Woods of Madness

V

Thunder clapped loudly and the rain poured. We couldn't see anything in the pitch black darkness. "This is pointless. We're just sitting ducks freezing here," Charles responded, shaking in his boots. The temperature had dropped drasticlly.

"Yeah, we're not going to find anything. But the stubborn captain is adamant. Sorry, I got us into this," I apologized.

"Nah, man. It's fine. You had a point. It's on the captain, not you," Charles sneezed and coughed.

"You should go inside, Charles," I suggested worriedly.

"No, I'm fine, really. Just a minor cold," He insisted.

I shook my head, concerned that he would develop a severe fever. But there was nothing we could do. Even if Charles went into the warm tents, he would've been kicked out.

With not much to do, I continued to stare into the dark woods, occasionally taking out my binoculars in the hopes of spotting something. But there was nothing. Defeated, I sighed and layed down. I couldn't stand anymore, and Charles joined me shortly after.

"What if we were mistaken?" Charles pondered, looking at me.

"Well, it's too late now. We're stuck with our decision," I chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. Charles smirked slightly. I didn't know what was going on in his head, but I hoped he didn't secretly hate me.

It had been a long night, and we were still patrolling. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, but it was still cold, and the wind blew a chilling breeze. Both Charles and I were shaking so much that we neglected our patrol duties. We simply wanted to be warm. I kept my head buried in my uniform, curled up almost into a ball. After a while, I glanced up slightly and saw many small figures moving. Startled at first, I realized they were just crows.

"Finally,  some animals," Charles said, amused that we finally saw something move in the dark woods. It wasn't the enemy, but at least it was something.

We stared at the crows but couldn't help notice that there behavior was.......odd.It was strange how the crows flew.I looked over to Charles who was still staring at them and equally wondered what was going on.They were flying in a bizarre pattern, going left, right, backwards, and forwards repeatedly. There was no discernible pattern; they just flew randomly. "What's with those damn crows?" I wondered aloud. Birds don't fly like this, especially not at night.

"Maybe... they... saw something. I mean, they flew off not far from where we are," Charles whispered, leaning closer to me.

Immediately, I took out my binoculars and looked deeply into the woods, frantically scanning left and right until I saw it.

 Bushes and leaves were shaking. It could be the wind, but it was still too dark to see any movement. I turned to face Charles and tell him my opinion. "I don't think that-"

Snap

Our eyes widened as Charles began to stand up, but I grabbed him by his shoulders and motioned for him to sit back down. We heard a twig break, and the noise came very close to the bushes that were near us. Slowly, we turned our heads towards the source of the noise, and it was silent. Even the wind had stopped. Charles leaned into my ear and whispered, "We must check that out," finishing the sentence while barely swallowing his saliva. I simply nodded, grabbed my rifle, and slowly approached the bushes, almost tip toeing. Charles followed closely behind me, gripping his rifle tightly and staring ahead unblinkingly. I, too, couldn't blink. My hands were shaking, and with every step, it felt like I was stuck in quicksand.

Finally, I reached the bushes, which were still quiet. I began to worry even more, thinking that the enemy might have the jump on us. I felt watched. Finally, I arrived and saw a broken twig. It looked like it must've been caused by a man, but there were no footprints in the mud. Then, another small rustle in the branches was heard right next to me. My face turned into one of pure horror. I couldn't lift my gun; I was frozen in fear. The rustling grew louder, and I sensed danger, but my body refused to move an inch. I couldn't yell; it felt as if my body was not my own, and then...

Gunshot

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

 Several shots were fired, and my ears were ringing. I fell to the ground in shock. Everything was blurry, and I struggled to breathe. "Shaun! Shaun!" Charles rushed towards me, frantically searching for a bullet wound.Finnaly my voice escaped my lips but It was on of terror.I didn't feel any pain and I knew it that when it hits it's going to be painful.Charles suddenly stoped and looked at me.Immdietly I looked down and touched my chest. There was no bullet wound. I wasn't shot. We looked over and saw that several bullets fired by Charles had hit the tree. But I swear we heard-

Gunshot

In the distance, we heard several shots. "That's in the camp," Charles said loudly. He picked me up, and we rushed towards the camp at full speed. My heart pounded, filled with worry about what awaited us. Charles must have felt the same way. 

Upon reaching the camp, we saw several of our fellow soldiers. They seemed to have circled something. We quickly came there, pushing and nudging them. We needed to see what they were looking at. The closer we were, the slower we both moved. Our hearts sank, knowing that whatever awaited us wasn't good. Finally, we saw it - laying on the ground wounded and bloodied

 - a German soldier.