draft

Vitale sat in a foxhole nearby an encampment somewhere in the jungle with his close friend Drew. He shared out some cigars to Drew, which he had stolen from an army officer earlier. The darkness of the night made their visibility extremely low and Drew stayed on edge. As he sparked one of the cigars with his lighter, it dimly lit the foxhole up.
Drew quickly pocketed the cigars and Vitale could see that he was nervous. "Relax.." Vitale spoke in a quiet voice, careful not to alert any Japs.

"What's making you more nervous, the cigars I stole or the Japs that might jump out from the dark?" He looked around as he said this, puffing the cigar and squinting into the surrounding darkness.
Drew sighed, sliding a little further down against the wall of the foxhole, "Maybe they'll see that light." Drew gestured to Vitale's cigar and Vitale looked back at him.
"Loosen up a little, McPherson," Vitale took another drag from the cigar, purposely exhaling the smoke towards Drew's face, "..I wanna have something nice before we die out here.."
Drew coughed a little and stared at him. "I mean, if we do.." He added, drawing the cigar away from his mouth as it became to small to smoke from.

He dropped the cigar butt on the ground, stepping on it to put it out. They could feel raindrops beginning to fall on them, and the two looked up at the sky as it gradually grew heavier and pattered against their faces.
"Gotta be fucking kidding me.." He looked as mud sliding down from the sides of the foxhole began pooling around his feet.(edited)
They both pushed themselves up against the walls in an attempt to stay clear of the mud. "Keep that shit out of your shoes." Drew watched the mud fill the foxhole as Vitale stayed on lookout.
He looked away from the trees and back to Drew for a moment. "..Thanks for the heads up." And at that, they both frantically looked around as rustling sounded nearby.

Vitale took a hold of his rifle, a M1 Garand, gripping it tightly and readying his finger on the trigger. Drew followed, grabbing his carbine as quietly as possible while continuing to watch for any movement.
"Think it's Japs..?" Drew whispered, staring at Vitale. Drew's eyes slightly widened as the rustling grew louder and closer this time.
Vitale crawled up against the wall, peeking over enough so that he could lay his rifle on the ground above the foxhole and aim it towards the rustling.

Drew's gear rattled as he crawled up behind Vitale, and the noise echoed around the area.
The rustling stopped and Vitale glared back at Drew, "Get your ass up here." He whisper-yelled at Drew, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him up beside him.
They stared in the same direction in complete silence. The rain kept coming down and it was now heavier, making it harder than it already was to see. The drops of rain annoyingly dripped down in-front of Vitale's face from his helmet. He adjusted his helmet to better see, but distracted himself from the trigger as screaming was heard in the distance, followed by a barrage of bullets flying in their direction.

"Fuck!" He jumped back, taking cover in the foxhole and pulling Drew down with him. The rest of their battalion soon began exchanging fire with the enemy and bullets began whizzing by the foxhole, hitting the ground around them.
He tried to find a moment to peek out of the foxhole and join in on the firefight, but continued to refrain from it as bullets were relentlessly unloaded from both directions above them.
The bullets were almost as heavy as the rain, and by the amount and yelling accompanied by them, he could tell that the enemy were taking more causalities than their side.
He panted, exhausted from dodging the bullets and moving Drew around. "C'mon buddy, we gotta crawl our way out!"
Drew didn't respond, and remained still as Vitale tried to pull him up. "Drew?" He shook Drew, turning him over so that he could see his face. He slapped Drew's face, and then felt something drench into his pants.
He looked down, unsure of whether he was hit or not. As he looked at himself for wounds he noticed the patch of blood on Drew's torso. "Hey, come on, you're not dead yet!"
He grunted as he pulled Drew up, getting the both of them out of the foxhole with all his strength. He took this chance as the bullets slowed down, the enemy seemingly reloading.

From another foxhole in the distance, Vitale's name was called out and he screamed back, "I need a fucking medic out here!"
The two sides began firing back at eachother again. Vitale dropped to the ground, crawling towards a tree for cover while still dragging Drew along behind him.
He sat Drew up against the tree once they reached it, shaking him around more. Still no response. He stared at Drew's face and could see it becoming more and more pale. He knew what was happening but feared it far more than he could've imagined.
"Don't give in yet.." He pulled Drew's head up by his chin, looking for any signs of life at all, though it seemed impossible.
He heard yelling come from behind him and turned quickly to look. He faced a screaming Jap that was charging at him, bayonet raised in the air.

As thunder and lightning began to kick in with the rain, a sudden reflex of his also kicked in. And as a flash of lightning lit up who was charging at him, he grabbed his sidearm faster than he ever thought he could, then aimed it and fired it into the enemy soldier at random, just as the bayonet was in range of him.
The soldier fell right into Vitale. He felt the last breaths of the man as he gave in. It was Vitale's first kill and he sat in shock. The sound of fighting around him turned into white noise and he felt himself welling up with tears. Not for the man he had just killed, but much deeper feelings. He stayed distracted from everything else and in that moment, he could feel the slightest sense of empathy.
Just as fast as the sound stopped, it all kicked back in at once and so did Vitale. He threw the corpse of the man off of him and made his way back to Drew. He holstered his sidearm and reached out, Drew's face cold to the touch. He couldn't cry, though he felt immense sadness as realization kicked in.

Partnered with the adrenaline still rushing through him, Vitale simply ripped the dog tags from around Drew's neck and began crawling off towards the rest of the battalion. He felt bad for leaving Drew's body behind, but he needed to reach safety for himself if he wanted to be alive to make proper amends.
A bullet or two had already pierced one of his limbs as he crawled along, but he gave no mind to it. He continued the struggle to crawl to safety, barely being able to grip the slippery mud to pull himself forward.
He began taking fire from ahead of him but it stopped as someone yelled, "He's one of ours!"
A few soldiers sprinted out from the trench, sliding through the mud and grabbing Vitale to pull him over. "It's Colacino!" One of them yelled back towards the trench.

"Where the fuck's McPherson?!" Another voice yelled back in reply.
Vitale felt the adrenaline wearing off and the pain of his wounds paired with the loss of his friend kicked in. He still gripped Drew's dog tags in his fist. The soldiers managed to drag him back to the trench, but he had passed out somewhere along the way.