Sunshine in the trenches

Battle of Passchendaele
September 7th, 1917

How long have they been at it? How long is that artillery been going for? How long until they run out of ammunition?

Those questions were shaken from a soldier who just heard another artillery shell go off. He looked to his left over the trench and see his allies pulling someone from the field. One of the man's legs was torn off by the artillery and he started screaming in pain as his comrades struggled to pull him off the field. Suddenly, Gunshots started shooting from the distance, which was coming from the opposing side of the field.

"GIVE US COVERING FIRE!" The shout came from one of the men dragging the poor guy's body.

The soldier in the trench pulled up his rifle and started firing blindly at the opposing side, the sounds of bullets firing and the soldiers on his side screaming were deafening, but he heard one thing during that entire thing.

"ARTILLERY INCOMING! TAKE COVER!"

Just as he heard it, the explosion blasted some of the soldiers away, including him, but as soon as he opened his eyes, expected to be dead, he instead saw his officer and a couple of his men. The officer looked at him and slowly walked up to him and outstretched a reaching hand for him.

"Are you alright Merlin?" The officer said in a disgruntled tone, one that an officer would have. Merlin looked down to see himself on the ground, he then looked up to his officer and grabbed his hand. "Yes I'm fine, thank you sir." he replied. His officer then looked away from him and went up on the wooden boards in the trench and looked at the other side of the field. "It appears that the Germans really are a tenacious bunch, however since their artillery just fired and is currently taking its time to reload, this is an opportunity for us." Opportunity? for what? Merlin thought, what is his officer planning? Merlin looked around to see his men all rallied up to their officer, currently looking beat up after that artillery strike.

Their officer then stood up and looked at his men "Men, we are now going to charge the enemy! Prepare yourselves!" Merlin looked horrified, Attacking? after they just took an artillery strike? No this is insane, there's no way they are going to attack, right? However, due to the ranking stance between him and his officer, he had no choice but to comply with his order.

"Company forward!" The men moved up to the trench edge. Damn it, damn it damn it! This was it, the charge that is going to risk the lives of many soldiers, including Merlin. He didn't ask to be here, he was forced to conscript into the army after all! He looked to his fellow men and saw both determined and scared faces.

and then he heard the whistle, it's time.

"CHARGE!!!"

The yell from their superior immediately triggered a fight or flight reaction from the men, they all jumped out of the trenches and charged towards the enemy. They could hear each other screaming from miles away as they were in a do-or-die situation.

Merlin was in the middle of the charge, and he could see his comrades falling to the ground in front of him. The enemy is now aware of their charge and started to quickly riddle all of them with their mg, the Maschinengewehr 08. huffing and puffing his way through the field, he eventually made it, jumping into the enemies' trenches and quickly turning to see a couple of germans with him.

"Scheiße!" A German soldier exclaimed. They quickly pulled out their guns with bayonets and attempted to charge at Merlin. Merlin, being quick-witted, pulled the bolt back on his rifle with ease and shot the first German soldier in front of him. He fell dead on the ground before seeing the second German soldier looking at his dead buddy, then looking back at him with an angry look on his face. "You bastard!" The German soldier yelled then charged at him with his bayonet, Merlin didn't have enough time to pull the bolt back, so he had to resort to melee combat. He admits that melee combat wasn't his expertise, but then again, did he had a choice in the matter?

Merlin dodges the strike, then attempted a stab at the German, which failed as the strike went to his right, completely missing him. The German then laughs at the failed attempt as he grabs Merlin by his arm and preparing his knife to end him. "Bye-bye, little one." Merlin struggled to get out of his grasp but to no avail. This was it... He thought, his life was now gonna end at the hands of a German soldier, all because he made one mistake. He closed his eyes, preparing for the painful and slow death he was gonna be in.

Or so he thought.

He then heard a gunshot, he opened his eyes to the German soldier, looking at him, but instead of him grinning, he was in a shocking state as a bullet just went through his head. He let go of Merlin, then raised his hand at the wound, he was bleeding from his head. He looked at Merlin and said, "damn it." And then the German fell to the ground lifeless. Merlin was... Shocked, to the say least. He looked up to see a fellow soldier who had made it in the trench with him. "Ello mate, I see you're one of the lucky ones." The soldier said with a gleeful expression. Merlin was confused at the man but nevertheless responded "Yes, it appears I am."

The two of them then heard gunshots from the distance and started to take cover. Merlin turned to the soldier and said "Where are the other men? I thought they were in the trenches with us!" The soldier then replied, "The others are with the officer, they are planning to do another assault as soon as reinforcements arrive. So until then, we're just sitting ducks here!" He said as a load of suppressive machine gunfire over them.

"So we just have to wait until our reinforcements arrive? How long is that gonna take?!" Merlin yelled over the gunfire.
"Our officer said they are gonna arrive in 1 hour or so! So our job is to hold this line until they get here!" The soldier replied

1 hour? It's not enough, by the time it reaches half of that, most of their soldiers would be dead and the remaining ones would be captured. They cant hold off with such little supplies and the little amount of infantry they have right now. they should've waited for reinforcements to arrive before they decided to strike.

"Quickly! We need to head to the- AGH!" The soldier grunted as he got shot in the arm by one of the machine gun bullets. Merlin then heard shouting from the other side.

Oh no... They are attacking...

"SHIT!" Merlin cursed as he grabbed his gun and started firing at the group of soldiers charging. He managed to get 4 of them, but it was not enough... soon enough, the enemy spotted him and they opened fire. Merlin tried to dodge the shots, but it was inevitable, and soon enough, they got him in the leg.

While the rest of the Germans ran to the opposite side of the trench, one of them went up to the injured soldier, the injured Merlin's comrade eventually died of blood loss and so it was just only him left. The German soldier went up to Merlin while he looked up to the German.

"You have fought valiantly, but unfortunately, this is where your story ends." The German spoke fluent English and soon raised his rifle at the bleeding soldier. Merlin was struggling to grab his rifle, but it ended in vain.

BANG

The shot hit him square in the chest, making him fall back in pain. He realized what just happened, and soon started struggling for air and kept breathing out of pace. He started to slowly cry, "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die." He said as he started weeping, constantly struggling for some hope of survival. He started to see darkness in his eyes, and then muttered one last word, "Mother..." Before drifting away from his consciousness.
Merlin was now dead, a lifeless corpse, another sacrifice to the British kingdom. The German looked sympathetically at his corpse before saying "This... is certainly hell." The soldier then heard a shout from his comrade, and ran back to his regiment, leaving Merlin to be food for the birds...

Merlin was at home, drinking coffee, and reading the local newspaper that his mother had picked up. As he was reading through the contents of the newspaper, he then turned to the side to see his mother, currently cleaning clothes. "Merlin, you have to get ready, otherwise you'll be late for work." Merlin closed the newspaper and went upstairs to get changed "Yea yea, I'm on it." He then went into his closet to find... A military uniform? Didn't... The war passed? Strange.

He then heard a scream, and it was coming from downstairs, he recognizes that voice. MOM! Merlin ran down the stairs at light speed to find nothing but empty dishes, broken furniture, and smashed pieces of glass and wood, Everything you would find in a broken down-home. He then heard another scream and this time it was outside, so he ran to the front of his porch to see something bigger. The entire city... Was on fire. Most of Britain, if not all of Britain, was up in flames. People were screaming left and right, vehicles and carriages were burning as they were driving. It was insanity, and Merlin needed to get out of here. He started running through the field and the town as people started crying for help and begging those who could save them.

This is a dream, this has to be a dream. Merlin thought to himself, Theres no possible way any of this could happen right now! He kept trudging and trudging until he ran up to what was Buckingham Palace. The place was in ruins and fire was spreading everywhere. Eventually, the fire tried to spread around him, but he just jumped over the fire and made a run towards the palace to see if anyone is safe. He ran into the palace to see what he thought was truly a nightmare. The German empire flag being raised. He tried to make a run for it outside but only turned to see a German soldier, but not just any German soldier, to his shock, he saw the German who had murdered him in the battle of Passchendaele.

The German soldier then Pulled up his rifle at him, muttering the same words "You have fought valiantly, but unfortunately, this is where your story ends." Merlin's eyes widened with shock as he understands what's about to happen, he was about to get killed, again.

"NO, NOT AGAIN! I WON'T HAVE THIS HAPPEN TO ME AGAIN!" Merlin shouted at the top of his lungs as he lunged at the German soldier. Merlin didn't care if this was a dream or not, all he knows is that he refuses to die again. Just as he was about to swing his left fist into the soldier's skull, he heard it.

BANG

Again...

"Merlin."

He was dying yet again...

"Merlin, wake up."

This was completely unfair, he didn't choose to be a part of the war.

"Merlin, wake up now."

All he ever wanted, was just peace.

"Merlin!"

Sweet, blissful...

"MERLIN!"

Soon as he heard someone spoke, he opened his eyes and saw a bright light covered his entire vision. What the hell is that? What was going on?! He tried to cover his eyes using his arm, but it was no use. The light was so immense that it practically covered the entire room.

Am I... Going to heaven? Merlin thought as the light was slowly expanding to the point where he could only see just the light.

Go forth warrior, and unleash justice to all!

And then, It all went dark.

It was a bright and sunny day, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and the breeze was calm and soothing.

In the middle of the field there lying on the ground was a soldier. A soldier who was peacefully snoring away on the grassy field surrounded by flowers.

Then out of nowhere, a mosquito flew around the soldier and then landing on his face. It tried to take some of his blood but was then swatted away by the soldier's reflexes, while he was sleeping. Persistent, the mosquito went again for another blood taking, but unfortunately for it, the soldier had woken up with a startle the moment it tried to went for a bite, thus startling the mosquito away, and making the starving insect look for other food.

Merlin was breathing heavily after that 'dream' he had and was currently clutching his heart to check if he was still alive or not.

"Still alive, good"

The British soldier now was on the ground, still shaken up by that dream he had. What the hell just happened back there? Who was that woman? He assumed the person that spoke to him was a female after he noticed the voice was kind of feminine. But the question was what did that woman said, "Go forth warrior, and unleash justice to all?" What is he, some kind of hero? The only thing he is is a soldier, a soldier forced to conscript into war and was prepared to die for his country.

As soon as he finished his reflection on the dream, he looked around the area. Nothing much but grass and loads amounts of trees around him, so the natural assumption would be that he is in a forest.

Wait... Why was he in a forest?

Shouldn't he be back at Passchendaele? As far as he knows, most, if not all of the trees were burned down or destroyed by artillery. So if this wasn't Passchendaele, where in the world was he? He decided to take a look around and find any civilization that could help him, and hopefully not the German army. He looked to his left and find his rifle and his equipment on the ground. He quickly went over the things he needed, as in case if the worse come, he would be prepared.

Rifle? "Check."

Gas mask? "Check."

Pouches of ammunition and grenades? "Check."

Rations and water? "Check."

As soon as he checked over and making sure he was ready, he sets off into the forest.

"Okay this is getting absurd now"

This was Merlin's thought as he now been walking for what feels like 2 hours. He had been trudging through the muddy dirt, for so long, he thought that he had been going in a circle. The sun was high above his head, telling him that it was the afternoon at the moment. He needed to get to some sort of town before it gets dark, otherwise, god knows what would happen to him in the middle of the night when he sleeps in a ditch in the middle of a forest, filled with god knows what.

As soon as he passed yet another tree, he slowly realized that he was getting hungry, so he decided to take a breather and take some of his rations. he opened a ration and took some of the biscuits that were there. After a while, as soon as he finished and save some of the leftovers for later, he set off back into the forest again.

As the trudging went on, he heard something.

KABLOOM

The sound instantly made the soldier get into a prone position. He then heard more explosions nearby and decided to move slowly and carefully through the forest.

As soon as he got out of the forest, he then saw a couple of things. There were what looked like to be a couple of trenches on one side of the field. There were other trenches on the other side, and he also saw a building that was broken down and burnt. He then heard more screaming, as he looked a little closer.

"ENEMY ARTILLERY INBOUND!"

"TAKE COVER!"

Then loads of explosions were shot in the air and he saw what looked like to be... Bombs? That didn't really matter as the bombs then hit the area, creating loads of craters. Merlin was in the middle of the artillery and it was getting dangerously close to him. Once again he had to do something before the enemy artillery would eventually blow off his legs or worse, his entire body.

He had then decided something, to run into the trenches.

Grabbing his rifle, he did a charge through the artillery, it was what some people would call insane. He was running through an open field, with no covering fire to support him getting back into the trench. as he ran past the huge craters, he eventually made it and jumped into the trench.

He looked around in the trench he was in to find no one to be found. He heard a couple of screams, but they were too far away to make contact with. Soon, the artillery eventually stopped, but Merlin then heard someone yelling from the opposing side of the field. He peeked over the trench to see what was happening, but his peeking was cut short when he saw a couple of shots when towards his way.

He took cover as some of the shots flew past him. He took notice as the shots just hit above the trench line, and what he saw was... arrows? Did the Germans ran out of ammunition and started resorting to medieval weaponry? As far as he knows, they should be well supplied with ammunition and weaponry, so why are they using bows and arrows? After the arrows had missed, Someone from the other side of the trench, which to his case sounded like an officer yelled,

"THEY'RE FIRING! RETURN FIRE, RETURN FIRE!"

Merlin peered over the trench with his rifle and began firing. He was now seeing arrows going back and forth, while he was the only one with an actual gun, which made him question what in the hell was going on. As the fighting continued, One of the men yelled, "I NEED AMMUNITIONS!"

"I got it! I'm on the way!"

Merlin heard a young boy from the opposite side of the trench, coming to resupply his ally.

Merlin shouted to the side giving a resupply, "I'll give you covering fire! get to the other side quick!"

"Thanks!"

Merlin heard the response, and quickly went back to firing at the enemy. The Germans did not let down-firing power as multiple arrows kept coming by the hundreds. He was supposed to give suppressive fire but ended up getting suppressed himself.

As Merlin was getting suppressed, he heard someone coming nearby, he assumed it was the supplier.

"Oop! Sorry coming through- Woah!"

The sound of supplies and ammo falling to the ground was heard.

Merlin then looked down left and saw the ammunition box on the ground, but what he saw above that, was something else entirely. It was a horse, that was orange-skinned, and had a short spikey mane, its tail was also wavey as well. Merlin was... Shocked, to say the least.

The horse looked up at him, "Sorry about that..." The horse, also being petrified at the sight of Merlin, left his sentence cut short as his entire jaw was hung open.

And then, they both had a response to each other.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"

To be continued...

Author's Note

Thank you all for reading if you made it this far! I plan to make the chapters as quickly as possible, so sit tight!

This is also my second story, as my first one did not convey much hope.

So feedback is appreciated!