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WAKING UP WAS NEVER EASY FOR LOUISE. Especially when the world around her was rocking at an unsteady pace. Louise groaned, her body fidgeting around the uncomfortable hard mattress that she laid on. She flung a pale arm over her eyes, trying to coax herself back to sleep but the loud shouting of the Scottish head nurse emitting from behind the door, telling the herd of nurses to wake up, caused her to sigh deeply.
Louise twisted her neck to the side to see Viola and Carey groggily sitting up in their bunk bed, both clearly not having the best sleep either. "Hello, loves," Louise mumbled towards her two sisters. Viola flopped back into her pillow, her groan being muffled by the cushion. Carey and Louise softly giggled at the sight of their sister-in-law. "Sleep well, ay, Vi?" Louise continued to tease playfully, finally stepping out of the thick blanket that was somehow classed as a duvet.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Viola grumbled, pushing her thick black hair away from her face, trying the curls into a messy ponytail for the meantime. "See you're feeling better, Lou, yeah?"
"Yeah," Carey spoke through a muffled yawn from behind her hand. "You're looking peachy, as mam would say," Carey chuckled, her voice dipping to impersonate their mother.
Louise laughed, stripping from her pink nightgown and into her blue nursing uniform. "Waking up wasn't the best feeling in the world, but I think once all the soldiers get here, I'll have something important to distract myself with," She spoke as she tightly pulled her brown tresses into a taut ponytail before placing her white nursing cap unto the crown of her head, adorned with a red cross in the middle of the crisp material. She slipped into her black shoes, tying them quickly before turning back to her sisters, seeing they were both nearing the end of their changing process.
The whole group of nurses stepped out of their small bunker onto the main deck to see they were close to a dock - already at Dunkirk.
"Right, ladies," the Scottish head nurse declared, standing in front of her troop. "These boys have been through hell and back and are thankful to be alive. However, the boys that will be stepping on board this vessel are injured. It is your duty as trained nurses to heal these boys. Both physically and mentally. Every day you go to see your patients, I expect a smile to be on all of your faces. Try your best to distract them from the horrors that they have seen. It the least we can do for the sacrifices they were put through. Understood, ladies?"
All the nurses nodded, agreeing silently with their leader. The ship stopped at the wooden dock and the Commander of the British fleet wasted no time into pushing all of the medics and injured men on board. All nurses rushed into action, yet Louise was held back. She turned her head to see the Scottish nurse holding onto her forearm. "You feeling better, duckie?"
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you," Louise swiftly smiled. Truthfully, she was feeling better now that she could be distracted from her fears and her stomach had stopped churning.
The nurse nodded, letting Louise go, ushering her off to aid the soldiers.
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The wounded soldiers from Dunkirk were now all below deck in the makeshift medic area. Each nurse was assigned3 to 4 soldiers to look after. Louise was selected to four very different men. A 29-year-old man with sandy blonde hair, a lanky build and large ears called Samuel. A 25-year-old man with a ginger buzzcut, a bulky, muscular build and thousands of freckles littering across his face and shoulders named Finneas. Then the youngest. He said he was 21 years of age, but the slightly higher pitch in his voice and innocent eyes told Louise that he had lied so he could be drafted. He had a mop of brown curly hair, dark skin and large brown eyes. He couldn't be more than 18-years-old. His name was Edward, but he preferred Eddie. And finally the oldest. He was 35 years old. He had a sharp jawline, bright blue eyes and messy dark brown hair. His name was Murphy.
Samuel had three bullet wounds, two in his shoulder and one in his leg. Finneas had a concussion, a massive bloody gash splitting across his pale forehead and a few broken ribs. Eddie had a broken leg and arm and a shrapnel wound in his chest, dangerously close to his heart and lungs, but thankfully far enough to not be completely deathly if treated properly. Murphy had a terrible fever and a horrid case of PTSD, and to top it off a few shrapnel wounds scattered across his chest and legs.
Louise had split her day equally between the four men. The second she discovered who her patients were, she worked quickly yet carefully to reduce the pain for each of them. Thankfully, the medics and nurses had arranged for each nurse's patients to be situated together so the chaos in the makeshift hospital was diminished.
After spending her morning with Samuel, her noon with Finneas and afternoon with Eddie, she off to spend her evening with Murphy. Murphy was the coldest and most distant of her patients, but that certainly did not deter her from her duty.
The other boys were more than grateful for their nurse's work. Samuel was calm, Finneas was flirtatious and Eddie was sweet. Yet Murphy was broken, angry and explosive. He would make snarky remarks to Louise as she worked with her other patients, declaring her work was not good enough and that all her patients - him included - would die. Although the words boiled under her skin, Louise ignored his harsh critiques, only offering him a tight yet calm smile and his medicine, then proceeding to read him a week-old newspaper, then saying goodnight to him, moving to the other sleepy soldiers to do the same.
After she and the other nurses had finished for the day to be replaced by the night medics, they had all moved back to their bunker across from the medical area. Louise huffed, flopping down onto her mattress face first. It was the first day and she was already fed up with a certain patient. Viola noticed and moved over to sit on the edge of her mattress, running a hand up and down her back. "You alright, love?" Viola mumbled, turning towards Carey, who was in the process of stripping from her uniform, with a worried expression.
"It's just one of my patients was a right dickhead. Wouldn't stop telling me I was a shit nurse," Louise mumbled into her pillow loudly enough for her sisters to hear.
"You gotta remember that some are bound to be irritated. Plus, by afternoon tomorrow, they'll all be transferred to a hospital and out of our hair unless we get moved with them," Carey mumbled the last part of the small speech, not wanting to ruin her older sister's mood further.
Louise went to speak again, but the horrid screeching sound of a plane's engine roared overhead the vessel. All the nurses in the room stilled, hearing the dreaded sound and hoping not to hear much else afterwards. But they were wrong. The sound of a distant bomb hitting the water near their ship.
The next few moments were hectic. All the nurses and medics rushed to the medic area to get all the soldiers out from below deck.
Louise rushed to her four patients. She hurried to carefully usher all soldiers out from their beds. She moved Eddie first - moving the soldier who would need the most help with getting up first. She supported Eddie's frail frame, ushering Murphy to help her move Finneas and Samuel. Once all the soldiers were up and aware of the current situation, everyone tried to file out of the area at once, creating a panic that made Louise tremble slightly as she tenderly held onto Eddie.
No matter how many prayers she could've mutter under her breath at that moment, there was nothing that could have saved her and the other poor souls in the ship when the first bomb hit them.
