One Shots

December 1941

I wrote this in high school for a class assignment and got an A+ on it :) hope you like it 

December, 1941

I woke up to the sound of gunfire above me; I looked out my window to see Japanese flying above us. The other nurses and I ran down to the hospital, the Japanese were shooting at us as, we ran as fast as we could. We finally made it to the hospital. We ran in and took everything we could grab; we had to move some patients away from the window so they wouldn’t get hit by the gun fire.

Men walked in with horrible wounds. Men everywhere some of them boys, crying and yelling from the pain. I was wishing this all was a nightmare, but it wasn’t it was too real. Panic went through my whole body. I heard another nurse yell “Emma, Emma I need your help” I looked down to see a boy no younger than 18. All I could do is look at him, tears came to my eyes, and all I could say to the poor boy was “You will be okay soon” tears were falling down my cheeks. This poor boy was going to die; he had lost too much blood. I moved on to the next person he grabbed my wrist “Please help me the pain is too much, please help me” he said with tears falling down his cheeks. I didn’t know what to do so I gave him morphine to help with the pain. The whole time I was helping this man I was shaking out of fear and sadness and panic.

A doctor had told me to go clear a spot in the kitchen right away because we didn’t have enough room anywhere else to put people. As I ran down to the kitchen I saw this boy screaming and crying in pain. I cleared a spot on the kitchen counter and ran back out, as I was running back I saw a man being carried by two other men. “Ma’am, Ma’am, please help him he was hit on the side of his head.” One of them said. I took my stethoscope and put it on his chest, I didn’t hear a hear beat, I looked at the men “I’m sorry but he is dead.”

“Nurse” I heard someone yelling, It was a doctor, “I need you to get water for this man, when you get the water I need you to apply it to his burns” the doctor said, I got the water and went back to the man who was in the bed, half of his body was burned from a bomb explosion. As I sat helping this young man I could hear gunfire, explosions, even screaming. I began to cry.

A doctor ran in “Emma I need you to go outside and mark people with F for fatal and C for critical.” “Doctor no I-I can’t do that.” I stuttered “You have to, take your lipstick and mark people now. Go!” I ran outside, with every step I was more and more frightened to go outside. I saw men and boys covered in blood and burns, screaming, yelling and crying coming from every direction; my head was spinning.

I saw a boy crying “I want to go home, I don’t want to die! I want to go home” the boy cried. I said “You will be home soon.” I put an F on his forehead. He wasn’t going to make it, he had lost too much blood I wish I could have done more to help, I can still hear the screaming of men in pain.   

“What do you do when you have ran out of tears”- June Wandrey