Warzone {Dunkirk H.S.}

1: Missing You

GWEN

Gwendolyn Pierce sat at her wooden windowsill and gazed helplessly off into the darkening hilly distance. The windowpane was as clouded and fogged as her mind. In her shaking hands she clutched a dirty letter, the envelope ripped right open. Moments earlier she had jumped as the letter arrived in the post, raced downstairs to retrieve it and tore it open quicker than lightning could strike. She had been eager to open it, despite knowing that it may have contained the most terrible news in the world. The madness of missing her brother had made her unafraid. Any news involving him was something.

She had been informed earlier by talk in the streets and reports from the paper that the British troops were soon returning home. From what she knew they were in a town in France - Dunkirk. She had found the name peculiar but hoped it was a wonderful place for the worn out soldiers to wait and rest in before safely boarding ships to return. The last she had heard, Nazi Germany had not advanced on the men in Dunkirk like she had feared - but the letter she had just received changed all of that.

It was a letter from her older brother, Tommy. He had enlisted in the military and his absence had left a gaping hole in her heart. He had always been her best friend, her partner in crime. But she had hoped and prayed that he was coming home, and she had thought that this letter was the one in which he would officially tell her of his return. She had pictured him sitting on the train home and writing it with a content smile, but after reading it she didn't even want to imagine where he would have been whilst writing it or how he would have felt.

Gwen tore her watering eyes away from the window and forced herself to read over the letter for a second time, to better process it, hanging off of every word, the lonely hole in her heart suddenly feeling so much bigger, and the fear in her chest beginning to suffocate her.

Gwen,
I know you thought I was supposed to be home soon. I wish I could be. I think you were right when you said that it was a mistake to enlist. I'm sorry.

The other soldiers and I are stationed here in France, but I know you already knew that. Dunkirk. We are on the beaches. There are so many of us Gwen, so many. So many of us who lived yet now so many of us may die. So many of us have died.

We were expecting the ships to come, to save us. And they did, but just not for us - only first for the injured and the doctors. I tried to sneak on as a medic but I was caught out. That is how bad I want to come home. But I don't know if I will be able to.
The ships were bombed. The next one I got on was torpedoed. I barely managed to get off. Germany found a way to us. They surround us.

I don't know how to say this, but I don't think I am going to make it. They bomb the beaches daily. Around me, death is constant. It's horrible and I miss you and everyone else. But I am glad you don't have to go through this. If living this way means it keeps you and everyone else safe, I can live with it.

But I'm scared. And I don't know what to do. By the time it takes for them to send more ships our way, more than half of us will be dead. And I don't know if they can risk getting any more ships bombed. The French ships haven't even reached yet. What are we going to do? Even with air cover, it seems hopeless.

I'm sorry. I don't want to alarm you and worry you but I know you will hear of this somehow, so it is better that it comes from me, right?

I don't want you to be sad, Gwen. Please don't be. I'm sorry. I promise I'll try to find a way back to you. Keep faith.

On a lighter note, I have this photo of you and your friend Vivian, the one you sent me all those months ago. Some soldiers I have befriended saw it and asked about her and you and well, I had lots of stories. There's one man in particular here, Styles, who seems to fancy you. It's funny, he's never met you yet he knows how amazing you are. It's girls like you and Viv who give them hope for their returns. You give me hope.