War life

• Timothy Yu, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2004

Timothy Yu
Yr 7 Sydney Boys High
Age-12
Number 6, Wyong street, Oatley

Cannons boom; guns explode.
Planes scream overhead, while soldiers yell to each other.
There is no colour but grey and black.

It is a person’s nightmare, like hell but worse.
Artillery fire their ammunition which result in an ear-splitting crack.
Short bursts of machine gun fire rip the field off the map.
As a brave soldier attempts to cross no-man’s land,
His body was shredded.
Holes roared agony.

Blood flies high, and lands back on the unforgiving ground.
As the body lands, the soldier was already lifeless.

After a lifetime of hell, gunfire shortens, then ceases.
The two opposing armies retreat, depart.
Soon the dead are ignored and forgotten.
This is the brutality of war.