War - A Two Perspective Story.

• Kalila Purtle, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

Son -
The sky is a dull shade of grey, the perfect colour to match the feelings in my stomach that override my body. I walk along the never-ending road my steps matching the many others around me, the many others caught in the same dangerous grasp I have been pulled into with no escape. The deafening sound of a bomb being blown fills my ears, I look up, the fake calmness that was only seconds ago filling the air turns to fear, “lets do this boys” a man in front of me shouts. This isn’t real, this isn’t real, was the mantra going through my head as I pulled out my gun, my hands shaking as I fumbled for the trigger. “Get it together boy,” the man in front of me shouts as my gun falls to the ground. “I can’t do this,” I shout back at him, as I reached for the gun. “Do it for your family” he moans, and an unknown sensation fills my body, it’s like he, this random man is begging me for a response I can’t give. “I don't have one,” I scream back. Pain filled my body as a bullet rips through my chest. I turn my head to the side, the man now sprawled across the ground blood spurting from his shoulder turns facing me with heavy eyes, “this battle will not be one you have lost,” he wheezed. “Thankyou” I smile, my body allowing darkness to overcome me.


Father -
In all the years I had served as a soldier in the wars, walking into a battle zone still filled me with an uncontrollable fear. I walked with my troop, the air was thick with anxiety, for most it was their first time participating in a war. A bomb blew in the distance and I pull out my gun my fingers skimming the trigger, searching the fields. “Lets do this boys,” I roar signalling them to be at the ready. The frightened face of one man gets my attention, the frightened face of my son, my son that doesn't even know I’m his father, my son that only ever thinks of me as another commanding soldier. He stands his whole body shaking, the gun slipping from his hands. “Get it together boy,” I shout. I know he won’t make it, it breaks my heart. Memories flow back of when I was forced to leave him, leave his small body in the arms of his tearful Grandmother…I can’t do this,” he shouts back, tears caressing his blood stained cheeks. You always could. “Do it for your family” I shout back, emotions flooding through my body “I don't have one” he shouts back. You do. A bullet penetrates his chest and he falls to the ground just as bullet tears effortlessly through my shoulder. He turns to me head heavy and smiles. “I will always love you, I whisper as his eyes close for the last time.