Under the Southern Cross

Chapter 5

"Joe, Joe, here we got letters."
"What does it say."  Bobby came running up to me smoke in hand letters in the other.
I opened the letter from Rose I didn't know if I should be angry because of the risk she had taken or thrilled that we could see each other.
"Mate they're re in England."
" What would make them do such a dangerous thing?"
"Mate who cares we get to see them."
"Good news from home?" Jack looked worried he had another bloke with him that we didn't know. He introduced him.
"This is me mate Art."
We nodded and it was taken as an acceptance into the group.
"Art just heard something, tell em Art."
"well, I was walkin by the Generals tent. They were talkin bout moving out to the front."
"When?" Bobby seemed almost excited. Any thing would be better than staying in the desert.
"T'night."

Art was right we moved the next morning when it was still dark. I remember being in the boat coming up to the shore line. The hills were bathed in blue light just before the sun hit the horizon. I had Bobby on one side and Jack on the other, and Rose of course. As we got closer we heard the gun fire. In that moment all I could see was Rose's beautiful face. It was so vivid I could of reached out and touched her. I looked at Bobby and he nodded. Then at Jack he slapped me on the shoulders. Next minute I was in waist high water. A few steps further and the water was at my knees. I saw bodies float past me. These poor bastards never reached the shore, yet here we were moving forward. I kept an image of Rose in my mind and pushed forward. I looked down and saw that the water had turned to blood. I kept going and eventually I reached a blood stained beach and took shelter under heavy fire.

Somehow I had lost Bobby, but Jack was still with me. We kept pushing forward. We past body after body on the blood stain  shore line. The sand toned pink as blood oozed out of bodies that were once people. The only think I thought of was staying alive at this point. Bullets whistled past me, suddenly there was a man in front of us crouching down as if that would shelter him from the enemy fire.
" Gentlemen, welcome to hell. Follow me". "
He deposited us into trenches. The men in these trenches looked exhausted, defeated, grief striken. One chap seemed to be some kind of leader he introduced us to the other men and explained how it was. Trench life was hard. Food was scarce and death was plenty. The stench of it was palpable. The metallic smell of blood was in the air. Men looked exhausted and their eyes held a sense of loss. A loss of a mate, a loss of innocence, a loss of humanity. They had a vacant look in their eyes, one that I was sure would creep into my eyes given the things these men had seen. Night fell and still gunfire was heard. There was no time to sleep.

"Hey Joe, get a load of this." one of the blokes hand me a photo of a girl. I took  the photo from him, suddenly I realised I didn't have any photos of Rose,  I suddenly realised that I hadn't laid eyes on her beautiful face for months.
"She's pretty." I handed it back to him.
"How about you mate, you got a lady friend?"
"I've got a wife."
"Yeh,? that's great I plan, to marry Maggie when I get home."

We were planning for attack my job was to stay in the trench and cover as the other blokes went of the wall. I got ready at the edge of the trench. Anxiety was high waiting for the whistle to be sounded. Then suddenly I heard it and the adrenalin ran through my viens, I shot as fast as I could. As I m shooting bodies are falling back in the trench next to me. They just kept coming it didn't seem like any of us were making it more than three feet. This was insane, it was bloody murder. None of it made sense. The anguished cries of injured men would haunt me for years. If I lived that long. How could anyone live through this. I felt someone tugging on my pants I looked down a bloke was tugging on them his stomach region full of blood from a gut wound. I bent down an cradled him in my arms. I didn't know where to touch him  or if I should help
" It's bad isn't?" he asked breathless his breathing becoming shallow.
"It's going  to leave a scare mate."  he tried to laugh at my response.
His eyes lost their light and he was gone.

How can this be right? How can this happen?  I continued to hold this body that was once a living breathing person, who had loved and been loved, A son a brother, someone who had happy memories and sad memories. I had to make sure this was not going to be me.