Under Enemy Capture

• Sakinah Karras, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

Absent minded. Blank faced. Pondering in his head to what he had just saw.
Pale white.
He had just witnessed his comrades’ die before him.
Brutally and mercilessly shot by Turkish shrapnel.
His heart was beating at what seemed to be 20 miles per hour.
His muscles went all tense.
Sweat poured down from his forehead eventually soaking his whole body.
He just stood there in what seemed to be the endless plains of Gallipoli Beach.
Covered in blood, his uniform was drenched.
Surrounding him were a sea of dead corpses that covered the sand, who had bravely died face to face with the foe.
Wind blew through his hair, covering his face.
Quiet.
Absolute silence, except the sound of a foreign language being spoken that clearly, he could not understand.
Gone.
He would be gone sooner or later.
Dead.
Shot.
Lying on the ground, lifeless, cold and flimsy just like everyone else.
An adventure, he thought this was going to be, but clearly, he misunderstood it all.
All he could do now was pray. Pray that he would get out of there alive.
Pray he could see his family once more. Pray that he could hug his wife and see his kids.
He was determined.
Determination was all over his face.
He had to get out someway or another but he did not for sure if he would succeed.
He could have no doubts because this would cause him to fail.
At that exact moment, time was at a standstill.
Thoughts rushed through his head and his adrenaline levels gradually rose.
This was it!
He was going to escape or was he?
It was only soon that he found out it wouldn't work and that all his hopes and dreams were destroyed.
Surrounded by trees he was taken from the sand to what seemed like a secret location hidden by the wild shrub, that stretched of into the distance for miles and miles.
"Aren't the enemy cruel?" he thought, but he took a moment to think again.
"It's not their fault, they and we were forced into it all because of the rising tensions between our nations and its leaders. On the inside we are all the same, we are all human but in these circumstances, if they didn't fight, their families would be killed as well.
I know that they are nice beings, but this is what war does to everyone. It tears people apart and brings reality right to our doorstep, that death is real and life is not a joke.”
He tried to get out of his 'imprisonment area' only to be caught and shot.
He fell to the ground in agony, pleading to see his family and friends once more, but the few others that were still with him.
Tears welled up then poured down his face as he said his last few words, "At least try to make the world a better place.”