Member-only story
Sunrise
A short story
It was all for the pride of England, or so I thought. No more wars. No more wars. Peace forever. I really believed it, can you imagine? After all who would be mad enough to start another one after all…this? If it really had been the war to end all wars then there may have been some meaning to it all, something to have clung onto. Just maybe. The waste wouldn’t be complete waste not if…
And then came the day.
*
‘Shoot wide,’ Shorty whispered in his ear.
They never talked about their duties after that day. What was there to say? And when it was done they ate their bully beef rations in silence. Alf found it hard. He guessed they all did. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking and he didn’t want the others to see. So he ate little and drove his hands deep in to his pockets.
*
The war was popular when I signed up. The country was full of it. All that glory, honour and sacrifice stuff. They got the last bit right. But it was before I knew what sacrifice really meant. In the papers it sounded something different. Like it was all about the cheers of the crowds at the train stations, the flag wagging, the hugs, all that kissing. It had to be right. All of it. We never bloody knew. None of us did. Never bloody knew.
