Blood Worth Bottling

My First Dead Body

We arrived at the camp in one piece, all of us. My mental state was at risk because all lanky legs spoke about was leather and boot laces, who does he think raises the cattle for his leather? "The Holy Cricket Ball" was lodged in my pocket and hadn't left my side since the day we landed. I lost count of the amount of mozzie bites I had, Dan only had two, lucky bastard.
"Anyone got any tucker?" Will asked as we lent as we set up camp.
"Tom does!" Dan announced, I glared at him as the hungry gutted vultures came running at me.
"You prick," I stated as I pulled out my tin of fruitcake. I saw their eyes widened as they each took a slice each leaving me with the crumbs and an empty tin.
"You're still a nuisance Tommy, but I can live with this!" Fred said through a mouthful of cake. I smiled, even without a slice of cake I felt full, all of the Choco soldiers were smiling and I was happy too. Dan looked up at me and his eyes said you can thank me later. I shook my head and took out a ginger snap for myself.
"We should see if that cricket ball still works!" Henry laughed, pushing three sticks into the ground.
"Righto sounds good!" Rodger jumped up.
"Split into city and country!" Fred ordered so we got into our teams.
"Wait why don't we mix it up a bit I mean it can't hurt!" Will suggested.
"Yeah I agree," Dan said.
Of course after picking teams I ended up with Dan.
"Nuisance and Dan are batting first!" Henry bellowed. I rolled my eyes and walked out to my crease.
"Right send her down Gussy!" I bellowed and Angus Burns sent the ball down as quickly as he could.
I thwacked it, making Fred take off and Dan yell 'RUN!'
That was the first of many balls bowled it was also the first time Dan and I realised that maybe we didn't make that bad of a team. After our 50th over we had made 150 runs and it'd taken us 3 hours. We were hot and the threat of passing out hung over our heads.
'CRACK!' A gunshot.
"Did you hear that?" Mike ducked. We all stiffened, a breeze whispered through the trees as our hearts pounded out of our chest.
"TAKE COVER!" Someone screamed in terror as the droning rumble of aeroplanes sounded. My initial thought was get the hell out of there but it was almost as if my instincts were stronger than my mind and I started calling.
"DAN!" I yelled, scuttling through the jungle.
"TOM WHERE ARE YOU?" His hoarse reply was close.
"I'm right here Mate!" My hand wrapped around an arm. Dan's voice behind the yelp that came from my tight grasp.
He stumbled to his feet and we dove into the scrub. We hid beneath the shrubs, we were surrounded by greenery and a low darkness shadowed over us. We turned to each other, both pale faced and panting like we'd just ran a 10 kilometre marathon. My mind was ticking, why did I go looking for him in a time of chaos? Why did my mind trust him when only a few days ago we were telling each other to piss off?
We sat in silence for an hour, waiting for the planes and bullets and screaming to stop. So this was war.
"I can't find em!" I heard Henry yell.
"We have to find them, if they're dead their bodies will be around the place," Fred said.
"DAN! TOMMY!" Will's voice was loud and it made me spring to my feet.
"We're here!" I called stepping out from our hiding spot.
"God thought you two carked it!" Gus gasped. "They're here boys!" He beckoned.
"Well That was a thrill and a half," Will shook obviously rattled by the recent event. I just huffed and strode back to our camp. A destruction site lay in front of me, limbs torn from trees and debris scattered everywhere.
"Did we all live through that?" Dan furrowed an eyebrow appearing at my side.
"I think so," Sergeant Warnes answered his question.
Dan smiled, That's good wouldn't want to die on the first-"
"FRANK!" Bird's flew into the sky as Will's voice bellowed through the jungle.
"Shit," I bolted the few steps to where Frank lay convulsing in the leaf litter.
"Here's your ball Tommy," his shaking hand gripped tight to my ball.
"Thanks mate," I took it from him and he grinned.
"Should've left it there," he chuckled before succumbing to a coughing fit.
"Should've stayed in Australia," He choked on the air.
"C'mon Frank hang in there brother," Will ripped open Frank's shirt finding multiple bullet holes.
"You tell Mum I love her, don't get into any trouble little brother, you've got the whole world ahead of you," Frank told him.
"What am I gonna tell Mary? I don't want to tell her you died!" Will scowled.
"Don't worry about her she never loved me anyway, but I love you little mate," Frank used the last of his strength to pull 17 year old Will to his chest.
"I love you too," Will said into Frank's shoulder.
With that his chest stilled, his eyes glazing over. That was it. That quickly.
One minute we're playing cricket, laughing and eating fruit cake, the next we're staring at our mate who lay dead at our feet.
Will was distraught, "I knew we shouldn't have enlisted! I knew it was a stupid idea!" He pounded Frank's chest.
"Never EVER let your brother slip from your grasp! Don't ever forget that he will always be your greatest supporter, your greatest friend and the unsung hero of your family, DON'T EVER LET YOUR BROTHER DIE!" Will's face was dripping with tears as he wept for his older brother.
I didn't have a brother. Not at the time.