Salvation

• Joe McFadyen, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2015

A rose-coloured glow was starting to filter across the eastern skyline, like ink spreading in a pool of water. The faint light a marking of a new day. A lone soldier sat on a broken moss covered stone taking in his surroundings. Surroundings of blood, death and destruction. He hated what he saw. Blood soaked uniforms covering bodies of the child soldiers that had been conscripted to fight in a war they didn’t understand. He knew that they were considered the most expendable; no one cared about their deaths. He licked his sore, parched lips. All this death was wrong and needed to stop, this war had to stop. The senseless killing had to stop.
A sudden click of a gun caused the soldier to turn, gun in hand, ready to fire. His heart racing. He knew that this was a matter of life and death and he was prepared. His eyes fell on a young girl dressed in an ill-fitting uniform. A sudden glint of surprise passed over the soldiers face but as quickly as it appeared it was gone. He knew what had to be done. The soldier realised that this girl was frightened; frightened to the point of madness and in her fright she was blinded. Too blind to judge what was right. A gunshot rang through the air and the body hit the ground.
The girl stared at the crimson blood oozing onto the uniform. The soldier met her gaze and was reminded of his younger sister. As he stared at the girl’s face he knew he had done the right thing. The pain he saw in her eyes was enough to tell him that he had stopped this girl from any further participation in this war. Pity filled him at the sight of her anguish. The soldier reached around his neck and removed a gold medallion his little sister had given him before he had gone to war. On one side was a cross and on the other the word ‘SALVATION’. He pulled the girl’s hand towards him and clasped her fingers around the medallion. She closed her eyes as tears fell and then all went black as death took another victim of this senseless war.
It had taken thirty years to reach this point in the country’s history. The President had worked hard for many years to bring about change. To stop the use of children. To give the people hope of a better life. It had been hard but finally this war torn country was at peace. As the President stood before the mass of people filling the square, she reached and started to fiddle with the golden medallion that hung around her neck. The medallion given to her by a dying soldier who had lowered his gun because he knew the killing had to end. He had given her salvation.