A/N: Hello everyone, I came up with this idea during my writing class, so instead of writing my essay for AP Lit I am doing this. Enjoy, please, my grade is going to crash.

Samuel was the perfect Octoling. He was capable, loathsome, and obedient. Whatever he was told to do, he would get it done. During army drills, he would consistently perform nearly perfectly average. He had no characteristics that would make him unique compared to the other Octolings in his battalion. They too, were obedient to their commanders.

Samuel was also a nervous Octoling. Less than a month ago, a group of elite Octolings stole the Great Zapfish from the wretched Inklings, who had been abusing the poor animal for their own gain. Ever since then, Octo Valley has become an area of prosperity. Residents were able to use electricity more than they ever had before. But among the prosperity, many Octolings were worried that the Inklings would go to war to take back the Zapfish. Samuel was one of these Octolings. Since he was a mere infantryman, he knew that as soon as the shooting started, he would be sent to the meat grinder known as the front lines.

To relieve the Octarian people of their stress, DJ Octavio sent battalions of troops to occupy several barely used domes- as traps for any Inkling that may be brave enough to try and retrieve the Zapfish. Samuel was one of the lucky few who had been sent to guard the city proper- he was the last line of defense for Octarian civilization.

These new defenses did nothing to relieve the worry among the people. In his eavesdropping, Samuel had heard people tell stories of spies who had been sent up to the surface to investigate, but were never to return. Others said the Inklings had superweapons that would level Octo Valley, and that the elites had been foolish to take the zapfish from the Inklings.

Samuel tried his hardest to dispel the memories of those conversations from his head, but to no avail. A feeling of dread still lingered in his head. He feared that any minute, the inklings would appear across the horizon of Octo Valley and gun down any inhabitant they saw.

This morning, however, Samuel felt better. He had been reassigned to Octavio's Fortress, a large castle with tons of defenses. His nerves had been relaxed, and his fear vanished.

His relaxation was interrupted by his commander. "PRIVATE SAMUEL!" Samuel scrambled to attention. "Your turn to do the twelve hour check-ins with stationed troops! Go! Go!"

"Sir, yes sir!" Samuel yelled as he turned and ran up the stairs to his left. Taking two steps at a time, he scampered into the radio room and sat down in front of the communicator. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the microphone and began radioing each set of troops, like he had been trained.

"HQ to Area-1-1, are you there?" He asked into the radio. There was no response.

'That's weird,' Samuel thought. 'Why aren't they responding?' After making sure he was on the correct wavelength, he tried again. "HQ to Area-1-1, is everything alright?" Again, no response.

With a sigh, he switched settings to a different station. "HQ to Area-1-2, are you there?" Silence from the radio again. Panicking, he flipped through the stations, trying to find any troops that would respond.

"HQ to Area-1-3, are you there?"

"HQ to Area-2-2, is everything okay up there?"

"HQ to Area-2-5, please respond."

"HQ to Area-4-2, please tell me you're there."

"HQ to Area-5-5, are! You! There!"

On the last communication, he heard commotion over the radio. Although the sound quality was not perfect, he could still hear the sounds of gunfire and screams. Frantic footsteps surrounded the radio as more gunfire and explosions could be heard. A voice came over the radio into Samuel's headset. "THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HE-" The voice was cut off by gunfire.

Samuel dropped the headset and ran down the stairs. "COMMANDER! COMMANDER!" He yelled. "COMMANDER!"

As he ran down the stairs, he looked out the window in the stairwell. The streets of Octo Valley were still bustling with excitement. Samuel doubled his pace down the stairs.

His commander appeared at the bottom of the stairwell. "Who was yelling for me!?" He turned to face Samuel. "Private Samuel! Were you yelling for me!?"

"Sir, yes sir! The Inklings have overrun all of our troops!" He said frantically. "They're coming for the city!"

The commander's eyes widened. He grabbed a radio out of his pocket and began communicating via codes to other commanders. "Samuel!" He said. "Go outside and warn the others! Go! Go!"

Samuel saluted and ran down another flight of stairs and out the front doors. A battalion of soldiers on guard took a brief look at him before turning back to their posts.

"The Inklings are coming! They're coming!" He announced. The battalion murmured amongst themselves before a loud BOOM was heard.

In the distance, a massive group of weapon-wielding inklings broke through a barrier of the city. They were moving as a group, firing at anything that moved. Samuel, using a pair of issued binoculars, watched as they broke into homes, throwing the families that lived inside out of their own homes. He watched them come closer and closer as more and more buildings were overrun by the horde of linklings.

He watched as an elderly Octoling man stood up from the bench he was sitting on in an attempt to get inside a nearby building. As he shuffled to the door, an inkling stepped out of the horde and fired at the man, killing him on the sidewalk. The inkling then kicked open the door to the building and began firing again.

In a moment of panic, Samuel dropped his binoculars, turned around and ran around the barriers of Octavio's Fortress. When he reached the edge of the forest behind the fort, he turned around and saw the Inklings making a rapid approach to Octavio's Fortress. He ran into the forest, dodging trees as he ran as far as he could.

The sounds of gunfire could still be heard as he ran deeper into the woods. He could see smoke rising from the city as more screams were heard.

Samuel ran for several more hours. His legs were aching, but the fear of being killed drove him to run as far as he could. As night began to fall, he found a ditch in the ground surrounded by several trees. He slid into the ditch and sat down in the dirt. He stared into the sky, forcing back tears as he thought about the destruction occurring in the city. As a soldier, he knew that he should have stayed back; his role as a soldier was to die for Octo Valley, and he had failed.

Samuel fell asleep as the darkness of the night consumed him. Although it was cold, he held out hope that he would be well-rested and able to continue his journey in the morning.

In the dead of night, Samuel was awoken by the sounds of stampeding behind him. He peeked over the ridge of the ditch to see many different colored inklings charging through the forest, wielding weapons. He quickly ducked back in the ditch and covered himself in leaves, hoping they wouldn't see him as they passed by. He held his breath as several inklings ran past the ditch without a glance.

A different inkling jumped into the ditch and poked around the dirt with a charger weapon. Samuel tried not to make a noise as the inkling poked his body, but to no avail. The inkling kicked away the leaves, revealing Samuel's hiding place.

"I got one!" The Inkling called out to his associates. "Hidin' in a ditch! Typical of these octo scum."

Several more inklings laughed as they circled around Samuel. The terrified Octoling put his hands up in surrender, pleading with them not to shoot. The Inkling that originally found him pulled him out of the ditch, dragging him through the forest as more inklings followed.

Samuel knew resistance was futile. If he fought back, the others would shoot him in seconds. He looked into the night sky, blinking tears out of his eyes as he was dragged back into the city.

As light filled the sky, Samuel and his captors arrived in the city. Octo Valley was in ruins, with burning buildings dotting the horizon and dead octarians littering the streets. It was eerily silent compared to what he was used to. The crackle of the fire was the only sound that could be heard. They led him to a wooden structure, which was a box with a rope hanging from the top, which was tied in a loop.

Samuel recognized it as a gallow- an ancient method of execution from those who came before. Every Octarian soldier was told what it was. But Samuel recognized it to be useless, as neither inklings nor octarians had bones to break by hanging.

'Maybe they think Octarians have neck bones?' Samuel thought. 'Perhaps I can get out of this.'

The Inkling forced Samuel's head through the loop and stepped back. An Inkling to the side of the gallows pulled a lever, and the floor gave way below Samuel. He closed his eyes as he braced for death, but it did not come immediately. He was hanging back the neck, and he looked forward as the Inklings stared at him with hatred.

The Inkling that dragged him from the ditch stepped forward and looked him in the eyes. "You're the last one, so we might as well make it an honor for you." He began, still glaring at Samuel. "What is your name, scum?"

Samuel looked around at the group surrounding him. "Samuel." He responded with a gulp.

"Well, Samuel-" The Inkling said with indignation. "-why do you think we're down here?"

The Octoling thought for a moment. "Because you're a bunch of homicidal maniacs."

The Inkling sneered. "You call us homicidal? You things took away our power supply, and left us to die!"

"You stole it from us! We lived down here with crumbling infrastructure, power rations, and never enough food! You kept us down here so you could have your little paradise on the surface!"

"We didn't 'steal' anything from you freaks. You stole the zapfish. We had to do what we had to do."

"I don't think genocide is exactly reasonable in this situation, you son of a bitch."

The Inkling's expression went from bad to worse. His glare now became full of anger, and he retrieved his E-Liter from the sling over his back, and aimed it at Samuel."

"Say it again."

"You're all sons of bitches and genocidal fucking maniacs!" Samuel yelled.

The Inkling charged his E-Liter and fired at Samuel. The shot hit him square in the head, killing him. Samuel's lifeless body flopped in the air, covered in ink.

The Inklings celebrated, dancing and playing on the rubble of the destroyed city. Individuals ransacked what was left of the crumbled city, taking what few valuables the Octarians had for themselves. With that, they began to make their way back up the Valley, celebrating as they trampled the dead bodies of children and mothers.

The Valley fell into a silence. The only sounds to be heard were the sounds of fire crackling and the occasional building collapsing. After the whole valley was leveled to the ground, and the fires died out, the only remnant of a once flourishing society was a young octoling, hanging by the neck in the center of his decrepit city.