Dreams and Thoughts - 1917

3 - Under

The only sound they could hear were flies who decomposed horses, crows who chewed on dead bodies, and the two Englishmen's boots crashing into the mud. William steadily held onto his rifle, ready to fire it if danger had come.
It never did.

The land was nasty... there was absolutely no vegetation to speak of between the two trenches at all. Men who had been gunned to bits were strewn about, horses who had been decomposing for days, weeks, or months were being eaten up with flies, and barbed wire that had been placed only to be unused for months upon months lay dangerously in wait for a soldier to run too fast.

The barbed wire just mentioned became a problem when Will pulled a pole with the razor-sharp wire around it back, allowing Blake in.  When he let go, however, the barbed wire spikes slammed into his hand and cut a hole in it. The sharp pain was searing, but nonetheless he dislodged the razor-sharp blades from his hand.

He closed his fist as the pain continued to flow hot, pursing his lips. "You alright?" Blake whispered back, Will nodding slowly and closing his eyes before looking back at him. He eventually composed himself and resumed their tread toward the enemy trench.

Pauline would know what to do... she'd know how to dress the wound so it wouldn't infect. She'd know how to wrap it not too tightly nor too loosely. She'd know how to calm him in that moment... but he was far from that status at that moment. The visions of her weren't helping, either.

He jumped into a small crater trench and slid down the edge, looking over the wound as it bled slowly down his dirty hand. It would get infected, no doubt... but wrapping it wouldn't hurt. 

The blond heard some ruffling beside him and looked over to see the dead body of a poor fellow being eaten by rats, his stomach gaped open by what was probably a nasty machine gun shot. It was horrifying, and Will felt his stomach rumble with sickness as he looked away.

Blake slid down the crater behind him, however, and freaked out after seeing a dead body himself. It was skeletal, clearly having been there for quite some time. After all, the frontline had barely changed since Autumn of 1914 until then. 

His panic forced Will back and his hand landed inside of the dead man's body, touching the mushy, bloody, rat nibbled and decaying guts. A blood curdling, stomach churning wave of disgust washed over his body as he pulled his hand quickly from the expired human. If he didn't already know his hand would get infected before, he definitely knew now.

Will's face reflected his thoughts exactly, holding his hand out in front of him to notice the blood on it - some of it was his, but most certainly some of it wasn't. He closed his hand and bit his lip, leaning up and beginning to walk down a trench dug into the side of the crater to keep his mind off of the bacteria that would find its way into his wound.

To the blond, no man's land could be described as Earth if there were no life upon it; not even plants. The air was thick and almost unbreathable, the water contaminated and muddy, the soil drenched with the toxins of mustard gas and acid. The only thing human there was dead; the only things living there were rats. Men went over the top, but when the battle ended there were no survivors left within the space of land between the two trenches. Those who came back survived, those who didn't had died.
War could be such a simple thing; how ironic it was that it required complex understanding to manage.

After traveling further into the unclaimed and, frankly, unwanted expanse of land the former German frontline came into view. It was this moment that Will's nerves shot up and his grip on his rifle tightened. Even if they hadn't been shot quite yet, what if it was a trap for them? What if they wanted them to think they had actually gone just to lure the allies in?

After a few moments waiting behind the dune, the two of them trained their rifles and ran up it. They turned their rifles inside of the trench and, like the general had said, it was empty. "Fuck me... they really have gone!" Blake said, his breath heavy with exhaustion from their previous exploits.