A sudden flash of brightness caught his eye and he whipped his head in its direction. It was the glint of sunlight on the burnished metal of Creaky as the Boers brought its cannon up, ready to fire. Boom! The sound echoed across the rolling veld and a thick cloud of smoke rose up above the huge gun.
From the centre of town came the noises of the explosion as the shell burst among the buildings. Shouts and cries indicated that the projectile had caused damage and the few lady volunteers who had been resting on the stoep, hurried away to prepare for any casualties who might be sent to the hospital.
The Boers set about firing heavily on the town and Robert helped carry some of the wounded soldiers, who had been lying on the stoep, back to their wards. Those that could, limped away on crutches.
A short while later, a party carrying a stretcher appeared. It descended into the trench which led to the hospital and emerged at the other end. As it commenced crossing the recreation ground in front of the hospital, the large white flag waved by one of the stretcher bearers attracted the attention of the Boers, who started firing on the group. Robert’s stomach constricted in anger and frustration at this immoral behaviour by the Boers. They have no respect for the white flag.
Robert opened the door as they approached, and the stretcher bearers burst into the hallway where a waiting nurse assured them in the direction of the operating room. As the stretcher passed him, Robert caught a brief glimpse of the face of the victim. Mr Johnson’s eyes stared unseeing into the unknown from within bruised and dark circles of flesh in a grey and bloodless face
This piece is written for Linda G. Hill’s SoCS challenge: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ect.” Find a word with the letters “ect” in it, and base your post on that word. (Not to be confused with “et cetera,” which is “etc.”) Enjoy!
You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/02/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-29-2020/
roberta-writes.com 
Excellent Robbie 💜💜
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Thank you, Willow. Writing that last paragraph gave me goosebumps.
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Me too reading it 💜
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This is so interesting and the prompt so creative. Want to know what happens next in the story. Well done Robbie!
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Thank you, Smitha. It is rather awful what happens next, but quite important to my current WIP.
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Nice job!
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Thank you, John.
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Griping!
Sent you an email. Please read.
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I’ll look for it, Bella.
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🤗
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Well done! I love this story.
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Thank you, Darlene.
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I didn’t know how you’d handle this ect challenge, but it worked out well! Good story.:-)
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Hi Priscilla, thank you. I wasn’t sure either but then I wrote this bit for it.
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Nicely done Robbie. Is this something you will be publishing when it is all said and done?
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Hi Carla, eventually this will be published. My current WIP, A ghost and his gold, has evolved into a much greater project than I originally anticipated and involves three ghosts who were all involved in the Second Anglo Boer War (now called the South African War). It has become very complex as this was almost a civil war at the beginning and evolved into a terrible and devastating destruction of the land and farms.
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Sounds very intense.
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Drew me right into this scene. Great job!
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Thank you, Susan, I am glad you enjoyed this piece.
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Terrific job on this one.
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Thank you, Laura
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Great piece, Robbie.
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Great use of the prompt, Robbie!
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Thank you, Jan.
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Disrespecting the white flag – that’s rough!
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The Boers were bad with that, H. but the Tommies were bad about other things. War is never ethical or moral.
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Well done, Robbie! I was shocked when I came to the paragraph about stretcher-bearers being fired upon, despite the white flag.
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Yes, that is a real fact. It happened a few times and was one of the shameful things the Boers did. The British, of course, burned all the farms and farmlands which wasn’t very honourable either.
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Regardless of who wins and writes the history, war does bring out the worst in what we humans are capable of.
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