The Final Letter

In the not too distant past, there was a war that raged across countries, with entire cities being destroyed. Thousands of people were left homeless with refugees flooding any country that was not devastated by war. Among the thousands of fighters, a soldier named Alex Hunter was writing a letter. “I want you to know,” he wrote, “I am sorry that I have to say good-bye again, because today might be the day.”

It had been a grueling campaign where the sound of machine guns was constant. Even worse, the soldiers feared something else even more , a floating yellow cloud that killed everyone and everything that lay under it. Everyday, Alex feared for his life, and whether or not he would be met with a nightmarish fate. In his mid, he would rather die by gunfire than by the yellow cloud.

For the thousands of solders like Alex, there was almost nothing to do in the trenches as most of the time was spent waiting in miserable conditions. The mud was thick, meaning that even simply walking was a struggle to get through. Even worse was the smell. There were many smells in the area, none of them pleasant. The smell of rotting flesh was palpable in the area, whether it was from a decaying corpse or from an infected wound. Whether the source, it was unbearable to the soldiers living in simple structures made of dirt.

Alex, whenever he could, wrote to his brother who managed to avoid the draft. In the letter, he wrote about his fear and his faint hopes. Everyday, he wrote, hoping to avoid both the boredom, which was becoming unbearable as well as the fear that doom was approaching him. Everyday he prayed, hoping that someone would hear him, not only for him to survive, but so that he could see his family again.

One day, when it was quiet for over an hour, Alex managed to finish writing his letter to his brother. In it, he wrote about his prayers and his fears. “My dear brother Albert,” he wrote, “today, I am lucky, there hasn’t been any gunfire lately.” “Every one of these days, I consider myself fortunate as I do not have to endure the sounds and smells of death, where it is everywhere, even the rodents bring it with them. I am afraid that one of these days, plague will kill us before an enemy soldier will.”

Alex continued to write even as enemy gunfire screamed above him. “My luck apparently was not meant to last,” he wrote, “the sound of enemy gunfire has returned and I am reminding of my mortality.” “In my prayers, I hope that you will be at home when I return. I have heard news of a sickness that has been going around the continent, with cases increasing everyday. I hope that this is just an isolated incident and will pass.”

Alex then heard his commanding officers yelling commands at his unit, hoping that he could write a few more lines before having to obey his commander, Alex rushed through the last few lines of the day. “I am ordered into combat now,” he wrote, “it is now three in the afternoon on a Saturday.” “Before the war, we would go hiking in the forest during the weekends. You would chase the local foxes, but you were never able to catch any of them. There was one time that you tried and accidentally fell into a nearby river. We both laughed until we learned that you needed to go to the hospital.” Alex then pocketed the letter and charged the enemy lines with his unit.

Alex’s unit didn’t make it very far before having to return. During their retreat, he could hear shouts from the enemy lines, and while he didn’t speak their language, he could understand that they were shouting at each other to aim and fire at his unit. At one moment, Alex tripped and fell into the mud. He thought that it was all over during that moment before another soldier from his group grabbed him, which allowed Alex to get back on his feet. It took Alex another ten minutes before he reached friendly lines, and that was the longest ten minutes that he had ever experienced.

Later that day, Alex’s unit was allowed to rest, and Alex spent the time trying to finish his letter. “My dear brother,” he wrote, “I am lucky to still be alive.” “I believe that if the other soldier didn’t notice that I had tripped and fell, I truly believe that I would’ve been gone from this world. My hopes are that I will only have to be in this war for another two years, and then I will be reunited with the rest of other family. I think about them everyday, and I wonder how they are doing.” Alex then tried to get the letter sent back home, only to learn that he had missed the deadline for mail.

Alex, though disheartened, decided to keep writing. “I have nightmares,” he wrote, “and somedays they are unbearable to the point where I am afraid to sleep.” “There are days where I expect the enemy soldiers to climb over our trenches and rain bullets on us. And then there is the rain, as if me and my fellow soldiers needed conditions in the trenches to be worse.”

Alex briefly had to stop writing as a fire had broken nearby, and his commanding officer called on nearby soldiers to help put it out. After about an hour of frantic work, where they were afraid that enemy soldiers would learn where they were positioned, they were fortunate in that after it was put out, there were no further incidents that day and Alex, relieved, went back to writing his letter.

“My brother,” he wrote, “I have learned that with a few days, my unit is to again try to reach the enemy trenches.” “But we are now tried and hungry, and I fear that we will not make it very far. There are days where I can hear gunfire even though no one is firing their rifles. Only the hope that this war will be over soon is keeping me alive. Tell our mother and father that I hope to return soon, and when I do, I will never leave for war again.”

Alex then spent the next days playing cards and reading, hoping for moments of peace before having to be sent on another dangerous mission. Fortunately for him, the moments of tranquility lasted for hours before being interrupted by bursts of gunfire. One time, he saw another soldier with a pet bird that he kept in his pocket. He would also feed it worms that he found, and Alex would see that bird grow to maturity. The soldier then decided that it was time for the bird to go free, and encouraged it to fly away once it was old enough. About twenty soldiers after he released the bird, the two heard gunfire, and the soldier panicked, thinking that his pet bird was shot.

“Did you see my pet bird,” he asked, “I hope that it wasn’t shot.” The other soldiers looked around for hours before deciding that it wasn’t as they didn’t find anything, even if they couldn’t see very far due to having to lay low in the trenches due to the danger of enemy gunfire. They then told the soldier that it was likely that the bird managed to fly away to safety.

Alex himself also helped with the search and looked around for hours but didn’t find anything. “I sure hope that the bird is ok,” he said, “It would be a sad thing for the bird to grow up only to be cut down by enemy bullets.” The day that Alex had dreaded for so long was finally here, and Alex knew that he had to finish writing his letter before being somewhere where his fate would be uncertain.

As he finished packing up his equipment, Alex wrote the final lines in his envelope. “My dear brother,” he said, “destiny awaits as today as the day.” “Either I come home a war hero, or I might not come home at all. Either way, I hope that this letter finds you. I know that I tend to end my letters with good-bye, because there are days where I am lost for hope, but today, I wish to be more hopeful as I am trying to believe that I will survive this.” Alex then gave the letter to a mailman and went on his mission.

When the letter finally reached his brother, Alex had been missing-in-action for over a month. Albert had been wondering about his brother’s fate, and when he finally found Alex’s final letter, he knew what had happened to him. “You are in a better place now my brother,” he said to himself, “good-bye, for your last days were with courage and pride.”