Crushed tomatoes
The soldiers in front were shivering, trembling in fear.
They looked nowhere close to the valiant, strong warriors they were portrayed as in the recruitment posters plastered all over the streets.
It made sense, most of them had never even killed anyone much less fought in a war.
They had been training for less than 2 months and were now supposed to fight in one of the most grueling wars Esthania had ever endured?
Well maybe if the odds were with them, they'd have stood up valiantly and risked their lives for Esthania, as well as their family, friends and comrades.
But as it stood now, most of them would be squashed by tanks or shot in the back while trying to escape.
This was the battlefield I knew, a bunch of eager young, old and desperate, or determined but fragile people dying shitting their pants.
It wasn't like all of them were delusional about the dangers of war, they just didn't have the guts to accept their fate.
And in that aspect we were quite similar.
Because I would never accept this fate.
My face grew cold and my jaw clenched, my eyes were directed at my path of retreat.
I didn't have much time and I knew I'd probably die while trying, but I had to do it.
Dying here wasn't an option for me.
I had not achieved my goal yet.
As I started running towards the retreat trenches that connected the frontline trenches with the support trenches a fellow soldier moved his gun to point at me.
I flinched at that movement, and if it had taken him even one second longer, I'd have killed this trigger happy soldier right there on the spot.
In war enemy soldiers weren't the only thing you had to worry about, friendly fire happened much more often than you'd think, especially in the militia where untrained civilians played pretend soldiers.
Thankfully for him a different soldier who seemed to be the captain of the bunch, pushed the trigger happy soldier against the wall.
"What the FucCKCKJ do you Think you're doing soldier!?"
I had no time to spend on their lecture and went past them, not missing the trembling of the supposed captain of their squad.
His reaction hadn't been out of sympathy or concern for me, he was just as scared as all the other no good civilians, he was just better at hiding it.
I started running past soldiers and towards the retreat line.
Some other soldiers noticed what I was doing and started staring at me.
And a handful even thought of following me.
I welcomed their attempts at running away…. the more meat shields the better.
The retreat trench was still 100 meters away and based on the sounds the tanks would arrive in at most 20 seconds.
And I could run 100m in 20 seconds…. If It wasn't for the muddy terrain and enemy soldiers swarming in.
(20s…)
A young man I just passed got distracted for less than a millisecond and was shot right through the head.
Pieces of his brain matter flew towards the muddy walls.
Following that two enemy soldiers jumped in right in front of me.
One pierced a soldier in the neck and the other started shooting for cover.
(19s…..)
Just as quickly as they jumped in, I moved behind one of our soldiers using him for cover.
I held him by the neck and moved forward.
He got peppered with shots and if not for his body armour, I'd have died right there as well.
(18s…)
Using my one free hand I shot at the soldier who'd pierced one of my comrades, while moving forward inch by inch.
*BANG*
(17s….)
*BANG*
*BANG*
It took me three shots until he fell, shooting a rifle with only one hand was no small feat, but killing a soldier with it…. almost unheard of.
*CLICK*
The sound of an empty chamber and my signal to let go of my meat shield.
(16s…)
I ran at the enemy soldier and dodged his swing of the bayonet.
*SLASH*
Cut his throat and in the same motion pierced a soldier jumping into the trenches.
My bayonet cut into his stomach and he started wailing his arms and legs.
(15s….)
It was not a wound that would kill him, but was enough for me to get close.
After being pierced he fell down like a broken doll.
He tried aiming his gun at me… but I was faster and snatched the gun away.
Not even bothering to give his sorry state another look I continued running with my new gun, checking my surroundings (14s…) for a second.
Behind me soldiers were fighting the swarm of enemies, an old man with a long grey beard and a woman with short brown hair (who had followed me) freaked out at my display of cruelty.
Or maybe they were confused by what they were seeing.
After all, I was on the smaller size and quite young as well.
The women soldier looked especially distraught.
It wasn't too unusual to find women on the battlefield, and the reason you almost never saw them in the camps was simple…. they didn't survive.
And the ones that did, were too smart not to hide the fact they were women.
(13s….)
"FUCK"
I didn't have time for that kind of thought.
Because the trenches were built in a zigzag like manner you alway had to be cautious of what was in front of you.
(12s…)
And thanks to that caution despite my desperation and hurry, I avoided a bullet by a hair's breadth.
I pressed my body against the muddy trench wall and peeked over to see…. 5 enemy soldiers holding position after having killed everyone in a 10 meter radius.
They had to look both ways which made them less dangerous, but because they were using shields as cover it would be hard to shoot them as well.
(11s…)
Bullets were flying in my direction making me not even try catching another glimpse of them.
I tried shooting them but without knowing where they were I would be hoping for a miracle to happen.
I had to wait for the two numbskulls that were following me to create some kind of distraction.
(10s…)
And thankfully the old man created that distraction.
He threw a hand grenade.
*BOOOM*
*AAAAAHHHHRRG*
No clue if he killed anyone…. but by the sound of it he at least created some chaos.
I rolled on the ground (9s…) and started shooting them.
Because they hadn't expected me to be on the ground their first shots missed the mark by a whole lot.
And by pure luck I could see 3 of them from the ground.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
With each shot one of them fell.
(8s…)
But I couldn't see the last two.
I rolled to the side dodging 2 shots and tried getting up.
My heartbeat increased as a shot hit right above my head.
I was going to die if I couldn't get to cover.
But if I got up and ran to cover I'd also be dead.
(7s…)
2 more shots grazed above me.
I thought of crawling… but that would be too slow.
*BANG*
When suddenly someone shot from my direction.
…
It was the female soldier.
(6s…) I instantly ran towards the retreat trench not caring about anything else than the fact I'd survived.
It was right in front of me just meters away.
*RUMMMBBBLLLLE*
(5s…)
I ran as fast as my feet could carry me.
And would make it just in time.
When a 30 tonne steel behemoth crashed into the trench behind me.
The tanks had been faster than expected.
The female soldier and old man barely made it in time to not be crushed and the female soldier kept running in front.
*BANG*
When she fell down face first into the mud.
Her leg shot from the front.
*RUMMMMBBBBLLLLEEE*
And right then a tank crashed into the trench right where the female soldier lay.
I could see the desperation in her eyes, she was willing to keep fighting.
She crawled with both arms….
The tank did not care for her strong will and kept inching closer.
The female soldier looked back and started crawling even more desperately.
Using both her arms and even her damaged leg to push herself forward.
Inching closer to safety.
A insane smile spreads over her beautiful face.
But even that wasn't enough.
She slowly got quashed tears running down her face and her hand stretched in front as a pleas for help.
Her screams of pain got swallowed by the engine of the tank.
This was a normal occurrence in war, I tried telling myself.
This could've happened to you…
And it will happen to you… If you don't make it out of here!
Well it was quite likely to happen… After all, I was blocked off by tanks in both directions.