"Knight to B5." I say with a smirk, moving my knight to the square, knocking out the ignorantly-placed queen. I was thought to play chess way younger than I am now, maybe, 4 years old? I was a pro, even after challenge and challenge from my family. My dad grunted in defeat, as I had put multiple of my chess pieces in the way of the King.
"Check!"
"You are way to good at this, Charlotte. You are the chess queen!" My dad says, reaching across the board and booping my nose. I giggle.
"Thanks dad!" He moves his bishop forward defensively. I use my rook to knock it out. He moves his king over one, unknowingly right into the line of movement of my bishop. I move my bishop and take out the king.
"Checkma-"
Just as I was about to claim my victory, a siren rang out, loud enough to drown out all of the other sounds. I sliced through my words and threw away their meaning, bringing forth the more urgent matter at the moment: the Germans were attacking London. The horns blasted through my ears, echoing in my head, distracting me and making me fall off of my wooden chair.
"CHARLOTTE! COME HERE!" I could barely hear my mum's voice over the ringing in my ears and the sirens in the air. I picked myself off of the ground, and my dad grabbed my hand, running through the den and into the hall, rushing to the front door where we saw mum sliding on a jacket and taking an emergency supply bag from the coat rack. She opened the door to a freezing London night. Searchlights swung through the dusty air, catching on giant vessels in the sky, slowly but surely advancing over Britain. Multiple searchlights caught on the closest Zeppelin, revealing it and it's full terror.
I always describe them as giant whales in the sky. The little kids find that humorous, but in reality, the zeppelins were more like giant sharks, swimming through the clouds. The giant, grey vessel moved forward still, blocking out the light of the moon, washing London into artificial light. Two gondolas hung from the bottom of the gargantuan blimp, with guns manned by German soldiers. The bottom of the front gondola split open like a book. Out came giant shells filled with gunpowder. One of them hit the top of a tall building and promptly exploded, emitting light and smoke and fire. Our neighbors and is stood in shell shocked silence. We were jolted awake with the sound of the other shells blasting homes to smithereens.
My mum and dad grabbed my hands and rushed me to a set of concrete doors beside my house. My mum and dad pulled them open, and crawled down the ladder, leaving me alone. My dad landed and looked up at me, extending his arms.
"Come on Char! Jump! Daddy will catch you! I promise!" Suddenly death by splaying on the ground seemed a lot better than a bomb. I hesitated a little, but then I jumped into the concrete shaft, free falling straight into my father's waiting arms. My dad set me with my mum and climbed back up the ladder, pulling the concrete doors closed with a heavy thud. My mum groped around above her for a chain. She pulled it, and a single light on the ceiling lit up, washing the concrete room in yellow light.
Suddenly, a large crash sounded from the ground above. The ground rumbled and shook, loose pieces of cement flying down from the ceiling. My mum took my hand and pulled me into a protective embrace. My dad walked over to us and pulled us into a group hug. We sank to the ground, me sniffling into my moms dress. More thuds echoed out through the city, shaking the dust of the bomb shelter. One final blast broke through the night. It was louder than anything I had ever heard. I heard a crack from the ceiling. I looked up to see a crack spiderwebbing across the ceiling. Pieces broke free, and I could see the sky of flame, of flying sharks that could kill from afar. One chunk hit my father's back, making him cry out in pain. Finally, I could see the Sharks being set aflame in the sky. They emanated red and orange light, forcing them to veer of course to the direction of the ocean. Once the final shark escaped our vision, we cheered. We could hear cheering from our neighbors, and it looked like the whole of London was celebrating the defeat of the Zeppelins. We had survived: only barely.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HEY GUYS WE ARE BACK! I am learning about WWI in history class so I was tempted to write this. Hope you like it! -G
