Rise

November 21, 1917

He looked exactly like him. The one in September of last year. My eyes went blind with a red rage, forcing me to charge at him and tackle him to the ground. I beat him into the ground, my fists pummeling his face into the ground making an imprint in the mud. His blood flew this way and that, staining the mud.

"Herman! Come, we need to join Kaptan Rees and the others further down the trench!" Hart yelled out to me.

My rage cooled and I finally looked upon the man. It had not been him, so I had just wasted my energy for a lookalike. I turned my body towards Hart and began running down the trench after him. The British had launched a surprise attack against us while we were stationed by Cambrai, the fighting had gone on through the entire night. I'm exhausted, but I press onward.

We continued down the trench to find Kaptan Rees, Peter, and Kemp struggling against the enemy. I did not have enough time to prepare my flamethrower, so all I had was a rifle. I charged at the enemy and stabbed one through his spine, the blade exiting out of his front, then puncturing another one in front of them, stacking their bodies in the mud. The soldier that had Peter driven into the mud had turned his attention to me and engaged in a fist fight. I had turned quickly and let go of the rifle piercing the two men and swiftly moved out of the way of his fist. I stuck my foot out and tripped him into the mud, then stomped his head into the ground repeatedly.

I turned my body and offered Peter my hand to lift him up off the mud. He accepted and I helped him rise to his feet. I patted his shoulder.

"I'm glad to see you in good health," I told him.

"You as well."

We exchanged smiles then diverted our attention to Kaptan Rees.

"We've lost the trench, but the commander is persistent and won't let us retreat. Abel and Hart, you two are the fastest in our squad, retreat back to the trench line behind us and grab our gear and haul ass back here as fast as possible and we'll retreat then attempt a counter attack, while you're running, I'll move the word up the chain of command."

Hart and I nodded then immediately began climbing out of the trench to retreat. The others readied themselves at the trench edge to fire upon the enemy. We sprinted across the field and dropped into the empty trench.

"Get the Kaptan's and Kemp's gear prepped, I'll get mine, Peter's and yours."

We split into opposite directions, I going to my own and the others, he going to the Kaptan's and Kemp's. I began the routine checks, checking valve pressure, flame flow and pressure, the works. I placed everyone's respective gas mask alongside their belongings. I prepared my gear and placed my gas mask over my head, put the flame tanks on my back and connected the flamethrower flow pipe to the flamethrower. I looked over the trench and watched at the other three came out of the trench and ran towards us. Machine gun fire came from behind them and they tumbled into the trench, each falling on their backs or their behinds.

They all looked roughed up, fighting the enemy no doubt. Kaptan Rees had bruises on his face and a black eye, the others had cuts and bruises.

"We live to fight another day!" Hart exclaimed.

"Maybe long enough to see you get attacked by that cat like you told us," I sneered, jokingly.

I had been spending more time with my squad mates and getting closer with each of them rather than just Peter. We had all exchanged light chuckles, save for Hart who was rather annoyed by the remark, but he eventually gave in and laughed as well. We all sat on crates, readying our equipment, doing extra checks to make sure everything was prepared.

"The plan is, shortly the other three Sturmtruppen squads will join us here in the trench, when the rest of the infantry attack force gets here, we don't give them any pause, we immediately charge back at the trench, understood?" Kaptan Rees said, looking to us as he pulled his gas mask straps over his head.