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A night behind the trenches

Chapter one: "Forgive me Comrade"

"INCOMING!!" A dalmatian yelled as we heard the artillery shell whistle over heads and exploding in the field behind us, showering us in a cloud of grass and soil. Hearing the small stones pinging off our helmets. I am part of Division 13, one of the most remote divisions in this godforsaken war, my name is not important at this time. Before the war I made a good living as a mechanic, I could pretty much fix anything with an engine, it was a simplier, happier time in my home town. But the war changed that forever, I watched my friends go off and join the army, some coming home for the last time, others disabled for life and some never made it back at all.

The draft came into force two weeks after war was declared, anyone trying to dodge it was arrested and thrown into prison. I sighed as I looked at my mail and seen the conscription papers. I knew there was no way I could get out of it, so as I sat there in the medical tent waiting to be cleared I struck up a conversation with the wolf sitting beside me, "Hey, how are you doing?" I asked him "Im nervous as hell! thats how i´m doing" he responded. Like so many of us sitting here, quietly hoping that we were not needed, a gentle gazelle poked her head from around the door way and shouted "Spring! Jason Spring report for medical assessment immediatly!" everybody jumped and looked puzzled as this sweet delicate gazelle sounded like a drill instructor. I gulped and stood up. The sight of me was probably pathetic. At 5 foot 7 I was clearly the smallest fur in the room and the only husky too. My red and silver fur was probably going to get me out in an office or somewhere away from the front line so the enemies could not spot me amongst the earthen tones and grass of the landscape. How wrong I was.

I was cleared for the medical and immediately kitted out with standard military fatigues, a heavy long barrelled bolt action rifle and camo. paint. Lots of it. Back to my current location and situation.

*Alex's point of view*

Looking down the sights at the enemy rat I said a silent prayer for forgiveness and pulled the trigger. The rifle cracked and the rat fell to the ground without a sound. Removing the clip to see how many bullets I had left disappointed me, there were only 6. Around me my fellow soldiers were throwing down their rifles and using their handguns, some throwing grenades to keep the enemy at bay. We were completely surrounded and running out of ammo and urgently needed supplies.

"Sir! we need to get supplies here or call for support! We are running on empty" A fox said, his fatigues filthy and slightly torn. "Comms have been trying to reach HQ at least seven times over the past 48 hours. There is nothing we can do but sit tight and wait soldier" Sighed the commander.

My name is Darkclaw, I am a wolf, I am also tired, hungry and almost out of ammunition. There was nothing I could do I lay down as a few wild shots pinged and thudded against the hastily prepared defence wall. Turning to look to see where the rest of my company were, I saw that insane small husky spring, scramble up a tree and steady his weapon.

*My point of view*

Ok the tree was the easy part, the sniper rifle I lugged up was another story. Finally getting into position I rested the barrel on a sturdy branch, took aim at the enemy commander who thought he was safe in the back of a troop carrier he would not know what even hit him. Squeezing the trigger I sent a high velocity Grim Reaper straight into his back, watching as the bull pitching forward had the similar effect of throwing a stone at a wasps nest.

My pov:

I heard our commander shout that we could do nothing but wait for reinforcements but I seriously doubted that. We´re running low on both men and ammunition on the entire front line and I couldn´t imagine some battailion had precious ammo or men to spare to help us out with. Suddenly I saw something from the corner of my eye, at first I thought my mind was playing tricks on me but then I could see it clearly, a blur of red and silver fur that hurried up a tree in my proximity. There was no mistaking who this guy was, his name was spring, Jason spring to be exactly. He was called to the army the same day as me and we got to know each other at the recruiting office. He was a rather unusual husky with said red and silver fur that caught my eye instantly. He normally was an really intelligent guy who would never make any rash decisions but right now i feared for his sanity.

I couldn´t even lift my head about two millimetres out of my cover without the danger of dying from a nasty case of plumbism and he just scrambled up this damn tree like a goddamn squirrel. "What are you doing there??!! Get the hell down from this tree or they´ll shoot your pretty ears off before you can even think of it" I yelled desperately in my mind and waved my paws up and down frantically to make him understand that this tree was the last place he wanted to be right now...or so I thought.

I crawled a little closer in the muddy earth since it started raining heavily a few minutes ago to seek what poor cover I could possibly get from enemy fire that whipped through the air like hostile hornets.

The mud soaked my grey-brown fur and my already messy uniform. My comrades did the same, I could hear some of them cursing like mad but that was a good sign because as long as they had the breath to complain there was still some life left in them.

I leaned a little out of my cover to scan the current situation and was greeted with an immediate reaction. A few meters from the point where I was hidden exploded a grenade, sending shrapnels flying everywhere. One hit my helmet in an angle that was too flat for it to penetrate through it but the impact still made my ears ring, with cat-like reflexes I disappeared behind my way to small cover to prevent myself from further damage and risked a glance up at the tree to see if my comrade was still up there and for a few seconds was afraid that he wasn´t because I couldn´t see him anymore but then I saw a slight movement and saw him only because I knew for certain that he was there. His fur blended perfectly with the foliage of the tree and if you weren´t standing right in front of him there was no way he was going to be detected.

I saw him bring his rifle up and knew what he was planning instantly...sniping, why didn´t I got this sooner?, he was the sniper in our Division after all!. Without him we whould have lost a few more men to enemy fire already.

Hastily I picked up my mud-covered field glass and wiped it clean half-heartedly on my wet and muddy uniform. I brought it up and tried to make out any targets that were worth a bullet but found nothing but the smashed remains of the once beautiful forest that we´re fighting in until... wait, what was that?! I spotted a small camp of the opposing Battailion in the far distance.

That was impossible!, was he really trying to shot at a target this far away, let alone in this rain?!

Before I could bother myself with that thought the characteristic, quit sound of his sniper-rifle filled my ears through the pattering of the rain and judging by the commotion that took place in the camp he must have hit the Jackpot.

I could hear some soldiers shouting random orders in this chaos and shooting blindly in all directions because they couldn´t make out the standpoint from the soldier who had shot and jasons rifle was a silenced one with special ammunition that created no muzzle-flash so it was practically impossible to spot him over this distance.

I saw a few more soldiers that he shot, they fell down like they were hit by a lightening bolt. Hell broke loose, soldiers ran around while seeking for any kind of cover but you can´t hide from a sniper that you can´t even see. More and more men fell pray to his and our bullets. I saw someone running directly towards me and shot without further thinking, the bullet left the barrel with a loud cracking sound and hit him right in the chest, the rifle fell out off his paws and he broke down with a silent groan.

Finally i heard the final command that i´ve been desperately waiting for.

"Retreat! Retreat immediately!, we´re receiving fire from an invisible sniper, retreat at once!"

Relieved I watched the confused soldiers retreat to their base to reorganize.

I saw how soldier after soldier from us emerged from the mud, tired and messy but glad to have survived in the first place. Everything was silent again now. The fight from a few seconds ago seemed only like a bad dream. I could even hear some birds chirping in the distance. I heard someone shout,

"We should search the fallen soldiers for anything useful" . shouted one of my comrades.

I didn't need to be told twice, As soon as I moved out of my cover I saw something shining in front of me. As I moved closer I could see that it was an assault rifle, I couldn´t make out which type exactly but it looked special and was definetly better than my old worn-out standard rifle with 15 round magazine that has been jammed more then once. As I crouched down to pick it up, I recognized the soldier that it formerly belonged to lying a few meters away from me and instantly the feeling of cold-merciless war came back to me. I picked up his rifle nonetheless and walked over to my fallen enemy. He lay sprawled out as if he was sunbathing but I knew that that wasn´t the case at all. As I moved closer I recognized the poor soul as a fox, even though his helmet slipped in front of his face, the red-white fur was unmistakable.

At first I feared that it was the one from our division and was somewhat relieved as I saw the different uniform but as I kneeled down beside him I was suddenly gripped by a strong sense of grief.

Even without seeing his face I could tell that he was young, far too young for dying in this senseless, insane war that knew no winners at all.

Somewere in this world out there was now a mother who was waiting for her son to return home someday but I knew that he would never come back now. I was the one who killed him in the first place. Maybe he even wanted to surrender as he was running towards me and I just killed him without a second thought.

For that moment I shot at my enemy, not at a fellow fur who could have been my brother.

It was only now that common sense was making itself known again and making me realize what had happened.

I saw his backpack that was laying beside him, maybe I could find any extra-ammunition in it. I opened it and peeked inside. Even though I knew that he wouldn´t need the stuff inside anymore I still felt like I was stealing.

I found surprisingly much ammo, around 200 rounds and some supplies like the typical military canned food, medi-kits and... oh joy of joys, cigarettes. Even though I didn´t smoke I could definitely use them for trading since cigarettes are some kind of currency among us soldiers.

My gaze shifted to his head, I wanted to remove his helmet and see into his face but did I really want this? Until now he was just a body, another fallen enemy that I could forget in time but if I saw his face he would be something more, he would have a identity, if only visual but still he would have one.

I struggled with myself for a while until I made my decision: He deserved to be more than just a simple enemy soldier that someone shot.

Slowly I moved my paws towards his head until I touched the cold steel of his helmed. There was no turning back now I had to do it!

I gripped it with both paws and pulled it upwards slowly. At first I felt some resistance but suddenly it gave way and the helmet slipped away.

There I was, staring utterly shocked right in the face of this poor fox. Contrary to what I had thought seeing his face wasn´t that bad. The worst thing was that his eyes were still open, he was staring right at me with his accusing death-stare. It seemed as if he wanted to shout:

"Your´e responsible for my death! Why did I had do die this young? Tell me you filthy wolf!"

I felt hot tears coming to my face. That was more than I could bear. He wasn´t my enemy I realized. He was a fur, just like me who wanted nothing more than to live a peaceful live and not fight and die in a war devoid of any meaning.

Gently, I reached my paw out and swiped it over his face to close his blind eyes. Then I bend over even more over him and began murmuring soft, silent words that only I could hear.

"Forgive me comrade, it wasn´t you that I was afraid of, no it was your rifle and its ammunition that I feared and because of that I shot. I shot at you because I didn´t wanted to die, just like you. The only difference was that I was faster. So I shot and killed a life that was far too young to end now." I choked down a heavy sob. "Please forgive me comrade. If we would just throw away our silly weapons and uniforms we could have been friends for all I care. The war has made us blind, blind for one another..." Before I could continue my desperate prayer for forgiveness I felt a light tap on my shoulder.

"What are you doing wolfie?" I recognized the voice instantly, it was no one else than my close friend Jason spring who probably was the only reason I was still alive. Quickly I wiped over my eyes to hide my tears from him before I stood up and looked at him with was I hoped was a somewhat neutral stare.

"Praying for those who have fallen prey to this goddamn-senseless war because they´ll be the ones to judge me when I die one day. I answered.

He raised his eyebrows surprised. "I never noticed you´re religious" he said bewildered.

I shook my head softly. "I´m not, at least I think so but war will make you reconsider eventually" I declared with a flat voice.

Before I could think of anything else to say he suddenly grabbed my shoulders with his strong paws.

"Look at me wolfie" he said firmly.

I hadn´t noticed that I had looked down so I raised my head again and saw in his eyes that somehow seemed to have the ability to stare right into my very soul.

"It´s never good to force your emotions back, even in war, so go ahead." He said gently.

At first I was puzzled but then it dawned on me that he had already noticed my silent sobbing while approaching me. I felt something in me break, it was like a damm breaking loose.

I dropped the rifle to the ground that once belonged to the fox at my paws and my façade as well.

I threw my arms around him and embraced him as tightly as I could while crying my very heart out. I felt so utterly helpless, like a little pup who is unable to do more then whine and whimper when its uncomfortable.

I wanted this all to end, this whole war, the suffering and the killing that would lead to nothing but endless pain in the end. He said nothing, he didn´t need to anyway. His mere presence was all that I needed at the moment. To have someone to comfort me in situations like this was of more value to me than anything else at the moment and he seemed to know that. Everything about him put me at ease, the warmth and the smell of his fur could make me forget about this ongoing war and I could even block out the distant rumbling of the heavy artillery that teared at my heart day for day.

He held me for quite some time like this before we finally parted, his paws still on my shoulders. "Better now?" he asked quietly.

"I think so" I answered still a little shaky after having recomposed myself enough to speak again.

So what do you have got there? He asked after a while looking at the rifle lying to my paws.

"I found it near the poor fox there and thought I would rather take it before it gets in the wrong paws" I exclaimed while picking it up and showing it to him. He took it and looked at it from all possible angles with the stare of a professional mechanic before his jaw finally dropped. "That's...that's impossible" he gasped.

"Whats up with it?" I asked slightly concerned.

He stared at me, still totally out of it from what he had just seen.

"That's a SIG SG 550!!, they´re rare as hell out there. They are manufactured by swiss arms and were intended for the swiss army in the first place but I guess very few of them made it out there. Those assault rifles are known for there accuracy, firing rate and reliability. So they need much less maintenance then most other weapons I know." He removed the clip to check how many rounds were still inside. "The magazine is still full, that means that you have at least 30 rounds for this weapon. Have you found any more ammunition?" He asked.

"Indeed I have, around 200 rounds among other things like food, medications and cigarettes." I answered but my mind was elsewere and Jason immediately recognized it.

"You feel sorry for him don´t you?"

"Yes I do, more then I can ever describe" I answered sorrowfully. "He was running straight at me and I just shot out of pure fear for my life without realizing that he maybe even wanted to surrender but now i´ll never know. The only thing I know for certain is that I have killed him.

He was not the first one that I shot. It´s always a "either me or you" situation that seems to give us the right to kill others and I want to end that once and for all. In my opinion wars should go this way: If two countrys declare war you should put the two presidents of them in an arena for a fight and whoever is the last men standing wins. That´s the way it should happen and not here were the wrong fur´s are shooting at each other and the filthy politicans are hiding at a safe distance from enemy lines."

"I totally agree with you on that wolfie!" Jason laughed but quickly turned serious again.

"I absolutely share your desire to end this bloodshed but I don´t really know how this could happen, I mean were only tiny gears in this insane war machinery.

"You´re maybe right" I answered. "We´re only little gears in a huge machinery, i´ll go with that but think what will happen if two gears get jammed or broken, then the whole thing is useless. A chain can only be as strong as its weakest link I always say but I have to admit:

I don´t really know myself how to make that happen."

Jason said nothing for quite some time an seemed as if he was thinking hard about something, then he held up his paw as if something dawned on him.

"I think you just gave me an idea,... yeah that could work" he said suddenly

"What do you have in mind" I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear it or not.

"Well, its only a suggestion and its entirely up to you if you go along with it but there is one thing we can´t deny: We are on the loosing end of a battle, running low on ammunition, supplies and men since we have already lost too many soldiers to enemy fire. We have to change our tactic if we are to survive. So what I want to say is: Maybe you could sneak out near enemy territory, take one soldier captive somehow and force him to give me his uniform along with his rifle so i won´t stand out among his men. Then i´ll go behind enemy lines and try to gain their trust by repairing vehicles and such things while trying to get as much information about them as possible just in case it comes down to a fight so we have an advantage but that is the last option, maybe i even can make an arrangement with them for a ceasefire or something like that. I seriously don´t know if we would stand another battle.

This has gone on for far too long already. Who knows, maybe other companies will follow our lead and lay there weapons down as well." He exclaimed.

"Yeah, maybe" I said while trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible but Jason recognized my faked emotions instantly. He signed and laid his paws on my shoulders.

"Your´e not really comfortable about this aren´t ´ya? He asked

As always this husky could read my mind like an open book.

"Yeah...," I answered sadly "Because i´m not, not at all! The mere idea of knowing you in any kind of danger makes my fur crawl with guilt. If anything would happen to you I could never forgive myself. Your´e my only light in this goddamn war and if I would loose you i´m loosing myself..." before I could say anymore Jason replied: "You think I feel any different about you wolfie? It tears at my heart too but I need you for this. I know you can sneak around behind enemy lines like no other without being noticed. I have faith in you, I know they won´t detect you, your´e way too smart for that.

"Hell i´m not addressing a reproach at you because of this Jason, not at all. After all this times that you´ve saved my sorry tail it's the last I can do. What i´m worried about is you. If something happens to you I could never forgive myself" I whimpered pitifully. I just wanted to hug him and never let go again.

"i´ll be fine wolfie, trust me. I know how to handle those situations" he assured me.

"yeah, I know you can my friend but still something is biting me about this" I answered concerned.

"Understandable, but I don´t want you to worry too much for me. Whats important for me is that you´ll come back in one piece. When did you plan to leave anyway? He asked.

" Well... since we managed to give them a beating I think they would be busy licking wounds, so tonight is possibly the best time, either now or never." I said.

"Are you sure?" my husky-friend asked reluctantly, worry and concern shining in his hazel-brown eyes.

"Yes i´am" I answered much more sharply than i had intended and the added with a much softer voice:

"I owe it to you, you, our comrades in this war and those who have already fallen to it. I can either live kneeling or die standing and fighting for peace and would gladly do the last if it means to finally bring peace. We aren't meant for fighting each other, its like a poison and its up to us to stop it". I said with determination in my voice.

"I just want you to know that i´ll always be on your side, if not physically then spiritually. What should I tell our comrades if they ask for you?" he asked.

"Thank you, I cant describe how much that means to me. Just tell them I try to stop things before they´ll get even worse.

"Of course i´ll do that... I guess this is goodbye now huh?" it was easy for me to catch the fear and sadness in his words.

"Yeah i´m afraid it is... take care my friend I hope that nothing bad will happen here while i´m away" I answered. I couldn´t think of anything more to say at the moment and just wanted it to be over already.

Just as I was about to turn around I heard Jason call out behind me: "Wait up I want to give you something before you go..."

Surprised I turned around and faced him again and before I could get a word in he reached into his uniform-pocket and gave me a special looking necklace with a semi transparent blue crystal or so it seemed.

"Here, its supposed to keep you safe on your dangerous trip" he said while putting it around my neck.

" I looked at him amazed and wanted desperately to say something but finally did something that words couldn´t. I just hugged him as tightly as I could while I tried to hold my tears back.

"May Eos hold her protecting paw over you my friend" He whispered in my ear."

With that we parted and as much as it pained me I finally turned around and walked away. Looking back would get me nowhere now and so I began to walk a path that only god knew were it would lead me...