Panic

~10~

The dock was bustling with soldiers already departing from small boats. As I scrambled off the moonstone with the aid of Collins, I heard a naval officer remark:

"Blimey! How many did you fit on here." I felt my heart sink as an image of people screaming in fiery tendrils.
Not enough.

I stood to one side with Collins, eyes loosely searching for Tommy and Alex to emerge.

Soon enough I was stood with 3 men around me, talking cheerily and occasionally laughing.

The mood was dimmed by a passing soldier sending out a cutting remark to Collins, stood in his RAF uniform.

"Where were you eh?"

Collins face displayed a grimace and his shoulders sank slightly. He had been through hell, lost one if not more of his crew members, and these soldiers had the audacity to ask him where he had been.

Suddenly Mr Dawson's ageing face appeared behind Alex's shoulders.

"They know where you were." Collins muttered a thank you, and Mr Dawson nodded slightly in a departing gesture.

As his figure disappeared into the crowd, Tommy suggested the inevitable.

"I guess we should be getting onto the trains then, trying to make our way home." Everyone nodded in agreement and we walked away from the small little ship that had brought us to safety, and away from the beaches that had been my home.

***

"That man didn't even have the stomach to look at us." Alex thrust himself on to the cushioned seat and smacked down the paper an old man on the platform had handed us.

Tommy and I exchanged glances. The man's later actions had notified us to the fact he was blind, but Alex still had the idea stook in his head that we were failures.

I used the railings that served as luggage holders above our heads to slip into a seat nearest the window. Britain was such a beautiful country I wanted to see as much of it as possible.

As I rested my weary head against cool, varnished wood, Tommy slipped his figure down next to mine whilst Collins took a seat opposite.

"You read it out. I can't bare to." The paper was pushed in Tommy's direction, who's only protest was a raised eyebrow, but nevertheless began to read out the headline on the front page.

"What has happened is a collosal military disaster." Alex grimaced and turned away, but Collins motioned for Tommy to continue reading. The words became a drone in my head, until the first few sentences of the climax of the article drifted into me ears.

"We shall go on to the end."

My eyes were slipping closed as Tommy's soothing low voice read out the moving speech. With every word I felt determination and emotion coursing through my blood and my heart pounded.

"We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be."

Tears began to pour from my eyes. Something sparked inside my brain as I clenched my fists and turned my head away from the men who had been so brave when I had been so weak.