Project 43

Can we make a pact?

Elias grabbed yet another man by his ankles and lifted. Charlie lifted the man by his shoulders and together they got him onto the stretcher. The man had a clean hole through his helmet and dried blood coating the side of his face. It was the first time in a while when not even Charlie could say anything to lighten the mood.

Everyone worked in silence carrying the fallen soldiers off to the reserve trenches. Bystanding soldiers took their hats off and saluted the fallen as they were carried to be identified. The air was thick and no one dared to speak out loud. They didn't have anything to talk about. How could they talk about what had happened? How could they speak of the horrendous act they had to do in order to survive, the lives they had just taken, the friends they had just lost?

No tears were shed but everyone could feel the pure grief hovering over the forest floor, the wounds in people's hearts that would never heal. One after the other, the fallen were buried in a nearby established war cemetery.

Some men dug graves, others identified the fallen, others carried the men, and the remaining ones made crosses for their graves. Everyone who wasn't on guard was making sure the fallen soldiers would get an honorary sendoff.

That night Elias and the 71st were pulled back to the secondary trenches. The first night they were all sitting around wordlessly falling into their own thoughts. The only thing keeping the early January breeze from freezing them was the whiskey running down their throats. The only thing allowing them a moment of rest from the flashing images of their fallen friends, the bloodshed, the bodies, and the faceless casualties was the sweet alcohol lingering on their lips. The only thing filling the silence between them was the bottle scraping against the floor as it continued its round around the circle.

They had been lucky. Out of the five of them, only Charlie was hurt and he would be fine in a week or two. He lost his left middle finger somehow but not even he himself knew how.

"Can we make a pact?" Mikey said completely wasted. He had to be drunk out of his mind to talk so freely.

"Sure buddy," Charlie said putting a hand on Oscars' shoulder. He wasn't as drunk but dazed enough to gently sway from side to side.

"Can we swear to look out for each other? Because this is going to be hell," Mikey continued. Elias could see a tear glistening in the corner of his eye and he felt bad for the kid. 

"For sure," Elias said with a half smile.

"We're brothers now," Oscar said grinning from ear to ear. Somehow he was the drunkest of them all even tho he was built like a goddamn tank. Only Elias and Marcus were even somewhat sober.

Unsurprisingly Oscar was the first to pass out followed soon by Mikey, and finally Charlie. None of them thought they would have been able to sleep that night but with enough alcohol in their blood, anything was possible. For the past week, they had been running on just about three hours of sleep a night so when the men fell asleep they slept like a bunch of loud logs. 

Elias couldn't sleep and he wasn't the only one. In the dugouts, only a small portion of the men were able to get any shuteye and the ones that did had drank themselves to bed. Unlike the others, Elias wasn't scared of nightmares or haunted by the faces of his dead companions. Elias lay awake thinking about his friends.

In his life, he had only had two people he truly cared for. His ex-girlfriend Mary and his brother Steve and by then Elias couldn't give a shit about his brother anymore so that only left one person. One person who he would die for, but now he was a part of something bigger than himself. He had friends, brothers, he would fight for and who would fight for him. People that would look out for him, people who cared for him. It should have made him happy but it only scared him. More than bullets, more than death he was scared of caring for people only for them to go away. His mother died, his brother left him with his dad, and Mary left him. His new brothers would most likely die in war, but maybe he'd go before them. However he thought about it, it scared him shitless.