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23 Somme Pt 1

Northern France
September 1916
[Time machine used]

Our boat was rushed to the docks, and we were off of it in a hurry. The French buildings dated back to the renaissance on the dock side, and had narrow alleys through them that were adorned with clothes on lines, and arched doorways. British Soldiers were marching off the large boats in a happy tune on one side, and on the other wounded were being shipped home. There were men on the wounded side that had crazed looks in their eyes and were rocking back and forth, there were also men rubbing their stubs where a limbs used to be. Between the two sides their were posters boasting of bravery and heroics, yet their were no wounded men with medals. The team then caught a train, then dismounted and walked 20 miles towards the battle noises.

[POV of Mad Jack]

As we walked further towards the sounds of war, the smell of death and burnt gun powder became more aparent. Cold mud sloshed onto my legs with each step, and bare limbless trees were on fire. Open and broken crates lay along the path way, and bloody bandages and towels were seen on soldiers coming towards us. There was smoke coming in clouds towards us, the dormant water caused steam to roll of of it as well. A crazed soldier ran up to Mike and started screaming in horror, a pair of soldiers then dragged him away. Jason was drinking from his canteen and offered me it, when I took a drink the immediate taste of Sweet grapes greeted me, he had put wine in his canteen. I drew my M.1907.SF and put  a bayonet on it, I grabbed the front grip and breathed in hard, and sweat was running from my hands. After the long walk we were greeted by a Lieutenant with a heavily beaten and ripped uniform who had the look of tiredness on his face, along with the speckles of blood and mud.

Lieutenant: alright men, get to the trenches and keep you heads down.
Jason: Sir...
Lieutenant: What do you ruddy want?
Jason: How long have you been here...
Lieutenant: Since July... Come with me men... bayonets at ready... You will get rations in two days...

When we got into the rear trench we seen beat up soldiers with permanent aggression on their faces, some were smoking and others were drinking bourbon. The machine gunner then pulled the tea bags out of the water cooling barrel shroud, and poured brown liquid from the overflow tank into a muddy cup, he looked at us with a blank expression and started drinking his Machinegun water tea. Other soldiers emerged from the Smokey/foggy trench line with cups at ready for the tea.

Lieutenant: It's tea time, the rest of you new guys will move foward in the  night.
British soldier: Hey guys, Reggie just lost the Knife game and chopped off his trigger finger.... Lucky bastard gets to go home.

The crowd of soldiers belly ached and cheered at the same time.