The 19th Hour is an Adventure Mystery by Aden Ng, posted on Jukepop. It is 8 chapters long and finished.
She could hear the gunshots echoing. The constant Bang! Bang! of the battlefield. A never-ending cymbal crescendo of gunpowder and lead.
Allison Bree wanted to be a flutist. Instead, she found herself within the trenches when the war began. One day, everyone died. At least, until she was given the chance to change the course of history, forever.
Forced to relive the last hour that lead up to their impending doom over and over again, she must find a way to stop an insurmountable attack, while fighting a war that lasts just an hour too long.
Characters[]
- Corporal Allison Bree - The heroine of the story. Previously a flutist in a marching band.
- Private Garnesh Barnes - A new recruit, originally dying early in the repeated hour.
- Captain Yusuf bin Mawar - Allison's battalion commander. More open-minded than most, but needs some convincing.
Chapter run-down[]
Chapter 1[]
Corporal Allison has become apathetic by the long, drag-out fight in the trenches, to the point that she hardly feels anything when she sees a new recruit be shot in front of her. Later, however, there is a blitz and Allison is killed by a grenade. She finds herself back talking to the new recruit. At first, she is confused, remembering his death. Then she looks at the book he had found and reads it just as the recruit is shot again.
Chapter 2[]
On the second cycle, Allison is prepared for the blitz, killing the soldier who killed her the last time around. Even so, as she tries to run from the enemy, the third cycle starts. This time she saves the recruit, whose name is Barnes. Allison decides to warn HQ, telling them exactly how she knows about the blitz. Unsurprisingly, no one believes her. Lieutenant Mary Carpenter sends her to detention for what she believes to be a prank in bad taste.
Chapter 3[]
When realizing Allison was telling the truth, battalion commander Mawar seeks her out to talk. He says the breech may lose them the entire war and asks how many times she's revived. Preparing her for the next cycle, he says she can use the phrase 'Banelli is falling' to get his attention, but it won't make him trust her blindly. They chat for a second about Mawar's previous police career until an explosion takes them out and the fourth cycle begins. She locates the man who sent her the book. He confirms that he chose to gave her a chance to save everyone, but reveals nothing else. He does, however give her the advice 'remember who you are'.
Chapter 4[]
Allison has lost count of the cycles, and the start has become routine. She has talked to several of the men, learning a bit about them. She hardly tries to solve it anymore and spends this particular hour carving out a flute. Distracted by the fact that the book suddenly has a bark in it, Allison lets Barnes die on the next cycle. She realizes that the book and what's in it does not reset with the cycle.
Chapter 5[]
Allison realizes the blitz is discovered early when Barnes dies, and try to find out who discovers it and why. The who is Sergeant Dickson at sentry seven. She manages to survive longer than usual, finding a tall tree at sentry seven, with a good view.
Chapter 6[]
Allison makes Mawar write things about himself in the book to more quickly convince himself on future cycles. The next part of the plan is to relieve a Sergeant Dickson and have Mawar stall her. On this particular cycle, Allison has enough time to figure out that Dickson would replace Barnes, which is why his death leads to her discovering the blitz.
Chapter 7[]
After several cycles, Allison concludes that she can't save private Barnes, so she makes him write a heartfelt letter to his loved once 'in case' he dies, and hides it in the book. She has nearly used up the entire book as a diary and feels that she needs to end the loop soon, for the sake of her own sanity. Hopefully the next cycle will be the final one.
Chapter 8[]
After carving out a wooden flute, and setting everything up, Allison walks into enemy fire, intentionally taking a bullet on the helmet. She sits down to play the flute, and this time - after many cycles of improving her skills, she is able to distract the enemy for the full twenty minutes she needs more Mawar to overrun them. Allison herself does not make it out alive, which she knew she would not. In court, Mawar is unable to convince them she should be awarded a medal for her role, which would have given her family economic compensation. However, afterwards, a mysterious figure gives him the chance to try again. The cycle resets.