"I saw him run that way," Vasili said, pointing to the blasted heath in front of them. "About an hour ago."

"We should look for him," the slumping corporal said. He pointed to Vasili first. "You, you, you and you, come with me."

The five of them fanned out and waded through the wet knee-high grass and bushes. Vasili retraced Hoxa's path as best he could. One hundred and fifty yards out the landscape began to change. The grass, where there was grass, was flattened and scorched. Large open craters littered the ground. The mud became too deep to walk through at one hundred seventy-five yards. The shells had punctured the earth, pounding it into a soupy brown bog all the way to the smoldering French camp. A light grey haze hovered over the churned up ground. Upon closer examination they spotted and pointed out different body parts that lay in twisted unnatural positions, coated and camouflaged in mud. The only thing moving, the only sign of life on the entire ruined plain was a wet shivering dog hopelessly mired in the muck, licking at the blood and the mud on what remained of a severed back leg.

Vasili turned away and slogged back through the mud towards the camp, leaving the other four to search for their leader. He stopped at the base of the small rise beneath the tired guns and picked up Hoxa's discarded binoculars. Wiping the mud off the lenses, he draped them around his neck and trudged up in into the remains of the encampment.

1 “Shook his head yes,” a subtle but interesting point. Bulgaria seems to be unique in Western culture in that they shake their heads side to side to indicate yes, up and down to indicate no. Culture Shock! Bulgaria, by Agnes Sachsenroeder (Marshall Cavendish 2008)

2 This was indeed Bulgaria’s highest combat honor at the time, but stating that Captain Hoxa won the First Class of this Order is almost surely an exaggeration as classes for this Order were segregated by rank, with junior officers being assigned III or IV grades. World Orders of Knighthood and Merit, by Sainty & Mankoo (Burke 2006)

14

...Wiping the mud off the lenses, he draped them around his neck and trudged back up into the remains of the encampment."

I could tell my story had gotten their attention. No one wanted to speak and break the silence that punctuated the tale. I turned my head and saw Poppy looking at me with the same transfixed look on her face as the members of the panel. I continued.

"We fell back on foot that morning. The company's draft horses that had been tied off by the river were gone. Unable to pull anything, we left the equipment and joined the first company. Luckily, news of the armistice came later that same day."

"What became of Hoxa?" Ramsay asked.