War the Creator by Gelett Burgess

The nerve-racking, deafening din went on and on without a respite. Bracques was hit in the head-he was a living, breathing horror, his whole jaw gone-one hand plucking at his coat. He lay grotesquely uncomfortable on his back, rolling this way and rolling that way on his knapsack and his tin gamelle and the dozen other accouterments he couldn't get rid of. A dozen lads he had gone to school with in Toulouse were screaming. One called for his mother again and again, "_Maman! Maman! Maman! _" Most of the wounded lay still in their blood, or moaned and writhed in their agony. On Coco's left, he said, was a body without a head. Coco, he confessed, thought more than once of running. What was the use of staying only to be butchered? They could do no good that way. But still the regiment held its place; yes, but the regiment was getting strangely thin. It could not last long.

Coco looked round for Francois, who should have been beside him. There he was, close by, grinning. He called out something to keep up Coco's courage, but in that inferno Coco couldn't hear a word. Then, instantly, there was a gigantic explosion; and when Coco rose again, he looked-he grew numb. There was Francois on his back-with both legs queerly bent in an impossible position. With a sickening wave of nausea Coco saw that both the boy's legs were shockingly crushed, all but torn off, and his red pantaloons were soaking in blood. Francois's face was horrible now; his eyes were shining wildly. Coco, shrinking with horror, managed to crawl toward him.