Hero

His mind was racing as though Helios himself was driving the chariot after him. His facial expressions gave way to agony and despair as his already melancholy mood had turned darker. He sat there slouched on a bench awaiting fate as it inched closer and closer, up to the point where its icy breath could be felt piercing his neck. Then finally emotion stirred the almost lifeless like man to action. He leapt from the bench and approached his bars that had concealed him in solitude.
"Captain, I have to give you for what you have been asking for!"
The captain approached, puzzled yet pleased in the same way. He walked with a slight limp in his right leg which he tried to conceal. He looked into the man's eyes, while slowly cutting the skin from his apple.
"Ah so finally, you have come to your senses instead of hiding behind silence," he said as pieces of apple spat into the man's face.
"Y-Yes sir, I have for you what has been awaiting you for a long time."
The captain's eyes widened as he saw his captive cower in front of him, what power, he felt, as he slowly leaned in closer.
"Here ya are sir..."
"YOU are a bastard of a man, you and yo-your government has caused pain throughout this whole country, I will not bow down and cooperate with animals, you represent evil and all that comes with it, I would rather die than stand here and align what good I have left in my souless body with the devil!" his voice boomed, as he commenced this with spitting in the captain's face.
The captain seemed to shrink a bit, but none the less he wiped the spit from his face and proclaimed, and clinged, to the only course of action he had left for this pathetic of a human being.
"If you wish to die, then die you will."
THE NEXT DAY
As the captain and his man dragged the man's body out to the courtyard the other cells of the prison erupted with joy and shouts of "Saviour" and "Give em hell!" As the doors opened to the courtyard the man saw his first glimpse of sun in nearly a year. He smiled as the beams laid their hands upon his face and put in the most angelic state he could be in for the action that was about to partook upon his body.
The man was tied to the post ad three men lined up across from him each with a rifle in hand.
A crowd had gathered for the upcoming event.
"This fool will be the example for all of you who think that there is any hope left for your pathetic dreams and..."
His voice died out as chants proclaimed the man as a hero and saviour. The man smiled out at each and every face.
"On the count of three."
The man saw his friends and fellow allies as there fists were raised in triumphant fashion to praise him for his deeds.
"1."
The man's eyes then laid upon his family, his wife, three daughters and son. His wife had tears running down her cheek but his closest friend consolodated her for the best.
"2."
As his glaze moved on to his children, his eye's then fell upon his son, who was looking directly at him as though in an angered state. The man's smile was wiped from his face and and aw fell upon it. His son shook his head and shed a singled tear, then walked away picking up his youngest sister on his shoulders.
"3."
The man's body lay limp as it had been for the previous year but instead of salvation for his final second of life all he saw was his son's face which had not been what a hero was to be given in his final moments from the people that mean the most to him.
Was he a hero or not?