The Diversion
The story I wrote for class this week had to incorporate either the beginning or an ending of an already pulished short story. I choose 'The Sniper' by Liam O'Flaherty.
It was actually quite a challenge; trying to keep with the original voice, style and theme was a lot harder than I initially thought!
The ending I choose starts at 'When the sniper reached the laneway...' everything up to this point is my own work.
The original story can be found here.
Hope you enjoy!
When the sniper heard the news from his old school teacher, he believed the old fellow to be senile. After being bombarded with requests for help, he met with the old man who in turn provided his student with devastating proof which impacted his life so greatly that he was forced to reconsider his outlook on humankind.
He left the army to find out more. Once his commanding officer realised what he knew he was given an ultimatum; forget what he had learnt or face instant dismissal. He choose the later. His brother, younger and always eager to please, decided to leave also, but first he had to finish his initial tour.
For six months following his dismissal, the only company he had was the son of his teacher and the old fellow himself. The eldest was a scientist who had found a way to trace extra terrestrial movement through emotion and colour. Usually the radar was grey, symbolising content and general safety. On the day of February 10th 2011 however, it showed blood red, signalling war. After gathering their resources and befriending several ex-servicemen, the sniper and his troops prepared for death.
He knew what he had to do. The government had been covering up such events for years… first Roswell, then the unexplained battle during the second world war, and more recently the fall of red rain over India in 2001. He knew they wouldn’t listen, they never did. All he had to do was create a diversion whilst the old man infiltrated the network in order to send messages to Earth’s unwanted guests.
The only diversion he could offer was destructive and destroying, but he knew it would work. He placed himself on the roof of parliamentary ground and aimed fire. The result was immediate. The screams of pedestrians wallowed in the air and the military were immediately notified.
After several hours of furious gunfire, he received word that the mission was complete; his elder friend had successfully managed to warn several government officials whilst hacking into the network to trace enemy movement.
It was time for him to leave. He skirted around the outer of roof, taking in his opponents positions. It wasn’t until he was finally prepped and ready to dismount the building that he was under attack for a second time. As he threw himself to the floor and repositioned his rifle, he lit a match to draw attention to himself which also allowed him to see where the gunfire was coming from. One lucky shot later and his opponent had fallen. More cautious this time, he again prepared to leave in order to meet with his comrades and discuss their next tactic.
When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed. He decided that he was a good shot, whoever he was. He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before his spilt in the army. He decided to risk going over to have a look at him. He peered around the corner into O’Connell Street. In the upper part of the street there was heavy firing, but around here all was quite.
The sniper darted across the street. A machine gun tore up the ground across him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped. He threw himself face downwards beside the corpse. The machine gun stopped.
Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.