THE FRONT: PART 8
"Redeem myself? What the hell was I thinking?" Scott asked himself, he was back in the trenches, their earthen walls closing in on him as he sat in his dugout and tried to avoid the rain. It had been raining for nearly a week now, but the German artillery had been relatively quiet, usually eschewing the front line trenches for the support trenches where the captains and other higher up officers gathered.
"Corporal, we need you on the parapet, there's someone out in no man's land." It was Private Martin, he was younger than most everyone, only seventeen. Scott looked upwards, he had tried to act confident and tough in order to impress the soldiers he was in charge of, but they didn't care, the only thing they cared about in the trenches was surviving, and that was getting more difficult with each day.
A few anthros had slipped into a shell hole and drowned, dragged down by their heavy packs before anyone could help them. Another few had gotten trench paw, their paws swelling up and shedding the fur, exposing pale, mottled skin. They had been taken to the rear and there was nervous talk of amputations that did nothing to improve general morale.
"Yes private, I'll be there in just a second, just got to lace up my boot..." The medic had advised the men to lace their boots loosely to avoid trench paw, but few anthros heeded that, it just made the boots easier to lose when they were trudging through the deep mud.
Scott finished lacing his boot and was about to stand up when there was a distant crack, Private Martin made a slight sigh, then slumped, staining the parapet with blood.
Time seemed to slow for Scott as his stomach clenched and a sickening sense of surreal disbelief took hold of his mind. Private Martin slid down the parapet steps and came to a rest, on his back, blood bubbling out of his mouth and nose.
Scott fell back against the wall of the trench, the mud enveloping his back. Private Martin was dead, and it was his fault, if he had moved just a little faster then maybe the sniper would have missed.
Scott sank into the mud, watching as several others came charging up the trench, their eyes wide with fear and horror. Scott watched them look for a pulse, but he could tell, they all knew it was too late, Private Martin had already departed from his world.
As they carried him away Scott looked down at the mud, a single raindrop scarred the surface, then with a shock he realized it was a tear. For a second he wanted to just sit there and not do anything, but then a smaller part of him spoke up, and with an inner strength he didn't know that he possessed, he forced himself to get up and take charge.
As he got up, he left his old self behind, he was still Corporal Scott Godfrey, but he had lost all fear, he was reinvented.
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART NINE...