The distant rumbling above us feels unsettling. Another part of the ceiling came down after the third wave had started. It died out now... but no one knows for how long. We just sit here in silence. Waiting. Everything sounds muffled down here. I look to the left. In the semi- dark of the cold, underground passage I see the others of my squadrant. Their faces covered with dirt. Most of them tense. Some of them... afraid. Especially when we hear the screams. I remember one of them turning to me.. asking me if we shouldn't go up and help them. I had replied with a firm "no" back then. We had our orders. And it was not up to us to stray from them. They didn't talk back to me. I still don't know if that was because they agreed or thought it wasn't worth fighting over. Our mission was to collaspe the tunnel. Trap the enemy. Not to go back to the surface and made the dying as comfortable as possible.

We waited. Standing knee deep in mud and filfth. The smell slowely became unbearable. Suddenly.. a sound. The convey.. passing right over us. I share a look with the others and nod. As one.. we pulled away the roots of the trees above us that were keeping the ground together. Heaven could have fallen down. I struggled as I tried to jump out of the way as I realised.. the passage was filling up with water. I shouted orders. Even if you ask me now what it was that I said, I couldn't remember. I nearly drowned in that mud filled pool of water when someone jumped me... pushing my head down. His.. face has escaped my memories. I believe he had.. blonde hair. A week old beard perhaps. The only thing I do remember was the blood under his nails when he scratched open his throat.. trying to break loose from the roots that choked him right after I got the chance to throw him against the wall. The colour that was steadily disappearing from his face. His eyes trying to escape his skull. And his gasping for the air that refused to find it's way back to his lungs. I stared at him for a while after that. One of my men snapped me back into reality and I followed him outside. I did the headcount. Only five of us had made it out alive. It was my decision to go back to the camp. Staying in the line of fire could have killed us all...

Later that night, we sat quietly around the small fire that was permitted by our general. The others couldn't even look at me. Eventually one of them stood up. When I asked where he was going he ignored me. Just walked on.. I should have gotten up to go after him. I should have asked further. I should have done anything instead of sitting there like some sort of braindead lump of flesh. But I couldn't get myself to get up. I can't say I was very surprised when I got up the next morning.. just to see our graveyard had grew overnight with an extra visitor..