Slow Motion

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Retreat!

The hatch had been frozen solid, all the Japanese soldiers had to do was step on it and it shattered like thin glass. We immediately started shooting up out of the hole where the hatch used to be into the open air, hoping we would hit someone. In a click of a finger everything fell silent. We thought the Japanese had retreated, but we were wrong. All of us scattered in the shelter to the furthest corners so it was harder for them to shoot us.

Our plan worked! They could not get their guns in far enough to shoot. We started betting bullets on if they were smart enough to jump through the hole and shoot or if they were just going to stay up there, waiting for us to pop our heads out. But it turns out they were gone for about half an hour before we realized it. The next thing we had to do was find the others in different shelters and then we could all find new places to hide.

It wasn’t long before our other 50 or so soldiers came to get us, so obviously they had already been attacked. We asked them what happened to them and they said the exact same thing to what happened to us. The Japanese soldiers planned this, we had to be careful. I was thinking about why they did this. They had never done it before and they didn’t seem like they were planning to attack us while we were still in the shelters. I thought if they didn’t harm the shelters we were previously in they would probably use them for storage or for their own hide out.

Well, we had to go anyway. I led the soldiers to another place we could call home for the next few days. “I saw this place on the way in”, I whispered to everyone else, “It looked pretty safe and secure so I remembered where it was just in case”.

As we made our way into our new shelters I stumbled upon a small device. It was a Radio! We started messing around with the buttons, seeing if we could find a station that worked. A sudden a voice could be heard coming from the radio. ‘I am Helen Popin passing over to you, Joel’.

“Hey, that’s the news reporter on channel 5. My family always watches it, every single night!” Tom said excitedly, “maybe we could listen to hear what is happening back home”.

Everyone gathers around to listen…

‘And now the latest news, a collision between a red Holden Ute and a small black Volkswagen has occurred on Heal Street’

“That’s where my parents live!” Luke Domming said, beginning to shake a little in fear.

‘Unfortunately three people were killed. One was the driver of the Holden Ute and the other two were an elderly couple living on that street. Some neighbors were watching the mayhem happening outside their window. They told us it was terrifying, two members from the Domming family had their lives cut short by a car that had been set on fire from an oil leak; it then went spinning through their living room window. Well that’s the news for tonight on channel 5, this is Joel Mann saying goodnight’.

Luke had tears sitting in his eyes waiting until the right moment to burst out. Tom looked at him finally realizing that the elderly couple that was killed was his parents.

“Luke, it’s ok, were going to help you through this”, Tom told him, but Luke walked away in tears.

Tom went to follow, more curious than concerned, but I stopped him.

“Leave him, he needs time alone to calm down”, I said slowly letting go of his arm.

Tom stopped and agreed, he knew he had to.