The First World War

• Max Keeble, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2018

“Faster Forester! FASTER!” General Edwards screamed. “McAllen, use your hips! Right, that’s it, you lot are hopeless. Five laps ‘round the oval. QUICK!” The four of us scrambled out of the mud and started running. I caught up with James.

“Wow, they’re really taking this thing seriously.” I heaved.

“What did you expect?” he replied. “Why’d you sign up?”

“An adventure, a new experience.”

“You really believed that bull dust? If that’s what you think this is, you’re in for a hell of a ride.”

“Then why’d you sign up?” I asked.

“To get away from my family… and my life.” He replied. I decided I shouldn’t push for more. Even though I’d known him for about two weeks, I knew that James McAllen had lived a difficult life.

“Do you really think – “

“Stop chatting and run faster you useless rascals!” interrupted General Edwards. I thought about what James had said. I don’t think it’ll be as bad as he said. It’s an adventure. A great experience to a new country. So I thought…


On the Western Front

BANG. William is slumped on the ground, lifeless. Sergeant Charles did it for us, put him out of his misery. Our misery. We’d only heard about it. We’d never experienced it in real life. Shell shock. William, a fifteen-year-old, young and innocent. Why would they lie to us?

I was temporarily deaf now. All I could hear was ringing. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I could feel it. My whole body and the earth around me shook violently. When would it stop? Would it ever stop? We were supposed to be ready for the Germans to attack when the shells stop raining down, guns in hand, eyes peeled. But us young boys, we were all cowering in the trench corners with the little cover we could get. The vibrations came to a halt. We scrambled to our feet and snatched up our rifles, shaking in fear as the grey ghosts emerged through the smoke and flames.

Before we could start shooting, Sergeant screamed, ‘GAS! GAS!’. I fumbled around for my mask and slipped it on, it was heavy and cold, extremely uncomfortable. The gas was free, it seeped into every crack, every hole, searching for lungs to choke. It found Thomas to quick. He crumbled down into a coughing fit and managed to lock his eyes onto mine as the gas took his life.
I felt faint. I leapt to my feet and tightened my gas mask, the gas still lingered. I started aiming at the figures cutting through our fence, but I gave up and began firing blindly at anything that moved. Something caught my eye to the right, I flung around and spotted an enemy cutting through our fence ten metres away. I couldn’t keep my hands still as I tried to keep a steady aim on him. I gripped the rifle tighter. I took a deep breath… and squeezed the trigger.