My Story: World War II - German [COMPLETED]

45: Draftees

Alaric Zimmerman

(November 1944)

"Alaric, maybe you should stay back. Alia will kill us if you die," Booya commented as he laughed. I smacked his arm as the three draftees followed us.

"Shut up you piece of sh*t. You are the one that would get shot at," I said as we walked.

"How likely are we to get shot at?" one of the draftees said. I feel terrible now because I have no idea what their names were. I should have asked for their names.

"Well, here there should be no chance. We are mine sweeping and some of the guys are keeping a perimeter," Booya reassured them. They went back to their conversation and I shook my head.

"They are kinda air headed," I said and he chuckled.

"I know they remind me a of you," he said. I looked at him and shook my head.

"I wasn't that airheaded," I complained and he rolled his eyes.

"Let's be honest. Tiny scared the sh*t out of us when he flipped Patch," Butch said as we joined them. A few of the land mines were already gone but Rat was working on more.

"We agreed not to talk about that anymore!" Patch exclaimed as he swung off a tree and we all screamed at him as we dove behind trees and boxes.

"You motherf*cker! Do you want to kill all of us?" Kipling asked as we realised no landmine was going to go off. He shrugged and I rolled my eyes.

"He clearly does," I said as I sat on a crate. Booya sat next to me and I made a face.

"How dangerous is it out here?" one of the draftees asked and I closed my eyes.

"In this mine field or in general?" Rat asked as he continued working on the landmine. The draftees were silent which caused me to open my eyes a little bit and wait for a response.

"Here?" one of the draftees asked. I chuckled and Rat looked up at me.

"Let's just say either you have to have me disarm the damn mines or get Tiny to shoot them from a distance if you want to cross the field," Rat said. I propped myself onto my elbows and bit my lip. The draftees exchanged looks and then the smallest looked at me.

"I don't see why he is called Tiny though," he said, "I'm pretty sure that he has the most muscle out of all of us."

"I like this kid," I said as I jumped off the crate and stretched.

"He was the smallest when he joined us," Engel said and I laughed.

"Okay engel," I told him and he sighed.

"I know what my last name translates to. You don't need to remind me," he said. I stuck my tongue out at him and Butch laughed at us.

"You know, you two still act like-" Butch started.

"Shh," Booya said as he sat up quickly and looked around. We all glanced around until a bullet flew by my face and shot the smallest draftee in the chest. We all the hit the ground and the largest draftee fell as a bullet entered his skull. I fumbled for my gun and shot in the direction of the gun fire.

"I'm out of bullets!" Butch yelled as we all put our backs against the crates.

"How many shooters?" I asked as I grabbed the rifle.

"One," Booya told me. I glanced around the crate and finally caught sight of the shooter. I cocked the gun and took a deep breath. I whipped out and fired a single shot at the shooter before ducking back behind the crate. I waited and no gunfire continued so we all stood up slowly.

"Nice shot, Tiny," Patch said. I nodded as I laid the rifle down and headed towards the body. I knelt down next to the shooter and looked at his uniform. American.

*

Later that night, we were all sitting around the fire except the draftee. He was sitting in the darkness alone and Booya was watching him as he talked to us.

"It sucks for the kid. He had no idea what was going on and he just lost his ignorance," Booya said and I sighed as I stood up. He reminded me of me when I killed the man that put up a good fight my first year.

"I'll go check on him," I said as I walked towards him. I noticed that he was holding his gun and I put my hand over my gun even though I didn't think anything would happen. "How you doing?"

"I watched them die," he said and I sighed.

"As is life," I said. He looked at me and pointed the gun at me. I stepped back and pointed my gun at him. He had tears rolling down his face. I heard the guys pull out their guns.

"It's all your fault! You took us out there and didn't tell us to stay alert for enemies," he yelled. I looked at Booya who nodded.

"You're right but that isn't any reason to turn on us," I told him. He sobbed and pointed the gun at his head.

"Wait!" Booya yelled but it was too late. The kid shot himself in the brain and we all lowered our guns. We were all silent and Booya turned away from us. "Put him with the other two," Booya whispered.

"Booya, come on," I said as I pushed him away. He led the way to the forest and we walked behind a tree to have a moment of privacy.

"I let all three die today. How could I do that?" he asked. I shook my head.

"It is not your fault," I told him, "All is fair in war."

"It's not fair. He killed himself," he said. I realised he could lose his ranking if it gets out that the draftee killed himself.

"No he did. We had a surprise attack at camp and he got shot. Understood?" I asked and he nodded, wiping his eyes.

"Understood."