Nick lies flat on his stomach in the mud, crawling slowly forward. He can barely see in front of him, just great curls of barbed wire looming out of the mist like the one on his back weighing him down. The mud clings to him, slowing his progress more, and he struggles to keep up with Felix and Blaine, to stay in line with them as they make their way further into No Man's Land. They're searching for holes in the German wire, ones they can fortify and make bigger, keep open for the push. There aren't many. Even the constant bombardment of shells they've been firing since two am the day before hasn't made much of a dent. Nick wishes he could say the same about the British wire. Getting through that into German territory had seemed far too easy.
They've just finished with the German wire, and are starting the slow turn around on their bellies when a flare goes off above them and No Man's Land is visible for all to see. Nick freezes, trying to press himself tighter against the ground, praying that no one'll see him. He closes his eyes, attempting to block out the sights around him that that brief flash of light had afforded him, the desolation that surrounds him where he lies.
After a few minutes of complete silence from both sides, the flare fades and the boys continue their slow movement back to the relative safety of the British trenches, pushing through holes in the wire that, for once, are meant to be there, then turning back and doing their best to repair the ones that aren't. Nick fumbles with his tools, dropping his wire cutters into the mud and struggling to get the wire from his back to where it should be. It takes him twenty long minutes before it's secure and he can crawl back down into the trench, dripping with mud and scummy water.
"Well done lads!" Smythe says cheerily, making a move to clap him on the back before realising how muddy he is and changing his mind. "Well done indeed." And then he's off again, plodding back through the drizzle.
Nick gapes after him for a second before Jeffy's grabbing his hand, shaking it firmly.
"We thought you three were gonners for sure!" He laughs, ushering them down into the dugout so they can attempt to dry off a little, "When that flare went off, we thought you'd be worm meat!"
"Notta chance!" Blaine says loudly, "Not w'Lucky here!"
He wraps his arm around Felix and pulls him in to place a loud kiss onto his grubby forehead. Nick blushes, skin turning pink under the mud. He looks from Jeffy to Blaine and Felix in confusion, sitting down and starting to unwrap the puttee from his leg. Blaine sees his look and laughs.
"This lad, Nick, 'is lad right 'ere," He says, shaking Felix slightly, "Has been out into No Man's Land no fewer than twenty times." Felix smiles shyly, shrugging, "and has never come back with a scratch on him. He fought at the Somme and barely had a bruise!"
"Blaine," Felix cuts in, "thinks I'm a lucky charm."
"You are!" Blaine laughs. "My little lucky charm!"
"And you're superstitious." Felix says, rolling his eyes, slipping out of Blaine's arm and tugging off his jacket, drying to brush as much mud off it as he can.
"It's not superstition! It's fact!"
Jeffy drops down next to Nick, a cup of tea in each hand. That's one thing they're never short of, it seems. They're never short of tea. How British, Nick thinks.
"Story time, Nic'las..." Jeffy whispers, nodding toward Blaine.
"I heard about this feller, a few trenches away, down in Bond Street, who said he was sitting, resting with his men, a few feet from the front, just talking quietly, and all of a sudden this chap jumps up and yells, 'Stewart's been killed!'" Blaine pauses dramatically, "Within just a minute, a man came up from the front trench and told them that Stewart had indeed been killed. Ripped apart by a nose-cap through the spine."
Felix shakes his head.
"That doesn't prove anything, Blaine..."
"But he kept doing it, Lucky! He kept having that feeling about other people and being right. Hoodoo Bill, they called him, and eventually, he stopped telling people, and became a nervous wreck."
"Nonsense, Blaine. Nonsense." Felix says firmly, before pulling a piece of paper and a pencil from his back and turning away from them.
Blaine frowns, picking up his haversack and going back out into the Trench. Nick glances at Jeffy.
"What was that?" He asks quietly.
"Blaine believes in luck, and ghosts and angels, Lucky doesn't." Jeffy shrugs. "Simple as that."
"I can hear you, Penny." Felix says from the other side of the room.
Jeffy laughs, taking Nick's empty mug from him and putting it on the table.
"Best go, I'm on watch." He winks at Nick. "Well done out there."
Nick watches as Jeff leaves, and then he and Felix sit in silence. After a few minutes, Nick speaks.
"Why do you let them call you Lucky if you don't believe in it?"
Felix looks up, pencil stilling on the page.
"I pretend it's from the Latin and put up with it." He laughs softly. "Besides, it's been months, I'm used to it now. Blaine always has a new story to tell, it... it gets on my wick."
Nick nods, then yawns hugely. He's in watch in a few hours, they both are, and he really needs to get some sleep. He wriggles down in his chair, trying to get a little more comfortable now, and slowly falls asleep.
Nick leans against the wall of the trench, looking up at Felix as he gazes across No Man's Land, talking quietly. Felix rattles off a round of shots from the machine gun, and then ducks down as the Germans retaliate almost immediately. In the sudden silence after the shots echo away, there's a noise from down the trench and Nick turns expecting to see Smythe or Hummel coming toward him.
A dark figure appears out of the gloom, a dark figure in what is distinctly not an allied uniform. Nick draws his gun, pointing it toward the man as he approaches, hands raised in surrender.
"Jeffy... Jeffy!" Nick calls, as loudly as he dares. "Bleib, wo du bist, komm nicht näher." He tells the German soldier, who freezes instantly.
Jeffy appears in the doorway of the dugout, looking out into the trench in concern, gasping when he sees the man Nick's pointing the gun at.
"I'll get Hummel." He tells Nick, and hurries off down the trench.
Nick and Felix stay where they are, staring at the invader, who stares back, looking almost as scared as Nick feels. Felix nudges him gently.
"I guess we didn't make a very good job of fixing the wire..."
Hopefully gonna pick the writing pace back up with this now. Reviews are awesome and help me make the writing better. Thanks! LFB