Letters to the front

Chapter 33 - The end

Alice 

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Edward never came for me. I didn't know why at the time, and I didn't lose faith in him either, everyday I prayed he would come, carrying me out of my prison cell as if I where I princess in need of rescue. But I didn't know he couldn't come, because something awful had happened. Since we weren't engaged or married they would give me no information, to be honest I don't think they had any.

My time in prison was long, in fact it last the bulk of the war. I was finally realised in September 1918, and returned to work. It was a relief, but not a huge one. I wrote countless letters to Edward, and still had no reply. Mary had been transferred, as had I, to the town of Guston. 

Guston was a town in Belgium, what once had been a thriving town, had been ruined by war. It's inhabitance had fled, and the ghosts of a once peaceful past remained. Many buildings were untouched, while others lay in ruined. We thought of this as we were driven through the empty streets. 

Mary clutched my hand tightly, as if it were the only thing that would keep her going, and it brought me comfort to have a friend. When we arrived at the hospital, it was like all hell had broken loose, and it me how lucky I had been. 

There was no building, as most of them lay in ruin, the wards were simply canvas tents, held up by flimsy wooden posts. We were ushered to a big room, a dormitary, and I realised it was were I would be sleeping, I no longer had my own room or even a shared room. It was just a mass of tightly packed beds, the nurses had tried to make it customed to themselves, if anything just to disguish their bed from the person beside them. 

After putting down our luggage and changing uniforms, we were rushed onto wards, and to my relief I was on the same ward as Mary. 

We worked quickly and efficiently, ignoring the shells which shook the tent walls and posts, focusing on one task at a time. Men begged and cried out for us but we simply couldn't manage all of them. Constantly, I found myself carrying men from the ward out to waiting ambulences, as I walked outside the tent, I found men running past carrying guns, in the distance I could see no mans land, a black scar on the landscape, a wound that was still bleeding, ebbing away at life. 

The trees surrounding the area were all dead, and it made the place more barren than I would ever have imagined. As I thought this, I barely noticed a corprol trying to catch my attention, it wasn't till I saw the red band on his arm I realised he was medical staff too. 

"Can I help, corprol?"

"No, it is I who can help you" he said, taking the other arm of the man I was assisting to the ambulence.

"Thank you" I said, "but should you not be picking up more men from the front?"

"This is the front, love, welcome to all it's glory"

"But it's not no mans-"

"I know that, you can see it over there, but it's as close to the front as it gets for medical staff like yourself"

"I suppose so" I said, not mentioning I had been to no mans land.

"I'll apologise now for the chaos, but it's always like this, we just treat them before moving them on to Guston General down the road, after that they usually go back to blighty"

"Is it dangerous here?"

"It's dangerous everywhere" he said, following me back to the ward and helping bandage and clean wounds. 

"You're a great help, corprol, thank you"

"No bother Nurse-?"

"Hardwick" I said.