Galaxies (phan oneshot collection)

No Bravery

               

Description: Inspiration taken from Danny Pink from Doctor Who. Soldier!Phil turned Teacher!Phil as his flashback. This is a short one.

I'd recommend watching/listening to the music video/song above before you read the chapter.

Word count: 642

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

"Mr. Lester, have you ever killed a man?" A student called to me from across the classroom. The other students went silent, eager to hear the answer and see my response to such a bold question.

"I was a soldier in the army, there were other soldiers, enemy soldiers." I responded. "With war comes casualties. Next time find another question to ask." I finished, looking back down at my marking and scanning the essay.

"Okay. Have you ever killed someone who wasn't a soldier?" He replied. My eyes were no longer focused on the words written on the paper in my hand they were remembering the scene from all those years ago.

***

The dry earth was covered in shrapnel, broken bricks and dust. I walked over the damage, careful to not twist my ankle on the pieces jutting out of the ground. The bombs had gone off not too long ago, destroying enough buildings and killing enough people for it to be safe for us to enter on foot. I ran into a building, the glass panel, which was now shattered, made me think it had been a convenience store before it had been destroyed. The glass crunched under my boots, dust was floating through the air and settling on the cracked floor, strewn with foreign items.

I heard a small cough, someone was choking from the dust. I had a mask over my face to protect myself both from the dust and the toxic fumes the bomb let out, so the dust didn't affect me. I was still holding my weapon out straight looking for any sign of the enemy.

A movement to the side of me caught my eye and I immediately spun around to see what it was, and hopefully catch my enemy before he could target me. But I didn't see an enemy soldier.

I saw a boy, who looked only a few years younger than me, huddled on the floor leaning against the shop counter. He was in some sort of uniform, perhaps he'd worked here, and was flinching away from me, trying to shield himself.

"P-p-please." He mumbled, his eyes soft brown eyes flickering to mine for a moment, pleading for me to spare his life. A tear streaked down his face, leaving a clean line on his dirty face. Bits of dust and broken drywall had settled in his brown hair, which was flopping over his face.

I held my gun out straight, aimed at his face, and pulled the trigger. I watched as the back of his head was blown clean off due to the proximity, the force of the bullet ripping through him and killing him in an instant. I looked around the room and felt comfortable in the knowledge that there were no more enemies here. I stepped over the boy's lifeless body, my boots squelching in the blood and bits of splattered brain now trickling into the dusty floor. The sun streaking through the shattered window hit something metallic on the floor, making it glisten slightly even through the thick layer of dust. I crouched down and scooped up the small silver badge before it was engulfed in the pool of blood growing larger and larger at my feet. Wiping the dust away with my thumb I saw a little black word engraved in the metal: Dan.

I hadn't expected a name so similar to the ones used at home. I'd expected some foreign, exotic name, and if I'm honest reading something so similar made my stomach sit a little uneasy. I'd known Dan's and Daniel's in my life before, they weren't bad people, they weren't enemies.

I stuffed the badge in my jacket pocket and marched out of the broken shop, in search of the next enemy, not looking back at the bloody corpse with his life splattered across the broken floor.