Woods of Madness

II

I watched the woods carefully as the cold breeze hit my face. It was finally very quiet, no noise of the war to hurt my ears for once. I closed my eyes and filled my lungs with the cold air. I was lost for a moment, upon which I felt something touch my shoulder. I was startled and pointed my gun.

"Whoa, relax man. I was just wondering if you were alright," I frowned upon seeing my fellow soldier who I was patrolling with.

"Haven't you ever heard of a hello?"

"Hehe, sorry, my bad." I knew the man; his name was Charles. We were in boot camp together. He was and still is so optimistic, always smiling.

"Still, Shaun, I can't believe we haven't gotten a single bullet wound. We must be invincible, eh?" he asked with a lot of cheer in his voice.

"I don't know, Charles. I'm just glad I'm alive. We better get good money from our service. I mean, just look at what just this battle did to half of the forest. Most of it is burned and destroyed, not to mention all of the corpses."

Charles looked away from me and turned his back on the view of the carnage, and simply said, "Yeah." It was painfully uttered. For the first time, his cheerful side had vanished. I felt bad for mentioning our horrific situation, but escapism does not exist here.

Other soldiers came up and told us that our shift had ended. We went down to where the majority of the other soldiers were. We needed to get some warmth and a beer or two. Once we arrived, we saw the captain there, telling his usual stories of how he is so brave and heroic. I don't know how much of it is true, but he sure likes telling them, and everyone is forced to listen. There is a real cult of personality around him, but many people do like him. He is an accomplished leader who has brought us this far. His physical appearance is also impressive, with massive muscles despite him being over 50. He is tall, has a rugged beard, a hardened face, and an appetite for cigars. He does indeed look like someone who has been through hell and back. He is a no-nonsense leader; it's his way or the highway. Anyone who disagrees with him gets punished, and his horrible temper does him no favors. In war, strength is what matters, and that's what people look for. Your negative attributes don't matter, as long as you follow orders, and Captain Connely does follow his orders to a tee when it comes to his superiors.

After hearing many of his stories and drinking more than I should, Charles and I eventually went to bed. I couldn't sleep at all, but then again, I had barely slept since joining the army. It had been most likely just an hour before I hit the bed. I looked around, and everyone else was fast asleep. I stood up and decided to go to the bathroom. I thought I might as well do something productive and shave my beard.Once I finished, I just looked up at the sky for a bit. The moon was full, and it looked beautiful. I was almost entranced until I heard some noise in the woods.

 Perhaps it was some kind of animal. I paid no attention to it, but out of the bushes came a very large and weird black shape. It looked like no animal I had seen before. Maybe it was a bear, but I'm not sure if bears reside in France. I looked at the large black shape carefully, and it slowly turned its head around like an owl. It had large red glowing eyes, and it looked directly at me. I stumbled backward, and my heartbeat accelerated. What the hell is this thing? I thought, panicking inside.

 I slowly moved, crouching, to a rifle and carefully picked it up. I needed to check through the window once more. I slowly got up and peered, but it wasn't there. I scanned my eyes everywhere, and there was nothing. It was extremely quiet. I put the rifle back down and went to bed. I must have imagined it. After all, it is 4 am, and something like that couldn't possibly be real.