Creative Writing: The Vietnam War

We don’t really have much of a plan set out yet. It’s been 5 weeks. We just want to escape from this torture.
Behind me, the crowded area is flooded with fluorescent lights, suffocating the only freedom there is in this space. I’m looking out beyond the fence border. Dark. The glow from the lights behind me illuminate the ground just outside the fence, but the further I look out, the darker it gets.
I hear someone say something. I couldn’t make out the words or whether they were telling me or someone else, but I did hear the word “fence” as I linked my fingers through the gaps of the wire. I had zoned out from the commotion behind me, focused on the outside, wanting freedom. The darkness, the things trapped inside that darkness, homes, cars,

Remember 2 weeks ago when that kid you went to school with that smoked heaps tried to escape through a gap in the fence line and while he was running he got shot? Well, the guards never realised what he was attempting. They thought he was going to make some bomb with whatever he was smoking. They never saw the fence. If we can plan to get you 3 to run and escape through it in the time it takes for the guards to switch patrols, then you just might get out of this hell. I’ve watched the guards near the gap for the last two weeks, and it takes 45 seconds for them to swap. That would be enough time.” My father had planned this all out within a

Our focus right now is making sure you survive.” My mother had that thing in whatever she said that could reassure me.
“Okay. Let’s escape.”

Here’s a rundown on what was going to happen:
- Walk and sit for a few minutes near the guard tower and fence and wait for the guards to swap
- Once the guard leaves, Henry, Pippa and I will run toward the fence
- Once at the fence, we crawl through and run to either a car that works or the hospital

We wait. 7 minutes. Guards leave towers and begin to walk off. We run. I’ve wrapped my hand in my shirt so I don’t leave evidence behind. 25 seconds gone. We reach the fence and I crawl through first. Stupidly, I lean on my hand, and nearly let out a scream. The other two crawls through as I looked back towards my parents. They’re crying, but glad we got through without getting caught. I wave to them. They would wave back but they don’t want to be obvious. Pippa, henry and I run. 30 seconds gone. 200 metres to run from the guard towers spotlight. We run as if we were being chased down by cheetahs. 100 metres. 38 seconds gone. Then disaster struck.
The wounded didn’t make it. She was longer than 45