A/N:- I think this story was inspired by Narnia...not sure though. Anyway, I hope you like it. All types of reveiws are welcome

World at War

Chapter 1

Sara picked up her younger brother John and ran down the stairs. The air raid sirens pierced the air like banshees. The high-pitched notes of them pierced her ears for good reason. Just over the screaming sirens Sara could hear the deep rumble of the German Luftwaffe bombers flying over head. She brushed her black hair behind her ears as she held her brother closer. He began to cry again as he heard the all to familiar sounds of the air raid. He had now begun to associate the siren sounds with sheer terror. He usually wet himself as they sat in the air raid shelters. She held the banister with one hand as she ran down them as fast as she could. Her mother, Gloria Carter, came running out of the kitchen. She still had her apron on and a small amount of carrot peel on her hands.

“Sara, go to the air raid shelter quickly!” She said, pushing Sara out of the hallway. Sara stopped in the kitchen doorway.

“Mother!” She snapped, “Where are you going?”

“I have to get something,” She replied. Sara knew exactly what it was. It was a photo of her father, who was currently serving in France.

“Mother, there isn’t any time!” Sara screamed over the sound of the bombers. They were getting louder. Sara glanced at the ceiling as if she’d be able to see the bombers flying up above and over them.

“Sara, just go! Protect your brother!” Her mother shouted as she made her way up the stairs. Sara hesitated then bolted for the garden door. Her brother wailed in her ear as he clung to her, his small arms were tight around her neck.

“Where’s mum!” He screamed. Sara ignored him as she ran across the garden and down the small stone steps that led to the corrugated iron shelter. The shelter wasn’t much, it was only just big enough for the three of them to fit into. There was about a foot of earth growing over the top which currently had a few tomato plants growing up out of it. The tomatoes were in a sorry state due to the lack of rain recently and the ever lasting smog in the air. Sara wrenched the door open and turned towards the house. She bounced slightly as she waited for her mother. As she waited the first of the explosions started. The ground shook beneath Sara’s feet. She had to take hold of the edge of the shelter to stop herself from falling over. William started on a fresh wave of screams demanding for his mother. Sara bounced him up and down gently in her arms.

“Shush darling, she’s coming,” Sara said anxiously. She looked up at the sky in time to see a bomber passing above her head. She tensed as she watched it fly over. “Oh god,” She muttered. She looked to the house again praying that her mother would come out now. What was really a few minutes seemed to stretch on for an eternity for Sara. Eventually her mother ran out of the house straight towards Sara. Sara turned and ran into the shelter with her mother following soon after.

“Are you deaf Sara? I told you to stay in the shelter!” Her mother snapped.

“I was worried,” Sara said defensively. She rocked William in her arms and made comforting cooing noises to him though she knew it wouldn’t help him. William shuddered in her arms sniffling and crying. Their mother took William from Sara and handed Sara the picture. William seemed to calm instantly at his mother’s touch. Sara turned and put the picture on a small shelf opposite the door, which had a few canned beans and a very slightly stale hunk of bread. As she put the photo down she looked at it.

Her father was a handsome man. John Carter had thick black hair that was combed back in the photo with his army hat placed neatly on top. His eyes were a bright green colour but it didn’t show in the photo. Sara had inherited the same eyes and the same thick black hair, as had her brother Simon, who was also in the army but they did not have a picture of him. Her mother, however, was completely different. Before the war had begun she’d been a beauty with thick golden curls and bright blue eyes that sparkled in the sun but when she got angry they’d turn from the sky blue colour to the colour of the ocean. You’d always know if she was angry because of the colour of her eyes.

Since John had left his wife had become thinner, sacrificing her own food so that her children could eat more. Her hair had become limper and her eyes had lost that spark. It only reignited whenever John was near.

Sara turned to see her mother tucking William in the bed they’d made for him, he slept just below the bed that Sara slept in. Gloria sat on the floor with her knees tucked under her. She held William’s hand and sang softly to him trying to drown out the sound of the bombers and the exploding bombs but no amount of singing could stop the earth from shaking and the great rumble in the sky. Sara scowled slightly and touched her locket.

She had only just turned nineteen and William would be turning six in the spring. The locket contained a small scrap of material from her father’s uniform and a lock of hair from their neighbour and childhood friend, Peter. Peter was fighting in the same regiment as John Carter. He’d given her a bit of his hair before he’d gone even though Sara never thought of him romantically. Now all she did was pray that both Peter and John got home safely. No man deserved to be fighting a battle that they hadn’t even started! She’d already lost one of her closest friends to the war when they’d gone into central London a few months previously the air raid sirens had gone off and Julie hadn’t gotten to the subway in time. The bomb had fallen on a coffee shop just outside the subway entrance, just as Julie reached the entrance. Sara and her best friend Elizabeth had been thrown down the stairs with the Air Raid Patrol officers.

“Sara, get to sleep,” Gloria said, making Sara jump out of her thoughts.

“Excuse me?” She asked feeling slightly dazed.

“Try and get some sleep,” Gloria said. Sara nodded and got up. She carefully climbed onto the top bunk above her brother. Her mother continued to hum until William’s sobs and sniffles became hiccups.

“Where’s father?” William asked.

“He’s in France,” Gloria said, “He’ll be back soon and he’ll be a hero, would you like that? Your father a hero! He’ll save England, so will all the other young men out there in France,”

“But Father isn’t young,” William said, a hint of confusion in his voice.

“I know, but he’s leading them and he’ll do a good job,” Gloria said. Sara turned to face the wall of the air raid shelter. She never felt comfortable at the thought that this flimsy piece of corrugated iron was all that was keeping her safe during the bombings. It seemed to her that the shelter would simply crumble if a bomb even touched it. She’d heard of it happening before but she wasn’t sure if the stories were true. With some difficulty she forced her eyes shut. She felt the bed rattling and shaking as a bomb hit the earth, they were getting closer. She closed her eyes as tight as she could and curled up with the thin blanket over her.

Please let it be over soon, please let it be over soon, please let it be over soon.