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A cold rain drips through the harsh morning light. Ghosts of trees haunt the
expanse of No Man's Land between the trenches gashed in the earth. Nothing
dare grow here anymore. Tangled strands of barbed wire snake between criss-
crossed logs forming a web for slowing and, as the bloated bodies testify,
occasionally snaring soldiers.
The walls of the trenches are near vertical except where the rains have caused
weakening and collapse. Occasional mudslides threaten to fill the trenches as if
nature is struggling to return this forest and farmland to the way it was before this
war.
Near one of these collapses, five men huddle together for warmth, their faces
pressed toward the center of their circle. An obese rat slogs througli the mud and
sniffs at one of their legs near the meaty calf. A shudder goes through the men '
and they turn as one. They wear gas masks; they stare at the rat with murderous
insect eyes. They lash out with their boots and the rat lumbers past them toward a
bend and dip in the trench. The men watch it as it waddles through a faint yellowi
haze in a low spot. It staggers and convulses.
The men strain and reposition themselves to watch the rat die through the
condensation on the glass in their masks. One soldier with the name 'LAW .
stitched on his jacket nods with glee and slaps the arm of the soldier nearest him.
Another soldier with sergeant stripes on his jacket struggles from the huddle
and stands in the slippery mud. He's a solid guy. at ease in this hell. His eyes
reach just above the level of the trench. He rips off his mask and sucks in the wet
air. A volley of shots ring out, spraying mud from the lip of the trench. His mask
flies out of his hand as he ducks down. Pulling in a deep breath, he squats down
and signals the others to stand. The men stagger to their feet and shed their
masks, sucking gratefully at the damp, unfiltered air.
Billy, clearly the youngest in this group—probably even lied about his age to
join up—bends over to vomit. Sarge holds him up so he doesn't take in any air
from the bottom of the trench.
"Do your puking standing up, kid, or you'll be lying with the rat," the Sarge
rasps.
Kroner, a guy with a mean face hiding how soft he really is underneath,
shuffles over to the rat and stomps its head with his boot. The skull makes a
muffled crunch in the mud. "Fat mother," he mutters as he chomps on his wad of
chewing gum. Kroner holds his breath and picks up the Sarge's mask. The right
eye piece has been shattered by a bullet. Kroner spits out his wad of gum and
smears it overthe hole. sealing it. He tosses his own mask to the Sarge and keeps.
the repeared one. Sarge, oddly, looks like he wants the cracked one back.
Law hopstrom foot to foot. He's one of those guvs with excess energy, always
ready to join a a fight, or start one if thing are too slow. He slaps Billy's back
playfully. "It's all right. Jimbo, you'll get use to it." Billy straightens and turns
his young face to Law. Law staggers against the wall of the trench, the color
drains from his face. "Where's Jimbo? I thought you were—where's—my
brother!"
Law staggers through the mud to look past the bend in the trench. He stops
cold. Kroner, the closest, joins him and they stand shoulder to shoulder.
"Sweet Mother," Kroner whispers. The lifeless bodies of the rest of their outfit'
fill the bottom of the trench beyond the bend. New guys. Young guys. Many still
hold their gas masks in death grips. They simply weren't fast enough. Law
staggers through the corpses, turning their faces skyward, searching for his !
brother. Kroner turns. "Sarge. The kids," is all he can say.
Sarge leans Billy against Texas, the tallest guy in the bunch. He has to !
constantly stoop to keep from getting his head blown off. Texas is in his early
thirties, but months in the trenches have left his body stooped and his face that of
a haggard old man.
Sarge slogs over to Kroner and looks past him over the pile of dead men \
stretching as far as he can see through the rain. "Find me a line," he growls.
Kroner stares at the Sarge. The Sarge shrugs. "Bend in the trench gave us extra
time. Damned luck." Kroner nods and walks back along the trench past the cave
in.
The rain shuts off like somebody threw a switch. Sarge wipes his wet nose on s
his wet jacket and grunts. Texas shuffles up to him to look around the bend.
Sarge lays a hand on Texas' shoulder. "Get the tags off the kids. And their
letters." Billy's face washes over with fear as Texas pulls him along to help.
Sarge walks back to where he started and sits on the muddy caved in part like
it's a bench. He pulls out a worn telegram and a bent cigarette from his jacket. He,
flicks a match with his thumbnail and lights the cig. He inhales for all he's worth|
and opens the telegram. The first line reads: "We regret to inform you that your
wife and baby have died in childbirth."
"Damned luck," he grunts as he blows smoke through his nose. He looks at the
telegram again. The morning light is strange. He stretches out his hand and
studies the shadow on the telegram. There are three shadows from his hand. He
looks up the trench and sees the moon moving over the face of the rising sun.
The light bends and splays around the moon's orb.
Kroner returns with the phone. The wire dangles loose from it. In his other
hand, he holds several shredded lengths of wire. "Line's blown to hell."
"Signal."
Kroner pulls out a mirror and sights the sun to bounce the light. "What the?"
"Moon's in the way," Sarge grunts.
Kroner flashes the light toward the rear. Texas and Billy come back around the
bend. Texas has fistfuls of dog tags and letters. Billy looks like he's barely able
to stand. They see Kroner sighting the sun and they look at the strange light.
"Don't stare," Sarge warns, "Won't be able to see to shoot."
Law comes back to the group cradling the body of his brother in his arms. He
genth lays him down and crouches near him. Billy throws up again, straining to
stand upright.
"It's okay, kid. Bend over. Gas is cleared," Texas nods at the kid. Law looks at
Billy shaking with fear. He springs up and shoves Billy to the ground.
"You coward," Law shrieks at the boy, "I saved your ass and now my brother is dead."
"No sense taking it out on Billy," Sarge grunts.
Law thumps his own chest. "I put his mask on for him last night! I thought he
was Jimbo!"
"Enough." growls the Sarge. "What's lost is lost."
Texas, curious, watches Billy retch into the mud. "Kid hasn't eaten in iwo davs.
Don't know what he has left to upchuck." Then he looks at the sun, now mostly
covered by the moon. "What's that?"
Billy struggles to his feet and looks at the eerie light. He wipes his mouth.
"Maybe we're dead. too." he whispers, "Maybe this is our hell." Law spits
contemptuously at Billy's feet. Billy pounds himself on the chest, hoping to feel
pain. He winces.
"Kid." Kroner chuckles, "the Sarge will let you know when you're dead."
Texas looks at his three shadows on the far side of the trench. He does a little
: dance and watches them. As he dances around, his head bobs up and down and
j shots ring out, but none seem to hit nearby, Texas lifts his helmet with his rifle
over the lip of the trench. Again, a volley of shots is heard, but none hit the
helmet. He puts he helmet back on his head.
"Prob'y can't shoot straight in this here light," concludes Texas.
Law seethes with anger as he looks from face to face in the group. He grabs his
rifle and jumps up on the cave in and fires several shots at the enemy. Sarge
grabs him and pulls liiin down into the mud.
________________________________
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"Save your fire!" Sarge looks over at Kroner expertly flicking his mirror.
"Kroner?"
Kroner keeps working the mirror as he shakes his head. "No one. Sarge. Think
tthey fell back in the night?"
Sarge shakes his head. "They gassed us up pretty good."
"What dre we gonna do, S-Sarge," stutters Billy.
Sarge takes a pair of binoculars off of Texas and eases them up on the lip of the
trench, sighting the enemy. Shots ring out and he ducks.
"See." says Texas. "Cain't hit the fat side of a barn no more. Tain't hit nothin'
since the moon got in the way of the sun."
Sarge grabs his rifle and nods to the guys, "Let's give 'em an answer."
The men grab their rifles and rise over the lip of the trench. They give a mighty
volley of bullets and the enemy returns tire. Small splashes and hisses are heard
from the middle of No Man's Land about a hundred yards away. I he men stop
firing and raise their heads to look at the puddles there, and then they look to
Sarge for answers.
"Again." he growls.
Again, they fire and again the enemy responds.
"Hold." yells the Sarge. Kroner has to grab Law to stop him from firing.
Sarge grabs his binoculars and scans No Man's Land. He sees hot globs of
metal splash into the puddles and hiss as they cool in the water. Sarge rubs his
eyes. He squints at the sun. and then looks through the binoculars again. He
focuses on a glob of metal on the bare ground. It looks like two bullets hit in mid
air.
"Impossible." Sarge whispers.
"What?" asks Kroner. "Sarge?"
"Again! Long volley!"
The fire is furious, and returned.
"Hold!"
All the guys pop their heads up over the lip of the trench like prairie dogs. In
the distance, a group of black helmets pop from the enemy's trench, too.
The Sarge is the first to slide back down, muttering. "Maybe once. Maybe
twice. Not all of'em."
Law is fixated on the heads popping out of the enemy trench. He pulls the pin
from a pineapple grenade and flings it with all his might. The men watch it arc,
and then see it freeze, hovering in mid air.
"Get down!" yells the Sarge. They all slide into the trench and wait for the
blast.
And wait.
Billy uncovers his ears and looks at Texas. "Shoulda blown by now.
'Shoulda..."
Kroner thumps him on the chest. "Calm down, kid."
Sarge stands and the guys rise to their feet, too. They look over at the enemy all
staring up at the grenade. One of them tosses a potato masher grenade into the
air. It ares, then swerves toward Law's grenade like they are magnetized. The
guys lower in the trench, but keep watching. The grenades clink together then fall
harmlessly to the soggy ground.
The enemy soldiers rise again from the trench and mutter to each other.
"We're dead. We're all dead, I tell ya!" Billy starts to claw at his jacket and
hyperventilate. He tries to scramble up the back wall of the trench.
One of the enemy soldiers raises his rifle as Texas and Kroner try to pull Billy
down. A shot rings out, but the bullet stops dead in the air above where the
grenades fell. It hovers there. Sarge pulls out his pistol and Kroner, thinking he's
going to shoot Billy for desertion, raises his hands.
"No, Sarge!"
Sarge rasises his arm above his head and fires a shot straight up in the air. Then
he locks his binoculars on the enemy bullet still hanging in the air. Sarge watches
as his bullet screams into the hovering bullet and they both fall into a puddle.
"Damned..."
"Sarge?" Kroner whispers.
"Can't die," Sarge feels the outline of the telegram inside his jacket pocket and
looks at the lunar eclipse, now waning. "Can't kill, can't die this morning."
Texas and Billy pull off their helmets and bow their heads. Law looks down at
his dead brother.
Kroner's not buying it. "No way, Sarge."
Sarge looks at Kroner and smiles. He pulls out his pistol, puts it in his mouth
and, before Kroner or anyone else can stop him, he pulls the trigger. The men
gasp and Kroner moves to catch Sarge, but the Sarge is still standing. He simply
opens his mouth and a puff of smoke drifts out. He steps back. unharmed, and
they all stare at the bullet hanging in the air there. It's still smoking.
Kroner finds his voice first. "Sweet Mother, Sarge! Okay! I believe you!
Mother of Christ!"
Law snarls. ''If bullets and grenades don't work on those bastards," he fingers
the knife in his belt, "then I'll cut 'em'"
Texas looks at Law and gestures toward the eclipse. "Law. Sa'miracle."
"Fuck miracles'. They killed my little brother. He didn't get no miracle!"
Sarge raises his hand to quiet the guys. He looks over the trench and sees a lone
enemy soldier walking into No Man's Land. Law raises his rifle and fires before
Kroner can stop him. The enemy soldier falls to the ground.
"Ha! Where's your miracle now?" Law hisses.
They watch as the soldier rises, unhurt, and walks up to Law's bullet hanging
in the air. He takes out a pistol and fires wide of the bullet. His bullets swerves,
le's hits Law's bullet, and they fall together. The soldier picks up the hot, melded
bullets. He juggles them from hand to hand as they cool, then looks over at the
men.
"Guns and bullets," he shouts over the barren land, through the barbed wire. He
fhes points to the eclipse. "Sun and moon. Peace. Go."
A tear runs down Texas' craggy cheek. Billy begins to pray fervently, his lips
moving with the silent words.
The enemy soldier turns and begins to pick his way through the deep puddles
l"d back to his men.
Law scrambles out of the trench and through a gap in the wire. He pulls his
knife from his belt and rushes the soldier who turns and draws his own knife.
Law plunges his knife toward the man's chest. At the last possible instant. Law's
knife swerves, clanks into (he enemy's knife and they spring out of their hands to
the ground. I aw staggers back a step. The soldier looks from the knives to Law.
"Now. Peace." He turns his back and resumes his walk.
Law shakes with anger. He runs at the soldier and takes a (lying leap at him.
but stops in mid-air, hovering, screaming, flailing. "Come back here you bastard.
I'll kill you! I'll kill all ofya with my bare hands!"
The soldier looks on Law with pity. then waves his men into retreat.Ten of his
men climb out of their trench and trudge away from the battlefield.
Law screams and screams, more animal than human.
The handful of enemy soldiers disappear into the tattered forest as the eclipse is
no more and Law falls with a splash into a puddle.
He begins to sob. "You killed my brother, you—"
And then the melded grenades explode, right underneath Law, tearing him to
shreds and spraying him in a bloody plume around No Man's Land.
All the guys gasp.
Except for Sarge who just wags his head and mutters. "Of all the damned
luck,.." as he leads the retreat. <>
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