER. AMARKIAN ROYAL HIGH COURT)

3:45 p.m.

It was the longest time I'd ever spent in a courtroom. Only this time, I was the defendant. The top leaders of the UN army were standing for their very lives. We'd gone through almost fifty witnesses, both military and civilian.

The trial had started at 8 in the morning and was being broadcast live all over the world. But now, I felt a sense of peace and serenity. And now, after both sides had presented their arguments, we were all getting ourselves seated.

The court justices stepped to their seats and also sat down. "Quiet! Quiet, please!" the Chief Justice said. When all the chattering had stopped, he stood up, holding some papers in his hand. All eyes and camera lens were trained on him. I couldn't imagine the pressure he was feeling.

I'm glad I'm not old enough to be a lawyer.

Or a judge.

Anyways, he said, "The Council of Amarkian High Court Justices, along with the help of the Royal Amarkian Council of Elders, the King, and the good people of Amarkia have come to this verdict. Therefore, we declare all defendants, that is all of the most important leaders of the United Nations Peacekeeping Troops to be…guilty!"

Oh, ho, ho! You should've seen their faces. It was the greatest feeling in the world. Call me mean if you want to, but in this case, they deserved whatever was coming to them. "The charges are…kidnapping, illegal possessions, murder, rape, theft of government properties, human rights violations, corruption, destruction of the environment, arson, and unlawful natural resource extraction and conspiracy and attempted coup d'état."

The cameras started flashing and the murmuring began.

"The punishment for all present defendants will be death by lethal injection and/or shooting this evening. All remaining UN captives will be shipped to Amarkia's penal islands 150 miles west of Costa Rica, where they will undergo forced labor for life. Court's adjourned."

We all stood up. I turned to Larry who was at my left side and Patty who was on the right. I looked behind me. Robert was standing in the way back, still in his uniform. Lilia and her friends and her parents were in the middle row.

She looked very cute by the way.

Can you believe it? She thought I'd been killed! But when she received an anonymous message to meet someone at the front of the courthouse and saw me…well, let's just say she had a reaction. She was wearing a black spaghetti-strip dress that went down to her knees. She'd even put some make-up on.

Outside, there were thousands of reporters, their cameras flashing. They were waiting for me to say something. I'd arranged to have a makeshift press conference on the court's stair steps.

I stepped in front of the microphone and waited for everyone to quiet down. "Ladies and gentlemen, these past two weeks we have gone through dramatic changes. We've lost many of our material possessions. Some of us were separated from our loved ones, only to see them today. Sadly, others will not see them alive again. We are not sure now, but we estimate that there are significant casualties. We have 8,500 injured soldiers and 10,350 dead. As for civilians, 13,500 are suffering injuries of various sorts from gunshot wounds to rape; there are up to now, anyways, 20,300 dead civilians. Damage is estimated to be around $52 million. Twelve percent of the natural environment is under Severe Damage, 5% is under Extreme Damage, and 18% of Amarkian farmland is no longer arable. These numbers are likely to rise.

"We have all learned valuable lessons from all this. These are the consequences of not being able to live with differences in our moral standards; of trying to force our morals on others. This began as an issue of LGBT rights and pro-abortion rights. But now, none of that matters. We cannot allow any government or organization to force our beliefs. Here in Amarkia, for the past tens of millions of years, and especially since the rise of civilized humans, we have strived to live a high code of conduct. We are not telling everyone what to do. We've grown up with those morals. And so far, nobody has died because of that. But in these past few days, thousands lost their lives because others tried to force their morals on us.

"We do not seek revenge nor hold resentment. However, these actions are severe and will have to face severe consequences. Therefore, the punishments are adequate, just, and fair. We do hope that both we and the world learn something from this tragedy. Maybe that way, it won't happen to the next generation. We will continue our process of physical reconstruction and emotional and mental recovery. And we hope that we may continue to reside with our neighbor countries and their peoples in peace and unity and learn to support on another. Thank you."

(A FEW HOURS LATER)

7:25 p.m.

I'd thought of talking a shower, but instead I got into the Jacuzzi and stayed there for two hours. Every single inch of my body was hurting. I guess that when all the excitement wore down, the adrenaline wore out and the pain returned.

But those hot, healing waters really helped. Felt like a good massage therapy. When I got out, I got dressed up and combed my hair and sprayed on my best cologne. I grabbed my keys and put on my new shoes.

I stepped into the hallway. The painters, carpenters, plumbers, and other repairmen were there since the morning. The Palace had been ransacked, but we managed to recover our valuables. But they'd also damaged it physically, and that wouldn't just return by itself.

Our country had been severely wounded. It wasn't going to heal overnight. And Kathy and Greeny had been very injured and the doctor said they'd be in the hospital for a while.

So, I needed time to get away from it all.

After all, we had a tremendous task before us. Anyways, I went down the stairs and stepped outside. The late evening breeze crossed over the beleaguered landscape. I crossed the street, now filled with holes and burn marks.

I went up to Lilia's house and rang her doorbell. The door opened and…huh. It wasn't her. It was Amanda. "Amanda?"

"Spiny?" she smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing. Lilia invited us to a slumber party."

"Really? Good to know."

"Why?"

"So I can remember to bring my binoculars when I climb her window and spy on you girls."

"Oh, Spiny!" she said, rolling her eyes.

I laughed. "Oh, just kidding. Where is she? Do you know?"

"Why? Have you got a…romantic rendezvous planed for the evening?" she raised her eyebrow.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Maybe, maybe not. Why the question? All I asked was where she was."

She giggled. "Oh, nothing. She's in the wheat fields by Twin Peaks."

I nodded. "Thank you. Have a fun time at your slumber party." I turned around and started to walk away. "Hey, Spiny," Amanda called out. I turned around. She smiled and winked at me. "Have fun."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Yeah, whatever. Besides, if you want to know what happens, she can always tell you, right?"

She nodded. "Most likely. Bye-yee!"

Girls.

Anyways, a few minutes later, I arrived at our rendezvous point. It was mostly wheat fields with the occasional tree. I looked around and didn't see her at first. Then…I saw her. She was sitting in the middle of the field. The rays of golden sun reflected the gold fields and made her light brown hair stand out. She was looking at the ground and was sitting on her legs.

She was wearing a white semi-transparent night gown that stopped at her thighs. "Hey," I said, completely astounded from her beauty and innocence. She looked up at me. The mere sight of her face with with a plain expression was heavenly. Now imagine her smiling and her eyes shining. Sigh.

"Hey," she said.

I sat down next to her. I put my arm around her and kissed her cheek. "How are you?"

She blushed and smiled. "Fine. How are you?"

"Happy, finally. After these two weeks, I'm finally with you. Happy that we're together again and that we're both alive and here alone just the two of us."

She laughed. "Me too." She rested her head on my shoulder and relaxed herself. I put both my arms around her and held her as close as I possibly could. I could smell the sweet scent of her shampoo and her perfume. "How's Kathy and Greeny doing?"

"They're probably going to be in the hospital for a few weeks. Both have several fractures and Greeny might need surgery."

She sighed. "The good thing is that they're alive. They'll make it out just fine."

"That's what I love about you. You always make me look on the bright side." I moved my hand from her hip up to the end of her hair and started playing my finger with it.

She giggled. "I love it when you do that."

I laid back on the ground looking up at the cerulean blue sky. Lilia got beside me and wrapped her arms around me. I turned to look at her. I closed my eyes and leaned to kiss her soft lips of honey.

When we broke the kiss she sighed and said, "You know? This makes me remember when we out there by Our Place and we fell asleep in the evening, then you took me to my house and I didn't wake up until it was like, two in the morning."

She caressed my cheek. "I have a confession to make about that, princess."

"What is it, my love?"

"I didn't carry you right after you asleep that afternoon."

"What?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I, uh…I stayed there and fell asleep beside you. I was the one who woke up at two in the morning. Then I took you home."

She stared at me for a while. Then she laughed. I guessed she wasn't mad so I laughed along with her. "You're…you're not mad?"

"How could I ever be mad at you? I know you would never take advantage of me. I trust you! I know that you would protect me from anything that would harm me."

I smiled. "Yeah. I guess so."

That night, we fell asleep again under the stars. Like I said before, we had a great task before us. Only time would tell if all our efforts would be worth it.

I sure hope so.