Tanks rolled in this morning. Mother died too, but the landlord decided to take her body from me, so now its just me and lil’ Phil with his brown eyes left in this thatched house. The weeds have chocked the wheat too, so now we’ve been rationing the food. I heard from ole’ Mr. Weisner that we’d be out of food again for a while, but it was alright. I might not have mother, I might not have pa either, but at least Phil was here with me, though he was developing some nasty cough, but at least he’s here with me.

At night, I crept into my bed, which was next to Phil’s, and I curled into a ball and slept. I think I think I might’ve cried that night, I’m not sure. When morning came I headed back to the town square. Fighter jets had erupted just as I marched through the door, and the cloud streams that followed the jets were gray and dirty. Another tank passed through the village today; I think the lady Sarah ran off with one of the soldiers. Poor ole’ Mr. Gaiser will be sad that his daughter ran off.

I made it to the square and searched for food or something, but there was nothing as usual. I heard an explosion, maybe a few miles off; the elders said it was something called ‘tillery shells. I don’t know what ‘tillery are, but shells have something good to eat, so I thought to myself that I should go and see what was making these explosions.

I ran back to my house, told Mr. Gaiser and Mr. Weisner hello, and gave my regards to the elders and the kind ladies of the village. My house was nothing special, just a thatched roof of dirt and dried hay with log walls; it was fairly small but it did well for just me and Phil. I woke Phil up, and told him to get ready and dressed. “We going to find some food, dem shells,” I told him. Phil looked at me kinda alarmingly, but then we just laughed it off a little. I was glad that Phil was here, being my cuz an all, but I know that if he weren’t there, my life would be kinda lonely here in this village.

We walked out of our door and we began to march. As we went to the east, I saw one of the village elders, Mr. Henderson I think, talking to Mr. Vallon. I didn’t understand much of what they said, being ten and all, but I heard something ‘bout the “corruption” making its way towards the village, stuff like “desertification” and “pollution” and “nuclear waste.” It didn’t sound that nice so I put my hands on Phil’s ears and we kept moving.

We went up a hill that was full of dead grass and weeds and sat underneath a dead tree, resting in the shade for a bit. I saw some trucks move about, maybe ten of them, and I saw some guys get out of that truck and shoot around. I didn’t know what they were shooting, and hell I still don’t know why they were shooting. The elders told me that the soldiers have always been shooting and killing, but then, aren’t the soldiers people? How can they have been shooting people forever when they live and die like us? Life makes no sense to me sometimes, just like how Ma died.

I didn’t like to think about that kind of stuff, so kept moving along, down the dead hill and onto the plains below. Then, I heard it again, the explosions, the shells! My stomach was hungry, the last we ate was last morning, and that was just a handful of barely. Now they taught some things, little bit, of this thing called the government, and I heard that they gave us food and did things like “rationalize” and “subsidize” and protect us, but for as long as I’ve lived in the village, there weren’t a whole lot of protecting or rebuilding. But whatever the government, they must have their reasons.

I didn’t ponder on that thought either for long and me and Phil kept moving. We saw another village a mile out, but when we entered it, the houses were empty, holes and cracks were in the walls, and there was nobody there. We searched the village for a bit, found a can of beans (Phil looked at me in delight with his big brown eyes when he found that), and a book that was mighty big but at least we wouldn’t be bored at home now.

It was getting dark, the sun was set for sure, and I didn’t wanna go find these shells at night, and that empty town had a ghostly feel, so me and Phil headed home. We cooked the beans on a stove, though it was very old with cracks everywhere. After we ate we headed to our beds, but I looked at that book once more. It was titled something like War and such but the book was old and I couldn’t really make out the etchings.

Morning came up, another tank crew came by, but this time an alarm sounded. Suddenly, Mr. Henderson barged through the door and told us to get out. He said something about the Viksons and the Americans being at our front doors, but it was only Henderson at my front door. He carried me and Phil out of my house, and told us to be quiet. He put me and Phil on a truck and closed the door. In the truck with me and Phil were Mr. Gaiser and his two sons Ben and Tom. We didn’t talk much as the truck started moving, but then I heard some more of them shells exploding and I turned to Phil. I asked him “why would sea-shells explode? Is it like dat evolution thing we learned about? A defense mechanism?” Phil looked at me, with his brown eyes staring intently, and he said, “I reckon it is, but you know, I’m not sure.”

We sat for the remainder of the trip in silence, but every now and then a gunshot or an explosion would startle us. But one day, me and Phil got so hungry, and there weren’t any food there in the truck either, so we slipped out, despite the yells and shouts of Gaiser, though most of it was resigned, we went away. We told him we’d find him and the other villagers, but we were mighty hungry first and foremost.

We headed back to the hill and then back to the abandoned village, and then we slept in one of the houses there. We woke up that next morning and went looking for those shells. A few miles down we saw some soldiers fighting other soldiers and nearly a dozen tanks on fire. I saw some planes loose some turds which suddenly exploded on the ground. Phil gave a big laugh at that. “That plane took a poop!” He told me. I had to chuckle too, cause it did look like the plane gave a poop. On and on we went, when suddenly there it was, the ‘tillery thing that made the explosions. I wasn’t sure if those were the right shells but hell, that thing made explosions and if I couldn’t get food at least we’d get a toy to play.

We crept forward a little, tip-toeing along the way, when the soldiers all dropped their weapons and a large plane came in the distance and dropped a massive poop. Phil laughed for a bit, but suddenly I was in shock. I remembered the book now, and a page that said something about “ICBMs” and I held Phil real fast and screamed at him to stay down. He looked at me with his brown eyes as the poop hit the ground and everyone screamed.