day 4: the front – thunder
Jessica,
At around midnight, flares went up into the night sky, and we began firing. Half of us were still asleep when it started, but when I heard the hiss of those red lights, I knew that something was about to happen. The lookout station has been sending reports of movement from the town all day. So I knew something was going to happen.
When the flares lit up, I could see the dark shapes of men moving across the field. The sergeants gave the order, and I started preparing my rifle. It was nearly pitch black when I rose from the trench and began firing, but almost immediately, I heard a loose kind of crackle and the field began lighting up from all directions. It hasn’t let up since. It almost sounds like a holiday festival.
I don’t know what we are shooting at. But the sergeant, a man named Virgil, keeps telling us to fire. At this point, nobody’s thinking. I’m concerned about Theo Calvin. He seemed to have been really shaken up when the firing started. Someone woke him, and he just kind of looked confused, almost dreamy-eyed, and hours later in the morning, he still did. Sergeant Virgil has been giving Theo a hard time. Sometimes Theo stops firing, and he stares transfixedly at something in the field for a while, before the sergeant tromps over and tells him to wake up. The men and I are really worried about him. He’s my best friend in the troop, but we’ve barely spoken since arriving at the front last night.
We never got our “relief.” When the morning crew came down, they kept us in the trenches as well. Nobody shook hands. Everybody just picked a spot in the ditch and fired.
Throughout the morning, salvos have been going off from our side, hitting the town pretty hard, and even though the field seems pretty clear now (I think they must’ve went back during the night), there are still a lot of rifles going off. Sergeant Virgil has laid down a plan of attack. There is a farmhouse on the edge of the town, and we are supposed to take it. I think that means we have to leave the trench.
When Theo heard this, he began asking a lot of questions. “When are we doing this?” “We have to leave the trench?” “Where are we supposed to hide?” “The field is wide open.” His hand kept fidgeting over his coat pocket.
We’re supposed to go in about an hour, when the sun starts getting low. When the sergeant told us this, Theo took out this picture and gave it to me. I kept saying no, but he wouldn’t listen.
Mr. Marlowe was very wrong about this place. I don’t know what’s happening anymore.
Trent
yesterday
- tomorrow
