The Sniper Narrative

Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face.
“No,” he whispered as he stared at the face he’d seen so many times before. He didn’t know that his brother had joined the republicans, no one told him that the enemy sniper was his best friend, he didn’t realize the man he’d shot was anything but his rival. He grabbed his brother’s body and heaved it onto his shoulder, trying to avoid being seen. Then he ran, bullets raining as the sniper sprinted down the street, barely missing his ankles. Having dropped his rifle, he only had his revolver to defend himself if someone tried to shoot him. He didn’t know where he was going, didn’t know what to do, he just knew he had to get out of this place, out of this war.
He ran through the city, his brother’s body a dead weight on his shoulder, slowing him down more and more with every step. Dusk was setting in as he fell, exhausted and dehydrated, into the sand. The body fell beside him, face down on the beach. He had run all the way to the port on Dublin Bay, ducking through shadows until he saw the coastline. In the distance, the sniper saw a lighthouse, the perfect hiding place until a ship came and he could escape. He hauled the body of his brother back onto his shoulder and set off towards the light in the darkness.
It was past midnight when they finally reached the …show more content…
“The perfect chance to escape the war”, he thought. If he could only sneak into the ship’s cargo hold, he could leave his war-torn country behind and start a new life somewhere. The only problem was his brother’s body. There’s no way he and his brother’s corpse could make it into the ship undetected. He was going to have to leave him behind. He brought the body to the base of the lighthouse, and hot tears streamed down his face as he buried it outside. “Goodbye,” he whispered, regretting every moment he didn’t spend in his brother’s