I feel sick; we all do, the adreniline is almost hanging in the air as we feel the floor beneath us knock gently along the waves. It's too dark for anyone to see what the rest of us are doing - So Arthur holds my hand tightly, he's seen wars before, that's why when I first joined the army he looked after me.

"It's not going to be long now."

I feel so naive, I only joined the army because I wanted to be the hero - we were promised fame after all. 'Imagine being an American soldier!' They all said. 'Your country needs you!' Was what the posters told me. I believed them. I joined up a year before I was legally allowed to. There were several English soldiers there who joined up with us in the early days. Arthur was one of them. He'd originally been flown over with some of the RAF and Navy, they were looking after the people in the higher ranks. He was my superior and helped me in training personally.

"You bloody Yanks, I swear you don't know how to use a gun properly."

We were an odd pair, he looked out for me. I know that, but he always seemed to have a hard way of showing it. Yelling at me over and over again was his way of showing he cared. Although, I had to have Matthew explain that to me.

"They're taking us away to Italy, imagine it, Alfred! Real Italy, I'm actually going to be fighting!"

Matthew was taken to the Rome, he fought there, and sent me letters every week while me and Arthur were taken to England. One day the letters stopped, although I kept writing to the adresses he sent me. Then one day a formal looking letter came through, announcing his death. That's when Arthur decided to show affection that I could understand.

"This is war, people die... I'm certain that he died a proud man and he's looking after you now."

I can't tell you how long I cried in Arthurs arms for, Matthew, my baby brother, was gone. I'd promised Mama I'd look after him during the war. I promised him I'd rescue him when he got hurt. And suddenly, I'd broken almost every promise I'd ever made.

"We're coming in to dock now." A voice calls out, I close my eyes tightly as I hear someone throwing up. Everything stinks in this ship. I swear it wasn't that long ago that we were having Christmas dinner together, me and Arthur.

"Arthur, let me cook it. You're going to burn it!"

"Shut up, I know what I'm doing!"

"Don't you have a doll to do this for you? I mean, you barely seem able to look after yourself with out a case of food poisoning..."

"Shut your bloody trap, it usually doesn't burn like that."

"You didn't answer my question."

"What question?"

"A girl, don't you have one to do this for you?"

"No."

"Huh, why?"

"Never found the right one."

"Oh."

"Oh, bloody 'ell!"

"What?"

"I left the pudding on!"

I'm shaking now, uncontrollably. The waves keep lapping against the sides, spraying water in. It trickles down my hat down onto my back. I can hear gun fire, other ships have been landing. I feel like screaming out already, I haven't even been hit. Arthurs closing his eyes tightly now as I scrabble round fumbling with my gun. He's heard this before I think. Although he did tell me he hadn't seen an attack as big as this before.

"How long have you been in the army?"

"Long enough."

"What does that mean?"

"... Have you ever seen something that you can never forget?"

"Yeah, plenty of times."

"Now imagine it being your worst nightmare... That's what being in the army does to you."

The latches are being clunked around. Our sheilds are about to go up. The goal from then on is simple. Run, don't get killed, shoot all the Germans you see. I'm shaking still, I don't want to run. I can hear things being fired, I can hear screams. I can taste the blood in the air. I can't be scared though. I've got to redeem myself after Matthew, I need to be the hero again.

"If we win this, will the war be over?"

"It might, I don't know."

"I hope so, I don't want anyone else to lose someone they love."

"Ready?" I hear whispers and shouts and whistles around me, only able to distinguish Arthur's voice out of all of them. He's holding his Tommy gun now, We're further to the back as the door lurches open, exposing us to the terror of the beach. How long ago was this beach somewhere people went to have fun?

I'm pushed lightly forward by Arthur, but I'm stuck to the spot. It's only when I get shoved forward that I start to move. I run. Holding my gun up ducking and looking around.

Bodies are shot in front of me, people I know. I see them fall to the ground as I try to step over them. Almost tripping as one man moves, screaming in pure agony as he does so.

"What it's like, being on a battlefeild."

"Terrifying."

"... Is that it?"

"I think it's a place where you have to be to understand."

As I place my foot down onto the mixture of sand, water, salt, and blood, thankful to make it this far alone, my foot sinks, I'm thrown forward face first by the shock of the uneasy ground beneath me. I'm pulled back up sharply by Arthur who's already wading ahead of me. I can see out of the corner of my eyes people shouting as they're shot. People being dragged under water by their equitment. I'm glad to be moving though. Someone beside me falls over, I pull them up, just as Arthur had done to me. Only in time to watch the get shot. I cry out in horror. Arthur was right, as usual.

"Have you ever had to kill anyone?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, like not on the battlefield."

"Once."

"Why?"

"... Because they asked me to."

The waves are subsiding, giving way to blood stained sand and bodies. I can't even tell if they're corpses yet, I don't want to find out. Sand is sprayed up in front of my face. Was that a shell? I look around I can't see Arthur anywhere, had he been hit down already? He couldn't have. He's better than me, and I've gotten this far. I glance down to watch my footing. I run past something I think was a gun. When my mind finally registered what it was I was already way past it. Someone was missing an arm.

"What's the worst injury you've had?"

"A hit to the head that gave me a concusion."

"Is that it?"

"Believe me, you don't want anything worse than that."

Several of us hit a sand dune, finally able to rest our guns in a comfortable position and look forward, we can vaguly see where they're shooting at us from. Someone next to me takes a few shots at the space.

"What took you so long?" Came the all too familiar voice. "You're always banging on about how much bloody faster you are than me."

I look up at his green eyes, almost sighing with relief. Proceeding to lurch forward and throw up over the sand. My mind finally catching up with the rest of my senses.

"Got one of the bastards. C'mon, we haven't got time for that!"

I can here more shouts around me, I don't know if they're aimed at me, or just at people in general. People are taking amunition from my bag. I can only tell because I can see them. I don't stop them. I'd rather they continued without me.

What am I saying? I'm meant to be the hero! This is for Matthew! That's the only reason I agreed to this!

"Are you sure you want to be doing this? There's still time for you to go home and join the RAF instead."

"No, I'm doing this for my brother, he'd want me to carry on withouth him."

Medics are racing about now, darting from casualty to casualty, with such a low success rate that it doesn't even seem worth them being there. I throw up again as I realise the bloody mess behind me, Arthur slaps my head round.

"Don't look back there, lad. It's only going to knock you down."

I barely realise the usually infuriating nickname. I nod back, the first sign I'd shown that I was still physically in this world for a while. As I'm dragged up sand if everywhere again, I didn't hear the explosion this time round, I feel like I'm going deaf. Did a bomb drop near us? Or did we send one up to them? I can't tell. Arthur throws me forward onto the next sand dune crouching down beside me.

"Stop fucking zoning out, idiot! You're going to get yourself fucking killed!"

"You can't break concentration on no-mans land, you do that you're as good as dead!"

"I know, I know, it's just practising this over and over is boring."

"It'll save your life one day."

"Maybe one day I'll be able to save you."

"You won't with your gun in that condition, lad."

"... Oh, shut up."

Someones screaming out a womans name. A man a good year younger than me. We shouldn't be out here. I wish we'd all just stayed in our blissful ignorance now before Pearl Habour. Back when USA didn't have to even think about the war. We're moving again, running forward, guns out in front of us shooting at something that I can't see properly. I feel something liquid hit my shoulder, I turn to look, a spray of blood had hit us from someone up there.

"GET DOWN!"

My head seems to be slowly absorbing into it's own world as I hit the ground, if I try hard enough I can make believe that this is all just training with Arthur again. It's easier to think of it like that.

"Why can't you get simple orders right? It's easier to obey commands and stay alive than don't listen and get shot!"

"Why are you even trying this hard with me? It's easier to just let me die in battle than continiously drum this shit into me head!"