Echo
Prompt: “Echo”
Genre: Drama
Private Nick McDonald lay in a small, wet ditch, covering his aching head with his arms. The shockwave of a shell exploding just a few feet away had blown his helmet off, even with the neckstrap. His ears rang so loudly with the echo of the shell that he could barely make out the sounds of gunfire, cannons thundering, and soldiers screaming orders at each other and obscenities at the Huns.
He chanced a glance at his watch. 10:56. Just four more minutes. He looked to his right and saw his helmet on the ground, just out of reach, with a pronounced dent in the side. He touched the right side of his skull and winced.
“Nick, you okay?”
Kelsing the medic was pressing on someone’s bleeding chest just to his left. Nick gave a thumbs up and glanced at his watch again. Three minutes. Just stay on the ground for three more minutes.
“Private! Let’s go!”
Nick looked with disbelief over at Lieutenant “Weenie” Wilkerson, standing behind the smoking remains of a tree, Trenchbroom clutched tightly to his chest like a teddy bear.
“Sir?” he called out over the crash of explosions and rat-a-tat of several MG 08 machine guns.
“Grab your weapon, soldier! We’re going after Gerry in that pillbox on the hill!”
“We have two minutes, sir!” Nick called out, the plea in his voice obvious even with the mayhem all around.
“That’s two minutes to send a couple more bastards to hell!” Weenie screamed. “Move it out!”
Weenie made the sign of the cross, kissed the St. Jude medal hanging on the chain with his dog tags, and charged around the tree – only to be cut down instantly by machine gun fire from the pillbox.
Splattered with his lieutenant’s blood, Nick pressed his face into the fallen leaves and dirt, as if trying to disappear into the earth itself. The sounds of battle grew louder with every passing second, like everyone was desperate to empty their ammo before 11:00 struck. ‘Wait out the clock, wait out the clock, wait out the clock…’ he muttered, his arms shielding his head once more.
A curious whistling sound cut through the chaos, distant and familiar, yet terrifyingly real. He could also just make out Kelsing yelling in a panicked voice but he couldn’t tell what the medic was saying.
“Wait out the clock, wait out the…”
Nick’s blood froze in his veins. He recognized the sound. It was an incoming Daisy-Cutter shell launched his way from a distant German position. That meant…
It happened in an instant. The explosion tore through the air above Nick, white-hot shrapnel ripping into his flesh – merciless and final.
Then, silence.
The explosion of the shell that killed Private Nick McDonald echoed through the Argonne Forest – one of the final acts of a brutal war that had ravaged Europe for too many years and claimed too many lives.
As the smoke cleared, Nick’s watch read 11:00, but there was no one left to see.
This is a part of my Daily Writing Challenge, where I write a short story inspired by a single word and genre prompt each day. The goal is to rekindle my creativity and try to reignite the storytelling embers.
