𝒻𝒶𝓁𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 - 𝐃𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐫𝐤

~ 𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 1 ~

trepidation
/ˌtrɛpɪˈdeɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
1.a feeling of fear or anxiety about something that may happen

~~~~

"Lila! Lila!" A voice called out gaining Lila Mills attention, She hurriedly turned her head towards the direction of the noise only to meet the sight of her best friend- Elizabeth. She waved her hand to her as a greeting which Lila returned with a hug.

"It's good to see you Liz, how did your parents take the news?" After training they were given the time to wish their parents a goodbye since they are being deployed to Dunkirk beach where hundreds of thousands of men stay stranded, their task is to help the wounded and bring them back to their home, England.

"Not well, they didn't want me to come but I said that I don't have a choice anymore- I had to help the men fighting for our freedom." Lila looked up at the older girl in front of her in admiration, amazed at how selfless she is.

But every nurse that stands around her friend and herself are selfless, they just don't think Lila should be there because she's only 18- they think she's inexperienced yet she's been training since she was a young girl, her mother was a nurse and wanted her to become one... just not to be sent of to Dunkirk beach. She stands looking at the large grey ship that rests in the water in front of her, the large Red Cross printed on it allowing the soldiers to identify what they are arriving for. An older woman approaches her with a nurses uniform clutched in her hands.

"Here you go dear, stay strong... for them and for yourself, everyone has been requested to board the ship." She smiles kindly whilst handing her the uniform then proceeds to walk off before the young girl had the chance to thank her.

Lila approach the ramp leading to the entrance of the ship with Liz following closely whilst looking down at the clothes in her hands; she saw a black pair of leather lace up boots resting on the top of the pile, looking back up and towards Liz she started heading towards a bathroom,

"I'm going to go and get changed." She approached the door and pushed it open to enter the room then proceeding to lock it behind herself. She quickly stripped herself of the clothes that she is currently wearing to replace them with a blue knee length dress with a white collar and cuffs and a white apron to cover the front of the dress. Careful not to rip them, she pulls on the black tights underneath the dress and places the black boots onto her feet; she then continued to tuck her dads dog tags she wears under her collar. She looks in the mirror to check she's dressed correctly then proceed to put her jet black, shoulder blade length hair into a tight bun at the back of her head and secured it to try and prevent it from falling out.

She stares into the mirror and gazes into her bright blue eyes then moving to the freckles that lightly dusted her small nose then to her plump red lips, her pale skin making them stand out then back over to the uniform that hugs her frame- causing her curves to stand out, she nods to herself in encouragement and content then unlocks the door to allow herself out, once exited she looks around for her only friend and finds her conversing with the other older nurses, She lets out a sigh and approachs them calmly, but internally she's never felt so nervous since all the other nurses dislike her- just because of her age.

As Lila approach's they all turn their attention towards her causing her to lower her head which destroys the calm exterior she attempts to portray but they just acknowledge her with a scoff and walk off with their chins held high in the air. She keeps her head down; too ashamed to face the eyes of her best friend who felt extreme pity run through her for the poor 18 year old.

"Oh Lila, ignore them, you're the best nurse here! Trust me." She comforts her. She looks up and gives her a small smile, appreciating the kindness she offers.

"Nurses." A voice hollers, "meeting in the main room." They continue causing a rush of nurses to flow through the doors into the main room of the ship, they all take a seat, sat in rows with an isle down the middle, dividing them into two groups.

"Right. Listen up." Everyone stopped talking, "we're half an hour away." Lila looked at the person in shock, half an hour?! I didn't even notice that we took off! "And we need you at your best, so when this meeting is over I want you all to grab a medical bag and fill your pockets with any spare equipment. As soon as this ship docks I want you on the main deck ready to tend to the injured- make sure you prioritise the major injuries to the minor injuries. Your target? Save as many lives as you can." Everyone gave cheers- hyped up from the motivational speech and stand to receive their bags, one by one the nurses collect their medical bag as they exit out of the doorway in an orderly fashion when a person hands it to them. Lila walks around and finds shelfs of spare equipment causing her to prioritise the most important equipment and stuffs gauzes and other medical stuff into her pockets and head up to the top deck, as she reaches the top steps men lining up on the pier meets her eyes.

Empty and broken eyes met Lila's making her feel bad for what the men have been put through, but you can see hope light up in their eyes at the sight of the medical ship, cheers rang through the crowd and as soon as the ship docked screaming injured men were brought onto the ship, all with varying injuries, Lila immediately started tending to a poor man whose leg is missing, her training taking place as soon as the injured met her eyes, she tended to him until she deemed him okay for now and immediately went to the next person.

This continued for the next few minutes till the ship started preparing to leave, Lila continued to tend to a man whose eye was missing from a gun shot wound- how he survived- Lila has no idea, blood from the injured soldiers now covered Lila's once white apron and sweat dotted her forehead from the hard work. Lila finished putting the bandage around his head only to see one last man be carried on by two soldiers, medics quickly took over- removing the stretcher from their grasp causing them to be ushered off of the boat immediately. Lila felt sorrow for the men that were sent of- knowing that they probably intended to stay on the ship yet their plan failed.

She rushed forwards and started tending to the man they brought on till a males voice rung out in the distance,

"Lila?" Lila's head shot up instantly and looked behind her and met the eyes of her best friend, Alex.

"Alex? You're alive! I can't believe it!" She shouted with joy, about 7 months ago Alex left to join the army and Lila hadn't seen him since- he was like a brother to her and it felt like she had lost a family member when he left.

Happiness radiated from Alex as he took sight of his best friend, finally feeling happy in this horrible place and couldn't believe his eyes; the sight of Lila almost being like pure gold.

"You're... you're a nurse? Wow" he laughed and pulled Lila in for a hug.

"Yeah... look, I've got to get back to this patient, theres toast and tea downstairs and I'll meet you there in a minute?" He nodded his head and turned to walk off but froze at the faint sound of a planes hum.

Lila looked up to the sky, straining her eyes to see the plane that is the cause of the noise but nothing was to be seen, she looked over to the pier when she started hearing a commotion and could see the men start to scream and run, taking cover from the sky. Lila looked back over and saw bombs being dropped into the ocean causing her to immediately duck down and cover her head and ears from the loud noises.

She could feel the fear rushing through her veins and panic course through her body, is this it? Am I going to die already? Questions soared through her brain at one hundred miles per hour raising the panic inside of her to a higher level.

The bombs inched closer and closer until one finally hit its target and hit the side of the boat. Screams of panic flowed through the air from both nurses and soldiers as the boat sunk agonisingly slowly into the water, men pushing the boat away to prevent it from blocking anymore ships docking next to the pier, Lila stood up, searching for her childhood friend.

"Alex! Alex!" Yet no reply came causing trepidation to fill her. A body behind her pushed her causing her stumble forwards and fall over, people trampled Lila from left and right causing yelps of pain to erupt from her lips until a hand pulled her body up, Lila looked to the owner of the hand and met the deep green eyes of Alex.