The Silent Torment
Harsh Reality
The watch had stopped.
I felt in my pocket for the reassurance of my father's watch. My one link back to life before hell took over. The link I treasured now everything else had been taken.
It was cold. The brutal, icy cold that crept into you silently, chilling you to the bone. The cold, lifeless metal of the grey Destroyer was painful to the touch.
But it was the silence that scared me the most. The silent, empty sea. Glassy smooth in the stillness, almost deafening after the relentless storms. Screaming nothing at you in the deathly silence.
Nothing. Empty. Chilling. Nowhere to hide.
Except below the water.
There were no reports of U-boats, but that made the uneasiness more intense. Made you search harder till your eyes ached from the strain of scanning the surface. The strain competed with the cold.
Quiet. Deathly quiet. The background rumble of the ship’s engines was muted by the intrusive cold stillness.
No birds followed the ship today.
The explosion blew the world apart. I could see nothing. Hear nothing. I picked myself up from the back of the platform. The full force of the blast had seared straight over the bridge. I cleared my eyes with my burning…
