Last Man Standing

• Jared Boys, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2019

Nemo and Bofa had just enrolled in the RCAF better known as the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Nemo and Bofa jumped at the chance to become soldiers as the village where they had grown up had been liberated by the Khmer Rouge but Nemo and bofa where the only ones to escape. At the RCAF office where they were enrolling, they look outside and see members of the army walking by with people saying hi and people talking to them. Bofa looks at Nemo and says, “Look at all the people surrounding the soldiers, I wish I had that many people that respect me.” Then Nemo replies with “yeah me too, those soldiers are the most elite the army has.” They both stared in amazement as those soldiers went past.

Because the army was short on soldiers, they had gotten accepted that day. This meant that they were going to be deployed into the village near where the military base was. This was scary for them because they had barely any training apart from the shows that were provided to show how to work their guns and to do what the leading officer says.

When they had been transported into the village, they could already see the damage that the Khmer Rouge had done in that small community. With houses destroyed and family’s crying next to rubble they both realised that the Khmer Rouge would be back. Bofa turned to Nemo and said, “they’re going to be back to finish off this village, we need to warn the village and the army.” They both ran into the centre to warn the other soldiers.

After 30 Minutes of waiting, the Khmer Rouge finally showed up to attack. This time thought, the RCAF had been waiting and gathering soldiers to fend off the attack. The soldiers from the Khmer Rouge suddenly came out of the bushes and trees around the village with the sound of gunfire from both sides of the battlefield. Bofa ran from the centre to the outside of the village to fight when he sees nemo in trouble. “Nemo watch out!” Bofa yelled. As he said that, a short but extremely load sniper rifle shot was fired, Hitting Nemo in the neck and killing him instantly. In a fit of anger and rage Bofa yells and runs into the line of gunfire to get his follow soldiers back into the village to protect the people. They felt like they were surrounded until the enemy’s retreated back into the bushes.

As the RCAF soldiers checked over the bodies they see a uniform. This one uniform looked different to the others, it had shiny, golden badges covering the right pocket of the black uniform. Bofa looked and realised that this was the leading officer that led the attack against his old village and the one they were trying to protect. This meant they had defended the village and avenged the people that had died in the village they grew up in.