Will of a Soldier
Written by: .all
Proofread by: PervySageChuck
This is just a little something I put together while I waited for a game to download, don't expect the world from it.
Will of a Soldier: Prologue
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." -Winston Churchill (November 10, 1942)
Battle of Stalingrad, 27 August 1942, 1,250,000–1,798,619 casualties.
Four days into the world's bloodiest battle, thousands have already died, the number of wounded is too high to count. But yet the russians pushed on, and even with so many dead they would never stop, never give up, never surrender to a man who calls for the death of so many.
They pushed on through the streets, through the trenches, and through the open field, right into the line of fire.
"Get down!" William screamed.
Whoooorrsh! The shell struck just twenty feet from James's head, sending debris flying in every direction.
James went sprawling to the ground, thrown by the force of the explosive mortar shell. "Achhh" he groaned holding on to his leg for dear life. He looked up to William, his best friend since childhood, a strong man who always pushed him forward when he lost his will to fight on. "It-It's bleeding…"
William rushed over and knelt on the ground beside James. "Shit! …" he rustled around his bag frantically while watching all around for enemy fire.
James knew his odds of survival, his leg had a huge gash down the length of it. He would bleed out in just a matter of minutes. "William just go, leave me, you will get killed!"
"I ain't doing that James!… You have a wife and two kids to tend to. I've got nothing!" William finished wrapping the bandages over the wound, but it was clear that it wouldn't last very long. The bandages were already soaked in blood, there was nothing he could do but die.
"William! Just GO! This isn't some fairy tale, there is no happy ending for us!"James pushed William away, into the trench, out of the line of fire where so many had died.
William fell into the trench with a thud, which was almost comical how quiet it was compared to the racket in front of them both. William, however, wouldn't let that happen, they had grown up together, played together, and fought together, things weren't going to change now. William pulled himself out of the trench and grabbed James's arms, pulling him into the trench.
Bullets were raining down upon them, it was a miracle they had not been killed yet. It was only thanks to their brothers in combat that they were still alive.
William pulled for just a moment, he pulled James just barely to safety. When James was coated in a very familiar paste, blood.
Out from his neck like a fountain, the blood spurted. "Nooo!" James shouted as William's dead body fell on top of him.
So many others had fallen just like William, on the battlefield there was no winner, on this particular battlefield there was no survivor, it was a fact he had come to know as more than truth, it was law. It was only a matter of time before he fell as well.
He wanted to go home, he wanted to see his son, to teach him how to throw a ball. His daughter, he wanted to see her for the first time. His wife, he wanted to hold her one last time. Most of all he wanted to go back in time and stop this petty war from ever happening so everyone could see their families once more.
A great rumbling could be heard advancing but his thoughts were not changing, he lost everything, what was the point in continuing? He knew the sound approaching, all soldiers knew it, the mighty tiger tank.
He looked up to the sky accepting his fate. "Caroline, raise them well…" His last words before he was crushed along with his best friend, William.
James awoke in a grassy plain. He was propped up against a rock with his eyes closed. His first thought… I'm in hell? A perfectly reasonable assumption as when he awoke he heard the sounds of thousands of men screaming for their lives like they had been cast into a nightmare. The strangest part was the faint sounds of goats bleating in the background.