Dunkirk 1940

4

   We see a group of soldiers walking towards a boat washed up on the beach. All of us get up and follow the group. I kept my eye on the man who hasn't even said a word. He tries to ignore me, but I can tell he's intimidated from me and looks away. 

   When we get on the boat, Alex looks in the cooler to find some drinkable water. He asked the quiet man, "Would you want a water?" He takes a while to answer but shakes his head. I know Alex is getting the same feeling about him as me by the way he looks at him. 

   Tommy goes up the ladder and looks out, "The tide's coming in." Alex slides the cooler of the table, "Fuck sake." We sit down as we heard to water getting closer to us.

   After a few minutes, we all hear footsteps from the deck of the boat. We all stay quiet and get close to the trapdoor on top of us.  The men pointed their guns getting prepared for what is about to happen.

   Tommy pulled the man down, the men pointed all their guns at him. The man was full of fear, "Dutch, I'm Dutch." Alex crouches down to him, "What is going on?" The man swallows his fear, "The Germans are coming."

   He kept warning us about the tide, we were already at sea. Nothing we can do about it now. We hear a bullet crash into one of the walls making everyone flinch. I look at the wall and noticed a hole. 

   We all got down and covered our heads. Some of the men loaded their guns and almost made their way out. But one man stopped them, "No, then they'll know we're in here."

   We all sit there in silence, but the water was distracting me. Wait, the water? Water was starting to flow into the boat, We tried to stop it with our hands but a man screamed when he got shot. Men around him tried to shut him up. 

   The shots started to become more frequent when he screamed. They knew we were there. Alex started to block the hole, "Wait, we need to lose some mass." The men agreed with him, "Weight, yes we need to lose weight." Everyone looked around. "Somebody needs to get off."

   "Who's going to volunteer?" Alex walked up to the silent man, "We don't need a volunteer. I know who's going to get off. This one, he's a German spy." I knew something was wrong about him. In grade school, we always said, "Spy's were usually very quiet because they don't know the language."

   Everyone looked at Alex like he was crazy. I stand next to him, "Haven't you noticed he hasn't said a single word. He doesn't speak English, and if he does it's with a thick accent." I said defending Alex. Everyone started to grab their guns and point them at him.

   Tommy defends him, "No he's not, tell him." Alex grabs one of the men's guns, "Yeah, tell me. Tell me, Gibson" Alex looked at his name tag. The man remained quite. Alex began to get impatient, "TELL ME!" Tommy gets rattled from Alex's tone, "Tell him for God's sake." He shakes in fear. He speaks for once but in French.  

   Tommy was shocked, "A frog, A bloody frog! A cowardly little frog." I grab his name tag, "You stole the uniform from a dead man on the beach, you buried him in the sand." For once History class was useful.

   After he had been caught, Tommy still defended him, "He was burying his friend, I know because I was there. He didn't kill anyone." Alex looked around, "We don't know that." 

   The gunshot came in again, Everyone started to agree with me and Alex, "Then we know who's getting off, up you go." He grabbed his collar and pushed him up. Tommy made Alex lose his grip, "As soon as he gets off they'll  slaughter him." Alex lets go, "Better him than me."

  Tommy Began to argue, "It's not fair-" Alex interrupts him, "Survival's not fair." He stood in between the two men, "He saved my life."

   A man from behind grabbed his collar, "And he's about to do it again." Tommy pushed him back. Alex stood closer to him, "Somebody needs to get off, so the rest of us can live."

"I can't live with it, It's wrong. It's not like one man would make enough difference ." A man stepped in, "You best hope it does because you'll follow him next." Tommy looked terrified.

   The gunshots came back. The German man took the advantage to try and take Alex's gun causing all of us to fall over. The boat tipped from the weight making the water come in a lot faster, "We got to get off." A man got off but got shot halfway up. 

   I shiver in fear as I held onto Alex. The gunshots became overwhelming for me. Everyone tries to block off the holes but the water was coming threw them to quickly. Once the water was up to our necks we needed to get off of the boat.

   The gunshots stopped so we all began to get off of the boat. I looked at everyone going overboard and notice Alex is still in there. I grabbed his hand and helped him up. We both went overboard. I swallowed water on the way down, but it tasted awful. And it smelled like motor oil.

   I look to my right and see the water is on fire. I grab a hold of Alex trying to keep my head above the water. I notice both of us are covered in oil. I try to keep my breathing steady as the fire started to close in. 

   I looked at Alex with worry in my eyes, "What are we going to do Alex?" He looked at me making eye contact. he shook his head, "I don't know."