Day Of Departure

• Grace Croston, Grade 6, Australian Christian College - Southlands
• Short Story
• 2018

Finalist in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

The sound of firearms and machine guns is deafening...
Bombs and grenades explode around us as my father and myself run through the rubble and war debris towards the dock...
As we run towards freedom...
Innocent Men, woman, and children die around us they have done nothing wrong or illegal, but they are being slaughtered to satisfy the undeserved power of others.
Times like these make me wonder what has happened to the world...
My Mum was assassinated in a bombing raid two years ago. When my older brother Malakai enlisted into the Afghanistan army last year and was excepted if he is alive, I do not know. This war has been raging on for 16 years I was only an infant when it began...
The war is now at its peak and it shows no sign of stopping...
I wonder if it will ever end-
A familiar voice interrupts my thoughts.
Father groans in pain, he clutches a bullet wound in his torso.
As he falls on to the dirty blood covered sand.
I fall down on my knees next to him.
I can see the life slipping away from him, but I cannot bring myself to face the fact that he might not make it. "Leave me here," he says
"No!" I cry
"Rafael," he says forcefully "You must go"
He looks me in the eye and takes one last raspy breath... I sniffle fighting back the tears, but it is no use.
It was over... he was gone, and so was my will to live, I feel like giving up… but father would not want that.
I must be strong... for my father. I pick up my tattered backpack and clamber to my feet and instigate the run for freedom. A bomb goes off in the near distance shaking a filling lose, another forces me to the ground. I stand up shaking that was too close.
I continue running, I was so close to the dock.
A firearm goes off nearby, I duck how could I be so stupid you can't duck a bullet if the opposition hadn't missed I would be one of the many slain on this blood-stained foreshore.
"Ahh!'' a young voice scream.
I spin round to see a young boy being carried away by the antagonist "help!" cries the sobbing boy.
I think to myself. "I must be out of my mind"
I rush at the unsuspecting rival he nonchalantly turns his back to me, I strike him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious, he crumples to the ground I pull the young boy out from under him.
"Thank you" stammers the boy before running off.
Bang!
A nearby gun goes off.
I fall to the ground, instinctively I reach my hand to the bullet wound, this was the end.
"I'm proud to be your brother" whisper's a familiar voice.
"Malakai?" I whisper weakly.
I smile at him before closing my eyes and drifting off into peaceful, everlasting sleep.