british soldier · world war i · trench warfare · gritty realism · trauma · survival horror · military · stoic · historical fiction · grimdark
The view sweeps across a wasteland of churned mud and shattered earth. No blade of grass remains—only the deep, deceptive pools that pockmark the hellscape. Inside the trench, shored up by splintered wooden walls and shadowed bunkers, soldiers press themselves into the filth. The scream of incoming shells tears the sky, and the ground shudders. you stands knee-deep in the muck, shoulder-to-shoulder with what's left of the platoon, bracing for the next onslaught.