A single tear streams down Hunter’s left cheek, the tears falls from his face and lands on his brothers, Jim’s, dusty jacket. The tear is a tear of defeat, fear, and the sense of loneliness. There is not a single sound that can be heard, complete darkness and silence creeps through the cold, wet bunker.
“It’s okay Jim, it will be over soon.” Hunter whispers into Jim’s ear as Jim squeezes tighter onto Hunters torn and bloody sleeve. “I just want mum.” Cried Jim “Mum” he continued. Hunter wrapped his arms around Jim tightly and covered his mouth so that the enemies outside could not hear his cries. A moment passed of muffled crying; rustling was heard coming into the bunker. The two boys had accepted their fate but out from behind the dark corner of the bunker came Dustin, the third brother. “They’re coming with too many men to count.” Exclaimed Dustin. “Don’t they know there’s only three of us?” questioned Hunter as he kept a hold of Jim who was still weeping. Dustin dropped his head and had a quiet chuckle to himself “I don’t think its for us, we’re just the unlucky bastards caught in their path.”
Dustin pulled Hunter away from Jim to have a quiet conversation, Jim speaks out “Boys, you need to leave me and go.” The two brothers turn around and look over at Jim who is clearly hurting, the look they give Jim is as if what he said was the sad and dark truth. They crawl quietly back to Jim and hug him as tight as they can without hurting him more. While cuddling up to Jim and not caring about the blood of his brother dripping onto his hand, Hunter places his forehead onto Jim’s and Dustin with watery eyes soon follows. Tears start to drip from all three of the mentally and physically tired boys, Hunter wipes his tears “I’m too tired man, we’re not going anywhere, especially without you.” They stay silent for a while, the silence makes Dustin uneased, and he begins to recite a memory that they all began to piece together a word at a time. “Remember those two girls that we fought over at the beach?” the other two laughed because they knew where the story was heading, Dustin continued “I remember both of them wanting me… but I was a good brother and let you two rascals fight over the ugly one.” They all burst out laughing and take a moment to replay the memory in their head. Jim tries to talk but is stopped by pain. “Please stop” Pleaded Hunter “leave me be” cries out Jim, Jim pushes through the pain to tell his memory “Remember mum and dad on the beach that day, mum was freaking out because she hadn’t seen us in a while and remember when Dusty finally got back and made it worse because of the red lipstick that was on his cheek, mum was like Stephen you deal with your fool of a son, his wasting his life hanging around with little whores.” The three boys now laughing out loud hysterically not caring who or what heard them “Remember what dad said to us?” asked Jim. “yeah, that he was proud of us and always will be.” Dusty answered. The boys laughing starts to die out, a deafening silence echoes through the bunker. Jim sobbing “I want to be back at the beach with mum and dad.”
The machines and soldiers are heard in the distance, Dustin pokes his head up “We can’t give you mum and dad Jimmy but what about one last trip to the beach with your brothers?” Jim visibly shaken and crying agrees to this with a nod. Hunter and Dustin carry Jim out of the bunker and German voices are heard close, the boys do not know what they are saying but they assume it’s nothing good. Jim looks up at the sunrise that is sitting on the horizon of a French beach. “Let me down, I want to touch the sand one last time.” Dustin and Hunter lay him down, the three boys sit in the sand with arms around each other. “It’s beautiful isn’t it Jimmy boy?” Jim does not answer. “Jim?” cried Hunter. “He’s gone” replied Dustin. As the German voices got closer and closer the two remaining brothers held Jim close while they watched the sunset, they longed for one last time.
