Warzone {Dunkirk H.S.}

8: The Bullets

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sounds of firing bullets shrieked out into the open air, as sudden and as loud as thunder. The scene descended into chaos, with shocked screams accompanying the gunshots.

The fear, and his reflexes, caused Tommy to leap to the ground with a grunt, as he felt a bullet just whizz past his neck in a white flash. With only the moon's dull light to guide them, the soldiers' aims were shaky – and for that Tommy was eternally glad, if they could see clearly it would have cost him his life. He lay on the ground and his heart was loud and wild, a high-pitched ringing sound in his ears, as he realised he hit his head as he dove for cover. He crawled up against the outer wall of a damaged house and leant up against it, looking up in a panic at the horrors unfolding before him as he hyperventilated. A multitude of bullets went in the way of the rogue soldiers and Peter and Vivian, and Tommy screamed out for them as he caught sight of shadowy bodies collapsing. He felt tears of worry and fear well up in his eyes and every fiber of his being begged him to get up and protect his sister and his friends but he knew that that would be risking his life, too. Was it selfish of him to want to live? He covered his ears with shaking hands and felt the burning dread and fear rise in his chest, along with hatred, as the bullets fired out.

Gwen felt her heart jump into her throat the moment the gunshots rang out. Harry had bolted, she had not seen where to, and she wanted to call out to him - but she could not focus on that. She was right in the middle of the crossfire and immediately panicked, feeling even more hysteric than she had during the first bomb strike. She was facing the horrible realities of war, and it was worse than all the stories she had heard, all the damning accounts of the scenes on battlefields which Tommy had recounted to her in letters – they did not do the fear justice.

She caught sight of Tommy leaping to the ground and her instincts kicked in. She could not stand around and cry and shake forever – she had to survive. She could barely see and she could barely think straight, all she knew was that she did not want to become a casualty, and she could not bear to see her friends as any, either. She went to stumble to her knees in a rush, coughing away the dust that rose up around her, making it even more difficult for her to breathe, but not before she felt a searing pain strike her left shoulder, and the sheer surprise and force of it knocked her off of her feet, along with the air from her lungs, and she screamed in surprise and horror. The pain spread all the way down her arm and she gasped, tumbling to her knees before falling forward into the dirt, her eyes wide. She rolled sideways and suddenly Tommy was beside her after having heard her scream, equally as shaken and panicked, as he reached out and pulled her into him. She hissed in pain as her shoulder grazed the ground roughly, and as she stabilized herself against a house wall, she brought a hand to grasp the wound. She slowly felt blood soak through her clothes, and she instantly knew that she had been hit. Alarms went off in her brain, yet it was as if she was paralyzed in shock and pain, she could not even bring herself to cry out.

Her breathing quickened as Tommy tried to speak to her, but all she could focus on was the pain, the burning pain. It seemed to only be growing, and she was not someone with a high tolerance for injury. Tommy stared at her, growing concerned at the vacant, somewhat shocked expression on her face. He placed a shaking hand on her heated cheek and tilted her head slowly to look at him, kneeling in front of her with an arm on either side of her so that he would take any bullets and she would be safe. But if only he had known, it was too late for that.

"Gwen. Gwen!" He whispered loudly, his features tightening as more sounds of gunshots echoed out and shook the entire town. His heart throbbed rapidly in his chest and he suddenly stopped breathing as he realised she was holding a spot on her shoulder, with her eyes screwed shut, and it immediately dawned upon him. His eyes widened in shock and his expression crumbled, and suddenly he looked so scared that Gwen thought he would collapse.