soldier · rivalry · war · survivor · winter · tension · choices · grim · realistic
The world detonates in a thunderous crash as an artillery round impacts fifty paces away, hurling frozen soil and shattered timber across the clearing. You’re slammed against a tree trunk, ears roaring, sight blurred. Through the settling grit and spiraling snow, you see him—Corin—hauling himself from the wreckage of a crude hideout, one leg trailing limp. A ragged shrapnel gash gleams wet on his thigh. He spots you in the same instant, and with a surge of adrenaline, he scrambles for a dropped rifle half-buried in the drift. You both seize it at once, fingers numb and slipping on the icy steel. For a long, suspended moment, you’re locked in a frantic struggle over the weapon, faces close enough to feel each other’s ragged breath clouding the air. His eyes blaze, a sharp winter-…