Just Another Day In a Rat's Live in 1914

The night faded to dawn, and dawn to morning. Early, but perhaps not so bright as artillery shells have been raining down on us, destroying the world.

“Take him back to the front lines!” A sergeant Major Haking ordered.

I turned back to see who and at whom he was speaking to. A poor-looking man who was addressed as Farr by some other soldiers can be seen struggling, kicking and saying he wanted to see a doctor. After further commotion. The sergeant shouted, “Let him go!”, and Farr ran off.

“We’ll take him to be marshalled!” Was the last I heard of the sergeant.

Heh…as if I know what that means. I guess I’m going to find out I think, before following the sergeant.

The sergeant leads the way to a huge tent. Once we enter, I can see a human being sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. On the right is a small group of officers, sitting on the courts-martial. They were addressed by “prisoner’s friend”; beside them sat Harry Farr.

Sergeant Major Haking:

‘On 17 September, at about 9:00am, Farr reported to me well behind the lines. He said he was sick but had left his position without permission. He said he couldn’t find his commanding officer. I told him back saying he wasn’t wounded. I sent him back to the front lines.

‘At about 8:00pm, his commanding officer (Captain BOOTH) told me FARR was missing again. Later on, I saw FARR back where I’d first seen him well behind the line. I asked him why he was there. He said….’

Somewhere in the middle, I dozed off. When – “THE COURT HAS DECLARED FARR GUILTY OF COWARDICE AND DESERTION. HE WILL BE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD AT DAWN TOMORROW! YOU MAY BE DISMISSED.”

One thing I would like to know is why they have such loud voices?

I quietly snuck out and went in search of food and shelter.

***

I was running over a sleeping man’s leg, when he suddenly turned to lie on his back and… sttfs…*thud*. The man had violently heaved his legs upwards sending me doing somersaults in the air. And finally, I landed on a fellow victim. Ugh…today’s dinner was heavy. These humans are savages! So this is the civilization they speak of? The fields are poppy with blood. And my thoughts…? As long as my tummy is full, that’s all I care about. Us rats, have become extremely LARGE these days, I can make a cat run for its money! Well…it’s all thanks to the free, hefty, British meals laying on the fine French soil. 

Continuing along the path, trotting…oh how much lice I found in his clothes! Biting on my fur, as I dragged my body up the man. I stopped to breathe, hands on knees, kneeling.

I decided to ditch these men, as it got me nowhere, and went to find myself a bed. I took a mighty jump, bent my knees and jumped from the man’s body to the floor. I landed hard on my feet, my left knee started to ache. I went out to the so-called “no man’s land” and approached the nearest body. I laid my back in the man’s lifeless arms, suddenly getting a whiff of metallic blood. I closed my eyes, and dozed off into a heavy sleep.

 Now what was the word again?...Ah yes…civilization. Great, great civilization. It hurts me to see a human killing another human, because us rats could never do such a grotesque, ghastly, grisly thing. But what can we do? It’s just lovely civilization.