Danielle P.

The Awful Era

This is my story, my dramatically changed life taken charge by me, Alli, World War II in

the village of Rugen, Germany, 1945.

I thought to myself about all that we have lost, family, belongings, shelter. I am fifteen

years old with not much left other then the clothes on my back. My family and I were still in

Germany during World War II, fighting through the tough times. My father was sent out to war

in 1939 and we haven’t heard of him since. A month before the new year of 1945 my mother

died of an attack on our village. My siblings and I were with my mother in the house with my

grandma and grandpa, then we heard a big “BOOM” in the background, but right after that I

couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in my ears. We were lead into the dark green woods with

the smell of smoke creeping up on us. My mother went back for our grandpa and grandma and

she never returned.

Now, only months later, it seems like I’m reliving the pain and ache that will never stop,

but just get worse. One moment living and loving our lives, the next wondering how it went

wrong. As wild as a pack of hungry hyenas, flames swarmed our village. I ran as the bright

orange flames chase after me with their incredibly unbearable heat.

“Ahh,” I shouted as I woke up out of my horrible nightmare. I look at my ten year old

sister, Meribell to see her rolling around on the damp cave floor with her beautiful reddish-brown

hair the color of cinnamon sticks and a freshly cut red-wood tree. Then, I look around the cave

for the rest of my family and find Xavier and Ayala in the far end of the cave.

Danielle P.

“I wonder how our lives would be like it we weren’t in World War II?” I asked myself. I

look at Xavier and Ayala, “what would their lives be like?” Twelve year old Xavier with the

mindset of a soldier who could pull through anything with a little encouragement, who knows

where he could’ve ended up. Also, nine-year-old Ayala with the most imaginative little mind

you have ever seen and could make you believe anything with those soft blue eyes as sparkly as

a star in the sky that could do anything if he tried. I set myself down and worthlessly tried to get

a night’s sleep, especially with all this setting in on my mind.

My mother probably was planning on returning, but she just didn’t. We had set off into

the woods after an hour of watching our whole lives burn from fire, a place of horror in my mind

that I never want to return to. Our adventure really began when we started searching through the

forest. We went on traveling for hours, collecting berries when came across, reading moss and

going in the opposite direction, soon, we strolled across a cave that we took for shelter since we

were all tired. We fell asleep with a full moon hovering over us, craving for a new day to come.

The next morning Meribell and I set out for food while we let Xavier and Ayala sleep in.

On our way, I saw that Meribell still had the charm hooked on her shoe that mother gave for her

birthday; it was a red rose, resembling love in every way.

“If only I still had something to hold onto,” I said as she looked at me confusingly.

“Your locket, mine was lost at some point during the tragedy.”

“Well, you will always have our parents at hea-, “ her sentence was cut off by the sight of

a crashed plane.

Danielle P.

We stopped to look at each other briefly, mourning those lost in the crash. The plane was

covered in moss and vines swerving all around, connecting the plane and the wilderness to the

point of no unwind. We could only see the side of the plane so I couldn’t tell how big it was. It

said B-26 on the side, so I assumed a type of warplane and it had a rusty door ready to be

discovered.

“Are you sure you want to go in?” I asked Meribell.

“Yes, I’m sure,” she stated.

As we pried open the rusty door I was overwhelmed by the smell of gasoline, smoke, I

started coughing instantly and ran out to wait for a couple minutes until the smell could start to

fade. I sat on a rock thinking, making a list about everything I care for, how did it all drift from

my existence.

“C’mon,” I told my sister revealing the curiosity in my voice.

The first thing we find is that it isn’t very big, just a small storage space in back and room

for pilots in the front, Meribell called me over to the window and I felt the plane weighing over.

After a long silence I say.

“How deep is the fall?” I knew from the sway that we were on the edge of a cliff or drop.

“A long way,” said Meribell.

I started to drift along the walls slowly reaching towards the doorway, seeking for

Meribell, she tried to come when she tripped and I saw that her locket was caught on a vine, this

weighed the plane dramatically to the right. She leaned down to untangle the the rose when we

heard a click and felt a shift below us, she had it undone and leapt, grasping my hand in hers’, I

Danielle P.

had pulled her out just in time as we watched the plane fall and dissever into the mist of the

gully.

Lucky to be alive, we both went back to the cave to meet Xavier and Ayala. The rest of

the day, they went out to look for food while Meribell and I slowly digested what had happened

to us. Night falls soon and my brothers get back with berries, water, and firewood in their hands.

After a nice, calming fire we all fell under in hopes that that was all a dream.

About midnight we were awakened by a snap of a tree branch, immediately, the whole

family is awake, especially since there was next to no animals in the area we were in. Ayala

crept to the outside, saw a shadow, and overheard two men having a conversation with each

other.

“So, what do you think the country is going to do since it is the end of the war?” one of

the men said as if talking to his chief.

Ayala hopped out of the cave, as if a monkey jumping from tree to tree.

“No!” I shouted, as I saw his movement which led the men to face toward him. He

seemed to recognize a face and shouted “Father!” This made us all jump up off the ground with

a hurry to go see the man and who he was talking to. All the sudden I saw him, the man who I

hadn’t seen since 1935 and who had come back for us, his family, my father.