A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Barricade here we come!
The heavy silence was broken by the sound of horses hooves against the cobblestones, growing louder as the funeral procession approached. Enjolras, Éponine, and the other amis all lined the street. An incredibly large hoard of people had shown up ready to do whatever necessary to free their country from the monarchy. They all stood silently, anxious and uncertain about what was going to unfold. The carriage holding General Lamarque's coffin rounded a corner, officers marched solemnly alongside it and the young revolutionaries prepared themselves to strike. Nervous glances captured Enjolras move into position in the middle of the street, thrusting his flag high in the air and waving it exultantly. The others burst into action, running to overtake the carriage. Marius climbed on top of the stagecoach and Enjolras ran to join him. The crowd surrounded, overwhelming the procession. Éponine followed close to the cart, admiring Enjolras proudly as he held up the banner and trying not to get lost in the shuffle. She was dressed in men's clothing both out of comfort and convenience.
"Halt!" a man's voice shouted from ahead of them. The National Guard faced them, guns drawn and trained on Enjolras. Éponine's heart thudded nervously in her chest as she watched him draw his weapon with conviction. The tension was tangible between the two opposing groups. Both appeared to be waiting for the other to make the first move.
A shot pierced the air and several screams and gasps escaped from the mouths of shocked and frightened people. A middle-aged woman fell backwards into the crowd, clutching her chest where the bullet had entered. "Murderer!" Combeferre yelled at the young nervous guardsman responsible for her death. "She's an innocent woman!"
The guard was hauled out of his hiding place and swiftly executed by the revolutionaries. All at once everyone started to move again, statues coming back to life in an abrupt panic. "To the barricades!" Enjolras hollered over the roar of people. He climbed deftly down from his perch atop General Lamarque's chariot and ran through the crowd, grabbing Éponine's hand as he went and leading her back towards the café. People were already beginning to throw furniture into the street. The pair wove nimbly through a maze of fallen chairs and eager people towards the Musain and behind the barricade, which was quickly coming together. People were grabbing every errant piece of furniture or random object they could find and were throwing it hastily onto the haphazard pile.
"We need all the furniture you can throw down!" Courfeyrac hollered towards the second story windows. A group of men overturned a stagecoach, giving great height to the growing blockade and a piano came crashing out a window, narrowly taking out an urchin boy. The men quickly rushed behind the barrier as they heard the marching of the National Guard approach.
"Stay here," Enjolras murmured to Éponine at the door of the café. He held her face in his hands and pressed a quick kiss to forehead before turning on his heal and scaling to the top of the barricade. This was a rather difficult feat considering it was quite the death trap of unstable and unrecognizable mangles of wood and foreign objects. He balanced the flag atop the chaotic blockade and took hold of a gun, pointing it expertly and the oncoming men. Éponine held her breath as the first gunshots sounded. She swallowed hard and went to help Joly prepare for an onslaught of wounded fighters. He was laying out bandages and medicinal ointments for easy access and handed her a large piece of cloth to rip more makeshift bandages from. She went straight to work tearing it into as neat of strips as she could and placing them in a pile in front of her. Joly was humming nervously as if trying to drown out the sound of his friends fighting just outside their front door. She wasn't the only one having a hard time. Éponine reached out and squeezed his hand comfortingly and he flashed her a grateful grin, but it was cut short by a young man stumbling through the door clutching his arm. Joly sprung into action, leaving her to quietly observe his expertise.
As the sun began to set on the first grueling day at the barricade, she wandered outside the café to search for any men in need of medical attention. Bodies were strewn about on the stone street and she was thankful that she didn't recognize any faces. There were guardsmen and students all over the mound of furniture, bloodied and fighting. Some men were actively engaged in combat, while other hung back slightly reloading guns and handing them to the appropriate people. Enjolras was firing off rounds with great precision in between ducking from stray bullets and fighting off other men with his bare hands. She could see blood on his hands and some smeared gruesomely across his forehead, but she tried not to panic. It was clear from watching him for only a few seconds that he was capable of handling himself in a fight.
Éponine looked over and saw Marius climbing the barricade with a keg of gunpowder in one hand and a lit torch in the other. He seemed completely oblivious to the guard just above him who was about to fire in his direction. "Idiot," Éponine growled. He was about to get himself killed. He just found the love of his life and he was about to leave Cosette forever. She could immediately envision herself in Cosette's position and though she did not love him as she once had, the thought of Marius dying when he had so much to live for caused still her heart to ache. She scrambled towards him yelling his name, but he looked up to late. "No!" she screamed. Éponine grabbed the barrel of the gun in the same instant the trigger was pulled. A searing pain in her side caused her to stagger back and slump to the ground.
She heard Gavroche cry out her name before everything went black.
A/N: Cliffhanger! Review!
