Page 53 - Cornice Grade 8

Survival Story
Surviving the World
l Samyam Narsingh Sharma l
The guns blazed leaving behind smoke and an
odd smell of gunpowder in the air. Sam raised his
head a little then ducked as soon as he did ,just in
time to dodge a bullet. It had now been…. what?
About 2 months? Since he had joined the war ef-
fort. It had probably been longer than that but
he would know as all the day seemed to blend
in after a while.Tauts also started growing on
his back causing him major back pain.The days
had now grown boring.This was due to all the
days being similar. Waking up, brushing, eating,
killing people. Well everything except the kill-
ings seemed normal, but as soon as you ran into
the trenches the entire ambience changed. The
trenches smelt of death and everyone knew why.
Maybe 1 out of 5 people that went to the trenches
survived and death was now just a normal oc-
currence. Diseases were also very common in
the trenches due to the enormous rat population
there and also because cleanliness was the least
of the soldiers priorities when their lives were on
the line. Sam was very tired of the fighting. Sam’s
family had a history in the army. His grandfather
had been a captain in the Italo-Turkish wars. His
father had fought as a lieutenant in the great war
and now here he was fighting in the second great
war.He wouldn’t even have joined this war if his
father hadn’t forced him to, and now that he had
he hated every moment of it. Each day Sam spent
more time thinking about leaving all this than
actually fighting. He probably would have hated
even more if he had been as-
signed somewhere cold in
Europe but he had been lucky
in that aspect with being as-
signed to the Philippines. It
was quite nice here actually.
It was a bit humid but beggars
can’t be choosers. He thought
that he would actually have
liked the place if he came here
on a holiday but, fighting here
was also very hard.
Few days passed by and Sam actually took his
military life seriously.The captain sent him to
complete an actual mission. Sam was select-
ed to lead a mission to scout enemy territory.
Sam was horrified as soon as he was informed
of this. He couldn’t even sleep that night think-
ing about what might happen in the jungle.The
next morning Sam woke up without a shred of
sleep. And only with sheer courage was he able
to face his captain and say goodbye with the 20
men he led. Now his battalion was filled with a
bunch of misfits who like Sam were the only ones
left and had no option but to go. To name a few
there was Scaredy Mike who was afraid even of
his own shadow. Big Mart who was well fat. And
then there was Joky Josh who made inappropri-
ate jokes that offended everyone. They trekked
in silence for a long time and Mart was eating
the entire time, Josh saw an opportunity to make
a joke here and he took it. “Why did we bring
the Fatso on the mission? He’s probably going to
finish our supplies in less than a week .They were
on the border of enemy territory and that talking
would draw attention to them. Also they forgot
that Japanese troops were trained Guerilla sol-
diers who noticed even the slightest of changes
in their surroundings. So as they reached the
next clearing to stop for water, they realised that
they were now almost completely surrounded
by the guerilla troops. Seeing no hope in fight-
ing people so used to this environment Sam de-
cided to book it and told the
other soldiers to do the same
as well.The Japanese seemed
to have caught on to that and
open fired spraying their bul-
lets everywhere. Now see how
I said that the clearing was al-
most completely surrounded,
that was because there was
a small area left unchecked
where they could try and run
to. Now here is the catch. That