81_81266 Among the refugees, the families of military personnel who have some ability to get around are the best. Those rich and wealthy families have all fled out of the city for a while, fleeing to the distant castle ancestral house to take refuge, and the remaining small nobles may not have a better life because of their limited access.

John's family had what little bread they had left, and they were enjoying it with Mrs. Mary, the neighboring officer, and the children. A few poor families not far away had already run out of food, and could only look at a few children eating bread and swallow saliva.

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

The officer had a lot to do in peacetime, and as the possibility of a German landing grew, so did his business. It was rare to visit his wife and children in the bomb shelter, so John was responsible for taking care of the officer's family most of the time.

Seeing the children of the two families laughing happily while eating bread, John also felt that although such a day was bad, it was still full of hope. He sat next to his wife, leaning against the concrete walls of the bomb shelter, feeling the chill on his back. This is his life, life in the corner of the war.

"Hey, you've got so much to eat, you should give us a little!" As John stared at his son's smiling face as he ate, behind his neighbor, Mrs. Mary, walked past several men in old suits and holding civilized sticks. John knew them, a few of the declining nobles on the other side of the block, and some of the people who had come to grab the land after the bombing.

"This is our place, sir. Mrs. Mary, who was obviously not a weak woman to be messed with, glanced back at the men who had obviously come to mess around, pouted, and said, "We don't need to consult with you what we eat and to whom. ”

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

"What are you talking about? You have spent money on buying wine yourself, and you have no money to buy food, so you go around robbing other people's food, what kind of face do you have to teach us a lesson?" John's wife frowned, and helped her neighbor, Mrs. Mary, to argue, "We can't control you robbing others, and now you dare to rob us?"

"What's wrong with robbing you? Hurry up and hand over the food! This is a place where even the police can't control it!" the man in charge shouted angrily, kicking away an old woman huddled on the side: "We were only going to ask for half of it, but now I have changed my mind, you all get out of the bomb shelter for me!"

"We were the first people to take refuge here. John stood up in front of his family and Mrs. Mary, blocked the scoundrels, and said sharply, "I'm an officer, if you don't want to make trouble, get out of here!"

The man at the head was obviously a little hesitant, and the few people behind him were even more inward-looking, and even shrank back. However, they have been robbing other people's food for some days, and the old people around them have been bullied by them, and there is really no oil and water to scrape, so they have come to provoke John's family.

Now one of them is because it is difficult to ride a tiger, and the other is because there is really nothing to eat, so they have to take risks. The man at the head gritted his teeth, thinking to himself that if we hit you, we will run away immediately, and now in this chaotic world, no one will care about such a thing.

Thinking of this, he yelled: "Less nonsense! Rob me!" and rushed up with a few people behind him, John went up and hit the man in the face with his fist, and the other party screamed in pain.

Originally, John's body was not strong, but he did not go hungry because of chance. Although some of the scoundrels opposite him were taller than him, they were not much stronger than John because they had not eaten enough lately and were hungry.

So for a while, in the midst of the screams of John's wife and Mrs. Mary, and the cries of several children, John scuffled with several people. After all, those people were outnumbered, and John was soon knocked to the ground with a punch because of his weak strength.

Passing John, the men who had come to grab the grain became even more unscrupulous, and their greedy eyes looked at half a bag of flour and two bags of bread stacked in the corner. The ruined nobleman at the head had just stretched out his hand to the food when a gunshot rang out behind him.

John pulled out the revolver he had picked up from his pocket and shot him in the back of the ruined nobleman at the head, who was shot in the back, and staggered to the ground, screaming echoing through the dugout, accompanied by the sound of the gunshot.

"Whoever dares to take a step forward, I'll shoot 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, and the muzzle of the gun was still smoking: "This place is ours!

"No, no!" Several people quickly shook their heads, because they saw the fierceness of John's shooting, and they also saw the down-and-out nobleman who fell to the ground and didn't know whether he was alive or dead, how could he still have any thoughts about grabbing food, and they were now thinking about how to get out.

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

Hearing John's words, several people nodded their heads as if they had been pardoned, lifted the thug who had passed out from the ground, ran out of the air-raid shelter where John was, and fled without daring to look back.

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

This is the cruelty of war, this is the despicability of human nature. The qiē that happened in this small bomb shelter seems to represent the qiē that happened in this sad world. People kill each other, inflicting sin on others for one reason or another.

In the evening, the officer returned to the dugout and listened to his wife tell him what had happened during the day, but the officer did not speak, but went up to John's family and motioned for John to go out for a walk with him.

The two men left the bomb shelter one after the other and walked out onto the street littered with rubble and broken bricks.

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

"I see. John replied with a nod.

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

John knew that this was the officer's reward, and nodded in thanks, "Thank you." I'll keep trying. ”

Then neither of them spoke, and just walked slowly through the dark street. In the afternoon, German bombers destroyed a power station, and a part of London was without power, so it was pitch black now. In fact, many civilians are complaining about why the British government did not 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 at the top of the British government. In today's situation, whoever shouts for negotiation is scolded as a traitor, and whoever shouts for compromise and avoids war is a coward of Britain and a lackey of the Germans. In this clamor bordering on madness, the British government did not even consider the possibility of peace talks with Germany.

As the two men walked back to the bomb shelter, they saw two army officers and several soldiers carrying a box into the bomb shelter. The two of them glanced at each other, and both seemed to see deep unease in their own eyes.

"Excuse me, what's going on, what's going on?" the two men asked as they walked forward quickly, staring at the officers and men of the Army.

"Sir!" the two army officers stood up and saluted, "We have been ordered to come here to distribute war supplies. ”

"Could it be a mistake?" John asked, puzzled, "It's all civilians here, what kind of war supplies are distributed?" This is not a military facility, just a civilian bomb shelter, do you mean this place is occupied?"

"No!" the army officer glanced at the commander of the air defense unit, and had to explain patiently: "According to the "Combat Order of the British to Defend the Homeland" issued by the Prime Minister, every British family must be assigned a grenade, and if the Germans land and attack the British city, every Englishman must rise up and resist!"

John looked at his backer, and the officer of the air defense unit frowned: "These civilians are not trained in throwing, and it is very unsafe for them to use grenades. Have all of these militaries thought about it?"

The army officer shook his head and explained, "We don't know this, we're just ordered to distribute these weapons to civilians." Whether to train them to throw in the future, or keep them for them to use casually, then I don't know. ”

"These bastards! they're sending our wives and children to death!" John said through gritted teeth.

"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'll go down and hand out these grenades." ”。