Slow Motion

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

We declare war

So there I was sitting in an army shelter in Japan. The enemies were coming for us, slowly, but quick enough to catch us before we could escape their deadly grasp. The hatch of the shelter was on the roof and on the inside there was a ladder leading up to it. Inside the shelter this is what it would look like: you enter the shelter by opening the hatch on the roof and climbing down the ladder.

You turn around and on your right you see a small metal framed bed with a thin mattress that was only being held together by the hundreds of blood stains from the wounded soldiers. On your left you will see a small box filled with empty rounds and blunt knives previously used on the field.

The hatch opens and you freeze…you don’t know if it is one of your guys, or one of the Japanese soldiers. Usually it turns out to be one of your guys ‘cause the Japanese come in and invade the shelter with about 10 men so I think it’s OK to say that you were safe if the shelter…until one unfortunate time it’s not our soldier, and we were sure that day would soon be upon us.

If you went outside you have a very high chance of getting shot to say the least, so, the easiest thing to do would be to just stay in the shelter and basically wait. Of course, standing by orders, we couldn’t do that (unfortunately).

War seemed like a big game of ‘Hide and Seek’ to me. The Japanese would hide in the tall, rotted buildings, when we would hop out of the shelter and try and find them before they found us. Every step you take there it seemed there would be something in your way stopping you from going any further. Stupidity? Knowledge? Will Power? God only knows, the only thing I was sure of is that we would have to continue on no matter what. As you fill your gun with the terrifying bullets that could be coming back at your mud sprayed body with no warning, your only thoughts are ‘Don’t get killed’ …and that’s when the war begins.

When you step outside of the shelter it feels like your standing in a freezing cold shower, and you have no where to go. The only solution to this would be to run and hide in a safe place until someone gives the ‘all clear signal’ to you, and then you have no choice but to keep moving. The choice is yours really. You could choose to stay there and wait until the Japanese come around the corner then shoot. Or you have the easier way and follow the group to another dangerous, yet safer place to hide, and then you wouldn’t have the risk of waiting for your life to end in the place where anything could happen.  Instead of staying I chose to follow everyone else.

‘Good choice’, I think to myself before continuing on.

I am following their footsteps exactly so I don’t make anymore foot prints in the soggy soil.

I could hear the faint voices of Japanese in the distance, and straight away I know we don’t have much time to loose. We start to jog a little faster for we are still in the wide open, an easy target for anyone! We all flatten ourselves against a wall of a small house, becoming less visible, but as I did this I accidentally slipped on a loose bit of rubble bel0w my feet, making rocks tumble down a small hill where we were standing, lucky for me it didn’t make much noise.

As quiet as possible, about 8 of our men (including me) are sliding across a wall, and the only thought that would be going through our minds would be are we going to make it to a bunker before the Japanese soldiers caught us? ‘Clank, clank’ goes the sound of their weapons banging together while hanging from their shoulders by a thick black strap. Suddenly the noise stops and everything falls silent…we are so close to where we need to be, but not close enough to be hidden. And if any one of us so much as makes a peep…only God could save us.