Prompt: Describe what life in the trenches was like during WW1. 

A/N There's no way I could truly capture just what life was like during war, but I hope I did okay at what little I could. 

Anticipation. In this rare moment of silence, weary soldiers lounge about the filthy trenches. Cards flick, cloths wipe, eyes flicker. As boredom settles like a thick quilt, bodies tense. In this rare moment of silence, they think, they watch and they wait.

A rumble. Hands inch towards weapons left within an arm's reach. They savour the last few seconds of faux peace. Give their final prayers. Add the last few lines to their will. Cries to take cover resonates. A bomb explodes in a flurry of red and white embers, ground quaking beneath its might. Desperately, soldiers raise their hands to shield their face as they are thrown into rocky walls. Debris flies into the trench, kicking up dust. Smoke billows across No Man's land, a perfect embodiment of the darkness and despair that it hides. Guns fire in succession, every bullet shot taking a life and a piece of sanity. The stale wind carrying the stench of the corpses littering the earth and trenches on both sides. Evidence of a war that has been going on for years. Hoping to end the stalemate -for the other side to give- they spit out apologies and they fight and they fall. For honour. For their lives. For their comrade's lives. And most importantly, even though they may never return, they fight for the place their heart yearns to go. Home.