Trench

Photo by Specna Arms on Unsplash

 Private Greene woke up from his nap while on duty after hearing foot steps coming closer to him. It was his fellow comrades who came back after their routine rounds, they are on high alert. They didn't notice him fall asleep, Pvt.Greene felt guilty, he hid is guilt from his comrades.  Their company took back the village from the enemy troops two days ago, and there is a constant treat for a counter offense any moment. Pvt.Greene looked around from his position behind the sand wall, nodded to his fellow comrades and started walking. The villagers were gathering whats left and started rebuilding life back up again. 

A sunny European morning and Pvt.Greene is already tired, he and his team had not got a good quality sleep in a while, their entire company is waiting for their supply and they are down to one day of ration and everyone is tired and the only source of food is the village market, which is now almost ruined. He picked up few oranges from the market floor and kept it in his pocket, there are not much villagers left, there is no dead bodies around, Pvt.Greene tried communicating with an old lady, tried to ask where is everyone, she blabbered something in her language and he couldn't understand her. 

Few kids running around and helping elders restore their buildings and preparing for a possible attack. Pvt.Greene walked around the village on his rounds. Greene approached few troop members standing next to a trench, this trench was not an ordinary dug up trench, it had concrete wall and floor, it looked like a long rectangle, the trench was recently filled with soil by the enemy soldiers, now the battlefield forensics team is digging it back up, making observations and collecting data, Pvt.Greene watched close and asked himself, there are no dead bodies here, why bother? 

First lieutenant Mike who was standing inside the trench with the forensics team asked: "Are they really scratch marks?" One of the team member replied with a sad node, Yes, sir. 

Pvt.Greene had a burn in his chest, he tried to walk away, he didn't want to look at it again. Where are the bodies then? 

Epilogue

This is a dream I had one early morning. I don't know why or what is the meaning of such a dream. I wonder what it means and if it is true. The dream was longer than what I have written down, after this I walked in the buildings observing the people and talking with few, then I remember taking my position behind a heap of bricks with my gun getting ready for a battle. Then I remember moving out of the village with my troop down hill in search of something. Rest I don't remember. 

The trench gave me a burn in my chest, people were buried alive and they tried to come out of it, yet, we couldn't find any bodies. I tried my best to remember my dream. 

Thank you for reading.