Warzone

• Sam Bentley, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2016

Simon looked over his shoulder and could see the bright, glowing, warm sun hit the dark earth as it rose slowly. He instantly thought of his wife back home in Australia saying ‘The sun is a gold coin, shimmering in the sky’ on those beautiful afternoons. BANG! BANG! BANG! Simon ducked down as bullets flew across the sky like cars speeding down the race track. Simon took in a deep breath and heard someone scream terrifyingly and he looked to where the ghastly sound was coming from and a young man fell to the landscape with a thump and clutched his chest ferociously. Simon clumsily ran over,
“Charlie, are you alright mate?”
Charlie winced painfully. Charlie then muttered,
“Bloody Turks got me”
Charlie removed his hand and blood came gushing down his chest and with his bloodied hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Simon.
“Send it back home, me’ wife would kill me if I didn’t send a letter”
Charlie then closed his eyes softly and said with a soft voice,
“Good bye mate”
Simon sighed and rubbed his hand through Charlies coarse, bright orange hair then filled with sadness Simon reached into Charlies collar and ripped off two shiny dog tags spotted with blood. Simon took the letter and the tags to the tent where the runner was. Simon gave the runner,
“Make sure you take care of this”

The nights at Turkey were terrible, the gunfire is a deathly pattern slicing through the crisp night and the screams were terrifying. A few days later Simon was woken by Ollie shaking him and telling him that they had to meet at the tent. Simon rolled over tiredly and fell onto the hard crumbly floor. He got up and quickly slipped into his uniform and packed his things. Simon and Ollie got to the tent and saw Collins standing there looking at the map, Collins then looked at them,
“Are you guys ready? We have a big climb ahead of us”
When all the men were there they left. On their way to the hill Simon and Ollie stopped at the base of the rough terrain sloping up the side of the hill with mouths hitting the floor like a child hearing the ice-cream truck melody. Collins looked curiously behind,
“Come on, you ladies said you were ready for this” Collins said.
Simon and Ollie looked at each other and started to walk up the massive hill. The his is like a giant mound of pain and hard work. It took two hours to concur the giant hill, but at the top the men stopped and fell to the ground swiftly as bullets were soaring towards them. Simon grabbed Ollies shoulder and dragged him to the ground. Ollie looked at Simon,
“What’s that for?”
Simon angrily gestured his head towards the Turks.
“Oh, sorry mate”
Simon pulled out his rifle and aimed. Collins grabbed Simons gun,
“Don’t fire until we get closer, there’s no point shooting from here”
The men all backed away slowly from the line of fire, stood up slowly and they scampered off,
“We’ll go back and get more men”
When they got back the battalion got 50 more men and told them that one group of 10 would go to the top then the rest would split up and go left or right to attack from the side. When Simons group got to the left they ran into a large group of Turks and they started to shoot. Bullets flying through the air, then Simon felt something hit his waist and he fell to the ground. He started to wince and his eyes started to close. Ollie rushed over and shook Simon,
“Simon?”
The look in Charlies eyes were like darkness flooding Charlies happy memories. Simon groaned painfully and then his eyes suddenly closed…