Writing Prompts I Elaborated On...

The Silence Woke Her.

     The silence woke her...

    

     Noise was all there was at the front lines.

     Noises of soldiers shuffling around outside. The noises of more innocent deaths. Deaths that I was told I couldn't prevent when I was at home in America.

     Now I'm here though, on the shores of Dunkirk that is.

     Like I said before, soldiers were loud. Though I suppose you couldn't honestly blame them. We were all about to die. I never said that out loud though. Not the wisest thing a young nurse could do with Mrs. Cook always around.

     Mrs. Cook was the older nurse that supervised me a large portion of the time. She had a good heart I think, it was just hard to see under all of the hate she held for the Nazis and overall bossy, bad temperament she had.

     She never talked about why she hated them so. I never really asked. I was too busy helping in any way I could with the wounded. There was an awful lot of them you know.

     When I was first flown over here from America Mrs. Cook took me under her wing. I've of course been properly trained in nursing, however properly one can be trained in the space of three months that is. The thing is that I'm only 19. So, it makes sense that a weathered nurse like Cook sheltered me a bit now that I look back a ways.

     Anyway, the silence woke me.

     The noise of panic had been never ending. I suppose everyone was trying to drown out the sound of hopelessness. The Nazis dropping bombs was also a contributing factor. I'm sure you are aware of the fact that they, the Nazi party that is, did not think about the terribly loud sound their bombs made. Not to mention the way they fill up our wounded tents as fast as a whip.

     Seeing as though for the past few weeks, I've lost track of time you see, I've been awoken by Mrs. Cook fretting over the new slew of solders we've just received and tittering on about how a young girl should have stayed in the states to be married and kept safe and innocent I'm sure you see how the absence of Mrs. Cook and the noise was enough to wake me, not deepen my sleep.

     I sat up on my cot. I was greeted by the smell of salt water, canned goods, and unbathed solders, not to mention my own scent that had been developing from a lack of bathes. The tent of course, obstructed my view of outside. So, I stood up and walked to the tent flap.

     Opening it, I saw a sight that greatly confused me. No solders around the nurses tent.

     I quickly threw on the same dress I'd been in for as many weeks as I can remember and ran out of the tent, my medical bag in hand as well since Cook had stressed the importance of a nurse always keeping it on her person.

     Dunkirk was not a large town. It had been nice enough it looked, before it was abandoned that is. It had cute houses lined up next to each other and didn't look a great deal different than the other French towns I'd seen being here, at the war.

     But I walked through a very deserted Dunkirk, by myself. I thought it best to head in the direction of the beach since the other direction would be walking directly towards enemy solders since we'd been blocked in.

     My short heels clicked slightly on the ground as I made my way there. I braided my hair down the back as best I could to keep it out of my face if I needed to work immediately.

     Sand started to meet my shoes and I knew I was nearing my destination. A moment later I'd reached the beach. And what I saw took my breath away.

     Solders lined up single file facing the water, as if they were waiting for something. I stopped walking when I saw them, simply to gawk at the sight. This was it of course.

     If they were simply waiting for rescue, they'd given up on fighting the enemy blocking us off.

     Men of all ages, 18 to late forties, lined up all the same, in the most quiet silence I'd ever heard. I realize that doesn't make much sense seeing how silence is always quiet, but this was different. This was desperate.

     I stood there for I'm not sure how long, until Mrs. Cook yelled at me from behind to move my sorry ass and help her with the men still wounded. She showed me the new wounded tent they'd moved to the beach seeing how everyone was there now. Why she hadn't woken me from the few hours of sleep I got a night I'm not sure, and I surely didn't have the time or the mind to ask.