A few months later, Daniel and his friends said their goodbyes to their loved ones, many for the last time. They were all heading off to the meeting pace, ready to be taken away, to have their lives destroyed, even be killed. They weren’t nervous though. As he passed a window, he looked at his reflection. Meg was right. He did look good. He had only got the uniform so far, but he was going to look so brave once he was holding his weapons.
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Daniel had been sitting in the cold, damp, dark trench thinking about Meg when he heard the news. Shivering, he got to his feet and picked up his bayonet. He was getting scared now. Would he ever see Meg again? Why hadn’t he got a letter from her for five months? He hadn’t seen her in ages, and he was worried about their relationship. He shivered again as he joined his comrades.
They were about to go ‘over the top’.
He climbed over the side of the trench, frightened for his life. He could see one of his friends crying, but he couldn’t comfort him. He couldn’t even kid himself that everything would be fine. As bullets and shrapnel rained down, Daniel kept firing his gun. He couldn’t see who he was killing, but he felt strange. There he was firing his gun onto the other side of ‘no mans land’, and it had probably killed someone. He had maybe taken the life of a son, brother or father. It could be him next. He wiped away the horrific thought from his mind, and carried on walking, wanting to turn back. He walked faster, over – taking his closest friend, James. They wished each other luck, and Daniel carried on walking, wishing that he could turn back.
Then he heard a bloodcurdling scream behind him. He would never forget that sound throughout his whole life. He turned around. James was lying there, screaming. Daniel looked at his friends face. It had half been blown off, along with his left arm. Daniel wanted to help James so badly, but he knew he couldn’t. He ran towards James, in shock. Firstly because of how James looked, secondly because Daniel was so close to him, and lastly because if he had not over – taken James, that could have been himself lying there. Daniel started crying hysterically, as James uttered his last words, telling Daniel to leave him, and continue. Then the guilt set in.
‘If I hadn’t have run forward, James could still be alive.’ Daniel thought.
“Go….…” James mumbled, then closed his remaining eye forever.
Daniel bravely pulled himself up, now weak. He pulled himself away. He was going to continue. He would survive. He would do it for James. He ran onwards, almost tripping over an unidentifiable body. He fired again, knowing he had just taken another innocent life. Perhaps he had just put someone through what he had been through when James was killed. He stopped, thinking about it. No, he thought, I must carry on. For James. He was getting closer to the point were he would actually have to fight with the enemy now. He was getting so frightened now. All around him, there were bodies scattered all over the floor. It was awful. It was as if these men were just worthless, as if they were toy soldiers and it didn’t matter whether they were hit or not. They didn’t deserve to die. It seemed that as every second went by, another body dropped to the floor in agony.
Then he saw a disturbing scene. One of his comrades had trodden on a landmine. Daniel couldn’t bear to watch. There wasn’t even a scream. The brave soldier had just…gone. His family were probably waiting at home, for their son or brother to come home. A child could grow up without a father now. Daniel didn’t stop. There were fewer soldiers now. He was shaking by now. All he wanted to do was to return home to his Meg, to play football, to see his family again. Would they recognise him?
He snapped out of his thoughts as another landmine went off. He clenched his gun, still firing like he did with his toy gun when he was younger, only this time he wasn’t playing a game. This was a fight for survival.
Daniel felt surprised when he heard a deafening scream. He felt a rush of pain so severe that it makes breaking your arm feel like nothing. The he realised that he was the one who had screamed. He fell to the floor, immediately dropping his gun. He landed hard on his right arm. He heard his elbow crack, then another rush of agony hit him. Did nobody care? He looked around, waiting for someone to realise that he had fallen. Nobody came to his aid. Then he looked down at his blood stained uniform. He was horrified. His left leg had been blown completely off, from under his knee. The pain had disappeared. Maybe because he was in so much shock. The arm he had fallen on was twisted at a peculiar angle. As he lay helplessly on the floor, he thought ‘I don’t look so heroic and handsome now, do I?’ Others had fallen around him, many dead. Daniel wished that he could be one of them. They seemed lucky, compared to the state he was in. He winced as the pain seemed to kick in again. He could see his men running towards no mans land, getting smaller and smaller as they got closer to the final fight.
Then Daniel screamed again as shrapnel hailed down on him. The pain was even worse than before. His right leg had now been destroyed. At that point, Daniel couldn’t think straight. His first thought was ‘please let me die, this is agony’. But then he remembered Meg, and his family. And football. He would never be able to play again. Then his surroundings started fading to black. He had passed out.
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The next thing Daniel knew, he was in a hospital bed. His face was wrapped in bandages, and he was in agony. A few days later, once he had woken up, all the bandages were removed, and he was placed in a wheelchair. Then he looked down, and the shock hit him. His legs were….gone. They had been amputated just under his knee. He went to touch his face so he could feel what had happened. He only had half of his right arm! Daniel felt sure that he could feel his arm there, almost like a phantom limb, but when he looked, there was nothing there but a tiny stump.
