The Game

Chapter 1

Otto felt the bullet burst through his chest and tare out his back. He fell to the floor as more shots punched the dirt around him.

Gasping for breath, otto dragged himself over the muddy ground. Warm tears streamed down his face, making tracks in the dirt on his cheeks. Blood bubbled up and spilt out his mouth. He chocked and coughed on the red liquid. He felt cold.

With his last remaining strength, he managed to turn himself over and stare at the blue

Glancing down at his stomach, he saw the damage that the bullets had done. Blood seeped into his clothes and stained the dirt around him. Bits of his flesh hung off him and parts of his clothes were stuck to the wound. Otto's barely coherent thoughts managed to say one last thing to him; "That isn't good."

And then he died.

***

Otto took a shuddering breath. His back arched as spams worked its way through his body, it felt like his skin was moving and tearing itself apart. Suddenly, his heart was pumping again.

Looking around, all he could see was blurry whiteness. He tried to focus on his hands and brought them closer to his head, but that didn't do anything. Everything was still out of focus. He resigned himself to his fate and waited there, lying on the surprisingly comfortable floor.

Otto didn't know how long he stayed like that, just lying there, just breathing. But the seemingly pure air that he was gasping in now seemed like heaven  This was compared to the battlefield that he was recently on where it stunk of death and the choking fumes of gases.

After a while like this, he felt that something was different. No, he saw that something was different. He could see a wall, no, not a wall. It was a flat ceiling. Otto dragged himself to a sitting position and looked around. He was in a completely white, square, room. It was a good few pages long and wide

He stood up and looked around. There was Nothing was glaringly obvious that stood out to him in that strange room. Nothing stood out. Except for...

With a yelp he looked down at his chest and saw that there was no wound, he was completely fine. There wasn't even any scarring. However, there were a few jagged holes in his clothing, showing that he had definitely been shot. Otto prodded his chest and all around his body searching for wounds, but nothing hurt.

In shocked disbelief, he stared off into the distance. But then, right where he was staring, a panel in the wall slid forward and fell to the ground with a metallic clang.

The missing piece exposed a screen which flashed the words; "You died" in large, bold, text.

After a few seconds these words slowly faded and were then replaced with:

(Restart from last save)     [select]

(Load saves)                             [select]

(New game)                              [select]

Otto nonchalantly jabbed his finger to select the (Restart from last save option) and he then stepped back.

A few moments passed before he started getting a splitting headache. It was pounding behind his eyes and into his temple, it made him squeeze out a few more tears and then. As soon as it started. It stopped.

Regaining his bearings, Otto heard loud shouting in front of him.

A tall broad shouldered muscular looking man was screaming red-faced at one of the people in the long line of men and women. All wore army briefs and slacks but the red-faced man had medals adorning his lapel.

"You good for nothing slard would just be cannon fodder for those Arns!" He screamed.

Otto didn't believe his eyes, he stared at the Sargent in utter disbelief... hadn't he already been here? Hadn't this already happened?

"What are you staring at!" He shrieked again, this time at Otto. This hadn't happened before.
"I'm sorry?" The Sargent said. "I didn't hear your answer!"

Pulling his body into a rigorous attention stance, Otto began shouting back. "No sir! Nothing sir!"

"Come here!" The Sargent shouted. Otto reluctantly walked towards the large man. "What's your name private?" He asked.

"Otto sir!" He said.

"Well Otto," a wicked smile stretched across the man's face. And then suddenly his fist snapped forward and smashed into Otto's noes. He fell to the floor with his nose broken and bleeding.

"You never back chat a superior private!" The man shouted. Picking himself up off the floor Otto glared at the man. Both his pride and confidence was in tatters. Although his confidence was almost non-existent at the moment. Considering the fact that he had died.

Staring at the now laughing Sargent, Otto wanted to pound the man into the ground. Rage bubbled up from the pit off his stomach however he tried to suppress it.

The other people in the line were all staring at him and the laughing Sargent who moved closer to Otto with an evil glint in his eyes. "What are you going to do, huh?" He threatened. "I've already put you on your ass once and I'm not afraid to do it again," he hissed.

Swallowing his anger, Otto picked himself up off the floor. "Go see the medics," The Sargent said whilst waving a hand dismissively, already tired of Otto's presence.

Otto walked away outside of the wooden building he was in. He dragged himself over to the medical tent that was almost on the other side of the army training compound.

Finally free from the strange situation he found himself in, Otto could finally think about what had happened to him. Judging when he first saw the Sargent, Otto knew that they were only six weeks away from the front line deployment of his unit.

He had six weeks to try and find a way to survive the hell that was war. Coggs whirled In Otto's head as he tried to think about ways to escape alive.

There was no hope in hell for him to ditch, if he did he would surely be caught and executed for treason.

Making his way to the medical tent whilst trying to stem the flow of blood from his noes, Otto pushed the low hanging tarpaulin out of the way and was then face to face with a beautiful woman.

She was looking behind herself and then was just about managed to turn around and look surprised as she walked straight into Otto.

He hissed in pain as her forehead smashed into his already broking noes, sending a new wave of blood cascading down his face. Hissing a few choice words, he started to shout at the woman in front of him. But before he could get a word out she was already apologising. 

"IM SO SORRY!" She shrieked at Otto as blood dribbled between his fingers. The lady in front of him look flabbergasted at what she had done and it was like she was almost in a state of shock. "L-let me fix that for you!" she stammered and she waved a hand over Otto's face. 

A bright light flashed in front of his eyes, Otto saw a magic circle carve itself in the air in front of him. Suddenly his nose felt like it had a mind of its own. It snapped painfully back into place and he could feel things crawling underneath his skin. Tears yet again sprang up in his eyes, but then it soon stopped. 

Blinking in surprise Otto prodded his previously broken noes and felt that there was no pain, however, he had managed to splatter more blood over his face. Again looked over at the woman who had an awkward expression on her face. 

"Can I have a tissue please?" he asked her.