A Picture of War

I dove for cover as projectiles flew over my head. I was the last one left in my squad. I had to make a plan quickly. I crawled into the nearest trench and set my back against the dirt wall. I felt like I was in a life-or-death situation. There were only a few of the enemy left now, and I realized what I had to do. I threw a smoke grenade and then jumped out of the trench, giving my best battle cry. Earlier that day, I would have never thought that it would come down to this.

As I walked across the room and sat down to put my boots on, I asked myself questions like, What if I get cornered? or What if one of my comrades gets hurt? I dug through my memory of different training sessions until I found the answer. I remembered practicing with different grenades and how far away we have to be when each one goes off. I thought of all the different target practices we did, most of the targets moving, and all of them farther than 10 feet. I finished tying my boots and then walked over to where the captain and a few people in my squad were talking. I caught the end of their conversation.

“Well, you'd better go get it now because we’re about to leave!” the captain shouted as one of my comrades ran off. “Alright, everybody. Get the last of your things and load up!”

This was it. In less than an hour, we would be in the middle of an epic battle. I grabbed my helmet and my gun and ran over to the truck.

When we got to the field, I was overwhelmed. I could hear shooting in the distance, along with screams and the sound of grenades going off. I saw different squads running across the field, some of their men getting left behind.

“Alright, everybody!” the captain yelled over the pandemonium. “This is what we came for, no turning back now! Remember to stock up on grenades. Move out!”

As we moved into the battlefield, I felt my stomach drop. Can we really do this? Can we really win? We ran to take our positions behind trees and in trenches. I sat in a trench with the captain and a few other people in my squad. “Captain, I don’t know if we can-” There was a loud yell not too far away, followed by several shots. Before I could say anything else, the captain was out of the trench with the others following. I swallowed up all the courage I could and ran after them.

I heard shooting all around me, and I was sure I would get hit. The battle went on for what seemed like hours, even though I knew it was just a few minutes. The enemy was trying to take the hill that was in front of us, and we all knew that whoever had the high ground had the advantage. We were determined to take the high ground before them, so we put all of our energy into getting there first. As we ran towards the enemy to try and cut them off, we had failed to notice that two of their squads had broken off and had begun to flank us on both sides. By the time we noticed, we were caught in a full-blown crossfire. We fought and fought and took out most of our enemies, but it was a war of attrition, and we were losing. I saw many of my comrades fall, and I knew there was nothing I could do. There were already several in the dead zone. In a panic, I tried to find protection. I dove for cover as projectiles flew over my head. I was the last one left in my squad. I had to make a plan quickly. I crawled into the nearest trench and set my back against the dirt wall. I felt like I was in a life-or-death situation. There were only a few of the enemy left now, and I realized what I had to do. I threw a smoke grenade and then jumped out of the trench, giving my best battle cry.

I could tell there were three enemy fighters left- fewer than I had thought. I began to have hope. I ran behind a tree and threw a grenade towards two of the men. I watched the explosion of color and saw that it took out one of the two. The man who was still standing ran for cover, and I took him out before he could dive into a trench. I wasn’t sure where the last man was. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him move into a foxhole. It was now or never. I ran to his position. I began to shoot, but I didn’t hit him, nor did he hit me. As I got closer, I saw the panic in his eyes. I was now closer than 10 feet, and I yelled, “Surrender or get shot! Your choice!”

Thankfully, he surrendered, and the referee appeared and declared our team the winners of the paintball tournament. I ran over to the dead zone where the rest of my team was waiting, and we began to celebrate our victory. I saw the other team coming to congratulate us. My team cheered loudly, and many of them patted my shoulder or back. Now looking back on it, I was being pretty dramatic. I guess it wasn’t such a life and death situation after all.