Gunfire, shots, booms, flashes of  light, panic. Everything shook around him, his heart practically beating in his throat. They were about to go over the top. About to risk their lives going through no-mans-land just for a scrap of unusable earth. 

A shaky breath filled Levi's lungs as he stared at the ladder in front of him which would take him up and over the trench. A lump formed in his throat and he forced a swallow to keep it down. Over the trench, that's where no-man's-land was. The horror of humanity shoved into one despicable thing. Rotting corpses, wet, muddy earth and sink holes that would swallow you whole while shells burst every which way. Pungent smells burning one's nose hair's right off, screams of dying soldiers wailing for their mothers, no soldier wanted to be near there or dare to go into it. But Levi had to. Levi had to be there, go up the ladder and face the hailstorm of bullets which would be hurling at him. He had to go up and confront the most certain death that awaited him there. 

 

The young soldier let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, the puff of warm air fogging up the cooler breeze around him. The atmosphere seemed to weigh on his limbs, his arms and legs suddenly feeling as heavy as a ton of bricks and his vision seemed to swim. Restricting, everything suddenly felt so... restricting. The trench felt small, smells too much, and the noises... god the noises. Every boom seemed to shake his body and make the walls of the trench shutter. Every shell seemed to pull his vision into a narrow blur making his breath quicken, and every cry made his own emotions want to boil over. He didn't want to die. Levi didn't want to feel bullets tear into his skin, eating him alive. He didn't want to stumble over a dead comrade's body and look into his lifeless eyes as his body lay sinking into the murky terrain. He didn't want to say goodbye to the swallows or the eerily beautiful music that seemed to echo over the cod every night. He didn't want to die. 

 

Shouts suddenly echoing up the trench shook Levi out of his mind, his head whipping up and ears straining to hear those dreadful words: 

 

"Ready up!"

 

It seemed to bounce off the walls, each soldier stiffening as those words registered in their mind. Levi stumbled to his feet as if on auto pilot, his hands still desperately clenched around his gun. Waves of soldiers seemed to appear from nowhere, all crowding towards the foot of the ladders yet at the same time desperate to crowded away from them. All their faces hidden by the shadow of their helms but they all radiated the same thing. Fear. All of them waiting for the inevitable blow of the whistle. Levi felt himself being shoved towards the front of the crowd, closer and closer to the foot of the ladder. Surrounded on all sides, shoulder to shoulder with his brothers-in-arms. Confined to his spot, forced to look forward to an inescapable future. 

 

 

Then a shrill cut through the air, the dreadful sound that each soldier stiffened and held back tears at rang through the trench then the world seemed to freeze. The shrill slowed, noises stopped and hearts skipped. It was time. And then it was all back 10 fold, making alarms blare in Levi's mind. 

 

Soldiers clambered up the ladders each desperate to get up yet stay behind as long as possible. Each tripping over the other to find cover of any sort, a comrades body, a sinking hole, anything to avoid the hailstorm of bullets hurling at them, picking them off like flies. 

 

Levi felt his breath leave his lungs as soon as his boots hit the muddy earth his mind almost instantly silencing. Only saying one word: Run. He couldn't spare to think about anything else. Each thought that strayed was a bullet he needed to dodge, another thing he couldn't bear to think about. He couldn't stray from his path. 

 

Avoid, he had to avoid. Avoid the bullets, avoid his fellow brothers-in-arms, avoid the sinkholes, avoid the shells barely missing his steps as they landed around him- 

Then shocking silence, every noise just stopped for a mere moment before it was replaced with a mind numbing ring that shook his body. Muffled screams of pain ripped from Levi's throat and cut through the ringing as his vision went blank with pain. He couldn't breathe, his throat burned with agony as raw screams and groans gurgled up. Warm liquid choked his throat and coated his body, a stark contrast to the fidget air around him. It would have been nice if not for the white hot anguish clawing at his chest and throat, shooting down his muscles making his limbs seize up and hands desperately claw at his throat. Trying, trying to get some air through to his mind. Levi couldn't die like this, blind as a bat while he flailed on the muddy earth. Desperate for the release of the pain, needing the sweet breath of air but only able to tear at his mangled throat and chest. 

 

Another boom, more blinding, flesh searing pain making more cries for help struggling to keep afloat and audible over everything else. His right arm..FUCK his arm! Levi couldn't feel it, his fingers he couldn't move, wrist he couldn't turn- where was his arm? 

Tears stung his eyes as gurgling liquid bubbled up his throat, spilling crimson stains on his clothes and mixing with the muddy earth. 

No breath, no air, only gasps... struggling gasps. Gurgles, then sputtering, then bubbling then... nothing. Peace. Blissful, somber peace.