After his vehicle hits a land mine, the private slowly regains consciousness and finds himself alone in the aftermath. With no-one else around, he heads for a forest to get out of danger. Hampered by a piece of shrapnel in his back, he spends a cautious night under the canopy. In the morning, he begins a search for water only for the sound of a drone buzzing around to give him cause for concern. If it is an enemy drone and it spots him, then his luck will have run out. Hiding again in the forest, he finds a water source and starts to refill his canteen. With the threat of the drone still around, the soldier falls asleep only to wake from a dream when he notices the drone right above him and armed with grenades. Now sighted, the private has to try and evade the drone before it kills him.

This is a short, sharp, war story that doesn’t take sides, but focuses anonymously on the situation. As there no sides taken, it could be any two sides in conflict, but it means there is no bias from the reader as to which side is which. The protagonist, the lone soldier is concentrating solely on surviving, so you find out very little about their background or the troops they are with. All that matters is to survive this situation and return safely to their side. I found myself, not so much trying to identify with them, but following it nervously as the tension raises and falls. For every moment of relief and hope, there is nerve-racking terror as they do everything they can to escape.

The formatting is fine and I didn’t notice any obvious spelling or grammar mistakes. It’s well edited and easy to follow and I found it worth a second read once I had finished it for the first time. At the back, there are some noted from the author on why they wrote the story in the way they did as well so details on the author themselves.

Overall, it is a story worth reading, if only to make you think about the situation and add a little perspective that someone who has never gone to war may be missing.