We were arranged in several unorganized rows in a small, narrow street. A small structure behind us was in flames. The flames flickered in the air and licked at the black smoke slowly rising above into the grey cloudy sky. A few yards ahead of us lay burnt bodies. Their rotting flesh attracted hundreds of flies and the disgusting smell contaminated the air. Yet these corpses made us excited and happy because they were the bodies of the foreigners.

We occupied most of Peking, hundreds of foreigners were dead, and now we have the support of the Qing. I still remember when we just started. We were building up our rebellion in the countryside. I was a local peasant who was a victim of the famine that struck the countryside. I was sucked into the beauty and grace of their traditions and rituals. I could take no more of the humiliation the foreigners gave us. We were becoming their colony, being carved into spheres of influence and giving pieces of our land due to wars. It was time to rise, and we have come very far.

At out right also were bodies. But these were not rudely dumped onto the ground to be fed on by flies and dogs; they were arranged neatly, with arms at their sides, eyes closed. They look like they were asleep. They were on our side. But now, they were not considered to be truly part of out society because their deaths revealed that they did not understand our ways. They did not practice our rituals to make one immune to weapons properly. Although many of us died, most of the rebels were not scared, because they knew that the ones that survived were the ones that stayed true to the Society of Righteous Harmonious Fists.

A couple of hours ago, we received instructions to attack the Legations. The Legations were one of the remaining places that still had a large number of foreigners inside. Their defense were constantly being attacked with the hopes of penetrating through it, but without success.

My friend Zhao stood next to me. He had a confident look on his face. When he saw the look on my face, he asked me, “Why do you look so worried?”

I said, “I just hope that we aren’t going to be like the ones that died already.”

“If you were, you should be dead by now, right?”