How to Survive in a War Zone (Collins Shorts, Book 6) by Alex Crawford

Author:Alex Crawford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2012-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve got to get this news on air.

I make continuous phone calls to London. They can hear the explosions in the background throughout but I don’t think they realize just how close everything is, how much danger we are in.

‘Where are they from?’ Mark Longhurst asks. ‘Are the soldiers from the Khamis Brigade?’ I realize I have no idea. I can’t get out. Most of the time I can’t get out of this storeroom. There are bullets flying everywhere. Everyone in the storeroom is in a state of frozen fear. We’re just waiting for what feels inevitable.

I try to wrestle Martin out of his mood dip, Martin who is always so brave, always so fearless but also a realist. ‘Come on, Martin, show me how to get the light on this camera. It’s so dark.’ He shrugs. What’s the point? he seems to be saying. The boom of tanks is still so loud. But he shows me how to switch the light on in the camera. Come on, Martin. Come on, mate, hold on. I can’t do this on my own. He is rallying, and that gives me some more courage.

From Sky’s London head office I am getting messages telling me not to mention the mosque or where we are, in case we become a target. For the same reason, I am not to say there is a Gaddafi soldier with us in case we become a target, nor to give away who we are with. I’m thinking, but we’re targets already! We are all targets. They are trying to kill us all.

It’s hard to judge how long this will go on. It feels like forever. I think it’s roughly three hours. Then the door opens and a young man comes in. ‘They’ve gone,’ he says. ‘It’s over. Come and see.’ I put my head outside the storeroom first and see people streaming out of the front door of the mosque complex. Cautiously, I look outside. I haven’t stepped far from the mosque’s entrance when firing begins again. I turn and run back into the sanctuary of the storeroom. ‘Not over yet,’ I say breathlessly to the others. The fighting goes on for at least another hour or so.

Then the same young man comes in. ‘It’s over, it’s over, I promise you this time, it is over. We have beaten them back.’ This time no one believes him. But I cautiously step out and now it feels very different. There are a lot more people outside. They are falling to their knees, weeping and praying and giving thanks. I run back inside to tell the others. Martin is immediately up and out, camera in hand, with me following in his wake.

I am on the phone to London describing the scene when there’s more firing. People scatter. Everyone is very jittery. My phone cuts out at that point. I don’t know where the shots have come from but they have stopped. Maybe someone fired off a couple in fear or by accident, but it doesn’t seem to be an attack.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.