I could not see any feedback, just darkness after my eyes got shocked by the flash of the gun, but I knew that I had hit him, and that my aim had been true. The three sleeping behind me quickly got up and moved towards me and Felix. "What was that?" Marco said as he rushed to the other side of me.
"Saw some movement by the wagon" I responded "Think I got em" They all rested their rifles on the trench and looked out to the darkness. The gunshot did not start some battle, it was only the prologue. We sat there for some time. Awake now due to the surge of adrenaline that came from firing my rifle.
Bruno decided to go back to bed, eventually giving up letting us deal with it. Soon after he did I heard something clink the side of the trench and fumble down into it. Before I could register what I heard an explosion rang out to the side of me. Dust kicked up all around me, making me cough violently.
I looked at the rest of the guys through the smoke and they were doing the same. It seems that the thin line of sandbag that lined the edge of the parapet saved me once again as I felt no injuries, Bruno was not so lucky. Being resting on the crate when the explosion rang off he was on the ground clutching his thigh when the smoke settled, yet I did not have any time to check on him.
Soon after the dust settled a couple more bombs went off around us, none landing in the trench luckily, but we were forced from the parapet in a dangerously close explosion. We looked at the edge of the parapet, guns raised, waiting for the upcoming attack.
Through the dust that the grenade caused a man jumped through landing down in the trench. Adrian quickly popped off a round before he even landed and the man fell down. Four more men ran in afterwards, we had no time to shoot as they were on us in an instant.
A man dressed in all black came down on me slamming all his weight on me pushing me into the back wall of the trench. He grabbed a hold of my rifle and tried to yank it out of my hands, yet they did not budge.
After standing there for a second trying to rip it out of my hands he changed tactics and decided to slam his helmet into mine, trying to headbutt me. I looked down as he did this and his helmet just banged off mine.
As he received from the folly attack I wrapped one of my legs behind his and pushed him, causing him to tumble to the ground, I followed after him. He still clutched the rifle with a death grip. Not going to let go, and now having the advantage I pushed the rifle to his neck with all the force of my body.
Though he was slightly bigger than me, he could not push back as I used all my body. Slowly the rifle went up against his throat and pushed in. I never let off the pressure, only putting more and more into him. Only after a couple of seconds of struggling his hands lost all power and they fell to his side, the man was passed out. I raised from the limp man and stabbed him in the chest with my bayonet once to finish the job.
I looked around. Bruno was still lying on the floor clutching his leg, no one bothering him, probably thinking he was already dead. Everyone else was fighting their own battle. Our little skirmish grew as a few more men jumped over from dead man's land and more men came from down the line to help us out.
There were probably twenty men squished in our tiny section of the line. Their attack had already failed, as they did not have the element of surprise to efficiently wipe us out, yet that did not stop them from trying to take a few of us out on the way.
I ran up to Felix, as he was struggling on the ground with a man dressed in a blue trench coat, the mud making it appear black in the darkness. Felix was on top of the man slamming a rock against the man's face, with little effect it seemed as the man was punching Felix side heavily with brass knuckles.
I kicked Felix off the man and thrust my bayonet into him as well, ending the struggle. I turned to Felix, a little worse for wear but he was glad to see me. As I was helping him up a man charged me from behind pushing me over. This time Felix was there to help me. As Felix rose from the ground he hit the O.R soldier square in the jaw with his rock causing the man to tumble over. Felix helped me up this time. We looked at each other, nodded, and looked back at the carnage.
Marco was finishing up his man, he had him against the wall, and fired off two rounds from his revolver into the belly of the unfortunate lad who was trying to kill him. The man crumpled down holding his wound.
Marco then immediately turned around to Adrian who was on the ground getting pummeled by an O.R. Marco gripped the collar of the soldier straddling Adrian and lifted him up. When he leaned back enough he fired off two more rounds into the back of the man who crumpled down on top of Adrian. Adrian quickly pushed off the man and got back to his feet.
The four of us then continued throughout the trench and helped the rest of our guys fight off the attackers, and we did. We only lost two friendly soldiers, who were done in the first couple of chaotic seconds of the brawl.
We took out all ten of the attackers. We circled back to Bruno who was sitting up against the wall of the trench. We surrounded him in a semi circle looking down at the man who was still. His head leaning back against the wall, hands still clutching his leg. I looked at Felix and shrugged. I prodded the man with my foot, slowly pushing it on his leg that was not injured. Brunos eyes twitched, still staying closed. "We know you're not dead,"
Adrain said. Bruno then fully opened his eyes with a smile. "Can never be too sure" He chuckled dryly "Thought for sure you all would have been dead without my help" "Glad you can still joke" Marco said as he bent down and checked his leg. "What happened?" He asked looking back up to Bruno "Some damn shrapnel from some damn bomb" He responded wincing" Marco cut away some of the cloth that was hiding the wound. A stream of black blood slowly dripped away from a slit in his skin. Marco quickly put on a bandage and a tourniquet.
Once he was finished bandaging him up we all sat down and sighed. We had been through a day and night of pure hell, and all things considered we made it out well. The sky slowly became brighter. First lighting up the sky and the stars slowly faded. Then the sun peaked out with an over encompassing orange that brought light to our dark world. Our own personal purgatory ended, and heaven for us followed suit.