Life’s Last Fight

Warren stood on the heaving deck of the Higgins Boat. The smell of saltwater and vomit inundated the air. The sound of machine gun fire and artillery filled his ears. He felt the dread solidify inside him and turn his limbs to Jello. He dared not look up; he knew he would never do his duty if he saw those ahead of him being shot down by the German guns. As the boat neared the shore, he grasped his rifle and crouched down; it would be a pity to die before he reached France. Not long now. The ship suddenly shuddered and slid to a stop. The boatswain dropped the ramp and out they ran. Warren followed quickly. The first four men were immediately struck down and Warren was covered in blood. He jumped into the water, his heart hammering in his ears. He fell under the surface, panic overcoming him. They were not on the beach. He grappled with his gear, as he slowly sunk farther from life. He threw down his heavy burden and burst above the waves, salt water drenching his clothes. Rifle in hand, he sloshed ahead.

He tore the plastic from his rifle. M1 Garand, eight shots, nothing more beautiful to an infantryman on a hostile beach. He charged onto the sand. He flew into the beach, his first taste of France fresh in his mouth. He spat the sand out and pulled himself up, shaking the ringing from his ear. He ran again, his breath heaving in and out almost rhythmically. He tripped and fell behind an obstacle into a pool of blood. He ran, ignoring the machine gun fire and pounding of artillery shells, past the dying and the dead. He ran for the shingle; terror filled his heart. He dropped his rifle, he tripped. He fell into the shingle, amidst the few other brave souls who had ran the width of the beach. Bangalores! The cry filled his ears. He grabbed a dead man’s rifle and prepared to charge into the Lion’s Den. He covered his head and waited. The bangalores shattered the wall, they all stood. He gathered the last of his courage and stood. He clambered up the shattered shingle and stood before the concrete behemoths, shooting fire from their innards. He charged and fell. The first to fall upon the top of the shingle.

At least he made it to France.





I am sorry that I have not had the time to rewrite it from the first person, I had a major spyware attack today because my father uses a bad spyware program and deleted spybot and ad-aware. I am going to write it tomorrow. The edits to the original are as follows: added comma after as the boat neared the shore (first paragraph); added semicolon after he grasped his rifle and crouched down (after previous edit); added comma between rifle in hand and he sloshed ahead; removed comma after He tripped and fell behind an obstacle (second paragraph); changed among to amidst the few other brave souls, directly after that changed that to who had ran the width of the beach (second paragraph). Thats all of them. Most of them were to improve timing and flow, two of them were to make the words grammatically correct or just better for the sentence.