“Hey, do you see those birds?”
“Don’t disturb me, please. Let me catch up on my sleep.”
“No. Please have a quick look. Just look at the peace, those birds, the sun, the lake…”
“Why don’t you understand that we have got these moments after a long time and we need to snatch that sleep. Those bastards can start at any time.”

“That’s the point. It can start again. We might not be able to see this calm again. Those three little birdies are also anticipating for ‘that.’ They are not moving. Why are they not searching for food? Or maybe they want to witness our fate. You know, even the sun is different today. I almost feel it’s delaying to come out fully. Maybe the sun is also trying to delay their action…”
A loud startling boom made Ali jumped out of his attempted-sleep-session. Cursing Ammar, he jumped to his position and held his gun.
With the crackling instructions from that annoyingly hi-tech transmitter, which was now covered in dust, they started firing towards the enemy. Amid the continuous deafening shelling from across the border and insistent shouts from the transmitter; it almost felt like a scene from a movie. But no sir, it was the life of those two young shoulders who just wanted to rest a bit.

Ali and Ammar hadn’t had a rest or even a 30-minutes proper sleep for the past two days. They were right on the frontline. The only thing separating them from the advancing enemies was that ‘peaceful lake.’ They were supposed to fall back today but ‘fresh men’ hadn’t arrived yet.

“Alllliiiiiii! You need to move to your left and take proper cover.” Ammar shouted.
But somehow it seemed that Ali was not paying any heed. Ammar continued with his job and the next moment when he turned his head towards his left shoulder, he found Ali gasping for air and blood was oozing out from the side of his neck. He grabbed him down to the floor and shouted in the transmitter, “Man Down! Man Down!”

Ali looked into his eyes, indicated towards his pocket and whispered, “Ammar, those birds were waiting to witness this…”