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Keith opened his eyes. He saw Gordon at the other end of his foxhole, crying out for help. Keith tried to get up, but it hurt too much.

“Help! Anyone there? Help me!” Gordon was panicking. The cries stopped when the tree began moving. Keith saw Gordon quickly reach for his Colt .45 pistol. Gordon got his gun out and pointed it through the sliver of light. Keith saw the muzzle of a Karabiner 98K German rifle knock the pistol out of Gordon’s hand. When Gordon retrieved the gun, he looked up only to see the rifle fire. The result? Gordon’s head exploded, sending blood and bits of brain and bone all over Keith. The tree moved out of the way of his foxhole. The Germans looked at Keith.

Oh, well. I was gonna die sooner or later, Keith thought to himself.

“Ist he tot? ¹” One German asked another. They saw that the base of the tree fell right where Keith’s head was. They nodded instantly.

“Sturm!” They walked off as the cry to advance was said in greater numbers. Staring in disbelief, Keith slowly got up. Looking around, he noticed two things: 1. It was dusk already, and 2. The Americans were all gone. The Germans were running through his position like it was nothing! No machine guns firing on them, no men popping up from foxholes shooting, nothing. Quickly, Keith ducked back down and pretended to be dead. Several Germans passed his position before they dug in that night.

Keith grabbed his rifle and slowly looked over the edge of his foxhole. The Germans had pushed the Americans back a full mile apparently because that was where all the shots were coming from. Keith looked down at Foy one more time with his binoculars. A few candles were on in the church and near some machine gun outposts, but other than that, there was no sign of Germans.

“Crap. Gordon had to die, didn’t he?” Keith put his binoculars away and crept out of his foxhole. Standing up, he could see that the Germans were being lazy. The machine guns, lit up grotesquely by candlelight, were unoccupied. “I always knew the krauts were stupid, but this? Even our replacements wouldn’t do something that stupid!” Keith muttered to himself. He then began sprinting toward the town.

“Halte!” A German voice ordered.

“s**t!” Keith cursed as he quickly jumped into a shell hole. The German soldier gasped and took his gun off safety.

“Amerikaner!” The German turned around and began shouting to his comrades. “Kameraden!”Keith couldn’t believe what he saw. Nevertheless, he ran up to the German while simultaneously pulling out his bayonet. “Ameri —”Keith slit his enemy’s throat quickly and quietly. He let the limp body fall to the ground, spurting blood all over him. The PFC looked back up to see three German silhouettes cautiously moving toward him. Keith quickly hid the body in the bushes and covered up the blood-stained snow with dirt and other snow. He looked up again. The Germans were now much closer than before and were about to recognize his American uniform. He took off.

Keith coughed and wheezed as he slammed the door to the house he was in. He had sprinted to the outskirts of the village and found refuge in an old abandoned house. As he regained his composure, he walked upstairs to get a better look at the German positions. He took out his binoculars and saw from across the village the same three Germans that were hunting him eariler. The difference was that this time, they were drunk, laughing instead of nervous and trigger-happy. Scowling angrily, Keith took his M1 and put one of the Germans in his sights. This was extremely difficult considering that the Germans were 1000 yards away. However, in Keith’s favor was the fact that he was an extremely good shot.

He squeezed the trigger, and the German fell. The bullet, in turn, went through one German head and ripped through another. The third German freaked out. Right as he opened his mouth to yell for help, another shot rang out. This one missed, though. But it hit the wall right next to the German, and the ricochet whacked the steel helmet and knocked the Nazi out. Keith took out his binoculars and looked to see the damage he’d done. He smiled. The bolt to the third German’s rifle had opened. The way the scene was laid out, it looked like the third German had shot his comrades in a drunken accident and then passed out. Suddenly the door to the house slammed open. Keith barely had time to put his binoculars away when banging was heard on the steps leading to Keith’s room. The door slammed open.

¹ “Is he dead?”