‘Put it back,’ Charles instructed, watching incredulously as Stoneham began towork a ring from the soldier’s finger.
‘Stop!’ Leonard shouted, but Stoneham was oblivious. ‘I’m going to reportyou when we get back.’
Stoneham stopped, looked up at Len and was about to answer when the Germansoldier suddenly lifted his head and gasped a giant lungful of air.
Stoneham yelped loudly and fell backwards.
The unmistakable crack of a single rifle-shot resounded in the air, asplit-second before a bullet smashed into Leonard’s chest, sending him crashingbackwards, landing with a thud and squelch.
Charles dropped to his knees and crawled over to Len.
Another crack rang into the sky and Stoneham tumbled backwards into the craterwith the gasping German, a bullet having pierced into his right thighbone.
‘Help me!’ Stoneham squealed, thrashing about in the water, trying to grasponto the slippery edge of the crater. ‘I’ve been hit!’
Charles ignored his pleas and gently lifted Leonard’s head into his lap. His eyes were open but his face was motionless, frozen. Charles placedhis ear close to Leonard’s mouth: nothing. Tearing open Leonard’sblood-soaked greatcoat and tunic, Charles revealed the bullet wound, glisteningand gurgling like an unstoppable oil eruption. Charles placed his palmover the wound but knew that it was useless. His oldest friend,with whom he had experienced so much, was dead. He looked down at thealuminium identity tag, lying limply on Leonard’s bare bloodied chest.
‘Please, help me!’ Stoneham pleaded, still trying to drag himself free from thecrater. Watching numbly from the other side of the crater was Gustav, whohad drawn on some inner strength and was mumbling in German at Stoneham, butnot making any attempt to free himself.
As he surveyed the scene before him, Charles realised that he was still holdingthe photograph of the German soldier with his daughter. He looked againat the picture, then from the German to Stoneham. Inside his brain, sodreadfully tired of this war, something clicked into place, clear and stark: itwas the image of his own dead body, forever confined to French soil, on top ofwhich lay the photograph of Nellie and baby Alfred. How unimportantour names are, Charles suddenly realised. The image in his mind wasshattered by Stoneham’s pathetic cries.
‘I swear to God, Farrier—if you don’t get me out of here right now!’ Stoneham yelledthrough the pain searing into his leg.
Charles looked from Stoneham’s pitiable attempts to scramble out of the craterdown to Len’s cold face and at last, something made sense. KissingLeonard on the forehead, he carefully laid him down in the mud and then took adeep breath. ‘Forgive me, Len,’ he mumbled, as he removed the identitytag from around Leonard’s neck. Delving into his breast pocket, Charlesretrieved Leonard’s pay book and swapped it with his own. Charles placedhis own identity tag on Leonard’s chest then turned towards the two men, sodesperately helpless in the crater. With his help, one of them couldsurvive.
Trudging on his hands and knees, with mud reaching up to his elbows, Charlesreached the side of the crater.
‘At long bloody last, Farrier,’ Stoneham shouted. ‘It’s my leg. It’s pretty bad—I can’t walk. You’ll have to drag me back.’
Charles ignored his pleas and continued around the crater towards the Germansoldier, who sat slumped in the water, having accepted his fate. ‘Here,’he said, wiping a hand on his greatcoat and pulling out the photograph ofGustav with his daughter.
‘Danke,’ he replied quietly.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Stoneham yelled.
Charles offered his hand to the German.
‘Was machst du?’ the soldier asked.
‘Let me help you, Gustav,’ Charles said, nodding towards his hand. ‘Takemy hand—I’ll get you out.’
‘Ich kann nicht…’ he replied, shaking his head.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Stoneham repeated. ‘Leave him, get meout!’
Charles drew closer to Gustav and foisted his hands under his armpits and beganto drag.
A rush of realisation prompted a wave of adrenalin to pump through Stoneham’sveins. He dived across the crater and began to claw at the Germansoldier, pulling him back into the water.
Gustav cried out in pain, as limbs and torso were wrenched and tugged inopposing directions.
Charles kept pulling, using all of his remaining strength to defy theenveloping mire and Stoneham’s desperate pulls, but it was no use. TheGerman’s dead weight, combined with Stoneham’s heaving was too much forCharles, who had little strength left in his arms. Reluctantly, he letGustav go, allowing him to slide backwards, the water rising up to his chin.
With frantic fear rising in his eyes, Stoneham knew that the only way to savehimself was to kill the German. He knew it would take little effort andpulled him under the surface.
All Charles could see of Gustav was a flapping and flailing of his arms abovethe water, as his body began to yield to the inevitable.
‘Let him go,’ Charles ordered, lifting his Lee-Enfield rifle, preparing toshoot.
‘You wouldn’t dare,’ Stoneham countered, continuing his hold on theGerman. ‘You’ll be shot for this, Farrier.’
Charles carefully took aimed with his rifle and shot, the bullet whizzing pastStoneham’s face, embedding itself in the bank of the crater.
It was enough.
Stoneham released his grip on Gustav.
Charles tossed down his rifle and hauled the German out of the water. Hecoughed and gasped; he was alive.
Stoneham sank back and watched numbly as Charles began to lug Gustav from thecrater. Moments later he was free, and Charles could see the extent ofGustav’s injuries: his left leg was almost separated at the knee; only a stripof cloth acting as a tourniquet tied across his thigh had stopped him frombleeding to death, though he was close to it.
Charles took a fleeting glance at Len, then began to drag the soldier across NoMan’s Land, inch by painful inch. Behind him, he could hear Stonehamclawing at the mud, desperately trying to reach Charles’s abandoned rifle.
As Charles stepped over what appeared to be a human hand, he tried not to thinkof the consequences of his actions, or the likelihood of his even surviving hisreckless plan. He knew, though, that if he could just survive the nextfew minutes, he could survive the war and be reunited with Nellie and babyAlfred, just like Gustav would
