Sounds of War
It was almost as cold as ice that night on the European front, November 1965. Both sides were fighting ferociously, trying to attain any possible gain. The Soviets had made it to the Rhine River, west of West Germany, most of whom had fallen that prior month. Eventually, the war came to a stalemate, with no gains being made on either side. Corporal George sat in the temporary fortified position overlooking the river bank, and occasionally looked out in an attempt to spot any Reds coming. That was the nickname used to refer to the Soviet soldiers, whose army was called the Red Army. His job only currently involved operating communications on the NATO front, the coalition between the US and its allies. The riverline was under steady artillery fire and the roar of fighter jets could be heard clearly above.
“Have the Reds made any progress on the river?” General James yelled to George.
“No, sir, but they have more reinforcements coming.” He checked the radio over again for reports between the positions along the river to see if there had been any breakthroughs in the line.
“Any updates on the front situation?” George spoke once again.
Another operator responded, “We have taken heavy losses and it looks like the Soviets are pushing through the river!”
General James quickly issued an order of retreat to a new defensive position, in a forest region to the south. It was a large, densely forested and hilly area which was hard to pass for an invading army, ideal for this sort of situation. “Get down!” One of the soldiers yelled. Before their unit could take cover, a massive shell burst into the fortified position and detonated. It was like a massive bullet penetrating the base. Fighters zoomed overhead and all George could see was smoke like sheets of paper covering the position with most of his comrades just as surprised by the attack. When George got up out of the rubble and looked over, he saw the Reds starting to infiltrate across the river, using boats and the ice they were gaining ground quickly. They had overwhelming firepower over the NATO forces. Corporal George grabbed his helmet and gear, and ran to the nearest soldier. It was his friend, Tom, who had seemed to take a lot of hits from the bombardment.
“Get up Tommy! We don’t have enough time before we’re overrun!”
“What’s going on…?”
“Just get up and go!”
George dragged Tom, although he was limping they went as fast as possible. It felt like hours until they finally reached the forest, as dense as a giant bush. It was dark and the terrain was rough. They eventually came to a stop. All of a sudden, they heard some sort of creepy, dark sound traveling through the forest. It sounded like the wind at first but quickly turned much more sinister. The air felt thinner and they both got nervous and sped up.
“George do you hear that?” Tommy whispered.
“Yeah.” George responded.
It felt more and more unsettling the farther in the forest they went, Tommy moving along next to George nervously. As they got deeper and deeper into the forest, the sound seemed to get louder and louder. George and Tommy spotted an old, abandoned cabin and decided to stay there for a bit with their gear. The lights were off, and they decided to keep them off in case enemy soldiers managed to reach them. They lit a fire inside, while George patched Tommy up with a spare medical kit.
“I hope our friends made it out,” Tommy said quickly.
“The situation was intense back there, I’m not sure if they made it out. I mean there’s little we can do at this point,” George responded.
“Yeah, but that sound earlier was also creepy.” Tom nervously stated.
“Probably the background sound of a battle or fast wind.” George quickly said.
Both of the soldiers sat in the old cabin, sitting there and listening to the fire crackle. A day passed eventually and George and Tom went out to scout around the small cabin for anything that could be of use to them. Their limited rations and supplies wouldn’t do well, especially with their unit overrun. They came back to the cabin empty handed, and sat back down. George was just about to say something about the sound earlier, when all of a sudden George heard the loud, spooky sound again, which sounded like a howling ghost. He exited the cabin, cold wind pressing against his face, and looked around, but he couldn’t spot anything. Tom started to get very nervous, saying that he was getting creeped out. They turned on the lights but still didn’t notice anything, the sound seemed to be coming from a distance. George stood outside of the cabin and looked out far. He saw a figure standing far away. Then he saw multiple other dark figures standing next to it. The sounds seemed to be coming from that direction. After intensely staring at them for a while, the figures started approaching. Tom stayed inside the cabin but looked out the window. He started panicking, and yelling, “Told you!”
The creatures were getting closer and closer. They both started to panic, as the howling grew louder. George thought there was only one thing to do. George ran back inside the cabin, and looked through his gear. He pulled out his rifle and went back. Then, George started firing at the darkness, hoping that somehow his bullets would do something to the ghosts. Bang, bang! Like he expected, it didn't seem like the bullets were affecting the figures, as if they were stiff as steel. As George squinted again at the creatures, he then his face slowly registered his surprise as the figures responded with a bright flash of light and sound and all of a sudden George felt weak. Tom screamed, “No!” And George collapsed to the ground. Tom watched as the figures surrounded George and took him away.
The next day, Tom woke up in the forest. He barely remembered what had happened the night before. He was near the cabin but had ran away from it before the figures had taken George. Tom went back to the cabin and saw some of George’s gear left, and for some reason small fragments of pale clothing. George wore green though, not anything this pale. Tom headed farther into the forest, to search for any other evidence of his lost friend. He walked for a while, until he found what looked like an abandoned temporary radio. Next, he found a disc player and a very large speaker next to it. He looked in the disc player and found a disc. Tom slowly picked it up and held it up. The disc had apparently been in English, and it read out “Psychological tape.” He stared at the disc. He couldn’t believe it. There was no way that those were soldiers. He had seen with his own eyes, that George was taken by figures and dragged into the darkness. He needed more proof. Tom went farther into the forest, again with his limited supplies, to figure this out.
After a long trek deep into the ever darkening forest, Tom started to feel lonelier and lonelier. It turned fully dark when he started to hear the ghost sounds again but tried to ignore them. Despite this, they kept getting louder and louder. Tom decided that from what he saw earlier, his best bet was actually to follow the sounds. He did so, but it also made it creepier for him. As he was walking further, he saw another figure to his left. He tried to walk to it, but it disappeared shortly after. It felt like he was seeing things that were not there. What was that? He wondered. Tom got closer and closer to the sounds so that they were getting very loud now. The environment did not help Tom’s fears. This time, he looked to his right and saw another ghost. It looked like a fading-white soldier approaching him, while Tom just stood there. It didn’t seem unlike a ghost this time. Before he could react, RAAHHH, the figure jumpscared him. He ran as quickly as possible through the thick bushes and tried to get as far away from it as possible. The forest branches caught him a couple of times, causing him to get scratches, but he made it out safe enough, gasping for air. Tom realized he has made it out of the dense forest, and into the moonlight. It shined almost like the sun for Tom, for how long he had
been away from sunlight. After a while of trekking through fields, he spotted a military camp on the horizon. As soon as he got to it, he was relieved. The soldiers were American and from NATO, not Soviets. Tom got inside and he headed to the medical section where he healed.
Tom, during his stay at the camp, asked other soldiers if they had any idea of a person named Corporal George. None of them knew anything about it, but a soldier named Robert asked Tom about what happened to him.
“I lost a friend back in that area last night, and found some disc tapes that seemed to be used to play audio. I think those were the sounds I heard all night.” Tom said.
“I think I heard the Soviets are using that for warfare recently, so he’s probably been captured to another camp,” Robert responded.
“There’s no way. Those were not soldiers.”
“I mean, if you think so, alright, but I believe it’s really likely that this is being used as a scare tactic.”
“Man, I started seeing things, that was probably also part of that too.”
“Oh well, sounds scary, I hope you can find your friend as well, good luck.”
“Thanks Robert, nice meeting you.”
Robert and Tom decided to pair up throughout much of the war. Together they tried to find George. Eventually, they managed to track him down at another camp a couple months later. Apparently he had been severely injured and taken to a camp after the scare. Tom realized that the bright flash of lights were actually gunshots that were fired back after George fired his, and the clothing he found was part of the Red Army’s. George was returned back to the Allies after the camp George had been held in was captured by the Allies and he was able to safely return. Tom united with George and they shared their stories on what happened after the event. They fought together until the end of the war, and thankfully helped bring the war to a close. The sound of darkness was, in a bright way, changed to the sound of victory.