Gaz was the older brother and slightly stronger swimmer so was a few hundred metres ahead of Joel. After passing a small headland, Joel saw him duck under the water. He re-emerged closer to Joel and pointed towards the nearest shore.

Gaz seemed to be in an awful hurry, so Joel put all the energy he could into his best front-crawl.

Gaz heaved himself onto the rocks, and sprinted up an embankment to hide behind a bush. Joel’s pace increased with panic and he followed suit.

“What’s wrong?” he gasped.

“It’s the army!” answered Gaz. “We’re right next to where we saw their conscription ship!”

“What? This is Lake Schming? How come you don’t know it? The tours come here every day.”

“Chris and Mick always do this bit. Anyway, why don’t you know it? It’s only down the road from home.”

“You know it is,” said Joel. “No-one ever visits stuff that’s right by their house, you can do it anytime.”

Gaz grunted in agreement.

The two brothers sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Gaz spoke.

“They can’t have seen me. It’s a good job, there is nowhere to run to we’d have been conscripted for sure.”

In a flash, Joel was on his feet and sprinting for the headland. Gaz tried to catch him, but Joel was far quicker in a footrace.

* * *

Joel burst into the army camp shouting.

“We’re here to sign up!”

A couple of soldiers looked up at him, a look of disdain on their face.

“What?”

“We’re here to sign up. Joel and Gaz Lessing. I’ve got our conscription papers.”

Joel fetched a wad of sodden paper out of his pocket. “Sorry, it’s a bit wet,” he said as the letters fell to pieces.

“Joel and Gaz? Where’s the other one?”

“He’s just around the corner,” replied Joel. “He’ll be here in a sec.”

After exchanging a shrug, one of the soldiers spoke. “I’m sorry, we’re desperate for soldiers to fight the war, but we want people that aren’t going to cause more damage than good. Look at the pair of you, you’re not soldier material.”

Joel looked down at himself. He was sodden, his clothes were ripped and he was covered in mud having slipped over whilst running to the camp. And he had left Gaz behind. He could see their point, and his heart dropped.

“No, you don’t get it. We are proving a point. We escaped from the conscription ship, and we have snuck into camp. We are exactly what you need in the army.”

The two soldiers laughed. “I’ve heard some tall tales before…" said one.

As Joel was preparing to walk back towards Gaz, two black suited soldiers with lazer guns spied him.

“FREEZE!”

Joel spun around to face them, hands in the air.

“Sir! We have an escapee!”

“Good work guards,” said the other black suited soldier. “Send him to Forced Conscript, Squad Sacrifice.”

“But Sir. You don’t understand, I…”

“SILENCE!”

Joel was sensible, and stayed quiet.

“Where’s the other one?”

The two guards that had laughed at Joel shortly before jumped to their feet and replied at the same time.

“Sir! He’s over…”

“We’ll get him, right away Sir!”

With that, they sprinted over the headland, tripping in their keenness. It wasn’t long before a demoralised looking Gaz was dragged between them into camp. He gave Joel a look of contempt and said nothing.