Victory To Happiness

• Prabhnoor Aulakh, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2017

The war was on. Blood being splattered on the ground. Mary Lice was calm. As she was sitting on her sturdy chair, fixing a soldier's wound, she thought that it would end; the war and oppression would end soon. With hope in her eyes and heart, she sped up her work. Blood on the tent wall triggered horror in Mary's mind. She looked around, the tent was small, but it was big enough to hold those who were injured. The smell of death wafted through the tent as the shutter opened. A man with a cut across his face and a bleeding ear stumbled into the tent supported by another man, who looked like the General of the Army.
"Mary, could you please take care of Mike? No pressure, but we need more men on the field".
"Okay Sir." Mary unwillingly answered.
Mary was an Army nurse, who was ready to take up the challenges of a war, but nursing twenty patients was too much. The war seemed to be lost for Mary. Suddenly there was a loud BANG! CRASH! BOOM! SCREAM!!! The lights went out. Mary couldn't breathe. She groped around. All she felt was sand. She was buried underground. Mary started to search for her knife, hoping to dig her way out. She felt a strong throbbing pain in her finger. Finally, Mary found her thin, sharp knife. Keeping her eyes closed tightly, she began to use her knife as a shovel. A ray of light shone on Mary giving her peace. At last, Mary Lice opened her eyes, and to her astonishment, people (the army and her friends) began to rise some hurt, others were fine.
Looking to the horizon, Mary saw all the enemy's troop lying on the ground, dead. The desert, which once held sadness and depression, was full of loud cheering, happy screams and laughter. The sun shone down, giving peace and happiness to Mary. Everyone was happy, cheerful and full of pride. Mary felt that the darkness in her stomach, which gave her dreadful thoughts, now vanished to the void.
Away from the crowd Mary could see her brother slumped, with an odd expression on his face. Mary ran to him and embraced him with love and compassion.
"I'm so sorry sister. I nearly killed you," he said with tears in his eyes, looking at the grenade launcher in his sweaty hands.
"No brother, you defended us and killed those who could have killed all of us." The two siblings hugged each other. So, to this day, they both believe that even in the darkest of times, happiness can be found.