Towards Certain Death
Eugene sat near the water, ignoring the bullets whizzing past around him. Dazed at the sight of his squad mates who were laying dead on the sand, uncertain on what to do next and frozen in fear.
"Eugene! Get up! We can't stay he-" A soldier shouts as he tried to drag Eugene but a bullet ripped through his torso.
Blood splattered onto Eugene's face as he watched the soldier slowly die in front of him. He felt like it was the end of the line for him but he remembered what Richard told him before the landing, he tried to muster all the courage he had and crawled up the beach. He looked up and he could see his friends shouting at him from behind cover, he couldn't hear anything but he understood what they were trying to say.
Meanwhile just a few hundred meters away, LVT number 5 just landed on the beach and is under heavy machine gun fire. Hilbert jumps out the side and takes cover behind a tank obstacle. Tristan struggled to get his men out of the LVT from the constant enemy gunner shooting at them.
"They're going to drag me back..." Hilbert mumbles as he looks down his scope and zeroes onto the gunner.
Hilbert exhaled and slowly pulled the trigger, one shot through the dome and the bunker was silenced. Tristan took this opportunity to pull everyone out and onto the beach.
"Get to the sea wall! Keep moving damn it!" Tristan shouted at the men.
"Push up! I'll cover you!" Hilbert shouted as he keeps the bunker pinned down.
Tristan took the opportunity and gathered his squad towards the defilade behind the barbed wire. They laid down covering fire as Hilbert ran towards them and dove behind the ditch. As all this unfolded, Richard and the remaining five men in his squad were pinned down inside a crater.
"Contact the other squads, tell them to cover the incoming wave! We can't lose those sappers!" Richard ordered.
"Sir, radio got hit back there and is busted! We're on our own from here!" A soldier replied.
Meanwhile, Jacques' craft moved closer towards the shore as he lead the second wave of bodies. Bracing for impact as artillery hit the water around them, others ducked behind the soldiers in front of them. They were sitting ducks on the water and it was like taking pot shots for the enemy artillery and machine guns. Once they land on the beach it'll be much worse than beforehand, barely any cover and no choice but to move forward or become a target.
"30 seconds! God bless you boys!" The driver shouted to alert the soldiers on board.
"This is it, we'll be taking the fight to the enemy. We'll take out their defenses and take no prisoners! To hell and back!" Jacques shouted from his armored car.
"From hellfire we rise! Hoorah!" The men cheered on the craft.
The craft stopped and the ramp slowly lowered, exposing them to enemy fire that riddled most of them before they could take a single step forward. The driver had no choice but to run over the corpses to get out of the landing craft, the sound of bones breaking and the splattering of blood wrang out despite the loud explosions and gun fire.
"Gunner, pour it at'em!" Jacques shouted.
The large machine gun mounted on the armored car began firing on the horizon where the enemy defenders were. This gave the infantry a chance to move forward behind the car for cover as they shoot back at the pillboxes and bunkers.
"Get off the beach! Hurry up!" Richard shouted as he sees Jacques' squad.
Richard and his squad provided covering fire for the advancing troops. Glancing over his shoulder once in a while in search for Eugene, worried sick of what could've happened to the little guy. Little did he know that Eugene was out in the open while patching up a wounded soldier, under heavy fire and without a weapon to defend himself with.
"Hang in there Bryce, you're gonna make it! Don't give up on me!" Eugene shouts as he applies pressure on a gunshot wound.
"I'll be fine, go take care of the others. I'll stay in cover and hold here." Bryce replies before patting Eugene's shoulder.
Eugene nodded and ran towards a soldier who was dragging himself on the sand because he was missing a leg. He left a trail of blood along the white sand, screaming for help. Eugene answered the cries and immediately placed a turniquet around his thigh to stop the bleeding before covering it with bandages and injecting morphine onto the soldier's thigh.
"Let's get you somewhere safe." Eugene said as he carried the wounded soldier over his shoulder.
He made it to the defilade where the others were and he continued to tend to the wounded that were able to get to the rally point. He linked up with the other combat medics and he informed them about Bryce and asked them to go and fetch him. He focused on his task at hand which were to prolong the lives of those around him despite his life also being in danger.
"Eugene! The Captain's looking for you!" A soldier shouts from the distance.
"Tell him I'll meet him after we take the enemy positions! And please add that he should be careful, I don't have enough bandages for him!" Eugene replied.
The soldier ran the opposite direction to report back to Jacques when he was pinned down by MG fire. He braced on the defilade when he realized that he was with Hilbert and Tristan's unit.
"Sir, the major already landed earlier. Would you like me to relay a message?" He asked Hilbert.
"Further west, I saw a weak portion in the enemy position. Tell him to rush it with his armored cars." Hilbert replied.
The soldier nodded and crawled on the sand, pass the other men who were shaking with fear as they were being shot at by enemy guns. All marching towards certain death without expectations of coming out alive on the other side.