This is War [ONC 2021] // Honourable Mention

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Daniel

The German soldier rounded the corner and immediately a shot rang out in the confinement of the trench. Daniel turned and looked to one of the privates behind him who had his gun raised, his hands shaking. When he turned to the German in front of him, he realised that although the private and fired, his hands had been shaking too much for the gun to be steady and the shot had missed him, embedding itself into the wall to the left of him.

Despite the gun in his hand, the man in front of him didn't fire. His hands were unsteady, his finger dancing around the trigger as if unsure that he should fire it or just let them pass. The soldier's face was weary, dirt trapped in every line on his face, caked under his nails and splattered across the front of his uniform. He was no older than Daniel, but war had made him older than his years.

"You," Daniel said, looking at the man and taking in every detail of his face. He knew this man.

"Daniel? We have to keep moving," Henry said. The other men were following his lead and none of them fired their weapon.

"He gave me Tommy's identity disc and his photographs. He's also the one who let us go during the assault, right before leave."

"If he knows we're here, so do the rest of them. If we don't move, we're dead."

Daniel didn't say anything, he just looked at the man in front of him whose finger still danced around that trigger, not pulling it. He had made a promise to himself that no German would make it out of the trench alive if he could help it because of what happened to Benjamin, to Tommy, and to Arthur. The men responsible had to pay and here was one of them, standing in front of him with a gun in hand but not shooting it, not looking as though he even wanted to squeeze that trigger and kill them all where they stood.

There was something about this man, something in the way his finger moved around the trigger but didn't pull it, something in the way he flinched with every sound, with each explosion. He didn't seem like the battle-hardened warrior who had killed Tommy, he didn't look like someone who would gun them down given the opportunity. This man was broken, damaged by war and the things he had done, a man so different from himself.

He looked like a child, like Ruth when there's a thunderstorm and she jumps at the slightest noise and at every little thing. There was no malice in his eyes, no anger or frustration, just helplessness, a sense of defeat even though the battle raged behind him. All that anger Daniel felt, all the promises he had made himself about killing every German disappeared when he saw just how defeated that man looked.

"They're coming. The rest of the Regiment," the soldier said in broken English. His voice shook.

"You took Tommy's life and yet saved mine and George's. We're even. I owe you nothing," Daniel said.

"I want out of this war. I want to go home. The Regiment is coming, they have more men than you, more ammunition, you won't make it out alive. I can say you attacked me and then left, no one else needs to die."

Daniel looked at Henry who stood beside him, the confusion evident on his face but neither of them knew what to do. This was supposed to be the task that ended the war, the battle to bring them all home and this soldier, this enemy, decides that no one else needs to die? He felt the rage start to build up once more, that burning sensation he had when he returned to battle after finding out Benjamin had died.

If he did what this German was telling him to do, if he turned around and walked away without winning the battle at hand, he wouldn't be a hero, he would be a coward. A man who ran at the first sign of trouble and gave up when victory was in reach when victory was so close that he could almost feel it. The German might have wanted to avoid any more bloodshed, the guilt for what he did to Tommy might have been eating him up inside, but he would not turn Daniel into a coward.

The German not want to pull the trigger, but Daniel decided that they had been standing around for far too long. He swung his rifle, gripped it tighter and looked the German dead in the eye, the sound of gunfire and mortar shells getting closer. Their time was running out. If this man was right, and his Regiment knew they were there and were on their way, they had a minute, two at the most before they were swarmed and Daniel wanted the upper hand.

"I will give you three seconds to get out of my way, or I will kill you where you stand. Maybe I should have done that when you first walked around that corner rather than let you speak, or maybe I just wanted to look into the eyes of the man responsible for the death of two of my friends, two of the men I trained with," Daniel said.

"We don't have time, Daniel, shoot him," Henry hissed in his ear.

"Please. I just want to go home, to my brother, to my family." The German's voice cracked, his English getting worse with every word he spoke.

Daniel's finger slid towards the trigger, just enough to let him know that he meant what he said regardless of the pleas the man presented or the arguments for his survival. This man was a killer, who shot someone who had just become lost and confused in the chaos of the battlefield. That wasn't war, that was evil. An evil that he may have thought necessary, but wasn't. Before, Daniel might have viewed them as equal in the sense that they were both fighting for their country, but this war had made him realise that they had never been the truth. That German was the enemy and he always would be.

"Time's up."

Before Daniel could squeeze the trigger, a grenade landed right in front of him and Daniel knew no more.

~~~

First Published - February 28th, 2021