War

• Charlotte Dring, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2012

The darkness came. We were defeated. Memories of the war came back to me as I stood there. Many of us had died. All my best mates were out there, lying on the battlefield. Some of us had lied about our ages to get in to fight for our country and have fun. They had said it would be over by Christmas. That was four years ago. The rest of us survivors were prisoners now. Since I was the leader, I was brought up to the Chief first.
“We’ve the leader of the survivors, sir,” the solider said. “What do ya want to do with him?” His accent was sharp and thick.
“Don’t bring him to me, put him in a chamber!” he roared.
“Yes sir!” replied the soldier. I was taken away to a small room with only a bed, toilet and sink, it was smelly, and certainly not like my home back in Australia.
The soldier told me “Stay here while I find out what we’re gonna do with ya.” What he said gave me the creeps. It was like he was going to kill me. He came back a couple of hours later with the Captain.
He said “This one’s strong. He could do as a worker.” The soldier took me away to start working. It was harder work then I ever imagined. I was treated like an animal. That night I wrote a letter to my wife and two children. I explained to my wife that I may never come back. Even though I didn’t know that at the time, it was true. The next day, I had to carry a heavy cart up a hill, all by myself. Then suddenly, I collapsed to the ground. I got whipped but I couldn’t move. I tried to get up, but I fell straight back down again.
“Come on! Hurry up!” the soldier yelled at me. “We don’t have all day!” I tried to get up again, but failed. “Ok, if that’s how it’ll be, we’ll take ya away.” He said. At first I didn’t know what he meant. But of course, I couldn’t move so he had to drag me away. I struggled against him on the way to the Captain. When we finally got there, the soldier told him about what happened. They had a private chat for a while, and then turned to me.
The Captain said “You work, you might get a reward. You don’t work, we give you a punishment. And guess what, you didn’t work. So, guess how lucky you are? Lucky enough to be punished!”
“And ya punishment is...” continued the soldier. “Getting killed!” I was scared. Getting killed did not seem like fun. I was taken away and got hung by a rope in front of a large crowd. I was choking. I couldn’t breathe. Then suddenly everything stopped and all I could see was darkness. I knew at that point that I was dead.