Posted by Leo. This is the third installment in a short fictionalized series by Leo.
The sun breaks over the cold valley and spreads across our camp. I hear a rustling next to me. I get out of my tent and poke the tent next to me. Max yells and all the other soldiers come out and look around. Now I’m the jokester.
Part of our daily chores is to dig trenches around our camp. Max and I start digging which is when we meet another young boy named Timothy. He tells us that he was raised on a farm in Germany near Munich. He was well taken care of but never got his way since he has four sisters and brothers. We talk about our lives before the war. Max tells us a little even though he doesn’t like talking about it. All he really tells us is that, “bridges are better than sewers”. I feel bad for Max because his life before the war was tough, no friends, no family, all by himself.
At noon everyone is hot and tired but the commander forces us to continue working. Some people are allowed to get water and some people rub snow on themselves to stay cool. Max, Timothy and I get water because we don’t like how the snow feels and we know it will give us rashes. The commanders are mean. If we don’t finish our work during the day we don’t get dinner or breakfast the next morning. This is particularly hard for Max who isn’t very strong. At the beginning he does well because he’s skilled but he doesn’t have much stamina to continue. The commanders force Max to keep going and limit his breaks. Timothy and I finish before him and want to help but the commanders won’t let us. By the time he’s done working the sun has gone down.
During the night we hear fighting in the distance echoing in the valley. I’m scared. They’re getting closer to us and we know that we’ll have to fight soon.
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