A sudden blast shook Jennifer awake as her room had disappeared. The first thing Jennifer noticed was the stench. A thick, sour cocktail of sweat, mildew, mud and rot clinged to everything around her. The dirt wall on her left was leaking moisture as if it had just rained. Jennifer looked at her bed, it was now a bunkbed, if you called a wooden plank stacked on the side of the dirt pit a bunk, or a bed even. The wood was sunked in and damp to the touch, like everything around her. Her once cool and inviting pillow now a satchel of musty straw.
Jennifer tried to see around her, the room was dark. The only light a flickering candle stuck in a old tin filled with long since spent wax. The words on the edge of the can were faded and smudged, but Jennifer could almost make out it had been a old food can. Shadows stretched and snaked across sandbags and rusted gear piled in corners. Jennifer saw helmets hanging on the wall near the opening from nails driven into the cracked timber supports, some covered in mud or speckled with something worse. The wood let out a creak as something above was moving. Jennifer could hear a rumble of a engine above her through the dirt. That's when it dawned on her, she wasn't alone, the feint candlelight casting the long faces of others now waking up. Snoring, coughing, whipering tones and curses gave way to the squelching of boots against the muck. A figure appeared from the entrance as a shudder of sawdust covered the man's cap. "Wake up gents and ladies, time for rotation." The man bellowed as he circled around the room, his boot kicking a few still sleeping people to wake them up.
Jennifer sat up as she immediately recoiled as a rat scurried past her foot, the rodent not even flinching as it ran through a row of worn boots. Jennifer turned to a man next to her. "Hey there's a rat!" she said shocked. The man stared at her groggily. "Yea and good morning to you too. Maybe if you catch it we can have some meat."
Jennifers eyes grew white with shock at the prospect. Where the hell did Kyle send her? Jennifer was pushed closed together as everyone began to get dressed. Jennifer saw her clothes. Clearly a military uniform it was clearly patchworked, Jennifer couldn't tell which part was the original. A drab grey was the only thing it shared. Jennifer slid her feet into the dark leather boots, her face winced as she felt her socks already becoming damp.
Jennifer looked around wildly as she was formed into a single file line out of the room, the dirt stairs turning into a sunked trench, the distant rumblings of gunfire and artillery shook Jennifer to her core. Within a few minutes she had gone from her warm, soft and comfortable room to a cold, harsh active warzone. The line clattered around corners before finding a another emplacement. Walking down once more beneath the earth Jennifer saw rows of tables, another soldier stirring a stained and messy pot. Everyone grabbed a battered thin metallic bowl. With a quick and robotic swipe, each bowl served by that man by ladle. Cold, lukewarm porridge. It was tasteless, and nearly textureless, it was almost closer to a bowl of water with some oats spilled into it than true oatmeal.
Noone talked through breakfast, everyone's face sunken in with hopelessness. The only conversation was between the spoons as they scraped across the bowls. Jennifers heart was pounding from the stress. She didnt know what was going on or where she was. Her breath quickened as she tried to eat through her gruel to calm her down. She was on the verge of a panic attack until the room began to light up slowly, the dawn rolling from the soiled stairs into the room. A brief calm heralding a new day.