they used to shout my name (now they whisper it)

chapter eight: okinawa, sledge

Eugene watched as two of his friends were hit by enemy fire. Leyden was moving, but Matt was not.

"BILL! MATT!" Eugene knew he was yelling their names, but that fucking replacement Hamm and Snafu were holding him back. "Corpsman!"

The three watched as Bill was taken care of, but Matt was laying there, barely breathing. Somehow in someway, Eugene was able to slither out of Hamm's and Snafu's grasp and got to Matt.

Matt looked rough. He looked shredded. This wasn't good, not at all. Eugene looked on to him helplessly, trying to think of what his father could do. If he could do that, he might be able to help Matt.

"Don't," Matt let out hoarsely. "There's nothing...nothing you can do."

"Damn it, Matt, don't talk like that!" Eugene snapped. He wasn't in the mood. He found out his dog just died, he's stuck in this hellhole, and now Matt is telling him nothing can be done? Fuck that!

"My...my Ma, she's going to be so pissed off at me," Matt started laughing, blood coming out of his mouth as tears streamed down his face. Was it regret? Fear? Both, perhaps? Eugene couldn't tell you, because he was  blinded by his own tears, as he held his friend in his arms.

"What about the twins?" Eugene asked, and Matt was able to cringe at that.

"Oh, man. Mor--Mor will hit me while Maddie kills..." Matt trailed off. "Can you...tell them I'm so-sorry?"

"Of course," Eugene nodded. "You're one hell of a guy, you know? When no one else was there, you were the one who was. We took advantage of it."

"Yeah," Matt agreed. "You did...you...okay. You're...ok." Matt was now staring up at the sky, eyes wide open. He was no longer breathing.

Matthew Klein, Jr. was gone.

* * *

Matt was known for being a kind, hard worker. Unless you made him mad, Matt was the nicest person you could ever possibly meet. He never took part of mocking replacements, instead he talked to them. Became their friend in an instant. Matt was the kind of guy to like everybody.

Matt's death took a hard toll on the unit. Eugene, Burgin, and Hamm weren't afraid to show their tears. Snafu even let some go, although they weren't noticeable. He sure as hell was gonna miss calling Matt "Kraut".

No one could believe that Matt died. While he was soft, he was tough. While he was shorter than most of the men, his strength made all of it up.

Eugene was currently looking through Matt's bag. Seeing what he had left for supplies, and what could be sent back to his family.

He found the pictures of his family. Eugene couldn't bear to look at any of their faces, not now.

He found a ring. It was small, plain, but it caught Eugene's eye. He wondered where the ring came from, but he would never find an answer for it. No one would.

He found the letters Matt had kept. It looks like Matt had kept every single one that was sent to him. Some he leafed through. There was a drawing from his younger brother that was received months ago. There weren't too many letters written to him by his father, but it looks like his mother took care of that. Morgan wrote about school, and how she was helping out with their local newspaper. Eugene remembered how proud Matt was of his sister.

There most recent letter, the one that was on top, at least, was from Madison, the sister in Europe. This letter looked like it was from January and her handwriting was so shaky, it was almost hard to read.