Project 43

You are my brother.

"You asked for me, Sir" Elias Smith stated walking up to his superior. He stood straight, staring ahead as the colonel sharply looked up from his paperwork.

"Private Smith, right?" Colonel Sanders asked as he got up.

"Yes sir," Elias answered quickly. Colonel Sanders was a strict man somewhere in his sixties. His hair was turning gray but he had no other signs of growing old. Mostly everyone was at least to some level afraid of him and for good reason.

"Good. As you know we lost Lieutenant Brown and since then your platoon has been without a leader," Colonel Sanders explained while rummaging for something from his desk drawers. Of course, Elias knew all of it but he didn't dare interrupt his superior officer.

"After careful examination, I have come to the conclusion that the best solution would be to, to some extent, promote you to platoon leader," Colonel ended as he pulled two glasses and a flask from his desk and handed one to Elias.

"Now you would work under Captain Williams and your say in how we run things here would be minimal for the time being but it is important for every platoon to have a clear leader," The colonel continued snathing the glass away from Elias before he had a chance to grab it.

"What do you say?" he finally asked once again offering the glass for Elias to take.

"Sir, would I have to change the way I operate day to day with my squadmates and brothers?" Elias asked very carefully to which Colonel Sanders shook his head.

"Son, I don't care how you behave with your 'brothers' as long as you do your job."

"What would my rank be?" Elias dared. He didn't really care he just wanted to see what the Colonel would say.

"I couldn't care less what we call you as long as the platoon has a leader. Does Lieutenant sound good to you?" Colonel Sanders asked getting a bit bored.

With that Elias grinned and took the glass from the colonel's outstretched hand.

As a Lieutenant, Elias had made it his mission to make sure the men he had command over had what they needed. He didn't eat until he was sure every one of his men had gotten food and he was the first to take someone's nightshift if they hadn't slept. He was always running around looking for something or someone, making sure everything was up to code and running communications between the French, British, and American officers.

His men started to see this and in return started to take care of each other and their leader. They made sure to leave a portion of food for Elias and they took each other's shifts before Elias could even offer. It felt like a huge family looking out for each other, something Elias had never had before.

Life in the trenches was hell. Every day the soldiers woke up to gunshots ringing through the air and most days some of them were digging fresh graves for their fallen brothers.

Slowly as the snow melted and the soldiers didn't suffer from frostbite daily, Elias started to find moments of beauty in the middle of the pain and chaos. When they were situated in the reserve trenches, the men could play games, drink, and have fun. It was sad, but the happiest place Elias had ever found was the battlefield. He was surrounded by his friends and every once in a while life wasn't so bad.

"Come on, Babyface, the ball totally touched your arm!" Henry yelled at Elias after he scored again.

"Sucks to suck, Williams" Elias smirked back high-fiving Charlie, his teammate.

"Your mom sucked last night," Matthew joked back earning an eye-roll from Elias and a couple of laughs from the men.