April, 1941.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Alton was speeding through the trenches in Southern France. Alton and Thomas had been training for almost half a year for this moment. However, heavy gunfire and bombings were making it difficult.

"Alton!" Thomas was in a panic. Soldiers were rushing here and there, smoke from machine guns were creating a heavy haze that was hard to navigate. The dead were starting to pile up, and it was too much for many. Thomas frantically searched around for his friend, with whom he had gotten closer with over the past months. They knew each other so well that they could each predict how the other would act in every situation imaginable. Well, maybe not this one.

"Alton!" Thomas cried out. He couldn't breathe, there were too many sounds, too many screams.

This is it. This is how I'm gonna go.

Thomas sank to the ground. Unable to hear, unable to see or sense anything. God he couldn't breathe! He couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't-

Alton.

A familiar hand fell on his face, shaking him back to reality.

"We gotta go!" Alton yelled. He had blood and dirt covering his face, he was almost unrecognizable.

"I can't. I can't do it. I can't-" Alton quickly hoisted him up by the underarms and dragged him through the trenches until he found a dugout that would work as a temporary resting point. He laid Thomas down on a makeshift bed.

"Thomas! Thomas can you hear me?" Alton said. Snapping in each ear. Thomas was unresponsive and was as pale as a sheet. Alton grabbed a flashlight from his military belt. He gently lifted Thomas's eyelids, and saw that his eyes were shaking and rolling back. Shit! Was was he going to do! The dugout was shaking as bombs went off left and right.

"Thomas. Thomas I need you to close your eyes if you can." Alton assured. Thomas understood it in someway and did so.

"I need you breathe in and out, slowly. Okay? Can you try that?" Thomas' breathing was frantic, that wouldn't work. Gah! Alton truly was trying to help him. Maybe focusing on something else?

"Hey! Remember band night? That was fun! Remember when you did a jig on the tabletop and I played the piano? And, and Sargeant Crawford almost had our heads!" Alton recounted the moment, watching everything. Thomas was breathing more slowly now, and his eyes had opened and he was calmer.

"Alton?"

Shit.