Unspoken memories
To my death I went [Spring, 1917]
I hate the ending myself,
But it starting with an all right scene,
It was the roar of the crowd,
That gave my heartache to sing.
Disenchanted, My Chemical Romance.
"Your country needs you!" the Sargent Major bellowed, entrancing the crowd of young men gathered round the raised platform in Chicago's main square. "We need to help our allied countries beat the hun! We need them to run back to Germany, with their tails between their legs! The way they deserve to be!" The crowd roared. "Now, I can assure you lads that women love soldiers! Am I right ladies?" The women in the crowd whistled and squealed.
A 15 year old Edward was caught amongst the chaos, he was running errands for his mother, and walked straight into the recruiting speech.
"So step up, boys, and help your country!"Now who will be the first to step up and take on this wonderful task?" The Sargent concluded, and the crowd roared again.
"Go on then," An elderly woman said, pushing Edward in direction of the stage, "You aint a coward are you?"
"No.." Edward replied.
"Then go on then!" She pushed the bronze-haired teenager towards the stage. "He does!" The woman shouted, getting the attention of the Sargent.
"Ah! Come on up then lad!" Edward nervously walked on up to the stage, "So boy, are you ready to take on the responsibility of helping your country and her Allies?"
"I-I'm not o-old enough.." Edward had turned 15 a few months ago, and you had to be 17 to join up.
"Oh, never mind lad! You're here now, that's what matters eh?" The Sargent continued without leaving a pause for Edward to object, "Now, go over to that table, and write your name down! We'll be contacting you, then before you know it, you'll be in Belgium serving your country! Now off you go boy!" The Sargent turned around to welcome the next man onto the stage. The words buzzed around his head.
You aint a coward are you?
"Masen! MASEN!" Corporal Anderson bellowed at me, despite the fact that his mouth was extremely close to my ears.
"Yes sir?" I fidgeted in the knee-deep mud, thankful for the genes that made me 6"2, some of the other, shorter men down here were waist deep, poor sods.
"We will be performing an attack on the German trench 30 yards to the north of our current location. At Oh-Three-Thirty hours you will report to the main dugout to collect further orders. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir." I replied.
"And why are we attacking in the early morning Masen?" Anderson questioned me; within my first week on the front line, the rest of D Company had found out that I was two years underage, and many looked out for me. They heard the story about the old woman who pushed me onto stage, and they regularly made light hearted banter about it, to try and keep spirits up. Corporal Anderson frequently quizzed me on things, he said I have 'potential,' and I should 'keep my knowledge up'
"They'll be less alert, and morale will be down, sir."
"Good lad." He clapped me on the back "Remember, Oh-Three-Thirty, main dugout. Yes?"
"Yes sir"
I decided to pass the time by having something to eat, then writing a quick letter home, since sleeping was nearly impossible, no matter how tired we were. I found my rations, and found the dreaded biscuit browns and pate [AN – Anyone who does any CCF/ACF type thing, or if some random soldier happens to be reading this will probably have the great pleasure of biscuit browns and pate that are in the British Armies current ration packs. If not – lucky you.] which we the only thing I had left in my pack. I begrudgingly ate the foul stuff, then threw the rubbish into our rubbish area. I went back to my belongings and got a pen and some paper, which was surprisingly quite dry. I had all my battle prep done, and so decided to write a letter home.
Dear Mother and Father,
In reply to your letter mother, do not worry, I am looking after myself, many of the men are looking out for me as I am so young. I am eating and sleeping well, it is all easy work, we shall beat these Germans quickly and easily. I feel like a man, I believe there is only one thing missing in my life; a girl. I know, I shall have quite some trouble finding her in the midst of war, but I shall find her.
I believe that I will be granted leave soon, and I shall see you all soon. I must run now, I promise to write more in my next letter.
Lots of love,
Your loving son,
Edward Anthony Masen
I lied many times in my letters, but I always knew that a few white lies never hurt anyone. They didn't need to know that I haven't eaten a proper meal in 5 weeks. They didn't need to know that I haven't slept a proper nights sleep in about 7 weeks. The last time I slept at all was 3 days ago. They didn't need to know that I can't feel my toes, or that I haven't changed clothes in god knows how long. And it isn't easy work. Far from it. We are fighting a losing battle, everyone's being killed. Their machines guns are firing nearly all the time, and launching gas attacks every week or so. We are doing an attack tonight, a feeble attempt to try and get some land back. We all know we are all probably going to die; but we never say it.
We have us, D company, with C company sharing this trench and dugout, with A and B company in the trenches and dugouts to the east. We are supposed to have D company on duty, with C company sleeping and eating, and vice versa. But since the Hun have upped the fire power, we forget that, and just all go at them, grabbing whatever sleep and food we can.
The soundtrack to our lives are explosions, machine gun fire, and unmanly screams of terror.
I decided then that I would start making my way to the general briefing. I always felt that even though I was a private, I was treated a bit like an Officer, as I was often included in some of the briefings. They said as I had potential of becoming an Officer, I should be included in briefings, and gain experience. I trudged through the mud, finally making my way into the dugout.
I walked through the door, and saw an officer. I stamped my right leg, bringing myself to attention, then brought my right hand up into a salute.
"At ease."
I fell back into a normal stance and listened to the attack plan and the orders that would be taking place in an hours time.
Basically; we were going to crawl up over our trench, over no mans land, and hopefully blow some German's heads off.
We knew it would be hard.
We knew many men would be blown up.
We knew many would not return.
But for our country and our Allies, we would do it.
0430
We lined up along the front trench line. We all stood close enough together that each of our legs were in contact with the man next to the legs of the men either side of you . That way, we can all go at around the same time without having to shout "ATTACK!" which would alert the enemy.
I tightened my hand around the pistol grip of my rifle.
I tensed the muscles in my legs.
I breathed in deeply.
I looked up at the moon, and thought.
Somewhere, someone is looking at that same moon, and is happy.
I felt the gold cross that was underneath my uniform on a chain. I was contemplating taking it off and abandoning it. Surely you don't believe in god in hell?
The tap of feet flowed down the line, and we climbed up over the trench and through the barbed wire.
The machine guns started spitting.
And to my death I went.
Thanks for reading, and I'd appreciate it if you'd review :)
-BrokenMirrors-MyBad
(That is my penname, I checked xD)
