No man's land.

  A gunshot.

  I see cover in the distance. Time to run.

  I know that gun, I thought. It takes three seconds to reload.

  I'm crouched behind cover, bullet holes. It's brittle.

  60...

  I have a rifle, five second reload time. Equipped with two grenades and a pistol.

  59...

  Mud all around me, it would be slow to trek through.

  58...

  A few dead bodies, does he have backup?

  57...

  Gunshot, pierced through my cover. Bullet inches away from my shoulder.

  56...

  If he has backup I have to flush them out. I pull out the pin from my grenade and toss it as far as I can.

  55...

  He runs through the mud, I pull out my rifle and fire.

  54...

  I miss. The grenade explodes.

  53...

  Mud splatters upward. He has no backup.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  52...

  He fires, the bullet clinks of the corner. I have to run.

  51...

  I'm under a barrage of fire, probably a pistol.

  50...

  I fire in his general direction and slide in the mud. I lie flat down on my belly.

  49...

  Time passes as I scan the horizon for him, I start reloading.

  48, 47, 46, 45, 44...

  I take a deep breath, should I use my grenade to flush him out?

  43...

  I search for him. Squinting my eyes, fingers twirling around the last grenade.

  42...

  I pull out my pistol. I decide to fire toward the north. If he thinks I know where he is, he's going to try and find a new spot to hide.

  41...

  I start firing.

  40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35...

  No signs of life anywhere.

  34...

  My fingers still linger on the grenade. I could still flush him out using this.

  33...

  Then, in the corner of my eye...

  32...

  Movement.

  31...

  I fire my rifle.

  30...

  I smirk, I got the bastard in the leg. He collapses.

  29...

  It's his turn to fire and...

  28...

  Surprise, surprise. Fucker got me in the shoulder.

  27...

  I try to ignore the pain and try keep my eye on him...

  26...

  I curse. I divert my attention away from him and tear out a piece of cloth from my pants.

  25, 24, 23...

  I wrap it around my shoulder.

  22, 21, 20...

  After I do that I search for the guy. He couldn't have gone far with a shot leg.

  19, 18, 17, 16...

  I can't see him anywhere.

  15, 14, 13, 12...

  I lose my patience and unpin my grenade.

  11, 10...

  I see him, he starts limping in the middle of No Man's Land, pistol in hand. The grenade explodes behind him.

  9...

  I run toward him, firing at him with my pistol but he limps away. Turning back occasionally to shoot me.

  8...

  A bullet impales my shoulder, I almost drop my pistol.

  7...

  Hand on my shoulder to staunch the blood flow, I sprint toward him and tackle him.

  6...

  He knocks my gun away and pounds me in the face repeatedly, I fight back too, and knock his pistol away from his hand.

  5...

  I roll away and search for the pistol, it's just within my reach.

  4...

  He also crawls towards his pistol, trying his best to get up.

  3...

  I crawl, turning back to see how close he is. His hands wrap around the steel handle of his gun

  2...

  I manage to get mine, turning around as quickly as I can to see him standing over me, pistol in hand and it's pointed right at my forehead.

  1...

  He fires.