The Question

Artwork by Phil Burns

A brand new challenge – check it out here: Min Min.
In no more than 250 words write a story inspired by Paint it Black

The Question

The general looks down at the soldiers in the courtyard, bustling about their duties.
A memory flashes through his mind: he is a young soldier in an occupying army based in a tiny country in Africa.
Sitting on a step, he is idly watching a column of ants.
On impulse he lays a finger across their trajectory.
After a moment of confusion, the ants make a detour round the place where his finger lay and continue on their journey.
Eventually a rebel ant steps out of line and braves the original path.
And soon all the others follow.

The general sighs.
So it has been with his life, he thinks.
The call came: Your country needs you.
And he answered.
He has been a good soldier; he has followed orders and he has given orders on this march towards…
Towards what?
His life used to make sense in the great scheme of things, back when he believed he was fighting for freedom from tyranny, for a future for the young and security for the old.
But is the world actually a better place for all the wars?
Or has it really been to make the rich richer and extend their power?
Unlike that ant he can’t choose the original path.
It has lost its meaning.
Is what he is about to do a final act of bravery?
He has no answers.
He simply presses ‘send’ on his email to the field marshal and walks out of his life.