Echo

• Catherine Langron, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2009

The sound filled my ears like an echo. The echo of my mother’s screaming voice telling me to run, the echo of the soldiers footsteps and the leaders command’s; left, right, left, right.

I ran blindly, hair in my eyes, tears running down my face, dirt streaked across my cheeks, panting, my heart pounding.

Blood rushed to my cheeks. A strong breeze blew my hair in every direction.

I stopped!

Waiting!

A trickling feeling of cold lurked in the shadows. Gravel crunched beneath my feet,

I turned,

Darkness,
A hand was clamped over my mouth.

I woke feeling hazy, light glaring in my eyes. Feeling groggy I coughed as dust tickled my throat and winced as the pain in my head grew. My eyes slowly focussed on a room jammed with people.

Then suddenly the whole room lurched to one side. Suddenly I realised it wasn’t just a room, it was a train carriage.
And I knew exactly where I was going.
I had been waiting for this to happen but the reality was still a shock!
There was no way out -I was trapped.

I felt a pang of guilt and all my thoughts and fears bombarded me at once.
Images flooded my mind, the blazing red flames of our burning house. The evil, twisted grins of the Nazi soldiers and of mothers screaming face.

The whole train carriage was filled with faces of despair. Were they wondering about their loved ones? Or, what was on the road ahead?

All I knew was,
We were going somewhere horrible, somewhere no one could imagine.
The train ground jolting to a stop. We had reached our destination.

We were pushed and shoved off the trains outside.
We ached, we screamed, our calls were not answered except for the faint bangs in the distance.
The suspense was sickening.
Finally they shouted at us. I felt sick.

But surprisingly they told us to take of our clothes we were going to have a shower.
We took all our clothes off, men to one vast room and women and children to another.
We stepped inside; there was a hiss, but no water.

The air thickened, there was something going on, people were dropping to the ground all around me.


This was the end.