After their first battle which they would never forget the thrill and blood rage they felt, Vicka and his squad along with four thousand others lay on their back from exhaustion inside the trenches.

Although the battle was over by midnight, they had to stand guard throughout the night till dawn.

"That was one hell of a battle," Dickson claimed proudly. He was smiling with satisfaction.

"Yeah. It was the craziest night," concurred Clooney while Berry could not. Sgt Hammond had to console him all night.

Last night he saw a man's skull open right beside him. The fallen soldier was from another squad but it still gave a shock. A few centimetres to the left and it could have been his head.

Vicka tried to rest but the stench of blood made him awake. Although it was a huge victory on their side, he believed it was not much of a victory after the deaths of a hundred men from the column and another hundred from yesterday's battle; especially when he was watching his fellow soldiers carrying a corpse of his comrade out of the trench.

Clooney also was injured. Luckily it was a scratch to his side by a flying shrapnel from a shell.

Vicka crawled out of his dugout and went to help the two soldiers struggling to throw a body over the trench. They failed it the first time and it broke an arm of an already deceased man when the body fell and hit with a firing step during its fall.

Dickson told him to sit and rest since it was the reserves' duty to clean up the bodies but Vicka insisted. He said he could not rest with all of this anyway so he helped the two struggling soldiers.

Clooney, watching the three of them trying hard to put it over the wall, told Sgt. Hammond that it would be better to carry along the trenches than over the ground. Although the distance would be longer, only the soldiers of the same session would see the body and it would be better for the morale. It would be too traumatizing if the whole army would see the bodies kept coming over.

Sgt.Hammond concurred with the idea and reported it to Lt.Lupin. Soon a direct order from Mckanthy came out to only transfer along the trenches.

Vicka went over the ground to get some not-so-fresh air. He saw a once greeny land become a barren mess with holes. The tranquil landscape of Bangoli had completely vanished. He picked up some burnt grass and let it be blown by the teasing wind.

The reserves were rummaging through the Goli corpses and salvaging what they could, ammunition, medical supplies, and valuables before they returned the bodies to Goli.

Vicka picked up a journal which a Davian soldier threw out from a Goli. The front pages were tainted with dry blood and stacked but some latter pages were still readable.

He read it; '23rd May, I will be able to go home next week. I got a letter from my ma yesterday that my pa broke his ankle in an accident so the farm needed someone to help. Thankfully I heard Luvita helped my mother with the farm. I must be the luckiest man on earth to have such a kindhearted girl as my girlfriend. As soon as I got home, I will propose to her.'

 '24th May, we got a report that hateful Davian columns had been looting our Goli villages like devils they are. Although I wished to be peaceful in my last week, it can't be helped. As a son of a farmer myself and as a soldier, I must defend the crops that our farmers grew in blood and sweat. The pain of our farmers is the pain of mine. I shall kick out those invaders before I get back to my village.'

Vicka closed the journal and put it back where it belonged. He marked the body 'looted' so that another soldier would not loot the body and threw the journal away as useless. After they had looted, they radio the Goli and soon the Goli picked up its sons. Vicka watched until the body with the journal got safely on the truck then he returned to his trench.

After that battle, they did not see any activity from the Goli side for a long time. For a week there was no activity at all from both sides. Same old as before, Vicka and his squad had to bundle up inside the trenches. It pissed Dickson a lot.

Dickson believed Davain should advance and hit hard before the heavily-beaten Goli built a defence line. A victory made him a war expert suddenly.

"That night I killed five of them. Two of them are headshots. I am that good," he told his fellow soldiers full of confidence. He continued, "In fact, I believe we all are that good. It is proven. Right? We have better guns, better artilleries, better tanks and better training. We could crush them if we charge them now. We should have before they built these trenches for themselves and hide inside."

Although most soldiers in the ranks were eager to charge the Goli now, the officers decided not to. The Goli still exceeded two thousand over their size even after their huge victory.

22nd day in the frontline, 15 days in trenches;

Goli's trenches reached them. The middle land between the two sides became the no man's land. A few meters in and he could say goodbye to his miserable life.

At the same time, the rain started to come by the reach of June. Although it was dribbling, it was enough to wet their coats and socks.

"Hey Vicka, do you have any spare socks? Mine was dipped in mud." Clooney asked while he rummaged through his stock.

Vicka shook his head. It was the last dry one for him too. They were not prepared for the rain. With the draught in Davia, they thought it would be the same in Goli so they brought only three pairs of socks. It became hard to dry with constant rain. Sgt. Hammond reassured them that officers ordered new socks for everyone from home. But Vicka knew it would take them a while to make thousands of new socks. For a while, they would be stuck with dirty socks.

The life at front line became hell. The shift became tighter with Goli at their front. They were under constant stress, especially for Berry. He had nightmares since that battle and occasional firing of artillery from the camp did not help. He would shrink in fear and cower in his dugout every time he heard a loud bang.

"Come on. Are you still scared of those shitty firing? It has been a hundred times already." Dickson talked to Berry while leaning onto parados and smoking his cigar carefreely.

Dickson knew those firings were just to disturb Goli soldiers in their sleep. So did Goli do the same to them.

Officers from both sides had been firing artilleries at each other sleeping time. It was their psychological warfare. Those officers knew the shells would never reach their command line which was hundreds of meters behind the front line. The shell would reach the supply line at most so it never broke their sleep. But soldiers in the front line and supply-line, they had to close their ears and sat down at every bang.

"See. It just exploded at the land behind us," continued Dickson, "they never hit us. It is impossible actually. Those blind shots would never land inside a hole that was only 1 meter wide. So ignore them and sleep tight." He reassured Berry.

Days passed just like that. 23rd day. 24th day. Vicka had been counting the days when their battalion would be withdrawn from the frontline and replaced with another. For the health of soldiers, the mandatory service was one year with alternate months of frontline and home. Four more days and Vicka together with his friends could go back to Greenly.

At that moment, he heard a scream from a soldier beside their post. It was quite loud so it alarmed everyone. They thought the enemy had shot at the soldier. Except it was a rat. A rat bit the soldier while he was sleeping in the dugout. Since that battle with Goli, rats had been around due to the stenches of blood and flesh.

"It fricking bit my ear," yelled the soldier in shock. He had never seen a rat this daring to bite a living human. "Maybe they start liking human flesh." His friend told him. Another joked him to eat the rat back.

"You want me to eat the rat that ate my ear? You fricking psycho."

And it broke out into a fight.

Everyone had been on edge lately because of insomnia and stress. Even a small joke could turn into a brawl.

25th day at the frontline, 18 days in trenches;

Vicka wrote in his journal during his free time: _After a hundred and fifty explosions, Berry does not scare of the artillery anymore. Although the noise still broke his sleep since he is a light sleeper like me. Clooney still struggling with his muddy socks. He has this stupid habit of not being able to lift his other leg while wearing a sock. It is a mystery. Dickson. Dickson is still being a dick. Hammond kept telling him to shrink whenever artillery is fired but Dickson does not oblige. He kept standing and leaning onto the parados or parapets whenever Hammond is not around. Like always, he loves showing off._

At that time, a shot of artillery from Goli was heard so Clooney asked Dickson to duck down.

Dickson chuckled after hearing that and said, "Come on, Clooney. You are my friend. Don't try to sound like Hammond."

"Call him Sergeant Hammond and for your information, this is his 4th deployment. He knows more about this than anyone of us. So duck when he says 'duck'."

Clooney could not let it pass this time. It was becoming a habit for Dickson and it was dangerous for him so Clooney decided to confront his friend.

Just then the shell landed several meters in front of them. Dickson, while leaning onto parapets, mockingly pointed to where it exploded to imply that he was right.

Again another shot was heard.

This time Clooney was not joking around anymore. He insisted Dickson to duck. "Sit down. That's an order, Dickson."

Dickson did not like how his friend sounded and act like a superior but the others were watching so he decided to comply. Before he sat down, he inhaled a big one from his cheap cigar. At that time, a shell landed right on the parados where Vicka's squad was. It exploded and the shrapnel spewed all over the place.

One flew right through the right eye, penetrating the skull and hitting the brain. Dickson fell instantly like a broken puppet.