If Tomorrow Should I Die: Chapter 1

"Get down!" Commander Rechibald yells as debris flies into the air.

"How are we going to get out of here?" I ask my best friend beside me.

"I don't know, but I do know that I am not going to die today. We're having steak for dinner."

"You and your meat. You know Verdun, there's things called vegetables too."

He laughs, "Yes, but they don't taste as good as meat now do they?"

"Commander!" A man yells running toward Rechibald. "The enemy is flanking us to the left! There's no way they can escape sir!"

"D*mn!" he yells as he shoots another enemy. He takes cover and contemplates his options. "Lieutenant!" he yells in my direction. Take your regiment and attack the invaders! We're bringing as many men as we can tonight!"

I nod, "Yessir! C'mon Verdun, you heard him, lets get moving. Squad Beta-C follow my position!"

A group of about twenty men replied, "Yessir!"

Verdun runs right beside me as we head into battle, "Wait, Nira, do you even have a plan?"

"You just heard the plan! Get as many men as we can out of here! We're retreating!"

A surprised look escapes from him, but he quickly corrects himself and focuses on the task at hand. We take cover a few yards away from the conflict. I motion my team to flank behind as we flank them to the side. It doesn't take long for them to get in position.

"Ready?" I ask Verdun.

"As I'll ever be," he replies.

"GO GO GO!" I yell to the reciever.

I see half of my regiment flank the enemy as the rest of us are running towards them to the side. I know this feeling of running. My adrenaline starts to pick up, causing me to run harder, faster. My eyesight starts to go all fuzzy and so does my hearing.

"Shoot at will!" I yell before we encounter the enemy.

I can make out screaming in the chaos. Whether our own or our enemies' I can't tell. Soon our allies seem to get the message because they start running. Half of them shooting when doing so. Many of the enemy men were falling. They didn't expect backup to come. Many of them start calling for backup, but before they even get here, we start retreating ourselves. There was no chance we could win this battle. Just on sheer numbers alone did they have the upper hand, and by a lot too. When leaving to safer ground, I could see the disappointment on Rechibald's face. His pride was also badly injured in the loss of battle.

When we arrive at camp, we total our numbers. We left with 234 men, and we came back with 72 KIA, 3 MIA, and 122 injured. Our numbers are dwindling by the second.

Verdun quickly comes to my side to talk, "How can we keep up with this war? We can't handle another battle like this."

"I know, but we'll find a way. We've made it this far after all. We just need to handle this one day at a time. Look at the bright side though, at least you'll have your steak!"

He gives me a little pity smile, knowing that I'm trying to cheer him up. He waves goodbye as we pass his house, and tells me to stay safe. I say the same.

I looked down at my feet the rest of the walk home, for that scenery is better than what it would be like if I looked up. Broken families, injured civilians, and children picking up scraps from the streets. Killing rats and stray cats if they had to. You'd think that I'd get used to it seeing it every day for the last 19 years... but you never get used to it. Ever.

I arrive at my cabin, which I shared with five other people. Peruda, a 34 year old woman who lost her leg in the war; Ferdinand (or Freddy), age 24, lost his girlfriend in the war, and is taking revenge on the enemy; Ignies, 32 years old, and got pulled into the war because of her great knowledge on technology; Harris, who at his old age of 56 is still stubborn enough to stay in the army; and then there's Tikik, who is three years younger than I am, at the age of 17, and he doesn't talk much.

"There's the star of the show! Nira, savior of 75 people! Now that's impressive!" Peruda says applauding me.

I look down, "We still lost the battle guys. We were outnumbered like five to one. It won't be long until they get to camp."

"Stop being so down on yourself gal," Harris said patting me on the back. "At least we haven't lost the war. Let 'em come if they're so confident. But until then, let us celebrate for the 75 lives that were saved today because of you and your squad!"

"Huzzah!" yelled all the other people.

That lifted my spirits that night. We started singing classic war songs, and not long after did we start talking about how we would defeat the enemy with our bare hands.

If only it were that easy.