Gallipoli - The Fallen Soldier

• Alyssa Muller, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2016

The ground was red with the blood of soldiers. My trembling hands shook with fear as I prepared for battle. Adrenalin rushed through my body as I loaded the gun that was beside me in the trench. I thought of my family and friends back home, knowing that as soon as I stepped onto the battlefield I would most certainly die and never see them again. Fear wracked my face as the whistle blew to attack.
The battle cries of soldiers echoed in my ears and bodies dropped like flies. My feet squelched and my stomach churned as the ground beneath me became a dump of bloodied corpses. Shrapnel and bullets came hurtling towards me like a tsunami. I felt helpless.
I heard cries of help and pain from injured soldiers. Men trying to save one another, only to be shot in the process. The scenery was horrific! Bodies lying all over the muddy soil, trees nothing but bark and sticks, blood pooling from the dead bodies.
I stumble over a dead soldier and fall to the ground. My gun slid at least a meter away from me. I scrambled to retrieve it before continuing my journey on the battlefield. Then, all of a sudden, the searing pain, burning like a red hot poker, pierced through my chest and stopped me in my tracks. A bloodcurdling scream echoed in my head and I gasped when I realised whose it was. Mine.
Blood. Pain. Darkness. I fell to the ground, waiting for death to take over so I could leave this wretched place. I heard rifles being loaded, bullets being shot, and the cries from soldiers dying around me. I could feel my pulse in my head. I gasped for air, knowing that it would be the last breath I took and slowly sank into the deep, never-ending sleep that people call death. The pain stopped. There I lay, a lifeless, bloodied corpse that would stay empty forever.