Rachel and her two little friends hurried down the street. Suddenly a shot rang out. The harsh sound of the shot, fired from somewhere behind them, made Rachel’s heart skip a beat. She glanced rapidly over her shoulder. A woman lay on the ground 300 feet away from the children. The woman wasn’t moving. Next to the body stood a soldier in a green uniform. 

 The two younger girls looked at Rachel, their eyes wide open and filled with fear. She grabbed their hands firmly and pulled them towards the nearest hiding place she could find: the garden of a brick house. Trying hard no to show her own horror, she helped the girls as calmly as possible down the stairs leading to the cellar of the house. They couldn’t be seen from the road there, and Rachel hoped they would be safe. 

 “Rachel,” Carrie whispered, “Rachel, was that a soldier? what’s happening?” 

 Rachel didn’t know what to answer. Should she tell them everything was going to be ok, or should she tell them what could become the awful reality if they were discovered? 

 “Rachel,” Karen, her younger sister said, interrupting her thoughts, “are we safe here?” 

 Rachel looked the two five-year-olds seriously in the eyes. “I don’t know,” she whispered in an unsteady voice. “We’re safe as long as the soldiers don’t spot us. But doomed if they do.” 

 Carrie and Karen bit their lips and nodded. They clutched Rachel’s warm hand tightly. “Close your eyes,” she told them quietly, “and say a prayer inside you, that might help.” 

 Rachel could hear armoured vehicles driving in the street they had emerged from and soldiers marching in others. The sound of army boots echoed over the city. It was the first time the enemy had sent military troops into the town centre. Until that day the battles had taken place in the countryside, many miles away. The citizens of the little city hadn’t prepared themselves for attacks and were an easy target for the destructive army. 
 Rachel didn’t know exactly why the fightings had begun, she only knew that the green soldiers were the evil enemy from the south and that they were on a mission to kill. “It’s a wicked war” someone had told the eight-year-old a week in advance. Why did they have to come here, now? She was only out to get sugar for her mum. And why did they have to come at all? 

 She heard shots being fired and windows being smashed. A loud explosion in a distance made the stairs she sat on tremble. Rachel squeezed her eyelids together and pulled Carrie and Karen closer to her body. She didn’t want to see, nor hear, nor know what happened. She was only out to get sugar! 

*** 
 Smoke and dust blew through the empty streets of the city, and broken glass lay scattered about. The green soldiers were done for the day and had moved on to another town. The inhabitants of the city were left terrified and large areas lay in ruins. It was late afternoon and the sky was dark red. 

 Rachel opened her eyes slowly. She didn’t hear a sound, an eerie silence hung over the town. She looked at Carrie and Karen. They had fallen asleep in her arms. She pinched them carefully to wake them up. 

 “It’s time to go home,” she said, giving a tired smile. They crawled up from the stairs where they had sought refuge and headed towards the street. When they got to the gateway, Rachel suddenly stopped. It seemed quiet and secure, but something didn’t feel right. 

 “We’ll just wait a tiny bit longer,” she told the girls, but they were too impatient and soon persuaded her to leave straight away. 

 “Take my hand and run across the street when I do,” she instructed them. They ran on the count of three. When they had only a few feet left before reaching the other side, a single shot broke the silence. A soldier had stayed behind and waited for his prey of the day. As soon as he had shot, he fled. 

 Karen was hit in the head. Blood ran down and coloured her clothes red while the colour of her face drained away and left her white. Deadwhite. 

 Rachel screamed. She fell to her knees and tried to save her little sister, but there was nothing she could do. Their mother got no sugar that day. 

 The sky above them was dark red, dark red as blood. 
 

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Kjersti wrote this story on an English midterm in December 1996.