World War Love part 2

November 12, 1942, 2:31 am

It’s quiet. There was no sound, nobody would have heard anything. It’s now dark, my brain ended my wonderful dream and brought me back to the boring reality. I forcefully open my eyes to darkness; my eyelids feel very heavy. That’s the end of my dream. I slowly turn my head to the clock on the side of bed. The clock reads 2:29 am. It takes me a full two minutes for me to realize that I need to go back to sleep so I close my eyes and turn my body so I’m laying on my ribcage. It’s one of my most comfortable positions.

My face feels more relaxed now that I’ve closed my eyes, I have to wait 3 and a half hours before I have to officially wake up. I hope those three and a half hours last more like 6 hours or even 7. A couple minutes has passed and I hear the ground crunch under a group of peoples feet, and I hear them talking. I can’t make out what they said because of my sleepy, loopy head from being tired. I get up and get dressed and put my shoes on to go find out why the heck people are up at 2:31 am. Maybe it’s an early morning jog or someone wants an early start to their day. That has happened lots of times before. Both of which I despise. Or it could be some people using the bathroom, but nonetheless, I’m going to check out anyway. 

I walk to pass the tent doors and make my way to the back of the woods where I heard the trail of people talking go off to. Weirdly, the group of people I heard chattering just disappeared. Where did they go? Now I’m more worried than concerned. I tried a different route to see if they went the other way but I got the same result. I walk back to my tent, but the next thing I know my shoulder blade is burning and a splintering feeling enters through the area that the bullet hit. The gunshot echoed across the entire camp and even went out into the woods. I fall on my knees and hold my shoulder with my right hand, I grunt trying not to scream so I don’t alarm anyone. Everyone is scrambling, I hear shuffling and the scared tones in people's voices as they talk to one another about what that gunshot was.

I drag my whole body across the ground, my tent is only a few feet away and then I’ll be safe inside where there’s help. Another shot gets fired into my hip, I had the same feeling like the shot in my shoulder but two times worse. I felt the bullet pierce my hip bone and the skin opening up and dark red blood flowing out. This time I scream and turn over on my back, I can’t feel the rocky ground or even hear my friends walk out of the tent to see if I’m ok. All I can think about is the pain, this, this is the worst pain I’ve felt in my entire life. Nothing that I had ever done before could compare to the two gunshot wounds in my body. It only took me two seconds to start listening to the questions that someone is asking me.  

“Ava! What happened? Ava, do you hear me!” I look to see Logan asking me that. I hesitate to answer him, answering would cause more blood to come out and I’ll die faster. I start to tear up thinking that I’ll die and Logan will watch me die right in front of him, all because of my curious mind. I yank Logan's jacket out of his hand and start to wrap it tightly around my hip, adding pressure to the wound would at least let me live for another few hours. After understanding what to do, Logan helps me with my shoulder by taking Marcus’ jacket and ripping half of it to use as a bandage. At first Marcus is mad that his ‘favorite’ jacket is ruined but he understands that I need it more than him. Logan helps me up and I wrap my arm around his neck to hold support.

“I don’t know what happened, I heard chattering so I came out to investigate and the next thing I knew, I’ve been shot in my shoulder, and then my hip.” My words come out as a whisper almost. I grunt again as I feel more blood gush out of my wound holes. 

“Did you see the person who shot you?” He doesn’t even look at me, he’s leading me to the back part of the camp. 

“No” I hurl over losing my balance and I fall on my knees once more. Logan tries to pull me up again but I wave him away telling him that I can get up myself and he should go help the others. Trustingly he nods and runs to go save our friends from the invaders. I slowly stand up barely able to keep my balance. I hobble to the weapons tent, I need a weapon if I’m going to defend myself. I grab a hand gun and start to load the gun while hearing men scream, and shots being fired. I’m trying to load the gun as quickly as I can but I dropped the bullet holder many times, completely ignoring that I’ve been shot. 

As soon as I loaded the gun I walked out the tent and immediately I fire at an oncoming man who was going to fire at me as well. I limped over to the man to see who he was. I look at his chest plate to see a badge with a hooked cross designed on it. Nazis. What are they doing all the way over here? I thought Hitler was in Ukraine fighting the Soviets. I guess it doesn’t matter, the Nazi’s have attacked us and they won’t stop until we’re all dead. I continue to limp hiding behind tent after tent shooting Nazi after Nazi. On my trip to the general, I see more and more of my soldiers die, some are suffering from wounds much like me. 

I walk, at a steady pace, to a crowd of Nazi’s that have grouped up together and start to fire at every single one of them. I got a nice start by already killing at least 5 or 6. I duck under a table as the Nazi’s have found out that I was shooting at them. I look past the table and I see some of my camp mates come to the rescue. I let them take over and I ran across the field and all the way to where Commander Jones is. 

“Smith, what happened to you?” He asks as he already saw my wounds.

“I’ve been shot. Twice” I point my gun at the Nazi’s who were approaching our trucks. I watch some of our men run away into the woods away from the fight. Cowards. An idea pops into my head, it’s crazy and reckless but I think it’ll work.

“Commander I have an idea, you may not like it but I think it’ll scare them out” I don’t even look at him all I see is my target, the dynamite. 

“What’s your plan Smith?” He ducks down to reload his gun, I move in a comfortable place that I can sprint.

“I can’t tell you, I have to go now” I yell through the loud noise of guns shooting and men screaming. 

“Alright, this better work” He finishes loading his gun and gets back into shooting our enemy. I take a couple seconds to prepare myself then I lift my feet off the blood covered ground and run like I’m holding my heart in my hand and I’m trying not to drop it. I dodge the Nazi soldiers and their fire arms by running into the woods to cover myself, I can’t be seen in the dark. I make it to the trucks in about 25 seconds but I’m greeted by 4 Nazi soldiers standing guard over the dynamite. I quickly aim at one of the soldiers and shoot right through their head. Then the next and the next until all of them are dead. 

I get up off my knees and I grab a bag and start to fill that bag with piles of dynamite. If we’re going to number them down we need a big explosion. And good old dynamite will do just that. After I’m done stuffing my huge bed I grab a pack of matches and run to the north side of the camp where I was shot. I continue to run in the woods hoping that no one can see me even if it’s my own team, this has to work or else we all die.

I arrived at my tent and ran to the spot where I saw the Nazi soldier, but instead of stopping there I kept going on. The soldiers keep on coming, they must have come from somewhere. They had set up a base just outside the borders of the camp so I sneak behind one of their tents and start to set up the dynamite. It’s hard to set the dynamite in place when it keeps slipping through my sweaty hands. I wipe my hands on my outfit and continue to set up the dynamite in a triangle like pyramid style. After I finish and grab a match out of the box and swipe it once. It doesn’t light, so I swipe a second time. It still didn’t light, so I tried the third time and a small bright red light forms on the tip of the match. I point the match down to the string of the dynamite and I get up and run as fast as I have ever ran in my life. 

I’m just stepping into the open space of camp as I hear a splintering loud echoing noise like thunder travel across the camp. I fall down so the debris doesn’t hit me and injure me further. I look up and see trees, dirt, rocks, and pieces of the Nazi base camp fly into my camp and onto both U.S and German soldiers. I watch as the wood from the trees pierce their stomachs and their legs, and rocks pelting their heads. After the noise has died down I got up and started shooting any breathing Nazis. I start to look for my own soldiers, I have been successful and found some on the ground injured. I picked up the injured soldiers and led them to a larger group of soldiers that were near the radio station. I look past Rob's bloody head and see other soldiers carrying injured or dead soldiers to the same spot as I’m headed.

Once I make it to the circle, I drop Rob with the others and immediately the nurses come and care for him, dabbing his wounds with a wet towel. I go off to find Logan but can’t see him anywhere. I start to panic and run around the west side of the camp where I think he’ll be, but I arrive and find no one except dead Nazis on the ground with blood flowing out of their wounds. Before I can call Logan's name, I feel a bullet shoot through my stomach. My breathing is cut off, oxygen is no longer in my lungs and carbon dioxide is not leaving it either. I fall on my back and try to breathe, I try to use my nose but my nose won’t inhale the air. Everything started to slow down, my body doesn’t feel like it needs the oxygen, and my image of the lake is blurry. No no no no… I’m dying. That’s the only explanation. My sight of the world starts to slowly fade away until there’s nothing but darkness. 

June 15, 1997 2:55 pm

“What happened!” Izzy jumps from her spot on the couch and looks at me with wide eyes.

“Well, I passed out” I smiled slightly knowing that she doesn’t understand the situation.

“But you said that everything slowed down and you blacked out. That means you're dead” She jumps around on the couch, a sign that she’s stressed and doesn’t understand the whole situation. 

“I know, I thought I was dead but someone came to save me and I’m alive because of them.” I rub my hand against the back of Izzy’s head to hopefully calm her anxiety down so I can finish the story. 

“I have to use the bathroom real quick” Izzy says to me while hopping off the couch. 

“Ok”. I watch her until she’s out of my sight. That’s when I started to think about that little German boy. He was so innocent. Forced into a war that he should not be a part of, but I’m because if not for him, I wouldn’t be here with my granddaughter, and she would not have existed. A couple minutes pass by and I hear the door to the bathroom open. Izzy races past the corner and jumps on the couch ready for me to continue the story.

November 26, 1942 2:58 pm

I feel something tight around my abdomen, and it hurts like hell. I lift my heavy eyelids to blinding bright light and an empty room. I prop my elbows on the bed and lift myself up grunting from the pain. My eyes have finally adjusted to the lighting and I look around the unfamiliar room. Where am I? The anxiety inside me starts to rise and my breathing is unsteady. I spin my legs around the edge of the bed and I push myself off using all the strength I have left in my arms. 

I travel around the room holding my abdomen and lump on my only good leg, my left. All the windows were covered with thick brown blankets that we used as tarps when we were at the camp. Sweat starts to form on my face, a sign that I’m getting worked up. I see U.S flags so I know that I wasn’t abducted from the Nazis. I hear the door knob wiggle and the door creaks open and I watch General Eisenhower, Commander Jones, Logan, and a little boy walk in through the door.  

“Glad to see you're up and walking again Smith” Jones tips his head down.

“I’m glad you recovered well, we just came to talk to you about the attack a couple weeks ago” A couple weeks?! General Eisenhower walks over to the armchair right next to me. He motions for me to sit on the other arm chair to the left of me. I do as he says and slowly and painfully sit down while Logan, Jones and the little boy sit on the couch. 

“I’m going to ask a few questions, this will be all over before you know it. '' I turn my head and make eye contact with him. 

“Ok” I nod.

“The first sound that I heard before the attack was a scream. Were you the one who screamed?” 

“Yes sir, I was shot in the shoulder and then the hip” I look over at Logan and see him smiling at me. I smile back. I wish I could thank the person who saved me.

“What you did was reckless and dangerous. You didn’t ask permission to use the dynamite, I hope you know how many of our soldiers you injured or killed” He leans over and looks me in the eye.

“Yes sir I do, but I did what I thought would save us” I just know he’s going to send me home and never allow me back into the army. The leaders told us the punishment for committing actions without any commands. I won’t get to see Logan again.

“You did the right thing, I’m glad you did what you did. You saved a lot of people” The General leans back in his chair and Commander Jones gives the biggest smile I have ever seen him give.

“Excuse me?” What does he mean? I broke the the rules, I should be punished.

“During a War, there are no rules and the people who are teaching you to follow rules are stupid. During a fight, everyone must do reckless things to win. You thought outside the box and that is what a soldier needs to win” I can’t believe that a General is telling me that it’s ok to break the rules.

“The explosion wiped out 90% of the Nazis that were attacking us, our soldiers were just out of reach so only 2% of ours were killed. It could have killed you to. The one thing that really hurt us was the camp was destroyed. All our radios and supplies were blown up” The guilt I have for hurting my group, a part of me wishes I didn’t use the bomb. But the past is in the past.

“After the explosion, some of my men went to look for survivors, but they reported that they saw a little German boy dragging a grown person” He points to the little boy that I saw walk in earlier. He saved me. I guess not all Nazis are evil. I owe this boy my life, I hope he gets rewarded for his good deed. 

The last bit of the story will be posted in "Write about a character who doesn't want to go to sleep" because the end of my story is long.