Creative Writing: The Army

The next minute I felt a hand on my shoulder completely pulling me like a ragdoll back into the ditch. I could still hear the agony in the dead soldier’s voice. Then Larry exclaimed, “GET YOURSELF TOGETHER HAYES!” and began to listen to Lt. Arthur on what to do next. They were shooting at us from a small farmhouse to our northeast. All around us was as flat ground so we needed a diversion. Cover fire was ordered and we began to approach a bundle of trees near the farm house. Still recovering from the horror, I just witnessed, I ran for my life to a nearby tree where we were supposed to take cover.

If you have ever been in one of the branches of services then you know that it will not be good news when people in uniform come to your house. Two people in uniform come to Justin’s house which is where most of the setting takes place (top row, middle picture). “Soldiers at the door could only mean one thing…..Kyle.” “What had happened to him? Had he been hurt (pg.9)”?

The warm summer breeze was a nice change from yesterday's bitterly cold southerly wind. The sun was shining brightly and the lawn was shimmering green. Charlene was out on the veranda, watching her two babies frolicking around on the grass. Owen, dressed in an army green button-up shirt and knee-skimming shorts, was running around wreaking havoc on the ant nests by the oak tree.

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.

The sun was nowhere to be found the dark clouds combined with ash and smoke blotted out any form of light, destruction was everywhere. Wheat fields were ravaged by fires, and towns were reduced to rubble. The ground that was once dark brown soil was now churned into large masses of mud filled with the stench of death. In the mud trenches and foxholes were dug in which many men inhabited, not by choice but out of pure necessity.

Hi Mom! Hope you're doing well. I'm sorry that I haven't been writing to you in a while, things have just been pretty hectic here. None of us have been getting any sleep around here because we are all stuck in these trenches and are always on guard. Every morning, we'd get up and look around. We always have to stay in the trenches unless our "leader" yelled "Over the top", which means the call to attack.

only for an hour or two but 1 day a green light gas came threw

(G) This war is starting to really affect my men. (C) I understand George but, I cannot give you my men. (G) Yes General I know you can’t and I will not force you. I just ask that you think about it not for me, but for the people. (C) As you wish George, I will think about it but do not get your hopes up. (G) Thank you General and I will not. (C) Your welcome George. How is your wife doing? I haven’t spoken with her in a while. (G) Thank you for asking she is doing just fine I will let her know you asked. (C) So George, what is your next attack plan? (G) I am not fully sure there General, it is as if the British can read my mind. They are always alert on the attacks. I was planning a surprise attack but I am not so sure if I should go on with it now.

At some point, their ears had finally given in to the echoing shots and yells and had dulled to the point where they could barely hear anything at all. The students - cut, bruised and bloodied - lay upon the ground. Dead or hiding. Hoping for mercy, for that’s all they had left to hope for.

machine guns and artillery bring upon the GIs. He jolts back to reality by desperate pleas for

Swords crashed against shields like a field of doors slamming shut in the wind. Arrows whistled through the air; a murder of tiny crows swarming above us vulnerable soldiers. The grunts of men impaled by hafts and sliced open by steel join the cacophony of a battle raging into dusk. Wet warmness would splash across me in response to the dying cries of my comrades as one after another of those we battle would push our shields apart and break the line. The ground was wet and sloppy, dried earth had been turned to slush by a rain that did not fall from the sky. The ground was rendered difficult to manoeuvre through, encumbered by the lifeless figures of soldiers now without the allegiance that lead them to a face in the dirt.

“Hold your fire, men!” the colonel shouted. The two men tumbled into the trenches, both gasping for air. Jonah bolted up from his position to aid his friend.

Jimin wakes up to the sound of explosions and fire. A thousand and some men meet their demise each day, and Jimin prays at night he’s not one of them. The war rages around him, and he gets off the make-shift bed to get changed into his gear to help out. He caps the patterned helmet and looks at himself in the mirror. His reflection stares back, sad and weary, a youth gone wrong. He smears camouflage onto his face, high on his cheekbones until there is nothing left of him but an empty vessel of war.

“Where were you, soldier?” demands Sergeant Emerson as he raises his rifle. The man’s brown eyes widen with fear, while he searches the soldiers’ faces for someone he knows. Everyone remains rigid, but out of the corner of my eye I notice a

I feel a cold chill as I slide my helmet down my greasy black hair. As I rub my right hand over the smooth metal of my handgun. I listen to the crashing water bashing into the side of the boat. Suddenly it stops, to create an eerie silence. We’re here. I kneel down and tighten the laces of my boots. As I let go of the laces, I realise that my hands are shaking unbearably. I still can’t believe that this is happening and a part of me wishes that I was back home or that I could just stay on the boat as everyone else invades Cobblers Bay. The sound of the heavy thud of boots echoes throughout the room as my comrades climb up the ladder. Christian quietly sobs as we prepare are gear. We met at school and have been friends ever since. He never wanted to join the army but he had no other choice as he was a conscript like me.