Unfamiliar Setting

• Charlette Lyon, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

The entire country seemed to be silent. You could hear a pin drop from kilometres away. Their feet stood frozen on the sands of time awaiting a call from beyond the eerie wasteland. Lines of solid men stopped, taking in the nothingness. A wave of coldness brushed past the men, leaving a residue of pain and want, violence and death, misery and gunshots. There was a heavy drop as the men moved in sync up the shore, dark clouds covering the country.

Beads of sweat travelled throughout the silence, finding their way to the ground. It was hot. So hot. Their clothes clung to their bodies like it was the last time they would breathe by themselves. Their tiring, half-closed eyes guided them towards the bones of the past and the caretakers of the future as dark silhouettes appeared from beyond the horizon.

The men were met with the confronting feeling of war. An icy tone given off by the country. The smells here were so different, one thing smelled like another. The only scent they could pick up was the stale scent of an abandoned church, deathly, yet comforting.

The surrounding environment was silent, like the birds and the bees were holding their breath, knowing something was happening.

A singular gunshot rang out in the silence, striking fear in the eyes of the men. Letting them know how this will end. Letting them know that after this, nothing would be the same.