Ho Chi Minh Trail

Tran Thi Ai Lien awoke to a thunderous roar in the distance. She knew what was happening, she had overheard her parents talking about it. It was an airstrike. She tried to step off of her bed however, right before her feet reached the ground she was suddenly tackled right as she saw a bright flash of light right outside of her window before everything faded to black. 

Ai Lien opened her eyes to her mother’s cold, limp body clutching her. She crawled from under her mother and shook her. “Mom wake up,” urged Ai Lien, “wake up!” She shook her mother again when she felt a sharp object lodged in her mother’s back. She looked at the fresh blood on her hand and realised the object was a large piece of shrapnel. She pulled her mother’s body closer as she started to sob.

Ai Lien’s eyes, now blurred by tears, looked up and focused her gaze upon the burning remains of the roof of her home that her father had thatched. She smiled as she remembered the part of the roof that she helped to thatch, it always let a few drops of rain through. Her father had left earlier that week for his parents’ village. 

Brushing the ashes off of her legs, Ai Lien tried to get up but suddenly fell as a sharp pain ran through her left leg. Her shin was broken. She grabbed a charred bed leg and propped herself up on it. She limped across the floor towards the door, kicking up ash along the way. Ai Lien stood at the doorway looking upon the bodies, ashes and of course, Ho Chi Minh trail. She walked down from the doorway and throughout what remained of her village. She knew she could not stay here forever. She saw a Viet Cong bike under a pile of munitions. It was in relatively good condition. She had to find her father. 

Ai Lien was never really one to go outside, however she knew where the trail went. She knew she had to find her father before the next bombing. She cycled as fast as she could down Ho Chi Minh trail trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her leg. Day turned to night as Ai Lien’s legs grew tired. She had to rest. She found a part of the forest perfectly shaded by the trees off to the left of the trail. She cautiously laid down against the tree and drifted off to sleep. 

As Ai Lien woke, she heard unfamiliar voices speaking an unfamiliar language. She looked beyond the bushes and saw large silhouettes walking towards her. Suddenly she heard a loud crack, and a bullet rushed right past her face into a tree trunk. They were shooting at her. She struggled and stumbled as she got up from the shade and onto her bicycle. The bullets barely missed her as she speeded down Ho Chi Minh trail. One of the bullets struck the back tire of the bicycle and almost flung her off of it. She rode the bicycle off the trail into the dense forest. The forest dirt was more unforgiving on her legs than the paved roads of Ho Chi Minh trail. 

Ai Lien waited in a thick bush until night, she could not risk being out on the trail in the middle of the day. She could hear rifles in the distance and the faint cries of people, no, monsters. No person would bring this upon themselves and others. Ai Lien never knew why the war started in the first place, but she did know that whatever it was, it was not worth all of this pain and torment. 

A few hours passed and finally, it was night. Ai Lien carried the bicycle out of the forest towards the trail, careful as to not make even the slightest noise. One wrong move, one snap of a twig, one crunch of a leaf and that would be the end of her. After a few minutes she was on the trail, pedalling off into the night. 

It was not long before the sun started to rise on the horizon. The sounds of gunfire had quietened down. Ai Lien pedalled off into the forest again when the bicycle ran over something. She looked behind her and to her horror it was a body covered in fresh blood. Fear turned to disgust as she realised it was a Pathet Lao soldier. She felt a bit ashamed at her reaction to the body, they were still human after all. Were they? Could a human really do all of this and still be considered a fellow human? Ai Lien paid her respects to the soldier and pedalled further off into the forest.

Each time Ai Lien laid down to rest, she noticed the soreness in her broken leg and the growl of her stomach getting worse. Now her leg was in so much pain that it almost felt as if it were screeching at her. She knew that she had to stay strong, to survive. However, there was always that little voice in the back of her head, saying it might not be so bad to just let it all go. Telling her that no one would miss her, that her mother is dead and her father obviously did not care enough to stay.

The sun rose yet again and Ai Lien thought to herself that no matter what she would rise again as sure as the rising sun. And rise she did, determined more than ever to get to her grandparents’ village in Vietnam and find her father. She put all her might into pedalling down the trail. After a few hours the sun started to set, but she did not stop for it. Nothing was going to stop her. She pedalled past all the bodies and villages mutilated and massacred. 

After more grueling days of pedalling down Ho Chi Minh trail she saw a familiar sight coming up on the horizon. It was her grandparents’ village. The site of the My Lai massacre.