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Broken Hope

The excruciating heat from the explosion continues to wrap around my body, burning each and every centimeter of exposed flesh and filling my blood with a pain that feels as if it's melting my body from the inside. And through all of this I'm unable to scream out; to call for help. The thick ash and dust rains down on my close to lifeless body as the sharp ringing in my ears makes me wish for death faster than any bullet could ever deliver. Who knows how long I've been lying in this ditch awaiting the assistance which would save my desperate life.

Hours pass between my regaining consciousness and actually being able to have the feeblest sounds escape my lips. Even with the whimper it's not as if anyone would be able to hear me over the sounds of gunfire which I came to realize surround me. Obviously the loss of this caved in trench hasn't bothered or haltered the Jewish in their endless destruction across our lands, and why would it? There is no sleep for the wicked.

Explosions occur in all directions of where I lay. A mortar shell even lands within touching distance of me, but it doesn't end my pain and lies as lifeless as the rest of the men in my trench, who couldn't throw the grenade back within the short amount of time we had left. The light fumble of an underage soldier ended it for so many of our own on this day. And as it is it's surprising he got into the corps with his baby face and scared eyes, he tried so hard to do his part.

It was long ago that the smell of burnt flesh and smiles of comrade's skulls through destroyed skin stopped bothering me. The bleeding of my shredded leg has ceased dramatically and even the taste of blood is beginning to dwindle from my scratched throat, but the pain is still as unbearable as it was at my first waking moment. The pain and despair wracking my body has taken me away from consciousness many times since my original waking moment, and I still can't gage the time that's passed since my initial call back to the living. But darkness now seeps across the sky as quickly as blood from a wound left open. Likely meaning the raid party crawling slowly through the plains as planned just the night before. A party which I was meant to be a part of, a party that will leave their station several hundred meters out of reach. Always so close, and yet so unbearably far away within the same moment.

I awake again to darkness, but it's no longer the silence I've been longing to hear for months that wakes me. But now it's quite the opposite: a scuffing and scraping noise from just outside my ditch calls for me to open my eyes. Slowly I lift my head, causing yet more pain, to bring the shadows above me into focus. A shadow crawls across the ground, readying himself to descend into my crater of ruble. I am unable to read the badges and writing on his grey uniform, and it resembles no clothing we were given to wear through battle or while in a search party. This man is Jewish.

As he collapses on the ground next to my loaded M1 Garand I make a move towards the knife strapped to my leg, just above my boot. Seeing this the filth across from me hides a muffled yelp and rushes forward to prevent me moving further, slamming my broken back up against the sandbags that keep the wall behind us together. There is no use fighting his grip and instead I stare into the eyes of a boy no older than 16 who has a raging fire for vengeance. It appears he has lost someone close to him through the means of the war we wage against his kin. The Jewish soldier begins taking out his M19 standard issue without taking his keen eyes off my dirty face, the entire while mumbling words that make no sense to my ears.

The child has the pistol pointed towards my head and speaks the first clear German thing I've heard from his mouth:

"In my Brothers name, do you have any last words?"

The time it would have taken the soldier to learn these lines, and the way he shakes my damaged body after my late response, shows his hatred for our forces. It takes him another verse of his German chant and a hard shove before I give in the young man's demands. I grab him quickly by the wrist and pull his head near my mouth before whispering words that end my life with a bullet through my skull.

"Hail Hitler"