Letters To Home (Part 1)

(I do apologize for the long wait, I am currently employed in the military myself so I have a rather busy schedule, needless to say I wanted to get another part out while I could. I understand the format looks weird, this site doesn't like Microsoft word. And I know some grammar and punctuation will be off, I don't have an editor at this time, enough rambling from me, please enjoy!)

The Soldier’s Battleground
ザー・ソールジュズ・バタルフィールド

Chapter II: Letters to Home

The sun beat down upon the earth with a comforting warmth and bathed the land with a soft glow as its rays shined upon the ground. A young man raised his arm to cover his eyes from the brightness as he looked out at the place that would become his home for the foreseeable future. He felt a small bead of sweat roll down the side of his face from the heat and gently wiped it away with his hand.
After peace had finally been announced, the young man who had started his long journey from the war torn cities that he had fought to free, turned his gaze behind him and noted the sign above him, it was the name of the train station of his home town.
While it was a fairly small town, it was locally famous for its stews and annual snow festival held every year. But nevertheless it was home, the one he had left to go fight in a horrific war. But in the end, the tranquil and serenity of the quite town was preserved and that was all that mattered.
The young man leaned over and reached for the drawing board and his bag, before setting them in his over his shoulders. Putting both of his hands on the straps of his bag, he started the final leg of his journey. His home.
‘Finally some peace and quiet in my life.’ The young man thought with a mellow sigh as the sun’s light shined upon the lone man.

* * *

Jun’s pleasant dream abruptly ended when the shouts of soldiers scrambling for their shoes aroused him from his sleep. All thoughts of sleep vanished as the primal urge to survive kicked in and he quickly scrambled out of his dirty cot and reached for his rifle.
“Where’s the attack coming from?!” He yelled at an ecstatic looking soldier running by him. The private stopped at the sudden yell and looked at Jun confused. “What attack sir? The mail has just arrived from behind the lines!” The young lad said exuberantly before dashing off.
“Mail?!” After hearing the exciting news, Jun quickly shoved his feet into his boots, not even bothering to lace them up before running out of his tent and joining the throng of excited people. Mail on the front lines was a rare occurrence, as getting the precious letters through all the mud, grim, and artillery rounds was a difficult task in of itself. For every letter that was received from their loved ones back home, having one or two being lost was not an uncommon event. Same could be said when the soldiers wrote back home, as the mail had to make the journey back through the quagmire and filth before being shipped back to their loved ones.
Therefore it could be anywhere from weeks to months before the next letter was received from the opposite side. Needless to say mail was a tremendous morale booster.
As the crowd around the mail truck grew bigger and more rambunctious with excitement, Jun couldn’t help but smile with the joyous atmosphere as he got closer to the crowd. A rather loud yell pierced the air making everyone look to where the sound originated. A rather short statured young woman was standing on top of the truck with her hands on her hips and a small scowl on her face.
“Alright everyone shut up so I can start handing out this mail! And if anyone of you makes too much noise so no can hear me, I will personally introduce you to the ground!”
Now having been witness to the short woman actually doing this a few weeks back to a few soldiers, Jun wisely kept his mouth shut, as did everyone else who respected the little woman.
Time seemed to fly as letters were thrown to ecstatic recipients, and packages passed along to greedy hands wondering what goodies awaited inside the wrappings. In what seemed like a blink of an eye an entire morning and some afternoon was wasted before all the mail was handed out successfully.
As the crowd started to disperse, Jun noticed a camera was being set-up on top of the truck and paused in his journey to his tent to hold up his mail and smile at the cameraman. Everyone still in the area followed his example and posed with grins and laughter adorning their faces. A bright flash was seen as the camera immortalized the moment in history, the moment was captured just in time as what sounded like a high pitched whistle was heard and anyone with experience dove for the nearest cover.
“Incoming fire! Everyone get down!” Jun yelled right before enemy artillery rounds smashed into the ground, sending mud and human debris flying into the air. On a battlefield there was many things that soldiers of both sides feared, one of those being the deadly artillery rounds currently shredding ground and man apart. The only thing one could do was making yourself as small as possible and pray that death did not claim you as a victim. Jun closed his eyelids as hard as he could and put his arms over his head in a futile attempt to protect himself from the hell raining down from above.
‘Mother if I survive this war, I’m going to give you the biggest bone crushing hug when I see you again.’ Jun’s thoughts were interrupted when he felt himself get lifted into the air and gravity pulling him right back down. Even though his vision was swimming, a large smoking metal shell half buried in a small crater right next to him made all thoughts of dizziness disappear, as the call of death missed him in the form of a dud shell. Jun quickly scrambled away from the potential danger and into a nearby artificial crater, compliments of another shell that had exploded.
‘I fucking hate my life right now!’
Much to everyone’s relief, the bombardment ceased and slowly one by one the battered soldiers crawled out of their hiding places. Jun surveyed the carnage around him and felt the bile rising in his throat. Remains of what used to be humans were scattered around the area and the stench of death hung heavily in the air. The gruesome task of finding some sort of identification on the mangled bodies began, and in just a few minutes a bundle of dog tags about the size of a baseball hung in Jun’s bloody hands. The dead had paid their price in blood, while the living had to pick up the pieces and move on through the hell that was war.
The cheerful atmosphere was now shattered and every so often one could hear sobbing coming from a soldier breaking down in tears. Wanting to find a distraction, Jun pulled out the package he had received earlier in the morning, and sat down on the cold ground before carefully opening the wrapping, what he found inside was a small pendent with a picture of his younger siblings and his parents neatly tucked inside, ever so gently he closed the lid and put the pendent over his head before letting it rest on his neck, taking comfort with the weight on his chest.
Jun reached into the package and pulled out what looked like hand knitted wool gloves. He slipped them on and felt his hands grow warm from the fabric. Before he could read the letter that his family sent, a siren started wailing in the cold atmosphere, signaling a ground attack was underway from the enemy. Speakers located right next to the sirens blared an ominous message.
“Enemy forces have broken through our front lines! I repeat enemy forces have broken through our front lines! All available personnel move out to reinforce the trenches!”
The sound of trucks starting up filled the air as soldiers started to pile into the back of the trucks. Jun stuffed his letter quickly back into his pocket before locating a rifle and a belt of ammunition. After hefting himself up to a nearby truck, the vehicle started to rumble towards what was certain death.