Panic

~5~

It was a lonely few days, sitting waiting with an injured Tommy. By my instructions the soldier who had helped me with him had headed back to the mole to attempt to board a boat, but I missed the company.

Tommy wasn't fit to talk much, often the only noise he would make would be a small cry of pain if he shifted over in his sleep or asking me if I was fine.

I'd always nod and reply with something like: "I'm alive and that's good enough," before pushing him back down onto the sand to get more rest.

My only entertainment would be watching the sun slowly clamber down the sky until it was low enough to silhouette the war ships and rowing boats that dotted the horizon. My heart would clench every time one of those ships would lower itself into the water as well, but I had come to live with the idea of death.

After those few days, the beach was slowly emptying, whether from death or from escape no one would ever know, but as I sat there, the sea slowly stretching out long tendrils of foaming water towards me and Tommy, I felt an overwhelmingly sense of duty. Every time I saw Tommy it would put a smile on my face, if his hand ever brushed mine it would tingle with immense force and when I thought he had died it had torn my heart in half. I had come to love him like I had loved my brother Gibson, but Gibson had slipped through my fingers and left what had seemed like an irreparable hole in my heart. Yet somehow this strange English boy had put up some scaffolding and made my heart a bit more stable.

Mabye I loved him as more than a brother though. After all, I would trust an older brother to know what was right for me, I'd listen to him if he asked me to go on and that he'd catch up, yet with Tommy I found my feet routed to his side.

This was stupid I knew. You can't fall in love in the middle of a war zone when your only escape could be your death. Mabye it was the heat getting to me, our water supply running drastically low and the sun beating down at the beach with an odd heat for the season. Or mabye the panic inside me wanting to latch on to whatever was closest to me.

I hadn't checked on him for a while, instead focusing my attention on multiple shapes that were beginning to appear at the point where the sky met the sea. Due to their distance I couldn't make out what they were, but something about them brought a breath of hope inside a flood of dispair.

As I turned to look at his cute face that had now been imprinted in my mind, I was met with no hazel eyes. I was met with no Tommy at all.

Standing up, I spun on the spot, trying to catch a glimpse of my soldier. There was no sign of him on the empty, stretching beach, and towards the dock there were too many lines of people to even attempt to start looking. Panic bubbled up inside me. A drone began in my ears, only it wasn't created by my brain. Over head came the yellow nose cone of a messchersmidt, followed closely by a stuka. This wasn't a good sign.

Sure enough, as the bullets began to rain down like little metal raindrops, the familiar loud booms of bombs were dropping, only this time the effects were different. As fire sprung up, fueled by the dead bodies and discarded materials, I realised the Germans had stepped up their game. These were incendiary bombs.

As the flames slowly flickered closer to me, not needing to speed up knowing they would catch me eventually, I noticed how I surrounded by combustible materials. I was going to die.

I began to run, Tommy slipping into the front of my mind. If he was caught up in this, he wouldn't stand a chance. My voice came out hoarse and croaky from the smoke that had already clouded my vision. I called out again. The flames were in step with me now, running along side me. A let out a scream as a jacket next to me flared up, burning my leg. I shrieked, the pain something I had never experienced in my life before. As my legs faltered beneath me, someone grabbed my shoulder and dragged me to the side. Momentarily consumed by fire, all I felt was pure agony and heat, until I fell out the other side and into Alex's arms.