Voices can be heard all around them like whispers in the wind, sending shivers up their spines, as if the dead were trying to warn them of what was to come. As thirty men lay there the blood of their fallen pours upon their skin, the ashes of burnt flesh and trees stick to the blood staining them, changing them making them less human, and more monsters. Thirty men who once stood tall as six hundred now forced to hide under the bodies of the fallen, they have lost everything, their brothers, their hope, their humanity most the men laid amongst the dead wondering if it's worth the struggle. most just thought about how they may never get to see their families, how they will never hear the laugh of their children or the smile from their wife. The rest just thought about how the enemy killed the only family they've ever known. Thirty men, living a nightmare many refuse to believe is true. The trees start to bed and move in the breeze making the thirty more paranoid than before, they lay there waiting for an attack not knowing what's to come.

Thirty men lay and wait, branches snap and bushes move, as they assume they're doomed. They ready thor rifles and aim in waiting for a visual of what they believe to be a massive army, a thick gray fog-like substance covered the dead forest, the fog blocked out all vision they thought they had. The thirty men now petrified by losing the only advantage they had, they firm aggressive grab on their rifles ready to see anything come from the substance that plagued the forest. The whispers kept getting louder and louder. Two men lose their minds and start running into the fog screaming then it stops suddenly, no more screams and they can't be seen. More men start vanishing into the fog never to be seen again, were they killed? Or captured? Or did they just keep running till they died, no one could answer these questions? The rats start coming out to eat the dead, they chew and nibble on the rotten flesh of the fallen, They couldn't move the rats or make them stop eating the dead so they just sat there and tried not to watch.  One of the men can’t take it anymore, he lifts his leg and kicks a rat off of one of his fallen brothers, right then a shot that echoed the forest was taken, the man fell with a shot straight to his chest. He starts crying out for help, begging to plead. which never came for it would get more men killed, they told themselves over and over that dead bodies attract dead bodies.

The men lay waiting to make sure not to move a muscle for a sniper was somewhere in the woods. They didn't know if there were one or a hundred snipers taking them out one by one, they lay their terror-stricken. Explosions can be heard in the distance followed by a slight whistle, most of the men knew what was coming and stood up to run from the artillery, but the moment they stood up they got shot multiple times, filling them full of lead making them look like swiss cheese. Pvt. Mathew was just twenty-five feet away from where the artillery landed, making the whole earth shake, the men coil feel their bones shake, Mathew watched one of the shells hit his buddy PVT. William, Matthew lay there with his eyes squeezed shut praying, begging for forgiveness, tears rolling down his face as the earth shook with artillery fire, he knew that this was the end, that he would surely die today. The explosions and whistles last for what felt like a lift time. The ground froze, no more artillery was heard, Mathew opened his eyes and looked around, the thirty men were now three, Matthew crawled over to the other two men when he heard the white noise of the engine, planes flying over, and bombs dropped. They hit the ground and broke the dead, spreading their limbs everywhere a bomb landed next to the three men and went off and Matthew flew back unconscious.

He woke up and looked around, limbs scattered everywhere nobody was left his whole face covered in blood, a mixture of his and his brothers who died mir inches away from him, he stood up and looked around. The trees now most on the ground shattered and burnt, he turns around looking at the surroundings. It was littoral hell, the smell of death and rot filled his lungs, the sight of the dead strung all over the place, men missing their arms, legs, guts. He threw up whatever he had in his stomach for he had not eaten in days, as he heard a loud gunshot followed by a sharp pain in his chest, he looked down and saw blood pouring from his chest, he reached his arm up and starts to hold his chest when a second shot is heard, he’s stuck in the knee and forced to hit the ground. He lays there with his face in his hands as he says “oh’ good lord why have you forsaken me” he says as he lays there in a pool of his own blood, and the sky opens up the fog clears as he closes his eyes.

Mathew wakes up in a hospital bed, he's screaming with his shirt covered in sweat as tears roll down his face. A nurse to the right of him is ready to give him his breakfast, she quickly tries to call him down, he's covered in sweat and his face is scarred by a blast that he believes he shouldn't have survived. Another nurse runs over and tries to ensure to him that the war is over he's home and that it was only a dream, he looks down and sees the scars that cover his body, the nurse ensures him that the war ended ten years ago he looks her dead in the eyes and tells her that “the war isn't over it just hasn’t taken away from you… yet” the nurse backs up and hands him his breakfast, a worried look crosses her face as she hurries out of the room, the other nurse takes is Vidales, keeping her eyes away from his, not wanting to hear a lecture about the war, she quickly writes down on a clipboard before leaving the room, leaving him all alone, just like how he was in the forest, the forest that has scared and imprinted itself onto him and into him. Alone just like the men he left there, alone just like his soul without his brothers, and forgotten just like how they helped win the war.