The Lightning War

The Sniper

The barn was empty... Or at least that's what they told us. We hadn't dropped our guard completely, but it had been just enough. Just enough for the platoon's master corporal, James Wells, to poke his head out to take a piss, I was just about to raise my voice and get him back into cover, when out of nowhere, there was a hollow pop of a bullet connecting.

I had my eyes on James when it happened, I saw the small puff of mist come off his left shoulder, and I could see his tunic shift slightly to the right, as the bullet passed through pulling the fabric over. James collapsed with a muffled grunt, blood pooling underneath him. The whole platoon began to scatter, frantically attempting to find cover. I stayed as low as I could, and moved over to the closest cover to James, frantically calling for a medic. it was only when I got within 8 feet of him that I could see clearly that the young Master Corporal was no longer with us, or at least wouldn't be for long. His eyes had already began to haze over, a ghostly whiteness began to take over his eyes. His lips were trembling slightly, as he attempted to form the words of the last line of the our father

"Lead us not into temptation, and del... deliver us..."

After that, his words fell short, the breath no longer there to support his words. James's face relaxed completely, and the world became silent, the entire platoon had gone quiet, now the only sound I could hear was what remained of the echo coming from the distant gunshot.

I turned over to face towards the platoon , I scanned through the partial faces that peaked out from behind rocks and bushes, searching for my radioman and sniper. I caught the face of Peter McLelland, the sniper, his head poking out from beside a log. I raised my hand and patted the top of me head, signalling for him to come over. He stayed low, carrying his rifle beside him, and got into position, leaning against the rock with me.

"Can you see him?" I asked

" No sir, couldn't find time to look after the shot"

"Allright" I sighed "send Peterson to put his helmet above the hedge"

McLelland set up his rifle with the barrel in a grove in the rock, then he crawled over to the other end of the hedge. He called out as quietly as he could

"Peterson, Peterson!"

A moment later Andrew Peterson crawled out towards the hedge. I could see him making out a brief conversation with McLelland, before stripping down all of his "non essentials". He took off his bandolier, belt, helmet, coat, now down to just his shirt and pants, he needed to be fast.

Peterson got up and burst out into the open, running for his life, in random patterns, running in a straight line for a moment, then twisting and rolling his body, redirecting his motion. in the time that it took me to get my binoculars out, McLelland made it back to his rifle, and was set up, ready to go. He had made the bullet adjustments already, I could hear the clicking if the dials on his scope. He settled in behind the scope, both eyes open. I lifted up onto my knees, elevating myself enough to see the barn.

Together Pete and I scoped out the entire barn, without finding anything. That was, until the first shot echoed from the barns hayloft, we heard the bullet smack into the mud, followed by a loud "holy shit, hurry the hell up". Pete whispered to me out of the side of his mouth, indicating that he found the shooter. He lifted the bolt to cock the rifle, then moved his finger into the trigger guard.

I waved to private Peterson and he dove in behind cover, panting and sweating. Then turned my attention to Pete, who was now in full sniper mode. His breathing had slowed down to a monotonous rhythm, in out.... In out.....in out...... In..... Out. On the next breath he breathed in, all the way, then his breath slowly hissed out from between his teeth. I could see his finger slowly tightening on the trigger. The rifle bucked back, and there was an unmistakable Crack from the rifle, which began to echo through the tree line.