Screaming Eagles

^THIRTY-EIGHT BEHR

Sergeant Behr struggled to rise.

He’d been in the midst of the fight. Arms flailing, feet kicking, knees crushing, and teeth ripping, when an explosion had thrown him across the ground. Something wet had slapped against the ground next to his head.

Behr pulled himself toward a soldier in a dark canvas jacket who carried the weapons of the enemy. The soldier had still been twitching so Behr intended to finish him off.

If only his legs would react. Why wouldn’t they do as he asked? He wished to stand but he could not. When he tried to get onto his knees under him his body failed to respond.

He looked down and found the source of his frustration. Above his left knee his limb was missing and below his right hip his entire leg was gone. Blood pooled around his body as he tried to rise.

Next to his head he found what he was looking for. One of his legs. It had been shredded by shrapnel and then completely ripped off.

Behr had been growing colder by the second.

Very cold.

Behr blinked once then his eyes locked open and he passed from this world.