SCHOFIELD TAKES A DEEP BREATH, and goes first. He puts one hand over the parapet, then the other. Slowly he advances up, his head inching over the protection of the trench. His hand is shaking in fear, he drives it into the mud, grasping it for support. Juliana didn't realize that she was holding her breath the whole until she saw Blake signal to her.

He's already out of the trench and crawling towards Schofield. Juliana inhales before doing the same. She struggles for a bit, her hands and knees sink into the mud as she crawls along.

The world here is empty and quiet. Nothing lives, nothing moves. Blake's breathing is the only thing she can hear. It didn't take them long to get to Schofield's side. They stay still for a minute. They're hunched down on their knees, and at that moment, Juliana wished she had trousers on.

British wire runs in loops ahead of them, tangled and haphazardly strung. They'd have go through it in order to move ahead. They stand, and move forwards. Schofield casts a glance over at Juliana, just to make sure she was alright.

All around them are dead horses. They breath through their mouths, trying to deal with the stench. Juliana then notices that something moves on top of them. She squints her eyes a little and sees that they're actually swarms of black flies.

When they reach the wire, Schofield moves it apart. He indicates for Blake and Juliana to move through. They do as told, but just as Juliana turns to check if Schofield is behind, she sees him slip, while holding onto the wire.

She quickly turns around and runs to him. Red liquid drips from his hand, and he balls it in a fist. She drops into the mud beside him, and quickly pulls out her head piece she was wearing before. She tears a piece of it off, stuffs the remains in her bag, and takes Will's hand.

She starts to wrap it, and Will's expression turns into a grim one. The pain was getting to him. He grits his teeth in pain as she wraps it.

-"You'd be an idiot not to wrap it immediately if I or Blake weren't here." She says while tucking the lose ends tightly in place.

Schofield whispers a "thank you" before Blake walks over towards them. Concern is etched in his face as he watches Juliana administer some quick first aid.

-"You alright?"
He asks with concern. He looks over at Juliana who's stood up and walking towards him. Schofield looks down at his hand and then back up at Blake. He nods, and stands.

-"Look for cover."

About a hundred yards from them, in the distance, is an artificial horizon, something grey, mesh-like, stretching the entire length of the land, or otherwise known as the German Line. Dead trees spot the landscape, along with large holes in the earth from artillery fire.

Blake goes into the closest crater, and Juliana follows. They look to Schofield, communication is exchanged with their eyes.

"Sap trench." The oldest of the three informs them.

He goes first, crouching low, and moving faster now, picking his way towards a hole in the earth. He then jumps directly into the old sap trench. It's blown out and more of a ditch instead, but it offers a stretch of cover.

Blake turns to Juliana, to inform her that he's moving. She nods and watches him jump into the sap just next to Schofield. What she didn't see was that he landed next to a dead man.
Just as Blake lands, Juliana moves forward. She's picked an area that seemed to be clear next to Schofield. She wasn't looking carefully when she jumped down beside him, and almost lands on top a dead soldier who's intestines were being feasted on by rats.

Schofield reaches his hands up and grabs her waist in mid air and pulls her to his right. At the same time, Blake scrambles back in horror knocking into Will. Juliana lands between the two and Schofield's slips. His left arm outstretches, and his wounded hand reaches for something to support him. Instead it falls right through the stomach of that dead German, that he saved Juliana from landing on.
His hand goes through the flesh and disgust is seen on his face. Beside him, Blake and Juliana are frozen and stricken with fear. All three panic and hold their breath, not wanting to breathe in the nasty smell of the corpse.

-"Oh Will," Juliana breaths, she reaches into her bag to pull out some cloth for him wipe his hand. With a wave of his other arm, he tells her not to waste the bandage on him. He also gestures for the two to "stay calm".

They move further along the side of the sap trench, making them closer to the German line.
With Schofield in the lead, they move along. The whole time they listen for the sound of open fire on them.

The mud clings to their clothes, the hem of Juliana's dress drenched in it. Thankfully no one slips as move along quickly on their toes.
Above them, the sound of planes can be heard and Juliana's blood runs cold. The trio quickly move to the nearest shell- hole. They pull their helmets down low, and Juliana squeezes between the other two in order to disguise her blue dress. Thankfully they caught on, and do their best to hide her.

-"Stay still." Will instructs them. They nod in understanding and shut their eyes in fear.
The engines grow louder and the planes fly close overhead.
It was hard for them not to peek, but at the same time necessary. So they turn their heads to look at the objects in the sky.

"They're ours. Keep going. We're half way."

The younger two nod and follow Schofield. He seemed so calm on the outside, but on the inside, he was as equally scared as the other two.

They continue their trek across No Man's Land and when they finally reach the German Line, Juliana lets out a sigh of relief. They make their way into the trench and hide behind sandbags. The soldiers ready their weapons, and prepare to shoot if needed. Juliana stays behind Schofield. She holds a pocket knife in her hand, ready to attack if needed.

The two men nod and turn out in unison.

-"They really have gone." Blake observers. This was true, as the massive trench didn't have a single sign of life in it besides their own.

Seeing that they were safe, Schofield crouches down to attend to his throbbing hand. Juliana sees this, but doesn't move. If he needs help then he'll let her know.

"Your hand alright?" Blake asks while standing next to Juliana. He looks at her, hoping by her facial expression, she'll provide him with a medical based answer.

Juliana sends him a concerned look with a shake of her head and shrug of her shoulders. As if to say "I don't know". Blake nods slightly and turns back to Schofield.

"Put it through an effing German." Schofield answers, takes out his canteen, and pours water on his sliced up palm. Blake keeps watch as Juliana crouches down beside Schofield to stop him.

"Sorry Juliana," he apologizes as soon as she comes into his line of vision. She knew what he meant by it. The apology was for the use of a word that could've been fully pronounced. Juliana nods in thanks. She appreciates his small act of classiness.

-"Take an easy, you need some water to drink. It's not healthy to not hydrate yourself." She speaks gently while grabbing the canteen out of his hand. Schofield stays still, he doesn't argue because he knows she's right.

After collecting themselves, the two stand, with Juliana helping Will rise. She hands him his rifle and he says a quick thank you before they follow Blake.

Ahead they see a brazier. Blake kicks it over and white dust, along with red embers glow as they fall out.

Juliana looks at the two beside her, their eyes are fixed on the embers. Blake tightens his grip on his rifle.

-"They're not long gone," he states while eyeing the embers. A slight shiver of fear runs down Juliana's spine. Where they being watched at that very moment?

They continue to explore the trench, keeping their eyes open for any signs of possible danger. With Blake in the lead, Juliana in the middle and Schofield at the end, they cautiously travel down a narrow trench. Unfortunately it leads to a dead end and they turn around in disappointment.

After walking along for some time, they come across the mouth of a dugout, or a doorway. Blake squints his eyes as he looks into the darkness.

-"This might be a way through." he guesses while looking back at the other two. Will and Juliana share a glance and shrug their shoulders. At this point, it was all up to fate now to see where it lead them.

They click on their torches, and go in single file. Schofield is the last to enter, and takes one last look around to make sure that they're not being followed.

They descend into the earth. Juliana puts her hands out for balance, as she tries her best not to stumble and fall, and make matters worse for herself or the others.

"Look at this. It's massive." Blake breaths as he shines his torch around the room. It's large and metal bed frames are lined up in rows of three.

-"They built all this," Juliana says in awe. Never had she seen something with so much thought out into out into, especially a deep German dugout.

They walk through it, the light from their troches slicing the darkness. Juliana makes it to end of the room and sees a tunnel.

-"This is our way out," She exclaims while turning to look at the others.

-"Well- how about this?" Blake asks, causing the other two to turn their attention to him immediately. He's sitting on one of the officers beds, bouncing gently. It squeaks as he does this, and a grin can be seen on his face. Juliana can't help but smile with him. This was what she'd rather see, a boy being a boy. Not a boy forced to act to like a man. Time seemed to freeze as she watched Blake, he reminded her so much of someone she missed dearly.....

"... Even their rats are bigger than ours." She heard while snapping back into reality. A large black rat in seen gnawing at a canvas sack hanging from the roof.

The size of the rodent, more like the thing itself, catches Juliana off guard. She gasps and clutches onto Will's arm in surprise. Schofield looks down at her, and Blake lets out a small laugh.

-"I'm not afraid! Caught me off guard that's all!" The young lady insists as a small smile forms on Schofield's face. They mumble a "yes" in agreement and turn their attention back to the rat.

-"What do you think's in the bags?" Blake asks while eyeing the creature. Schofield's eyes dart  between Juliana and the rat. Juliana still holds onto his arm, not seeming to notice. Although he wasn't going to say anything. If that made her comfortable then he didn't mind.

His full attention then shifts back to the rat. It jumps from the rafter to the beam. Grease pools from the bags of what seemed like food.

-"You cannot be that hungry," He says to himself as he watches the animal.

The hair on Juliana's arms stand as the creature scampers around of the beam. Blake didn't seem to mind that he was so close to one. To Juliana, the sight of the rat seemed to bring back old memories of times when life was so much more simple.

As he scans the area with a watchful eyes, Schofield comes across something that grabs his attention. He moves forward, causing Juliana release him from her grasp. In the corner of the room is a creat.

-"You could eat this," he says while holding up a can of food. The label, which is written in German, reads "Fleischkonserve".

-"What is it?" Blake asks from the bed.

-"Dog meat," Juliana answers a bit playfully. She's standing where Will left her, and her arms are crossed over her chest.

-"What's in the other boxes?" Blake asks with slight excitement. He rises from the bed, but stops short when he sees Schofield tense up.

-"Don't move," he instructs the others while filling their minds and hearts with fear.

-"What's wrong?" Juliana asks with concern etched in her face. She looks around with her torch lighting up her surroundings.

-"Trip wire." is the reply.

They freeze in their standing positions, daring not to move. Their breathing becomes heavy as they look about them.

-"Where is it?" Asks Blake as he scans the floor. His eyes searching for said trip wire.

-"Goes from here to the door." Schofield answers. They all share a look of slight comfort. At least they knew about it, and could be mindful of not stepping on it.

Although, they were slightly at ease, Juliana and Blake's breathing quickens even more as they try to find the wire in the dark. They shine their torches about them, carefully scanning the floor.

Juliana's light finds the rat. She keeps it on the animal and watches it crawl towards the door....

BOOM

———————————————

I usually don't do this, but,
All I have to say is wow!!

I said that I would update either today
or yesterday and here we are folks! It's
still Monday!!

Also, it's April 6th, 1917......