Four Hundred and Three Food

Among the refugees, the family members of the military with some connections are doing the best. Those rich and powerful families have already escaped from the city at this moment, and fled to distant castles and ancestral houses to hide. The remaining small nobles may not have a better life because of their limited connections.

With the little bread left, John's family was having a great time with Mrs. Mary, a neighboring officer, and their children. A few poor families not far away have already run out of food, and can only watch a few children eating bread swallowing their saliva.

The transportation line from the United States and South America to the British mainland has not been cut off, but it has suffered heavy losses. Therefore, food can still be maintained as a necessity. If one meal is hungry, the next meal may be able to get some relief. Although some elderly people have starved to death due to food shortages, life must continue to live like this, right?

An officer usually has many things to do, and as the possibility of a German landing becomes more and more likely, so will his affairs. It is rare to visit his wife and children in the air-raid shelter, so most of the time John is responsible for taking care of the life of the officer's family.

Seeing the children of the two families laughing happily while eating bread, John also felt that although such a life was bad, it was still full of hope. He sat next to his wife, leaning against the concrete wall of the air-raid shelter, feeling the icy coldness coming from his back. Such was his life, life in the corner of the war.

"Hey! You guys have so much to eat, you should share some with us!" Just as John was staring at his son's smiling face while eating, behind Mrs. Mary, the neighbor, walked by several old suits holding civilized clothes. stick man. John knew them, originally a few down-and-out aristocrats on the other side of the block, some of the people who had come to grab the turf after the bombing.

"Sir! This is our place." Mrs. Mary is obviously not a weak woman to be provoked. She glanced back at the few men who were obviously here to mess around, curled her lips and said, "We don't need to share with you what we eat and who we give it to." discuss."

"It's all you people who took all the food that should have been given to us, and we are hungry!" It was the few people who were about to grab the food, who became a little annoyed and shouted forcefully: "You look at us! If you are hungry, you are a group of people without conscience!"

"What are you talking about? You spent money buying wine yourself, and went everywhere to grab other people's food without money. What face do you have to teach us?" John's wife frowned and helped his neighbor Mrs. Mary He argued: "We don't care about you robbing others, but now you dare to rob us?"

"What's wrong with robbing you? Hurry up and hand over the food! This is a place that even the police can't control!" The leader man shouted angrily, and kicked away an old woman who was curled up beside him: "We originally only I planned to ask for half, but now I have changed my mind, you all get out of the air-raid shelter!"

"We were the first people to take refuge here.

"John stood up, stood in front of his family and Mrs. Mary, blocked these rascals, and said sharply: "I am an officer, if you don't want to cause trouble, you should go away!" "

The leading man was obviously hesitant, and the people behind were even more aggressive, even shrinking back. But they have been robbing other people's food for some time, and the old people around them have been bullied by them, and there is really nothing to do, so they bite the bullet and provoke John's family.

Now one of them is because riding a tiger is difficult, and the other is because they really have nothing to eat, so they have no choice but to take risks. The man in the lead gritted his teeth, thinking that the big deal is that if we hit you, we will run away immediately. In this chaotic world, no one will care about such a trivial matter.

Thinking of this, he yelled: "Stop talking nonsense! Get it for me!" He rushed up with a few people behind him, John went up and swung his fist and hit the leading man in the face, causing him to scream in pain One sound.

Originally, John's body was not considered strong, but he had never been hungry because of problems encountered. Although some of the rascals in front of him were taller than him, they were not much stronger than John due to lack of food and hunger recently.

So for a while amidst the screams of John's wife and Mrs. Mary, and the cries of several children, John wrestled with several people. After all, those people were numerous and powerful, and John was soon knocked to the ground with a punch because of his weakness.

After passing John, these men who came to grab food became more unscrupulous, and looked greedily at the half bag of flour and two bags of bread piled in the corner. The run-down nobleman in the lead had just stretched out his hand to eat, when a gunshot sounded behind him.

John pulled out the revolver he picked up from his pocket, and shot behind the leader of the shabby nobleman. The man was shot in the back, and he staggered and fell to the ground. The screams echoed in the air-raid shelter, accompanied by the The sound of gunfire was heard far away.

"Whoever dares to take another step forward! I will kill him!" John spat the blood from his mouth on the ground, sat up with one hand propped up, and held the pistol in the other hand. Smoking lightly: "This place belongs to us! The food is also ours! Does anyone have any questions?"

"No! No more!" A few people shook their heads quickly, because they saw John's fierce shooting, and also saw the down-and-out nobleman lying on the ground, how could he have any thoughts of grabbing food? The only thing is how to get out.

"Don't let me see you again! Do you understand what I mean?" John pointed at the down-and-out nobleman not far away who was lying on the ground screaming, and shouted fiercely: "Take this bastard! Give me roll!"

Hearing John's words, several people nodded and bowed quickly as if they were pardoned, lifted the unconscious gangster from the ground, and ran out of the air-raid shelter where John was, without daring to look back.

And watching a few people leave, John seemed to have exhausted all his strength, and fell to the ground panting loudly. Mrs. Mary covered her face in tears, and John's wife also squatted on the ground, staring at the pool of blood in front of her in a daze.

This is the cruelty of war, and this is the despicableness of human nature. What happened in this tiny air-raid shelter seemed to represent everything that happened in this sad world. People kill each other and, for one reason or another, impose evil on others.

At night, the officer returned to the air-raid shelter and listened to his wife tell what happened during the day. The officer didn't speak after hearing it, but walked up to John's family and motioned John to accompany him for a walk.

The two left the air-raid shelter one after the other, and walked to the street full of rubble and broken bricks.

"Thank you." The officer sincerely thanked: "I am very grateful that you took care of my family today. Next time you go out to do errands, give my wife the gun just in case. I will find a way to get you another one. "

"I see." John nodded.

"I have a second lieutenant in my hand, and I will recommend you for it tomorrow." The officer thought for a while and then said, "I know that promotion may not be a good thing in this troubled world, but it is more convenient in some places."

Knowing that this was the officer's reward, John nodded in thanks: "Thank you. I will continue to work hard."

Then the two of them walked slowly on the dark street without speaking. In the afternoon German bombers destroyed a power station and parts of London were without power, so it's pitch black now. In fact, many civilians are complaining about why the British government doesn't have a good talk with the Germans to end this seemingly endless war.

However, it seems that this kind of complaint has never been heard by the top level of the British government. In today's situation, whoever calls for negotiation is called a traitor, and whoever calls for compromise to avoid war is a British coward and a lackey of the Germans. Under this almost crazy noise, the British government never considered the possibility of peace talks with Germany.

When the two walked back to the air-raid shelter, they saw two army officers and several soldiers carrying a box into the air-raid shelter. The two of them looked at each other, and both seemed to see deep anxiety in their own eyes.

"Excuse me, what's the matter? Is something wrong?" The two walked up quickly, staring at the officers and soldiers of the army and asking.

"Sir!" Two army officers stood at attention and saluted: "We were ordered to come here to distribute combat supplies."

"Could it be a mistake?" John asked with a puzzled look on his face: "There are civilians here, what kind of combat supplies are being distributed? This is not a military facility, but an air-raid shelter for civilians. Are you saying that this place is occupied? "

"No!" The army officer glanced at the chief of the air defense unit, and had to explain patiently: "According to the "British People Must Defend the Homeland Combat Order" issued by the Prime Minister, every British family must be assigned a Hand grenades, if the Germans land and invade the English cities, every Englishman must rise up!"

John looked at his backer, and the officer of the air defense force frowned: "These civilians have not been trained in throwing, and it is very unsafe for them to use grenades. Have the military thought about it?"

The army officer shook his head and explained: "We don't know about this. We are only ordered to distribute these weapons to civilians. Specifically, whether they will be trained to throw them in the future, or they will be kept for them to use casually, then I don't know."

"These bastards! They sent our wives and children to die!" John gritted his teeth and said fiercely.

"We still have a lot of places to distribute grenades." The army officer pointed to a truck parked not far away, and said embarrassedly: "If you don't mind, we will go down and distribute these grenades."