Day One

When I realized that soldiers were in our village too early, it was too late for me to run away from them. Without any moment of hesitation, my new life had begun when revolutionaries grabbed my arms, forced me to get on their truck, and left my mother and siblings behind. Lolo, Ignacio and I were recruited into the army of the revolutionaries. On the truck, we thought about escape, but when we arrived at the fortress, we realized it was impossible. The camp they called ‘fortress’ was awful, dirty and disgusting. It was a first time I felt loading bananas was better. We met two boys who were the same age as us, Juan and Whistler. But none of those were my favorites. Sergeant Diaz and Captain Mendoza were emotionless and strict with us. We got uniform that were tattered and dirty. I felt sick when I thought about the uniform which may have come from one of the dead men. We had to learn many things on the first day without enough food. We learned all types of signals, how to move the rifles: “Ready, Aim, Fire.” While we were training at night, when we all realized that the sky was full of helicopters, which seemed to be loyalists. Explosion of white fire had brightened the wood, shells struck everywhere. But very soon the helicopters flew away, leaving lot of victims. Back to our tent, I was so scared I wanted to cry. Yesterday I was loading bananas and now I was a soldier who expected to be shot dead at any moment. I’m not sure if I can manage this. This war won’t end, and either way I would be killed. I’m afraid.