Over There - La Terre Morte

No Man's Land
Maurice Galbraith Cullen (PD)

Eberbach and Bauer were back in no man's land, their job was to provide advance warning of any French attempt to infiltrate their lines during the night. Major attacks typically occurred in the early hours around sunrise, while the night would hide the attackers, it also tended to confuse them. So daylight was preferred.

But at night, both sides would run small patrols to snatch prisoners, repair their own wire, or cut the enemy's wire. Eberbach and Bauer hated this task, but it was preferable to wandering around in the dark awaiting the hiss of a flare overhead.

If you froze, the enemy might not see you, but they'd still sweep the suspect area with machine gun fire, just to be sure. Better to be in a shell hole, no matter how muddy or wet. Or in tonight's case, no matter how frozen.

Eberbach was in a foul mood. He had yet to exact vengeance for his brother's death in combat. The letter from one of his brother's squadron mates had made his quest even more bitter.

His brother's aircraft had been jumped by two enemy planes. The first burst of fire from the enemy lead had hit his engine, severing a fuel line which had sprayed petrol all over the hot engine. The second burst, from the enemy's wingman, had no effect, but that didn't matter. Observers on the ground saw the aircraft burst into flames.

Rather than burn to death, his brother had jumped.

Eberbach couldn't imagine the terror of that long fall. What had his brother been thinking as the earth drew him to its breast?

Eberbach didn't want to just kill a Frenchman now, he wanted to make the man suffer. As his brother had suffered.

But here? In the middle of no man's land? They would have to have a patrol stumble over them for Eberbach to claim a victim.

Allen scanned no man's land, once again he had had trouble sleeping so he was up early, watching as he let his men sleep as best they could. Sergeant Major Fratello was constantly reminding him that tired officers make mistakes, that tired officers get men killed to no purpose.

Allen had agreed, but had also pointed out that being unable to sleep was something he couldn't control. The cold and the damp contributed to that problem. Fratello had promised his captain that somehow, he'd fix things.

The night was frigid, the snow which had troubled them for the past few days had ended. Tonight there was scudding cloud and a partial moon which made no man's land look like a scene from another world.

Drifts of snow, areas of mud which the day's shelling had created, dead trees, the one ruined building near the far left of his field of vision looked as if it had been in ruins for centuries. Nothing moved out there, for movement would bring death.

Allen started, what in God's name was that?

Near the ruins he thought he saw movement or did he? He reached for the flare gun. Within seconds the flare arched aloft in the direction of the ruins. It popped high overhead and brought harsh white light to the landscape.

Allen watched, and saw nothing as the flare swung underneath its small parachute as it sputtered and hissed, finally going out when it landed in the mud.

"Bad idea, Cap'n."

Allen jumped at his Sergeant Major's voice.

"How's your night vision now?"

Shit.

"Gone, I forgot."

"One eye closed Sir, helps preserve your night vision. Better still, save the flare, don't look directly at what you're trying to see, look to one side. Often your peripheral vision will pick things up that you miss if you stare directly at them, especially at night."

Allen and Fratello sat quietly for a moment, across the dead zone, a German machine gun began to chatter. The men could see tracers reaching out into no man's land. Some would ricochet up into the sky. Soon enough, all was silent again.

Allen said, "Doesn't that give away their position?"

"Probably some over-eager lieutenant ordered them to fire. No doubt that man's sergeant is probably chewing his ass right now. While making the men move their machine gun to another position. If you hear something, throw a grenade out. Can't see where that comes from, can you?"

"I suppose not."

"It's going to be light soon, Cap'n."

"Stand to?"

"Yup."

Eberbach and Bauer were preparing to return to the line when Bauer hissed, "What is that?"

His voice sounded as if his heart was in his throat.

Eberbach looked to where his mate was pointing, there, by the ruins, something gray moved.

It came from behind one wall, then hesitated before moving again, swiftly this time. The hair on the backs of both men's necks was standing on end.

"Mein lieber Gott." Eberbach moaned. He was convinced that the Angel of Death was coming for them. The gray, shifting shape was moving rapidly in their direction

Then a flare popped overhead. The men could see now that it was just snow, carried by the wind. In the bright light they could see that they were still absolutely alone out there.

"Let's get out of here, Kurt." Bauer hissed.

He was speaking to himself, Eberbach was heading back to his own trench as fast as he could. Bauer followed in an instant.