The Night The Bombs Fell
The bombs fell that night. Not many but enough to kill the unknown, including me and anyone who knew me. After tonight, it’ll be like I never existed.
My family wasn’t with me that night, in fact, they would never be with me or I with them again. It had all happened one night about a week ago, mum and dad had said that I must go to Melinda’s house and stay there. I had tried to argue with them, but they over powered me so I left, not realising that this would be the last time I would see my parents alive. So went to my best friend in the world, Melinda. It was later I found out that my parents had been killed. They were the richest family in the town, so they had a lot of food. I had just finished off my third bowl of vegetable soup, when the air raid siren went. This was normal; the air raid sirens went off at least once a day. We crawled under the huge, oak dining table to the shelter underneath. This was a top class bomb shelter, with a two metre thick steel wall and roof, buried about three metres under the house. The house was, in fact, built over the shelter. We crawled down to the shelter and sat huddled on the carpeted floor. Melinda leaned over and whispered to me,
“When do you think the bombs will fall?” I shrugged and held her hand. The shelter shook as a bomb fell nearby. Melinda shivered with scaredness. Melinda’s mother, Ms Patrick, cursed the Germans under her breath, though it was loud enough for me and Melinda to hear. The walls shook again, shaking dust from the nooks and crannies of the small shelter. Melinda and I huddled together on the bottom bunk; I squeezed her hand when another bomb fell, this time directly on the house next to us. I hated those Germans, though, I guess I had no real reason to hate; they were just following orders, blinded by Hitler’s crazy dream. I shivered with frustration and hate for the man that killed my loved ones, if he was a man at all.
Night had fallen, and the bombs had quietened down. We crept up to see what damage had been made. When we reached the surface, Mel pointed out that all the windows had shattered from the blast of the bomb next door.
“Stay here, girls. I’m just going to see if anyone from next door survived.” Ms Patrick told us with fear in her voice. When she walked to the door, she stumbled a bit but kept her balance and carried on strongly. I didn’t blame her; her husband of twenty years had just recently passed away, killed in a bunker not far from Gallipoli. This war was affecting everyone. While Ms Patrick was inspecting the damage next door, Mel and I were clearing all her toys and special items from her room as all her windows had blown in. Mel was sniffing silently into her stuffed Koala bear that her dad had brought back from Australia. I pulled her to a nearby seat and wrapped my arms around her shuddering body.
“It’ll be okay, we’ll get out of this. I know you miss your dad and one day you’ll join him up in heaven, but not today.” It was the longest sentence I’d ever said. Mel looked up at me and smiled.
“You’re right. We have to be strong.” Mel hugged me tight. We had both lost loved ones in less than a month from this stupid war.
We had just finished hugging each other when the siren went off again. Now this was unusual because the siren never went off twice in a day. It meant only one thing. The planes had turned around. My blood turned cold. Mel looked at me shocked. Her mother was still at the neighbours, there was no way she’d make it back here in time. I went to grab Mel’s shirt so I could drag her back into the shelter, but she was gone. I looked outside only to find Mel running for her life towards the neighbour’s house that held her mum. By now planes had begun to fly over dropping a bomb every twenty seconds. But what could I do? I had two options. Hide in the shelter or go after her. It was a quick decision. I bolted from the front door, running down the crater filled dirt road, dodging the shrapnel that flew out of nearby houses. I was nearly out of breath when I reached the debris that was once a house. I walked into the shell of the house and looked around. There was Mel and her Mother. Lying lifeless on the ground, standing over them was a man in German uniform reloading a gun. By now tears were streaming down my dust covered face leaving a little path. I tried to scream but I couldn’t get the words to come out. The man, seeing that I was a problem, pointed his reloaded gun at me and fired.
When he fired the gun, everything seemed to move in slow motion. I saw the gun fire but I couldn’t move. I managed to twist to the side, but I caught the bullet in my shoulder. I yelped in pain and fell squirming to the ground. He had missed my heart this time, but now I knew I was going to die. I couldn’t yell or scream and now I could hardly walk because of the pain. He walked over to me and pointed the barrel of the gun to my heart,
“Auf Wiedersehen” He whispered in a menacing voice, and fired. It was over quickly, I suddenly realised that nobody would ever know who I was or what my name was. I would forever be known as the girl found murdered in cold blood by a German. At least now I would be with my parents...
