Abyss
Red mucky earth beneath my feet. The thunderous echo of artillery engulfed the field. Ghastly gargles of men, some barely 18, hang in the air. Lingering. Haunting the living, as if beckoning them to the other side. An endless swarm of projectiles smothered the earth, blocking out the sky. The soil swamped with blood, soft, dark, pulled at my boots. Pulling men back into the soft, embracing hands of mother nature. To find eternal peace. Fragments of men, torn away, rain back upon us. We have once again tainted mother nature with impure blood, tarnished souls, abominable sins.
A low humming fills the skies. Monotone. Slowly Climbing. Drawing nearer, accompanied by death himself. A slender machine soars above, without emotion or warning, cascading a metallic stream onto the uproar below. The air is filled with new explosions, new howls, new deaths. Yet more men sink to the earth. To join their fallen comrades. Maybe now they will find the promised peace.
The stench of decay, despair, death. Slowly slithers into your nostrils, creeping into your heart. The icy chill of its fingers as it grips your soul. The same taste of decay on your tongue, filling you with revolt. Boom! A mortar roars nearby. Spewing hot shrapnel towards you. The hungry flames singe your, flesh as the shrapnel shreds you. Warm blood trickles first. Then gushes. An endless waterfall. It’s warm metallic taste. You recall a reflection of a cold, lifeless gaze in your crimson pool as you drift into the eternal abyss.
