"Gunsmoke"

Private Delwan was tense and nervous as his scope scanned the area. He was seeing his first active combat duty, after all. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a silhouette in his view for a split second.

He retrained his scope searching for the silhouette again. Sweat dripped down his brow. He found it. It was the enemy. They were signalling to a small group behind them.

He was breathing heavily; he couldn't aim. His face was, by this point, drenched in anxious sweat. This was the moment and he was too scared to shoot.

His vision blurred; it was like he was looking through a cloud of smoke. He could hear war drums beating steadily in his ears, and it took him a few moments to realize it was keeping time with his heartbeats. He felt himself relax, his breathing becoming smoother.

He trained the sights and fired. The leader was down.

He reloaded quickly and took aim again. A bang and another enemy down.

Reload, aim, shoot. Reload, aim, shoot. It was as natural to him as breathing. Reload, aim, shoot.

Soon they were all dead, their blood congealing on the dusty road. He congratulated himself silently.

The blurriness cleared from his eyes at that moment and he gave a cry of horror as he truly saw the bodies on the ground, their faces wretched in pain. All of them women and children.