Southwestern edge of Decoy Wood
12 October 1917
Trench map sheet 28 NE 1 Zonnebeke D.18.a.2.1
Because I am terrified I reach out in the darkness and touch another man’s body.
He is solid, and protection, and unaware of me lying beneath him.
His remains are very still, and this helps.
It is cold and the water seems to rise very slowly.
He is both a man and a caution, here for a reason.
I will wait for daylight to see where we are.
The way his arm is folded, rigid with cold, offers a loophole, a way to see, undetected, and this may open out onto some kind of actionable intelligence that might be kept, carried back, and, in some small way, matter.
I have been warned several times about this, the risks, what might happen if I raise my head.