There were bullets flying everywhere as I ran across No-Mans-Land. There were people taking refuge behind whatever they could find, hiding behind trees, rocks, and even dead comrades. My face was covered in sweat, dirt, and blood, the front of my pant legs were covered in the vomit of the young man that stood next to me as we prepared to climb over the walls of the trench, only to watch him get cut down by machine gun fire moments later. I had seen grown men break down and cry over the thought of going over into No-Mans-Land, and I'm here, hiding in the crater of an artillery shell. I have seen men on all sides of me dying, but somehow I managed to survive, when everyone else died, even my little brother. I had promised our mother that I would take care of him, never let anything happen to him, but when the bullet caught my brother I could do nothing, I couldn't even stop to drag his body to cover before he was trampled over by the soldiers behind him. How was I going to face my family again, would I tell the truth? How could I? They'd disown me and what would I say to his girlfriend back in Munich… a place far from here, far from the war, Belgium is torn by trenches and covered in blood, while Munich stays safe from harm.
"Ludwig! You're alive!" I heard my brother yell, but that was imposable, I saw him die. But it was him, my little brother! I couldn't believe it.
"Sigmund you little shit! You scared me!" I said to him before hugging him, I had thought I had lost him, but I hadn't, he was here and alive, we laughed while we hugged, but then I heard a swish next to my ear and my brother went limp. I pulled back and saw a hole in his face pouring blood, I tried to stop the bleeding, I tried and I tried and I tired, but nothing happened, I had watched my brother die twice today, and could do nothing either time. I sat down hard and cried as I held my brothers brains in the back of his head, my little brother had just died in my arms. I didn't move again for what felt like hours, but when I looked at my pocket watch I saw that only 15 minutes had passed since we climbed over the walls of the trench. I gently set my brothers head down as I stood up, filled with a new determination, a determination to avenge the death of my brother, to kill every British soldier in the trenches before me.
"Ludwig, get over here!" I heard my commander call to me, as I ran in his direction I heard screaming from all directions, and gun fire, so much gun fire. When I reached my commanders position I saw at he was holding the intestines in one of the other officers.
"Do you have any wound dressing?" he asked, looking disappointed when I shook my head. He looked at the soldier with tears in his eyes; it was then that I realized that the soldier whose intestines he was holding in was his son.
"I'm sorry sir; I'll try and go find some, sir." I said, but he put a hand up to stop me and said
"It's no use, by the time you get back he'll be dead, do me a favor and kill every bastard in those trenches." I smiled slightly at the request before heading down towards the trench. The guns in the British trench kept firing as I approached, only then noticing the men all around me, at least a dozen or so men, all charging the trench with me, screaming their primal war cries, killing and surviving the only thing on their minds.
"We're almost there Ludwig, look!" Gerhard, one of my closest friends in the company, was running beside me, how I hadn't noticed him I don't know.
"Gert, we need to hurry, I don't think we'll be able to make it out in the open like this much longer." I said, looking for cover large enough for the both of us, and then I saw it, a downed tree. I pointed the tree out to Gert and he knew what I meant as we both headed towards the cover of the tree.
"How long do we have until the sun comes up?" Gert asked, pulling out his watch to show that it was broken. As I pulled out my watch to check the time, the whole world exploded into a flash of light and burning, searing pain. Then there was nothing, no light, no sound, and no pain, only darkness. I quickly became drowsy as I slipped from conciseness.
When I woke I was in a green field between a large forest and a cottage, looking at my uniform I noticed that it was somehow completely pristine, not even the smallest speck of dirt or blood. I started to stand up when I noticed a knapsack on the ground by my feet, along with my Gewehr 98. Upon inspection a found the contents of the knapsack to be complete leaving me with 155 rounds of ammunition, food for 3 days, and cold weather cloths should the need arise. Looking around I noticed a small town just past the cottage, from which I should be able to find out where I am. As I started towards the town I saw a small horse, as I got closer I noted its weird coat, being yellow in color. I continued to get closer and closer until I saw that the horse was no horse at all, but a Pegasus, the thought of which I quickly dismissed from my mind, knowing it to be merely a trick of the mind, as I got closer still it looked my way, appearing to be startled and said "Ahh! What are you?"