A beautiful little town it once was, full of people going about their business, children running in the streets. Well, at least until the war started. Now Arnhem was being flattened as the Germans advanced on the allied forces that once held the bridge, the key strategical point. Smoke was rising from several point in the city, structures were destroyed or damaged. Firefights everywhere. The engines and guns of the German vehicles roaring fiercely. There was rubble and dust as far as you could see.

*BOOM*

25 year old private Archibald Stantson threw himself to the ground as an explosion shattered the base of the building near him and collapsed it to the ground, injuring and killing many soldiers that were inside.

One week. One bloody week had passed already, and they were waiting for reinforcements in Arnhem. They said they just had to hold for a few days and they would arrive with tanks to help them. Instead, they were facing a German panzer division with just a few PIATs.
The British 1st Airborne Division had sustained heavy casualties already. And the were suffering many more.
It was just too much. Buildings all around him were collapsed or damaged, the sight of the once bright blue sky was mostly covered by dust, and the sound of constant battle was ringing in his ears.

*BOOM*

Another explosion brought Archibald back to his senses and he sprinted towards a pile of rubble he used as cover.
As he took a peek over the rubble, he saw something that made his heart stop.
A hetzer flanked by German infantry was heading towards him.

"Archie!" A voice called him. "Archie! Get your bloody ass over here you wanker!" He recognized the voice as the one of his friend Tomas. He turned around and saw him crouched on the door of a little house 30 metres away.

Archibald took a very long breath and started sprinting towards his friend's position at full speed. He could hear the Germans behind him shooting, he could feel the bullets whizzing past him. As he approached the structure he quickly dove to the floor of the main corridor of the building. Tomas let loose a short burst of bullets and got inside.

"Archie are you o-" *BOOM*

An explosion in the door shook the little house. Shrapnel, debris and dust filled the corridor. Archibald's ears were ringing.
As the dust settled he looked towards the door only to see his friend agonizing close to death, both legs missing, his gut showing and his back covered in shrapnel.

"TOMMY!" Archibald rushed to his friend, but it was too late, he had just died. "No! Tommy! Fucking Germans, I'll kill you all!" He shouted as rage took over him. His green eyes filling with tears, his short nose was bruised and his brown hair filthy with little pieces of cement and dirt, the same as his brown uniform. His Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 dangling on his back.

He heard men approaching the corridor from his back. He turned around expecting them to be German soldiers that would kill him. Instead, he saw two British soldiers. "Oi! You, come, let's get the hell out of here!" One of them said, he was a tall man with brown eyes and red hair, a scar running across his left eye. The man's heart sank as he saw the young boy crying on top of his butchered friend.

"No! I won’t leave him!" Archibald screamed.

"Come on boy! He is dead, we have to get out of here or we'll all die." The tall man said with a clear concern in his voice as he could hear the German soldiers approach.

"I SAID NO!" Archibald cried with rage.

"Damn it. Douglas, cover me, I'll drag him." Upon hearing this, Douglas, a short dark haired men with blue eyes got between Archibald and the door, gun at the ready. The tall man grabbed Stantson from behind and dragged out of the building, all the while the young man shouting to be released.

They got out through the back of the house, but then a blinding light appeared out of nowhere where Archibald was, causing everyone to shield their eyes. When the light was gone, so was the private.

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Plain, it was all plain. A plain fucking desert, no cover at all but for just a few dunes. On this desert the Free French Forces battled fiercely holding their ground against Rommel's troops.

Lucky for 29 year old lieutenant Jean Pierre; who was a tall men with light brown hair, light blue eyes, a normal sized nose and covered in sand; and his squad there were no panzers around. A British company that had lost all their commanding officers occupying the same position as them now fell under his command too. They were holding their ground in a dune with poorly made trenches and the Germans had an incredible numerical superiority.

The situation was bad.

"Soldiers!" he yelled to his troops "if we have half the balls than the polish soldiers at Wizna, then we can hold them until our forces have the opportunity to turn the battle in our favor!" Pierre knew that if he was defeated, the allied forces would be cut in half, and the Germans would be able to encircle them with their panzer. This made him wonder why there were not any panzers around. "Keep that machine gun firing and don't be afraid to pop out of cover and shoot!" he said finishing and started firing his MP 18. He could not let the Germans get close enough to take the trench.

Suddenly he heard the sound of engines. 'Shit, panzers' he thought as he took out his binoculars and started looking for the tanks. A few bullets struck the sand in front of him as he ducked down. 'That was fucking close' he thought as he gulped and took another peek. However, he could not see the tanks even though the sound got closer and closer. Then he heard a siren, that was it, he recognized what it was as his face changed to one of horror.

"TAKE COVER, STUKA!" he shouted and then dropped down. The bombs exploded around the trench but none inside. Only a one soldier was injured. "Keep that machine gun firing" he yelled with desperation.

The sound of the old Browning M1919 machine gun was heard again until it stopped once more.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Keep firing!" Pierre shouted yet another time.

But this time the shooting didn't resume, and Jean turned to look at the mg crew as a soldier look at him, horror and desperation clear in his face "I can't unjamm it" he said with a very clear concern.

"Fuck! Move aside." The lieutenant said as he dropped his weapon, pushed the gunner away and tried unjamming the machine gun. He looked at the Germans, they were getting closer, and there was no suppressive fire on them. 'Come on you piece of shit' he screamed in his mind as he tried pulling the hammer back and taking the round belt out the mg, but to no avail. He looked back up and saw the Germans almost on them.

*thud thud*

Pierre looked down to be staring at a grenade. There was a white light, the sound of an explosion, then nothing, not a sound.

Jean was gone, the mg crew dead, their mostly mutilated torsos near the spot of the explosion.

The Germans stood still for a few seconds, before charging the trench and taking it from the allies.

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The huge field was green, a bright beautiful green. At the end, a cluster of trees. A peaceful silence reigned over it. A silence that was broken with the roar of the engines of the M4 Sherman Americans tanks as they pulled the machines forward, followed by the infantry composed mainly of young men, most of them inexperienced since this was a fresh division.

The poor soldiers had no idea they were in the sight of a small Wehrmacht company composed by two Stugs and about a dozen and a half of German soldiers all entrenched. 35 year old Major Wenck Steiner; a mid-stature man with dark brown eyes, dark messy hair, a prolonged nose and a bayonet scar on his right cheek; was tasked with setting up an ambush, and that he did. He waited for the Americans to get closer...closer...a bit closer...He clutched his mp40. "FEUER!" Steiner yelled as he fired a burst of 9 mm bullets.

Out of nowhere 2 of the M4 were destroyed as the projectiles fired by the Stugs cut through their frontal armour as if it were butter. The machine guns started firing, mowing down soldiers left and right. The rifles and smgs picking off the enemies that dove for cover. It was a slaughter.

However, what Steiner didn't see was the British Sherman Firefly at the back of the American line, which knocked out one of the Stugs as it fired and destroyed another M4. The other German tank destroyer turned to face the threat as it advanced toward the tree cluster. However, the gunner of the Stug was too hasty and shot before he could properly aim, causing him to just scrape the side of the Firefly. Steiner's heart stopped, 'we're dead' he thought. This was it, there was no way they could reload on time t-wooshhBOOM

Suddenly the British vehicle exploded, Steiner looked to his left and saw two soldiers with a panzerschreck on the field running back to the trenches.

"Great work soldiers!" The Major happily shouted to them. 'They must have hit the ammo rack for it to blow up like that' he thought.

The Stug disabled 2 more M4s. Everything seemed to be going good, but not for long.

"Kommandant! American infantry division to our right! They're too ma-" Was all lieutenant Hans could say before he was hit in the chest by three bullets.

"Hans! Fuck!" cried Steiner angrily.

Nevertheless, this was no time to weep for a fallen comrade. Steiner could hear the sound of an engine...no, several engines.

"TAKE COVER!" yelled Wenck at the top of his lungs as he dove for cover behind the destroyed Stug and 5 Hawker Hurricanes started strafing the tree line and dropping 100kg bombs which exploded all around him, shrapnel impacting on the other side of the tank destroyer as he heard the pain-filled scream of soldiers whose bodies were being stabbed and bitten by the hot pieces metal.

"Hold your ground and keep firing!" Was the only thing Steiner could say to keep his soldier's moral high enough to keep fighting.

Then, he heard a whistling noise, the very same one that bombs make. He knew he could not run. He knew this was it.
A split second before the bomb impacted an incredibly bright light suddenly emerged from the spot where Steiner was.

The fight seized as everyone looked at the light. As it faded away, the Germans saw their commander was not there, in his place there was only scorched earth. The Germans took this chance to drop their weapons and lift their arms as a sign of capitulation. They had fought bravely and killing many enemies. However, they were badly outnumbered, had no reinforcements, no air or anti-air support, and had just lost their commander.

The war for them was over.

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*Cough Cough*
Steiner coughed dirt. He slowly got up, all dirty with mud from being lying down in the forest. "Where in the name of fuck am I?" He wondered. He looked around as he took in what he saw. He was in a swamp area, the water reaching his heel. Grass as tall as his knee. Trees that seemed to be looking at him. But above all, the darkness and dense fog that surrounded everything. He looked to his right and could make out a hut not far away "I wonder who is crazy enough to live on this damn forest. Hmm...Wasn't I about to die? Then what the hell am I doing here? Maybe this is the afterlife. Pff, no, look at the stupid things I'm sputtering." He said as he laughed at himself.

As Wenck prepared to walk to the hut in look for...well, to know where the hell he was, he heard a noise behind him, which made him turn. He saw what looked like a man with a blue uniform 'Is that what I think it is?' he asked himself as he silently moved towards the figure he saw, clutching his mp40 tightly.

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"AHH!" Jean screamed as he quickly got up "What the f- Where- How?" questions were racing through his mind and he started to hyperventilate. He saw the tall grass, the trees, the swamp, the bushes, the fog, the darkness, he even thought he saw yellow eyes at some point. 'What th- Ho- Okay, calm down, calm down' he though as he tried to calm himself.
"Okay, I was in the desert...The mg jammed...The grenade...How is this even possible" He asked aloud.

He heard some movement in the bushes behind him. "Hands up frenchie" Jean heard as he turned around and saw a German aiming at him. He instantly dropped his gun and raised his arms. "Fuck me." He muttered.

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"Ow." Archibald said as he woke up. He looked around to see he was in a forest, a very spooky one at that. "What the Hell? There are no forests near Arnhem, at least none like this one." He said even tough he knew no one could hear him.

He inspected the place he was in and grew more concerned every second. The bad feeling the darkness and such dense fog gave him was very bad. Even worse was the eternal silence, as if the whole place was abandoned, but at the same time he felt as if every movement he made was being watched. He gripped his rifle tightly and looked around him for any leads as to where to go. Although, he couldn't see more then 20 metres because of the dark environment.

"Hands up frenchie." He heard in the distance. Which almost made him jump. 'As good as anything...' He turned and started walking in the direction where the noise came from. Weapon at the ready.

Author's Note

Well, this is my first real atempt at a fic. I hope you like it and give me feedback so I can improve it.

Please note that english is not my first language, so please point out any spelling errors you find.

Following chapters will be longer.

Thank you and i hope you enjoyed it.