Sarajevo’s Solitary Sniper
I watch the Sarajevo wind leaf through the newspapers that are glued by blood to the street, spilled blood on the street that I have caused. I am a sniper. A sniper sitting lonesome in a collapsing building, waiting patiently to take out those innocent people roaming the rubble below me. Bodies that I and other on my side have killed line the streets, but the amount of death is not what gets to me. I often don’t want to kill the survivors who pass – weak, defenceless, and dying – but my superior sits in a building not too far from where I am… watching. How easy would it be, I often wonder, for my superior to stab me in the back and blame it on my incompetence? Very. These kinds of thoughts consume me on these long hours of staring into the destruction my side has caused. There is nothing to be seen except the already when finally, a new creature ventures into the open.
A woman wearily stumbles across the road and onto the bridge. Such an easy target, she is a deer who’s already befallen to a trap, I have plenty of time to correctly position my gun. The easiness of taking a human life like this always puts me off my nerve. I’ve been trained for years to be physically steady and focused but within my mind a whole other war is raging on. …show more content…
No part of me wants to shoot this woman, but with my superior able to see me from a distant building the choice does not seem up to me. She’s crossing the bridge now, unknowing that she will never make it to the other side. Lining up the shot I mumble a pathetic “I’m sorry” into the distance. “BANG” my gun screams out as the bullet travels fast towards her. It hits her chest and I know that thankfully her death was instant, sending her body splashing into the river below. Why did I shoot this woman? Well, I can guarantee that my watching superior would have payed for her life with
I watch the Sarajevo wind leaf through the newspapers that are glued by blood to the street, spilled blood on the street that I have caused. I am a sniper. A sniper sitting lonesome in a collapsing building, waiting patiently to take out those innocent people roaming the rubble below me. Bodies that I and other on my side have killed line the streets, but the amount of death is not what gets to me. I often don’t want to kill the survivors who pass – weak, defenceless, and dying – but my superior sits in a building not too far from where I am… watching. How easy would it be, I often wonder, for my superior to stab me in the back and blame it on my incompetence? Very. These kinds of thoughts consume me on these long hours of staring into the destruction my side has caused. There is nothing to be seen except the already when finally, a new creature ventures into the open.
A woman wearily stumbles across the road and onto the bridge. Such an easy target, she is a deer who’s already befallen to a trap, I have plenty of time to correctly position my gun. The easiness of taking a human life like this always puts me off my nerve. I’ve been trained for years to be physically steady and focused but within my mind a whole other war is raging on. …show more content…
No part of me wants to shoot this woman, but with my superior able to see me from a distant building the choice does not seem up to me. She’s crossing the bridge now, unknowing that she will never make it to the other side. Lining up the shot I mumble a pathetic “I’m sorry” into the distance. “BANG” my gun screams out as the bullet travels fast towards her. It hits her chest and I know that thankfully her death was instant, sending her body splashing into the river below. Why did I shoot this woman? Well, I can guarantee that my watching superior would have payed for her life with