This in an original short story written about a man named Adam and a fictional experience he has during ww1. The inspiration comes from a famous photograph of a ww1 soldier looking over at no mans land alone . It is by no means historically accurate but there are historical characters, places and descriptions. I hope you all enjoy. PEACE.
The Man Upon the Trench a short story
Adam Carver a 23 year old British soldier peeked over the edge of his trench he could hear machine gun fire echo in the distance. He could hear the artillery raining down on no man's land. He could the faint cries of his unit as they marched into the fog. He could hear all the sounds of war and death and destruction, but he could not see any of it. Adam was too far from the battle to see anything, but he could hear it all. He lay there all alone as his comrades marching into the fog and disappeared.
An hour before the offensive Adam’s unit commander Lieutenant Roberts received a message from Central command. He was instructed to inform his men that the Germans were planning a secret raid on their location and that a man was to stay behind to prevent any attempted sabotage. Lt Roberts did as he was instructed and informed his men of the German plans.
“Alright listen up!” he shouted “I just received a message from Command that the Germans are planning a surprise visit”
“Well they're in for a pleasant surprise” said Jonathan, a rifleman in Adams platoon. “We’ll meet them halfway and slide our bayonets in their chest”
“Quite, Quite” Lt Roberts shouted over the laughter that followed “General Pershing has ordered each regiment to leave behind one man to watch over the trench as we attack the Germans”
“Ahh leave it to Black Jack” said Tom, a long time friend of Adam. “and who do you think is gonna stay behind and miss out on all the fun”
“Why don’t you sit this one out, Tom we all know how scared you were last time we went over haha I think I still see the piss stains on your trousers” joked Adam
This joke was met with laughter, all 60 remaining men of their unit had not forgotten the time Tom pissed his pants before going topside. Unfortunately Tom didn’t find his remark funny and lunged for Adam knocking him for
“You son of a bitch” Tom yelled as he tackled him to the ground.
“Hey, Hey, Knock it off”. “Or I’ll have you both court marshaled” Lt Roberts shouted and he pulled Tom off of Adam.
At this point all the other men in their unit were laughing hysterically. They all knew that once Tom got mad he had a violent temper, but they'd never seen him lash out at Adam. They had experienced death almost everyday for the past three months and were desperate for something amusing to watch. Sadly the men went silent when they saw Adam try and stand up. He knee had landed on a metal ammunition box and had split open
“Oh god you leg” gasped JW a rifleman from a different platoon.
The crowd of men all stared at Adam in disbelief. He couldn’t stand on his right leg and kept falling down every time he stood up.
“Tom you stupid bitch! What the fuck were you thinking” Shouted Lt Robert in Tom’s face.
Private Johnson the medic assigned to their unit interrupted Lt Roberts “He’s gonna take months to recover we’ve got to take him to a field hospital”.
“No! There's not enough time were about to over the top we need everyone here”
“Then he’s gonna have to stay behind”
“Well I guess he’s our man”
“No fuck that” shouted Adam “I’m not gonna stay in this shithole I’m going with you”
Johnson turned toward Adam “here he said” as he shot Adam a dose of morphine.
“Dam nit I don't need that I’m fine, I can walk”
“Adam listen to me you can’t walk you go over the top and you'll die”
“Alright men listen!” shouted Lt Roberts as Johnson was bandaging Adams knee. “It’s almost time to go get you gear and load up. Adam you’re staying behind we need you to watch out for anyone coming back. Do you understand me?”
“Yes sir”
“Alright it’s 12:00 it’s time, Fix bayonets” the sound of artillery started hammering “Go Go Go Go”
Tom reached over and grabbed Adam “hey Adam I'm sorry”
“Just come back in one piece” Adam replied as Tom climbed over to sand bags and joined the charge.
Adam braced himself against the wall of the trench and pulled himself up and peered over the edge. He could see to back of his comrades running toward the Germans he could hear them shouting. He saw them disappear into the fog, and then there was silence. The silence felt like eternity. Why aren't they firing? Did the Germans retreat? Did they disappear? He stared deeply into the fog to hear something, anything. Then all hell broke loose. The guns the bombs the cries. He could hear the machine guns cut through the air and the artillery pound the earth into dust. As he sat there alone, numb from the morphine gripping his rifle tight he imagined is unit being cut down by bullets and bombs, and there was nothing he could do about it. Then he say a faint blue light coming through the fog, he could barely make out the silhouette of a person walking towards time. A blue person? As the figure approached he could see that it was a soldier. He quickly shouldered his rifle and took aim. At first he assumed it was a German who had somehow slipped past their attack and was raining the trench, but his uniform wasn’t German. It wasn’t a German it was Johnson!
“Johnson, What they hell are you doing?”
The blue figure remained quiet and kept walking towards him. Just then another figure appeared, then another and another. Slowly walking out of the fog.
“Johnson turnaround get back into the fight!”
Now Adam could see the faces of the other blue figures. “William, James, Jw where are you going?”
Just then the blue figure of Johnson who was now standing over Adam disappeared.
“What the hell, I’m seeing things this isn't real” exclaimed Adam
After William, James, and Jw got to the trench they to dissipated into the air
Then the fog lit up with blue figures slowly walking towards him.
“No this isn’t real” shouted Adam. He them loaded a round into his rifle and shot it at one of the figured. The bullet passed through the figure and disappeared. He recognized the figures now Lt Roberts, Harold, George, Thomas, David, Sam. All 60 men from his unit were slowly walking out of the fog walking towards him and then disappearing towards the trench.
“What the hell i going on?” he shouted “are you dead? What is this?”
Then he saw the last two figures walk out of the fog. He quickly recognized Tom but he could not see the who was next to him. As the drew closer he noticed the unknown figure was leaning on Tom as they got closer he saw a white bandage around the right knee.
“That’s, that’s me?”
He then heard a loud crack and immense pressure on his head. His ears rung out and within a split second his world went dark.