The Desert Game — Day 15

Genre: Fantasy / War

Premise: It is 1942, the height of WWII, and tank warfare rages across North Africa. Since he has landed on the continent and joined the fighting, a US private is surprised to discover that each night he has the same dream over and over again. In it, he sits at a round mahogany table in the middle of a desert oasis and plays a game of poker with three men he has never met: a Brit, but also an Italian and a German. They are a collection of enemy soldiers. The hands dealt each night change, and so do the outcomes of the games. The men never speak, but exchange cordial smiles and nods of begrudging respect as they play.

Eventually, the silence is broken, and as they begin sharing stories with one another the four men are astonished to realize that their dream is shared and that they are all, in fact, real people—somehow in remote communication with each other. In the daytime, their armies wage war upon each other across the North African continent, and at night the men sit, play poker and joke as old comrades while they dream. Over the course of weeks and months at war and play the four have forged a bond of brotherhood.

One night, one of the four does not show up for their nightly game, alarming his three comrades. Wounded in battle, the missing man is trapped beneath his tank and has been left to die in the deep desert. The remaining three soldiers decide they must find a way to mount a rescue effort in their waking lives—going AWOL, in aid of a dying enemy soldier whom they have never met, and whose location they do not know.