War

• Danny Nguyen, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

The battle rages on, shots firing from the sky, chaos everywhere and the screams of people perishing. Dust covered the our diaspora as local communities crept into a secret basement which had the essentials and rations of food to last a few days in the tough conditions and gruesome war.The world was in melancholy, as the streets lined with mourners and undertakers burying. Outside of my window, all the communities dreaded and prepared for the worst as they could hear and see, screams , gruesome deaths the sounds of gunshots and the disgusting blood. Minutes earlier, the town was in horror with firing gunshots, cannonballs flying, people screaming and soldiers perishing. I could see red and blue, the sirens roaring in my sore ears, sweat dripping down my shaking face. The pungent smell of my sweat permeated the old, rusted basement.


My body was shaking, hearing planes firing huge missiles and roaring up the sky, explosions from cannonballs filled dust which spreaded across the sky which blinded many troops. I looked up from the rusted floor seeing the dusty uniforms of the wounded infantry and the tough and harsh conditions in the once isolated desert. For dinner, we ate biscuits, not cooked sent by our loved ones in Australia and took 6 months to send a biscuit. Food were very limited and rations of food were quickly consumed especially in the tough, cold conditions with high risks of diseases and death.

A few months past, and I felt the chilling ,freezing weather shaking my warm, solid body around my campfire. Soldiers were still batting after months of war they suffered injuries like frostbite and chilblains, also the tired soldiers had short rations of food, and life was very hard to live. I climbed outside to see massacres of people murdered, diseases spreading, harsh and freezing conditions and now health was impacting and was an important factor to our troops survival and victory.

Months later, when the troops had a rest and were all rejuvenated and restored, the darkness began to spread across the destroyed town, grieving families which came to visit their loved ones and the military commemorating those who died in the horrendous war. A shadow of darkness and fear crept over my head. Light faded away, lives wasted and the so gruelling and tough war spread to allies and more countries. The inhabitable and humid desert, which dust filled my eyes through the long gruelling war. Tears falling down as the time has come i could see my parents suffer their fate as soul wither to the corrupted air world is beginning to become extinct. Balls of dust and rock roll down as if the world was inhabitable with no signs of life. The desert as isolated, nothing except for plants and rocky ranges. I crept onto my basement hoping it could all stop. I wondered how disastrous and the tiring war the soldiers suffered. The ground covered in dust, corpses and weapons.

A year came by, and i heard loud cheering and voices of joy. The war has finally come to an end, i came out searching for my father who was a soldier in WW2, a glimpse of joy ran out my body as i saw my bloodied and tired father. It is also a day to remember those who died in the futile war costing millions of lives and the destruction of homelands and towns. However all was at peace. Sounds like the war wasn’t indomitable after all.