Vanilla Dusk ✓

Dusk Part 1

'You're trembling,' mumbles Shaan, his face smeared with dark, thick patches of soot and dust. A fresh small gash stretches from right underneath his left eye to his cheekbone. Even his long lashes look exceptionally dense with the filthy particles adhering to them and his short chestnut hair looks more like raven feathers under the rumpled patrol hat. His eyes, though, are still two chocolate gems, the only light in the shower of debris. His breath comes out as thin rings of frost.

Elli takes a glimpse of his shivering gloved hands that wrap around the sniper. They are crouching behind the fortified ditch along with their comrades, panting. Thunderous bangs pierce their ears as the tanks from the other side advance and fire in their directions. The ground quakes violently. Elli swallows the sobs threatening to stream down his face as he rises slightly from his position and peeks out, watching as the enemies accelerate with cannons and artillery, their soldiers striding behind ginormous tanks that let out a series of deafening groans. He looks through the rifle scope and spots some defenceless foes poking out from behind the tank. He pulls the trigger and watches his victims tumble backwards before collapsing with a moan. In an instant, bullets fly at him from different directions and he ducks under the ditch. Shaan keeps shooting with his sniper and tosses an activated grenade. Immediately, another explosion echoes in the field, followed by several more. The ground begins to shake vigorously as more soot and rubbles fill the air. Their comrades are shooting continuously and getting knocked down one by one. Grenades are hurled and canons are fired. The once barren land is suddenly flooded with squirming, mangled bodies that taint it a sea of scarlet. Elli begins to tremble uncontrollably.

'Concentrate, Elli!' cries Shaan as another rumble resonates in the air. Elli's eyes are lost somewhere, sucked to that horrifying sea of flames and distorted limbs. Two bullets miss his face by an inch. Another bomb explodes not afar and the force is immense enough to fling the boys backwards. 'Get down!'

Shaan shoves Elli down as their enemy fires at their direction several times, bullets rebounding as they strike the ditch and the ground. One bullet, though, is aiming at Elli and Shaan manages to shield him just in time, his bicep getting scraped severely in the process. It takes Elli a while to react.

'Gosh.' He drops his sniper and stares at the gash that cuts deep into Shaan's arm.

'I'm fine,' assures Shaan, peeping over his shoulder nonchalantly. 'It's just a scratch. Now get a grip. They're retreating.'

'You're hurt,' says Elli with a timorous voice.

Shaan ignores Elli's concerns and continues to fire with his sniper. He shoots down a few soldiers from the other side. When they confirm that their enemies are retreating, they finally heave a sigh of relief and slump against the ditch, wheezing.

Elli is still shuddering and Shaan has got accustomed to comforting him on the battlefield. His eyes reflect nothing but sheer terror and they often say a lot about him. A simple flicker of his eyes gives him away. Before he got transferred into this unit, Ellis used to follow his brother, Jónas, who is a ferocious, agile fighter that never misses a shot. He spent almost half a year hiding behind his brother on the field. Jónas has never wanted him to enlist in the army, not at this young age, but their country has suffered massive loss and is constantly short on manpower or supplies. Boys are forced to get trained to survive. In those days, they came around each house knocking on the door, sometimes banging it or nearly crashing in, to menace the family or coax them into handing over their boys, even teens as young as thirteen or fourteen, in the honourable name of patriotism. Rations cost five times more for any boys remaining in the households and most families, already penniless and on the brink of starvation, would more often than not trade their sons away. These children know better that they are only rendered two options; either get fed and work their hardest to survive in combat or starve to death and get chastised for not being selfless enough.