Creative Writing: Quiet Kill By Jane Smiley

Right now I’m in these trenches writing a heart-filled letter for y’all. But these unbearable conditions have been unsettling to me. Everytime I want to get away from the gruesome war, I think about you. The shots of the machine guns, getting exposed to mustard gas, and having to see my fellow soldiers having to deal with trench foot, all makes me feel hopeless of me staying alive. All day and night, we had to be on the lookout. Planes from the sky makes us vulnerable for air attacks. All aside from all of those problems, the one main goal is to one day find my horse Joey. Maybe both of us will somehow meet me once again during or after the war. I’m very sorry to you guys if I don’t make it home alive, but I’m going to make a big promise, never in a day or night, will I forget about you guys.

"9.5 billion people killed during the initial start of the War of Nations,also known as "The Great Bombing Raid", over the next 4 year, millions more became sick with radiation poisoning and died while those that..." the history professor said as he droned on about how everything came about. Ariella let out of sigh of boredom tapping her pencil against the notebook in front of her. She had already read through the whole entire course book already learning that the war had created two separate races the "Ningen" and the "Senshi" which were enemies since the Senshi could shapeshift into certain animals and the Ningen couldn't.

War is unforgiving. He’s seen the bodies scattered around the fields, hastily buried in shallow graves before they begin to fester and rot. He’s seen them shot down before him, bodies hitting the ground and sinking into the mud- whether friend or foe, it matters not. They’ll all die here in the end. All he can do is wait it out, pray to survive until at least this war is over, and return home to a life of suppressing the memories and forgetting the images of men wiped out and dying, forgotten, in these turgid pits of death.

I heard it. Beneath the ground, behind the walls I heard it. Echoing screams of sorrow, visions of the dead, a wildfire of disease, a contagious Earth. The scattered debris of humanity’s tallest skyscrapers crumbled in heaps of stone. The splintered glass of humanity’s greatest architectural feats laid scattered in on the roads. The canvas of humanity’s greatest artworks scraped beyond recognition and laid defeated. This was our future. Nothing could’ve prevented it.

Francis Dougherty here reporting live from the World War One battlefield on the French countryside on this scorching hot summer afternoon. I have been told that the British are planning an ambush on the Germans any minute now so I am here to get an inside look at all the action. This warm weather is providing a very hot and dry sensation today. Looking around right now you can see long trenches stretching across the horizon like a slithering snake. If you look closely you can also see clusters of barbed wire dotted across what the soldiers call, “no man’s land.” Well will you look at that, off in the distance you can see the British Cavalry making their way towards us. Any second they are going to takeoff into a full sprint, coming in fast

Of all the murders and crimes the police have been able to figure out they still haven't figured out one. All the killings are from one man, every single death, all in the Mayberry Forest, was by a knife. Mayberry being the town that owned that part of the forest back in the 1950’s.

A dark and smoky gray night fell over the green grass. An old lamp at the end of an overused power cord of a wooden pole was swinging in the wind. It lit up the surroundings of the construction and printed my moving shadow on the wall behind me. In the half-light of dusk, I walked out of the ruins that minimally protected me from the wrath of the RPF and showed my face to a fire-breathing dragon. I walked into a thick and wet mist that linked up with the wind to whisper ghostly oohs in my ears. I was scared and my legs trembled. Under the dim light, I could not see anything. The smoking of the war clouded the roof of the region and the cold breeze spread an odor of blood and brought the moans of dying people. The dense haze covering my vision

On August 21, 2015, a suspected terrorist walked shirtless out of a bathroom on a train traveling to France. He was carrying an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter, and lots of ammunition and he quickly began firing at the people on the train, wounding several. The incident soon had the look of a horrible mass shooting in which there would be dozens of casualties, but then, three American friends and a British man attacked the gunman. They tackled him to the ground but the gunman got out a knife and began slashing at the men, wounding one of them. However, the hero’s on the train choked him into unconsciousness. The total time elapsed was less than 90 seconds.

As his head was against the western sky, he closed his eyes and prayed that he would live to see another day . When he opens his eyes he noticed that his surroundings were still there was no movement what so ever. He unwrapped his arm to get the bullet out his forearm he is forced to suck the bullet out, the Republican sniper had to endure excruciating pain to get the bullet out. He spits out a mouthful of blood and the bullet that fractured his arm, then he wrapped it back up tying it back together with his teeth. He lifted himself out of the rubble and off the ground to look for his enemy but there was no one in sight.

Our bodies are in a “can’t live with you, can’t live without you” relationship with the sun. Too much sun can fatally damage our skin, causing skin cancer, hence the “can’t live with you” part. Meanwhile, all organisms need the sun to live. Humans need the sun for oxygen, which is a result of plants going through a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process that turns carbon dioxide and water to glucose and oxygen, using sunlight. The plants need glucose for energy, while humans need oxygen to breathe. Additionally, natural sunlight helps our bodies create vitamin D and destroy our bodies’ reserves of folic acid. We need a sufficient amount of vitamin D to live but we also need folic acid as well.

“Yep, he’s just in the back, over by the oak tree and that old washer and dryer.”

“In today’s news, a large scale virtual attack has been made on Indonesia. The attacker is unknown.” were the words that rang through millions of televisions in 2024 and nobody thought much of it.

“Get back to the car,” a random guy shouted. I ran back with my father to the car, seeing people burning from the car window. It was so hard to see because of the light. My feelings were messed up, I didn’t know what I felt, sadness, anger, dismay.  People they were getting out of Al Karada mall burning. I was in Baghdad, visiting my cousins. It’s hard to see people dying and you can’t help. As my dad was driving, I had a lot of questions in my mind. Who did that? And why did they do it? Why did they kill innocent people?

“So you know who she is now? After not remembering her when we were children? She lived with you and Valentine until you both turned 8 years old. Father moved her to live with me until she turned 10. That’s when he sent her to Maxine Graymark. Father had Crystal’s memory erased so she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone. That’s when Maxine moved Crystal here. She didn’t want Crystal to be dragged into the Shadow World, but she wanted her to be able to have knowledge of it so she could protect herself. Then that Warlock over there decided to train Crystal how to fight and told her all about the Shadow World. Honestly it saves me a lot of time having to do that myself, but now it will make it harder to continue my plan.” Sebastian says.

I know why you did it. I know how much fun you had. But that doesn't change anything. I'm coming for you, you son of a bitch.