Frontline (435 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.86 on 7 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Ancius (View user info) at 2005-02-08 12:53:43 EST
"GET DOWN!"
The voice seemed far away, an echo in another place, another time. I am happy where I am, I can see my house just over the ridge, feel the warm wind caress my cheek, smell the petals of the oh-so-delicate flowers that coated the field like a great thick rug. The...The house...it's roof....the field..........the........what?
"He's dead! We have to move!"
"He's not! I still have a heartbeat here! Get down here and help me you fucker!"
"SHIT!"
Deafening, pounding, unending. The sergeant could barely here anything other than his own breath rasping in his ears. He crawled through the filth and blood to his medic, futilely trying to re-insert the lower intestine of one of his youngest privates, his hands wrist deep in the boys torn abdomen, covered in the blood of so many before him.
His body slipped in the wetness, and he landed with a splash right next to the butchered child. He saw some of the filth land straight on the wound.
Hopeless.
"We have to GO! Leave him!"
"I can't!"
The voice was pleading, desperate, edged with madness. Too many torn off limbs, to many bodies bloated with exposure and gas, Too many scenes of too much blood and pain and horror.
"You fucking will! Get up here NOW!"
He had to drag him bodily, but the medic moved. The artillery hammered down closer, the explosions shaking the ground around them, making it even harder to move, to see, to operate in any normal way at all. Together they stumbled over the top of the ridge.
The house is fading now. Why can't I remember it? It seemed so clear just a moment ago. The field, the trees, the place of my birth, It was all right there!
Nothing but darkness now.
Nothing but a cold blackness that I can't even see or feel
or....or....
touch..............
The landscape had been torn apart as if by some great mechanical monster. So barren, so devastated. Strewn with nothing that would live. Only death. Nothing but death was possible here. He felt his legs giving, he slid to the ground. Something giving way under my feet. Probably stepping on a corpse. He didn't care.
"GETUPYOUFUCK!" "IMNOTLEVINGYOUHERETOFUCKINGDIEYOUGETYOURARSEUPNOW!"
"GETUUUUUUUP!!!"
Jesus Christ! Lost too many men. Got to dose him up when we get back to base 3. Jesus, maybe dose myself up while I'm at it. At least he's walking again. No good for a man to just give up. This is no place for a man to die if he has any other choice. Where are those fuckers? I know there's a nest up here somewhere.
Just keep him low and moving. Think about helping him later.
Shit! I see...
Bullets. Always bullets, how can we hope to stand up against so many bullets? We are but men of flesh and blood, too much blood. Caked on my hands, layer after layer of children I couldn't save. Can't save anyone now, can't save anyone again.
The shell tore open his thigh before he could even think. It was strange, feeling the flesh being torn from bone. No heat, no pain, but feeling. Just ripped away like that. Jesus that's a big fucking hole.
Oh Fuck.....
"ARRRRRRGH!! That FuCkINg HuRRtssssSS!!!"
Right through and through, no discernable damage to the hip or the femur. Extensive flesh damage to the flexor and quadricepal musculature. No ligament damage, full range of motion.
No Morphine. Damn.
Simple tourniquet. Both ends of the wound. Straight splint.
"This is going to hurt"
"Like it doesn't right now? Just get it done and lets get the hell out of this fire"
Positive outlook, high morale. Just be quick. Bullets everywhere. Damn those rapid fire weapons. No art or honour to it, just simple butchery. Damn them. Them and the men behind them.
................
Done. No sound. Didn't want to give away our position. Brave man. Estimate about 30 minutes in these conditions before the limb will need to be amputated.
"Come on. We have to get out of their firing line. They may have lost us when I went down, but if we poke our heads up we won't live to regret it"
"That's agreed. We'll never make it to base 3 before your leg goes septic. We have to get to 2 and grab the supplies that we left there"
"That puts us about 10 meters away from the enemy frontline"
"I realise that sir, but it appears we have no other choice. I am not keen on the idea of performing a field amputation on you out in the mud with my bayonet"
"Christ you've got balls. If you didn't think so much you may actually make a good soldier one day"
"I am a doctor sir. In many ways quite the opposite of what you would want me to be"
"Alright alright. Let's get going, we only have a few hours of daylight left"
User Reviews
Submitted by williamson (user info) at 2005-02-08 16:38:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'd Plus Two it.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-02-08 16:27:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This was quite good. Carry on.
Submitted by xenon (user info) at 2005-02-08 14:53:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
not quite plus two material
misspellings
a little too harried and willy-nilly
Submitted by drfeggphd (user info) at 2005-02-08 14:34:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
is there more or is that it? seems ripe for a sequel. either way, good job.
Submitted by CJRipley (user info) at 2005-02-08 14:12:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ihurtFeellings (user info) at 2005-02-08 14:00:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Where's my fucking Ka-bar!?!?
Submitted by wardy (user info) at 2005-02-08 13:46:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
not going to lie... i didn't read this. but it looks like it took a fair amount of effort, so way to go.