comrades. Tears streamed down my face as I could feel death on my heels, when I ran. I ran and I ran, away
from the wall, away from the fallen soldiers, away from harm.
So many of us ran away, in fright. I escaped with my life, but the horror of war entangled me. Me, along
with a few other soldiers that were from my village, walked all the way back to our safe homes. When we
arrived, the village broke out in cheers, thinking that we had returned because we won.
“
We didn’t win,” I told them, “The Shanhai Pass is theirs. I have only abandoned my comrades, to
escape with my own life, to come back here and try to live a normal life. I should have stayed. I should have
defended the wall, where father’s bone now lay in the hands of the enemy.”
* * *