The outlook was grim. Yes, the battle was over and many had survived. But many had not and some of those who were left wished they hadn't been. It was too cold, too miserable, too horrible to go on any longer. But go on they must. The orders had just come through to move on ahead... Help was needed further down the front lines. It didn't matter that the only available help was already five days battle-weary. They were desperate. And so the men rallied what little energy and courage they had left and pushed forward.
"Best if we split up," Ronnie told the little company. "It's too dangerous out here... but we still need ro get men to the front. If we split up we have a better chance of at least one group making it through."
They divided quickly and Ken took charge of the group that split away. As separate courses were swiftly planned, Ronnie paused and glanced over at Josh.
""Y'know what, Torpedo," he grinned half-heartedly and nodded towards the other group. "Go with em, okay? If one of us doesn't make it then hopefully the other will. One of us has got to get home to Jefferson and if it comes to that, I hope it's you. Live for Emma, okay?"
Live for Emma. Those three words rallied Josh's dying spirit and he forged ahead through the blinding cold with Emma's smile and shining eyes before him. He slipped raw and chapped fingers into his pocket, feeling her tattered photo hidden there, and his heart filled with strength and courage.
Live for Emma. He would live and he would make it home again. He would live to see her smiling at him yet again. And just the thought of it made him smile too.
Josh's group made it through that day. It was with relief that they rolled wearily into the frozen trenches alongside their equally weary comrades and faced the enemy yet again. Another day, another battle... they would yet see this through to the end. And, God willing, the ending would be a victorious one.
It was still Christmas and so the men sang as they waited for the enemy. Deck the halls... well, they decked the trenches, although the bits of greenery they scavenged didn't amount to much. But maybe there would be letters from home soon. And maybe some hot food...
✯✯✯
Ronnie's men did not make it through that day. Ambushed by German artillery on the way, the fight that followed was fierce and very, very short. When the smoke cleared and the enemy vanished, not a man among the Americans was left standing.
But some were left living. Ronnie was the first to stir, rising warily to his knees amidst the devastation. He had been knocked unconscious by shrapnel and was shocked to find himself alive, and then horrified as he realized what had happened. Andy lay at his side and Ronnie knew with a heavy heart that the boy would never see his home again. But home he was, in spite of it all... home and safe and free... and far away where war would never reach him again, forever.
Too terrified to move until they saw their leader stand, three more men also rose. Sam and Sandy... and Dan, who could barely stand. They were left alone, four men there in the middle of nowhere, in a frozen wasteland of death and misery.
The sun had finally risen on Christmas morning and with the light came danger. The few survivors, too weary to keep to their course, took shelter in an abandoned barn, beside the shell of a battered farmhouse. There they waited in dull anxiety for night to fall again.
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