Dreams and Thoughts - 1917

1 - Gone

The Front.
British Sector, Northern France.
April 6th,
1917.

William Schofield -- only a man who meets very little people would be able to remember his name. So plain and used, it was like the leather on his boots. There had been thousands, millions of the same made, yet all placed on a different person.

After three years of killing men he probably could've gotten to know if the world didn't work the way it did, he was tired and ill. Physical illness and exhaustion pained him more than he would've liked to admit... showing it would've been a sign of weakness, and the British Army- no- all of the armies in fact, didn't like that.
They didn't like anything human, it seemed...

Nevertheless, William had gotten used to it enough that he could move throughout the day. He still wasn't recovered from the Somme months earlier, which had drained a lot of Britain's resources. To his opinion, he was fighting a losing battle, but what point would there to be pulling out of it now?

Not like he could've, anyway.

In his time in France he had fallen in love and in some ways didn't want to leave just yet in hopes that he'd find her again. She was a beautiful, slim, but strong nurse who fought to keep soldiers like himself alive. However, he had lost her in very convoluted circumstances that hurt his head to navigate fully.

He saw her face in his dreams, in his thoughts, and in life. It kept him going, in a way... but it hurt his heart even more to remember her blonde hair, her peachy skin, her almost impossibly green eyes, and the smile that made them brighter. 

"You're thinking about her again, aren't you?" Blake asked, noticing Will's blush in thought.

Will looked up at him, knowing exactly what he said and how he had said it, but acting dumbfounded. "Huh? Thinking of who?"

Lance Corporal Tom Blake shook his head, his tongue bearing into the inside of his cheek as he chuckled softly. Even if he was his friend, Will couldn't stand his cockiness whatsoever.

"You know exactly who." The soldier replied as he continued to clean his muddy rifle. Before even giving William a chance to respond, he continued. "Look, she's gone... we both read the report. She was a good, God-fearing woman but we must move on."

Well, no one exactly KNEW she was gone as in dead... she had gone missing. The rest of them had been confirmed dead, but not her. The latest attack on Écoust had been a disaster and the detachment that had taken part in it had been encircled within hours. 

To look at it realistically, at least to Blake, she likely had been killed. How could a nurse who, with respect, lacked physical strength have lived through that with all of the other men having been killed? She was clever, of course... maybe she could've hid, but the battle had taken place weeks ago. No man could live that long with no major food sources.

"I refuse to believe that." Will confidently replied, despite he himself deep down inside knowing that she was gone.

Blake shook his head once more, but let Will live in his delusional hopes at that moment. After he had finished cleaning his rifle, he leaned against a tree and lowered his helmet over his eyes to sleep, indicating that maybe he should as well.

Despite too many things running through his head to even want to sleep, he did so anyway, lowering his helmet down and propping himself up on his bag. Not the most comfortable sleep in the world, but it would do for that moment.

When he closed his eyes, however, her face appeared. His breath had been taken away once more, and he found it hard to take in one to replace it. "Let me sleep, please... in my dreams." He whispered to himself, hoping the image of her would've heard it. He found himself drifting off in his words, and he had finally taken a much-needed rest.