The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz

Author:D. Eric Maikranz [Maikranz, D. Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Shells rained down mercilessly from three sides on the French camp. The sky lit up time and time again as if the whole south end of the valley were exploding.

The munitions handlers, loaders and breech operators danced a frenzied ballet as they fed the ever hungry guns. Each time a loader shoved a round into the gun the operator slammed the breech closed, missing the man's hand by a fraction of an inch.

The cold driving rain screamed and sizzled on the hot gun barrels like sausages on a griddle. It was the kind of rain that drives creatures underground and demands submission. Multiple flashes of lightning exploded fiercely over their heads, belittling the petty rumblings of men.

Oblivious to the elements, Hoxa continued to bark orders. "Fire! Reload! One degree up! Fire! Reload! Fire!"

Vasili grabbed the smoking spent shell casings as fast as they were ejected onto the churned up mud behind the gun. His wet cotton gloves provided just enough protection to hold the casings for the second it took to throw them onto the growing pile down by the river. The five guns fired a salvo every ten seconds, just far enough apart for Vasili and the other handlers to pass the heavy rounds to the loaders and start the whole process again.

"Fire! Reload! Fire!" The shelling, the lightning, and the rain intensified as the night wore on. Vasili threw the hot casings over his shoulder one after another ignoring the weather as best he could until, between salvos, he heard the splash of a shell casing as it hit the water.

'The water,' he thought, handing another shell to the loader. He grabbed another casing and threw it back behind him, watching this time. The shell splashed just before a bolt of lightning crashed to the left of #1 gun, lighting up the area behind the camp. The shallow swift moving Cherna had swollen into a raging torrent. The brown silty water moved like a giant undulating snake between the tops of the river banks. Vasili stood dumbfounded through two more close flashes and watched as the river seemed to rise before his very eyes.

"Vasili! Vasili!" shouted the loader. "Shell! Shell!"

He snapped to and rejoined the rhythm of the crew.

"The river is flooding. I saw it when the lightning flashed!" Vasili shouted quickly to the loader when he handed him a round. The guns roared as one.

"Those last three weren't lightning!" the loader screamed. "They're shooting back at us!"

Vasili was reaching down to grab a spent shell casing when another flash and explosion hit thirty meters from #1, knocking him off balance.

"Reload, reload, reload!" screamed Hoxa, flailing his riding crop in the charged air. "Fire at will!"

The number one gun fell silent but the rest fired in unsynchronized disorder as soon as each breech locked closed. Night turned into day as flashes constantly broke around them. The explosions from the incoming shells, the lightning, and the outgoing shells assaulted their senses as an indistinguishable chaotic chorus of destruction. It sounded like the earth was being dismantled.

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