Casualties of War

By Lesley Hoover

My country was in an ongoing war for the past five months.

The soldiers who were supposed to come and tell us when it was safe for us to come out of the shelter we called our home, never came.

Were almost out of water and food. We can't stay here anymore. We have to fight our own way out of this hell.

Me, with a baby strapped to my back.

 

Content Warning: Violence, mentions of sexual assault and war.

*Please note this story was previously published in the best-selling anthology Stand for Ukraine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ButterflyInk Publications
• Release date: Nov 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781393410409

Book preview

BLURB

My country was in an ongoing war for the past five months.

The soldiers who were supposed to come and tell us when it was safe for us to come out of the shelter we called our home, never came.

Were almost out of water and food. We can’t stay here anymore. We have to fight our own way out of this hell.

Me, with a baby strapped to my back.

*Please Note: This story was previously published in the best-selling anthology Stand for Ukraine.

On night’s like tonight, when the moon is round and full and the air still, my mind can’t help, but travel back to the worst times of my life. I watch my four-year old baby boy’s little chest rise and fall while the moonlight bathes his room in silver wisps.

I feel the familiar strong arms of the ex-soldier turned husband wrap tenderly around me, rubbing my swollen belly, comforting me and I know in my heart of hearts that I made the right choice...and yet my mind, it wanders.

It’d been five months since the first bombs had began falling on our humble country, most of which had been spent in the fallout shelter my grandparents and then parents had converted from an old cellar.

Our small province had seen its fair share of violence since its sovereignty and so we’d been forced to adapt more and more with each generation. The