A Reason To Fight
Outside of what was left of the city, they discovered the great brick house, hidden in a thick grove of walnut trees. The grass was so high in the yard around it that the blades had fallen over into brown clumps beneath their weight.
They assumed the house was abandoned, a prime target for a hiatus from the tedious routine of marching and standing for reveille three times daily to identify stragglers. Since the young lieutenant was away tending to another small matter, they drifted closer and found themselves in an alternative world of silence and loneliness.
The war had not touched the house with slugs or shells. Rather, an invisible icy hand had peeled paint away and wilted flowers, leaving a dead flavor to it, as if it were somehow like one of the thousands of soldier corpses left on the battlefield unburied to slowly rot away.
They walked right up to the porch’s entrance and started to push open the oak door. Someone inside, however,......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 989
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |