Learning to Love the Other Side

The After (James)

This chapter is dedicated to @glazzic for being such an awesome and faithful reader! I appreciate all your support:)

Waking up to a field littered with dead corpses was not an ideal scene to wake up to. The stench of death was potent and hung on the air like a thick cloud; a constant reminder that the boys had fought a battle the day before. The dead soldiers from both sides of the war lay in all types of contorted ways, with varying bloody wounds that were disgusting to the eye. James forced himself, along with the rest of the soldiers, to bury as many Confederate soldiers as they could before they continued on their way to their next battle. It was the only right and respectful thing to do so. As they started the gruesome and depressing work, the weight of their first battle seemed to weigh heavily on their backs. The spoke very little as they buried their fellow soldiers in shallow, makeshift graves. 

"Lord, let them rest in peace," James muttered, shaking his head in sadness. 

He was deeply disturbed as he found a young soldier he had shared his tent with, lying on the ground in a contorted position he deemed only possible of a circus acrobatic. The boy had a dried brown stain on his grey uniform jacket. James deducted he had been shot in the abdomen, and hoped his comrade had died peacefully and quickly. He didn't know the boy very well, as he hadn't talked much, but as James began to dig a grave for the fallen soldier, he felt a pang of loss in his chest.

"You reckon he had family?" Adam asked quietly. His usual laidback and nonchalant personality was overshadowed with the weight of the situation.

James shrugged. "I s'pose he did."

Adam let out a low whistle. "This sure ain't what I pictured war bein' like James. You think we're gonna make it out alive?" 

James glanced up from the freshly dug up dirt before him and looked at his friend seriously. "I dunno, Adam. I sure do hope we do, but I got this feelin' that this war ain't gonna end soon or very pretty."

James fought his gag reflex as he and Adam hesitantly grabbed their dead comrades corpse, and lifted the body into the shallow grave. 

"He smells awful, I can't imagine what a dead body must smell like more than a day old. I swear I'd empty my stomach if he had been dead any longer," Adam said, his face showing his evident disgust. 

"Yeah, I ain't ever bury a dead person like this. It's makin' me sick."

"The worst is their empty eyes that stare at you, it's real creepy," James said, trying hard not to look the dead boy in the eyes. 

The soldiers continued to bury their dead comrades. Every now and then they would come across a soldier still alive, either crying out in agony or barely breathing. It was a gruesome and sorrowful task, but it needed to be done. 

As James had finished digging a grave for a fallen comrade and went to grab the body's wrists to pull him into the grave, the seemingly dead person, sucked in a deep breath of air, and his body twitched. 

"Holy-" James jumped back in surprise and every part of him screened run. James felt his heart pound against his ribcage and he couldn't move his feet for a good few seconds. He was scared and shocked. The man wasn't dead, but very much alive. 

"Why you yellin' like a little girl, Ja-" Adam stumbled backward when he was the soldier's eyes moving back and forth in panic between Adam and James. 

"Well I be damned, he's alive!" Adam whispered with wide eyes. 

"Go an' get the medic, Adam. We might be able to save'em," James said quickly, motioning for Adam to hurry.