As Pa was making me a new kite and Ma was cooking dinner the sound of a plane overhead was

heard.

In the blink of an eye, everything changed.

As the scent of the rotting corpses rose through my nostrils, I walked trembling through what was
left of our once homely town. The crunching of the leaves under my feet being the only sound made
for what seemed like miles around, I gazed upon the now lifeless mannequin looking bodies of my
friends, teacher and finally, no matter how I prayed that I wouldn’t see them, the bodies of Ma and
Pa. I froze then, my mind racing but not moving a muscle. I stood there for what seemed like hours
or…maybe days.

“Ma?” No answer.

“Ma?!”

Silence

“M…Ma?”

My chin quivered as I spoke now, and my eyes started to pour like a broken tap. I ran to Ma and
hugged her lifeless body, shaking her, hoping for her to wake up and hug me and tell me she loves
me and run with me out of this place filled to the brim with death. No matter how I begged and
pleaded though, I didn’t feel a single heartbeat.

As I sat there, with the cold wind making me shake with cold, my eyes drying out and a lost voice
from yelling so hard, my mind was blank. I kept trying to wake up from this nightmare but eventually
just trying to justify it instead.

“What happened here?” I thought

The last thing I remembered before passing out was the shouting of men on the other side of the
village and what sounded like gun shots, then a plane flew over our heads and dropped an array of
explosive death. One by one I saw the bombs drop and explode on the homes of everyone I know, I
ran as fast as I could away from the explosions but one second, I was running and then bam I was
flung against the dirt and fainted.

I knew something about the war that was going on in Vietnam since Ma and Pa kept bringing it up
when I started slacking off and occasionally argued about Pa having to go defend his country but…
but I never thought it really mattered. I hoped it was a… a sick fairy tale that parents tell their
children to make them do their work rather than the thing that makes Ma and Pa die.

My mind racing now, sitting on the cold charred ground, growing ever hungrier and colder I thought I
could just about fall asleep and just not wake up… I let my eyelids drop and allowed the wind to take
me away… until I jolted back upright hearing the scraping and whirring sound of what sounded to
some machine. I looked around and, in the distance, saw a large car with about twenty men drive
towards what was left of the village. I stood there, unsure what to do and awaited my fate.

“Hey, it’s a kid” shouted one man as they came to a stop in front of me.

The men were all dressed in green and had rusted guns like the ones Pa had.

“You alright?” asked one of the men.

I didn’t know what to say, and as he looked at the slaughterhouse behind me, an almost apologetic
face overcame him.

“Hop on” he said offering his hand

I grabbed it and climbed onto the truck.

“You hungry?” He asked handing me some water and offering a piece of bread

I nodded my head, and then grabbed the bread and water, scoffing it down so fast I chocked. The
men laughed. I didn’t dare ask where we were going. After a while of chatting or rather the men
talking and me answering in nods or shaking my head, I fell asleep on a bench on the truck, now
surrounded by the warmth of the people around me.

As I drifted of, I heard the men say,

“This is no place for children.”

“The boat leaves at 5”

“Let’s get moving then.”

And then came silence.

When I woke up to the shaking by one of the men with guns, I felt the harsh wind belt against me,
and the smell of salt in the air. Looking around I saw the ocean which I had visited with the parents
years ago. A smile forced its way onto my face, remembering the fun times I had with Ma and Pa
here, splashing the water on each other on a warm day. It left shortly after when the man started
telling me to get off and follow him. The rest of the men watching me leave the truck waved said
their goodbyes.

As the man led me to the coast, a large broken boat came into view docked on a rickety bridge. As
we crossed it, him holding my hand I felt hopeful about the future and where this boat could lead.
The man then dropped me off on it and told me to wait while he spoke to another man waiting at
the entrance. I saw the man with a gun hand the other man what looked like 20, 000,000 Dongs and
then waved goodbye to me, I waved back with a smile, knowing this was the last time I was going to
see him.

Months later as I lay, coughing up blood and a sick feeling in my stomach from the lack of food, after
the storm had gone, the last thing I thought was the face of Ma telling me, that its going to be
alright. Then a tarp was thrown around me and I was picked up, as much as I wanted to say that I
was still here, my voice had forgotten how to speak.

And then I was chucked overboard.