Gallipoli

• Alessandra Lachman, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2008

It’s very cold and dark. My mates and I have just climbed into the tiny rowing boats supplied for us and are rowing silently towards the shore.
The cold wind is blowing hard and it sinks into my clothes. Shivers run down my back. I wrap my clothes around me more tightly and look up into the pitch black sky. No stars are out tonight and fog hangs thickly around us. My best mate Phillip looks cautiously around him.
Suddenly, a beam of blinding light uncovers us. Bullets fly past and Phillip is knocked into the murky water by a soldier who has been hit by a Turk’s bullet. “NOOOOO!!” I yell and leaving my backpack and gun on the boat I jump into the water. It’s freezing and I feel as though I have just been plunged into a lake of ice. Phillip is struggling against the heaviness of the backpack on his shoulders and is slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I swim as fast as I can to his rescue and grab his backpack. Tugging the drowning soldier to the surface I see above me tiny, black bullets flying uncontrollably around this war theatre, killing the people I once spoke and laughed with. When I reach the surface, I hoist Phillip upon my shoulder and frantically swim to the distant shore. When I finally reach it, dawn is breaking and I place Phillip upon the wet sand. After about half a minute, he splutters and I roll him over. He coughs out seawater and sand and opens his eyes. “I saved you,” I say and we hug. I turn around and see nothing but the vast ocean and a few pieces of driftwood floating on the salty waves. Not a soldier is in view. I scramble to my feet and observe my surroundings. To my horror the landscape is not what I had expected.
A mountain stands tall in front of me.
Suddenly, I hear bullets being fired and run to a nearby cluster of bushes. Phillip is too late and I see him falling to the ground. I feel as if my heart has been ripped apart. I run to his body.I don’t care if I die.
Tears obscure my vision and I kneel down beside him. A stain of blood is spreading across his chest. By now tears are pouring down my cheeks. I look into Phillip’s face.
A pain like none I have ever felt before knocks me over. Clutching my chest I lie down as if it would help cease the excruciating pain.
I lift my right hand and feel blood trickling down my sleeve. I close my eyes, know all is lost, and everything goes black.
William.