Never Be The Same

Excellence Award in the 'Just Keep Writing 2019' competition

One by one each of them fell prey to their predators. He whom hung back watched in horror. The world he had known was an elusive ideal of the past that one would struggle to believe if they were witnessing what he was. As soon as one could pull the trigger, they shot dead the one charging towards them, so swiftly it seemed as though they were without conscience. Brother turned on brother, sister turned on sister until allies and loyalty was no more. He lay slumped in the trenches, cowardice rendering his body immobile. Nothing was a should be. A city, no longer a city, simply a battle-scarred venue of which rubble, dust and dirt seemed to be the only resources around. This was not how they described it. This was perhaps a mass suicide rather than a chance to bring pride to his people. It had been four months since they arrived and all they had achieved was death. It was an eradication of humanity, but no one would have thought that human kind would bring their extinction upon themselves. On the first day, spirits and morale were high as soldiers charged the beaches, guns at the ready preparing to murder whoever got in their way without a second thought. Unfortunately, he and his fellow troops were not prepared for an attack with equal bloodlust, if not more. They had lost many of their own and the following days were no different until both sides had broken each other’s spirit. It was a stalemate, and all knew it, it was a death sentence, and all now knew it. The thought of returning home to loved ones was too much to bear for him as that’s all it was going to be now…a thought. The sun began to fall asleep as it welcomed in the harsh nights sky. The fighting would cease from both sides now, even if it was only until dawn, but the nights were the worst for every soldier. Sleep was like submitting yourself to a kind of torture. Images of those he loved would run through his mind. He would never see his daughter, his wife, his mother or his father again. On the second day, he saw his best friend die before him at the hand of another whom he went on to kill to give vengeance to his fallen friend. But as this stranger died so did part of him. It was a lifecycle, you lose one, you kill one and so on so forth until no one was left. As he stared out to the beach saying farewell to the sun, he thought he was going ludicrous. There was an enormous silhouette, that he could briefly distinguish as a boat. Cheers of utter joy were released as they realised that they were going home. But as the soldiers left the battle grounds, as the war finished, he walked on the boat realising he would never be the same again.

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