WAR!

• Scarlett Baum, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

WAR!
“Bella!” I fall to my knees crying and screaming. Lilly tugs on my arm “we have to go.” In the distance I see a hill, I grab lilly pulling her in the other direction. “ where are you going?” she yells, “ to high ground!”. We reach the hill, I start crying. A pile of people lie there right in front of us. Blood everywhere, bullet holes all over them. The sound of flies burrow in my ears.

Eight years earlier.

“ I love you” I say to mum and dad, as I board the train. Mum is crying on the ground “don’t go” she screams. Dad tries not to cry. As I walk away a tear runs down my cheek. My bag full of clothes is heavy.

We enter our cabins, the first thing I see are the hard beds made of old wood and hessian blankets. Two other girls enter the room they introduce themselves as Lilly and Bella. Bella looks a year older then me, and Lilly a year younger. These are the only girls in the Australian Army Team that I was friends with. Thousands people came from all over the country and all of them wanted to be properly trained for war.

After three long years of infuriatingly hard training, we were ready. Now I was ready I could go home. Two years later I got a phone call telling me to go straight to base. Dad drops me off, we say a quick but sad goodbye. Once chief told us what was going on we had to get all the pilots up in the air, all the tanks and guns loaded and all the soldiers armed (that was me).

My heart was jumping out of my chest. Lilly, Bella and I were best friends by now. A wave of nerves flew through me like a cat walking past a dog kennel. Saliva builds up in my mouth and my hands started to shake.

They arrive and now it’s WAR!
I try to stay with Lilly and Bella. We hide behind a pile of sand bags but Bella peaks up at the wrong time. BAM! Her body flops down like a piece of fish, we bend down and roll her over in suspense. A HOLE! Balling my eyes out Lilly tugs on my arm, “we have to go” she screams. I grab Lilly pulling her in the other direction. As you probably remember we reach the hill.

“LEO!”Coming mum. “Hey mum, grandma was just reading me her diary from when she went to war. “ that's great honey. Could you bring these cookies in for grandma?” “Sure.”

“And so” grandma continues. “After three long years of training, two years of waiting and getting to know Lilly and Bella and another three years of fighting, finally it was all over.”