"Step, step, step..."
Unpleasant sounds resembling someone chewing gum echoed as mud-caked boot soles adhered firmly to the ground.
Heavy footsteps staggered, each step teetering, as the entire body leaned its weight into a direction where with every step, both hands hung down as if their joint connections had almost worn out. Perhaps just a few more steps, and the entire body would collapse at any moment. And indeed, it did collapse onto the ground.
Lying against a rock, the lifeless eyes of the soldier stared into emptiness and the sky. It was vacant, meaningless, a monochrome black filled with smoke from gunfire and bombs. The ground, now blackened by the scattered mud, didn't fare any better. The smell of gunpowder, earth, the stench of death, and scattered debris assaulted the senses. The nauseating cocktail made the soldier want to vomit, but oddly enough, it also helped him regain some clarity.
"Ah...ugh...ho..." Calmness emerged from the daze, accompanied by a piercing pain that surged along nerve endings.
[Joseph Bart - Captain] - he read the words on his name tag, clutched in his hand. That was his name, and the sudden shock made him forget about himself. Like a domino effect, memories started to emerge in his mind.
"Aa..." Joseph clutched his head; perhaps the rush of memories was shocking his brain. The memories, like dozens of glitchy film clips cut from the same movie, were thrown into his head without any sequence. Even in regaining consciousness, he couldn't fathom what had just happened.
Joseph stood up again, despite the persistent pain. He thought that standing might help him focus and rearrange the compartments of his memories. Sitting for a while had given him some rest, or at least, he believed so. But there was something strange in his body, not the ache in his legs, but something else.
"Clang, clang..." - a sound as if something hard fell to the ground echoed. Joseph looked to where the sound ended, finding a piece of metal that seemed to have broken off from something, stained with a deep red fluid, familiar.
Then another stream of red liquid dripped down onto the metal piece below. Joseph began to feel uneasy; his lower body seemed numb, and instead of pain, there was a void, as if half of him was no longer his.
"Pulsating artery, huh... damn it... why did I have to eat that wax worm cake as my last meal?" - a meaningless remark in this dire situation; even Joseph couldn't comprehend what he just said.
"It's been years since I've had Rud larvae salad cake from Narie, huh... hahha...h." Even though Joseph had abandoned a solo comedy show of the unit before, his mind was not sharp enough to hold onto those thoughts anymore. The flowing thoughts were expressed aloud.
"The Karl squad probably returned to their hometown since yesterday... such lucky bastards."
Joseph began to cry, even though his mouth continued to smile. Despite facing death, his mind was now filled with a chaotic jumble of thoughts. Memories collided with each other like trains derailing on broken tracks.
"Flowers can be decorative, used in baking or medicine; besides, they carry various meanings. It's true that flowers require careful care, but do you know which type of flower can survive on the battlefield..."
"I don't believe you. I bet you, whoever loses, has to treat the winner to fish salad."
[Stop it!]
"That flower is..."
[I'm sorry, Narie... I can't go back now.]
"ROSE..."
From Joseph's blood-soaked ground, a red rose bloomed with the intensity of his blood, sprouting forcefully from the earth.
"Haha, maybe I should spend money to buy a fish salad now." Joseph laughed while looking at the rose in front of him. Perhaps due to the biomebak infection from his blood, the rose petals under the ground had been stimulated to grow. Despite his confidence in his intelligence, Joseph never believed in miracles on this battlefield.
Joseph wiped away tears, struggling to stand up again. Perhaps he not only wanted to die quickly but now also wanted to live a little longer...