Day 5

Yesterday I went on a patrol. It was the first time I’ve ever done anything like that and I will probably never forget that experience. We walked for hours through the jungle until we finally stopped nearby a village. A little while after we stopped, machine guns started firing. When they finally ceased firing, I went with Captain Mendoza, Lolo, and Ignacio to investigate the scene. What we found was so appalling I started crying and I couldn’t help it. There, in the village, were the bodies of 11 dead humans and in the center was a loyalist flag. These weren’t like the dead bodies of people who had died from sicknesses. Each mangled body was soaked in blood from the bullets that had killed them. I was overcome with grief for them. They were villagers just like us; I could have been the little boy that was killed. I ask myself repeatedly, what did they do to deserve this? They were nothing more than poor peasants who worked all day in the blazing sun just to receive the horrible fate of being murdered by loyalists. Again and again I cursed Captain Mendoza for not reaching earlier. We could have saved them I thought constantly. After looking at that site I swore to myself that I would try my best to kill each and every one of the loyalist soldiers. While in the forest, I stumbled upon a little girl, no older than me, and a baby boy that had been born that very day. The girl was covered with blood from the wounds she had gotten, but she stayed strong. She asked for her father, and again the same sickening feeling filled me. She would never get to see her father, or her mother, or the rest of her family. I will never forget that little girl, or the rest of the village.
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~acareywe/images/childsoldiers.jpg