Buried Alive, Not Dead

Private Cyril Bagger, a grifter-turned-gravedigger in the American army during World War I, is nearly killed by a shell while digging a mass grave. He's pulled from the pit, caked in blood and mud, and finds himself miraculously alive while everyone around him is dead. Haunted by the trauma and randomness of survival, Bagger clings to his father's Bible for comfort, but is otherwise cynical and self-serving. The war's chaos and horror are ever-present, and Bagger's luck feels both miraculous and damning. He's soon joined by Lewis Arno, a too-young, illiterate soldier who idolizes Bagger and depends on him for stories and guidance, complicating Bagger's efforts to remain detached and unfeeling.

The Shrieker's Cry

As the front falls eerily quiet, a new, inhuman shriek pierces the battlefield, unsettling every soldier. The sound is organic, alive, and unending, driving men to distraction and fear. Bagger and Arno both hear it, confirming it's not a hallucination. The shriek becomes a symbol of the war's endless suffering—a sentence without a period, looping back on itself, dragging everyone toward death. The men are ordered to investigate the source, and Bagger is swept into a mission that feels both arbitrary and fateful, as if the war itself is demanding a sacrifice.

Five Chosen for Mercy

Major General Lyon Reis, a brilliant but embittered commander with a withered arm, selects Bagger, Arno, and three other outcasts—Goodspeed, Popkin, and Veck—for a special assignment: to "help" the source of the shriek. The euphemism is clear—mercy killing. Each man is a misfit: Goodspeed, the scavenger; Popkin, the brute; Veck, the traumatized Black flamethrower operator. Reis's contempt for them is palpable, and he predicts their deaths will be lonely and unmourned. The five are left behind as the division retreats, forced to confront the shriek and their own cowardice.

The Angel in Barbed Wire

Crawling through No Man's Land under fire, Bagger and Arno discover the source of the scream: a beautiful, otherworldly woman ensnared in barbed wire, her skin glowing with impossible light. She is both agonized and transcendent, her suffering echoing across the battlefield. The men, moved by a mix of awe, pity, and desire, risk their lives to free her. The woman's presence is miraculous and terrifying—bullets seem to avoid her, and her pain is both human and divine. She becomes the object of their hopes, fears, and projections.

Rochambeau and the Cowards' Game

The squad, paralyzed by fear and suspicion, debates who should approach the shrieker. They settle on a game of Rochambeau (rock-paper-scissors), a child's game that becomes a grim lottery. Bagger, a lifelong con artist, manipulates the game to avoid danger, but the outcome is still tragic. The game's results seem to seal each man's fate, as if the war itself is a rigged contest. The randomness of survival and death is laid bare, and the men's choices are revealed as both desperate and futile.

The Wager and the Wish

As the squad is whittled down by violence, betrayal, and the war's chaos, Bagger finds himself alone with the angelic woman. She reveals a strange power: she grants wishes, but always at a terrible cost. Each man who wished for something—revenge, love, escape—met a fitting doom. Bagger, desperate to save Arno, makes a promise: he will never take another life if the angel brings the boy back. The angel accepts, binding Bagger to a vow that will haunt him, and Arno is miraculously restored.

The Angel's Many Faces

The woman is not merely an angel—she is a mirror, appearing to each man as his lost love, mother, or fantasy. To Veck, she is his daughter; to Popkin, his beloved Effie; to Goodspeed, a movie star. Even to Bagger, she is the Madonna from his father's Bible, the embodiment of lost innocence and hope. The angel's true nature is unknowable, her purpose ambiguous. She is both savior and destroyer, her mercy inseparable from judgment.

The Price of Salvation

The angel's miracles are double-edged. She heals wounds, revives the dead, and grants wishes, but each act of mercy is balanced by violence and loss. The men's attempts to possess or exploit her—whether for love, profit, or power—lead to their destruction. Bagger's promise not to kill becomes a curse, binding him to inaction even as new horrors unfold. The angel's presence intensifies the war's madness, and the line between salvation and damnation blurs.

The Engine of War

The angel shows Bagger a vision of the world's true engine: a hellish machine that grinds the dead of every war into bullets for the next. Death begets death, violence is recycled, and the cycle of war is self-perpetuating. The machine is fed by hatred, greed, and the refusal to break the chain. Bagger sees the future—wars without end, new technologies of slaughter, and the suffering of generations. The only hope is to refuse to be a cog in the machine, to break the cycle through mercy.

The General's New Arm

Major General Reis, obsessed with power and recognition, seizes the angel and demands she heal his withered arm. She does, and Reis is transformed—physically whole, but morally monstrous. He plans to use the angel as a "wonder weapon" to prolong the war and secure his own glory. Bagger, realizing the danger, tries to intervene, but is powerless against Reis's newfound strength and ambition. The angel's gift becomes a curse, and the war's machinery grinds on.

The Promise and the Bullet

As the front collapses and chaos reigns, Bagger is forced to choose between his promise and the lives of those he loves. Reis threatens Arno, and Bagger, desperate, breaks his vow and kills the general. The angel warns that this act will unleash a catastrophe beyond imagination. Bagger, wracked with guilt, tries to sacrifice himself to atone, but the angel refuses his self-destruction. The cost of mercy is revealed to be endless suffering, and the cycle of violence resumes.

The Devil's Wings Unfurled

In the aftermath, the angel transforms—her wings unfurl, vast and demonic, and she ascends above the battlefield. She is both angel and devil, mercy and wrath, the Adversary who judges humanity. Her departure leaves Bagger and Arno alone in the crater, holding hands, uncertain if they have been saved or condemned. The war rages on, and the promise of peace is as distant as ever.

The Mercy Seat

Bagger is granted a final vision: the church of his childhood, the Madonna of his father's Bible, and the engine of war at the world's core. He sees the endless cycle of violence, the suffering of generations, and the possibility of redemption. The angel asks what he truly wants, and Bagger answers: to protect, to love, to break the chain. He sees himself as an old man, at peace, surrounded by family, having lived a life of regret and joy. The angel departs, leaving Bagger with the hope that mercy, though costly, is possible.

The End, or the Beginning

The war continues, the angel is gone, and Bagger and Arno are left to face the world. The promise of peace is uncertain, but the possibility remains. Bagger, battered and changed, considers himself lucky—not for surviving, but for having glimpsed the cost and necessity of mercy. The story ends as it began, with Bagger on the edge of death and life, the sentence of war looping on, but with a new understanding of what it means to be human.

Characters

Cyril Bagger

Bagger is a con man and gravedigger, drafted into the American army and determined to survive at any cost. Haunted by his father's death and his own guilt, he uses wit and manipulation to avoid danger. His relationship with Arno softens his cynicism, forcing him to confront his capacity for care. Bagger's psychological journey is one from self-preservation to self-sacrifice, as he is drawn into the angel's orbit and forced to reckon with the consequences of his choices. His development is marked by increasing vulnerability, culminating in a desperate act of mercy that both saves and damns him.

Lewis Arno

Arno is a fourteen-year-old boy who lied about his age to join the army. Illiterate and naive, he clings to Bagger for guidance and comfort, especially through shared stories. Arno's innocence and resilience challenge Bagger's cynicism, and his suffering becomes the emotional heart of the story. Arno's near-death and resurrection by the angel bind him to Bagger in a surrogate brotherhood. His presence forces Bagger to confront the possibility of redemption and the cost of mercy.

The Angel / Shrieker

The angel is an otherworldly woman found impaled in barbed wire, radiating light and agony. She appears to each man as what he most desires—mother, lover, savior, or fantasy. Her powers are miraculous but double-edged: she grants wishes, heals wounds, and revives the dead, but always at a terrible cost. She is both angel and devil, mercy and judgment, her true nature unknowable. Psychologically, she embodies the men's hopes and fears, exposing their deepest longings and failings. Her presence catalyzes both salvation and destruction.

Major General Lyon Reis

Reis is the youngest division commander, brilliant but embittered by his withered arm and lack of recognition. Obsessed with glory and the Medal of Honor, he is both a victim and perpetrator of the war's brutality. His encounter with the angel transforms him physically and morally, as he seeks to use her as a weapon to prolong the war and secure his legacy. Reis's psychological arc is one of increasing hubris and self-destruction, culminating in his death at Bagger's hand.

Ben Veck

Veck is a Black flamethrower operator, transferred into the squad as a replacement. Traumatized by battle and racism, he is both feared and pitied by the others. Veck's wish for revenge and justice is twisted by the angel's power, leading to his own destruction. His psychological journey is marked by alienation, pride, and a desperate longing for dignity and belonging. Veck's fate underscores the war's capacity to consume even the most righteous desires.

Hugh Popkin

Popkin is a physically imposing, emotionally stunted soldier obsessed with a woman named Effie. His desire for love and validation makes him both pitiable and dangerous. Popkin's attempts to possess the angel, whom he sees as Effie, lead to violence and madness. His psychological arc is one of increasing desperation and self-destruction, a microcosm of the war's dehumanizing effects.

Vincent Goodspeed

Goodspeed is a looter and profiteer, always seeking to turn tragedy into personal gain. He sees the angel as a ticket to wealth and fame, projecting onto her the image of a movie star. Goodspeed's self-interest and lack of empathy make him an easy target for the angel's judgment. His fate is a cautionary tale about the dangers of exploitation and the emptiness of material ambition.

Major General Pershing (minor)

Pershing appears briefly as the supreme commander, embodying the impersonal, bureaucratic nature of the war. He is a figure of power and inevitability, more force than character, representing the machinery that grinds men into dust.

Bishop Bagger (memory/ghost)

Bagger's father, a preacher who died on the Lusitania, haunts his son's thoughts and dreams. The red leather Bible he left behind is Bagger's only talisman of comfort and hope. The Bishop's legacy is both a burden and a guide, shaping Bagger's struggle with faith, shame, and the possibility of redemption.

The Angel's Many Faces (Effie, Naomi, Theda, Ma Arno)

The angel appears to each man as the person he most longs for—Popkin's Effie, Veck's daughter Naomi, Goodspeed's Theda Bara, Arno's mother. These faces are not characters in themselves, but psychological projections, revealing the men's deepest wounds and the war's power to strip away identity and hope.

Plot Devices

The Shrieker as Catalyst

The unending, inhuman shriek is both literal and symbolic, representing the war's agony and the call to mercy. It compels the characters to confront their own fears, desires, and capacity for compassion or violence. The shrieker's true identity as the angel transforms the mission from a mercy killing into a test of humanity.

The Angel as Mirror and Wish-Granters

The angel's power is ambiguous—she heals, resurrects, and fulfills desires, but always with unintended consequences. Each wish becomes a curse, exposing the dangers of selfishness and the impossibility of easy salvation. The angel's shifting appearance and miracles drive the plot and force the characters to confront their own natures.

Rochambeau and the Game of Fate

The use of rock-paper-scissors to decide who will risk their life is a microcosm of the war's randomness and the illusion of control. Bagger's manipulation of the game foreshadows the way choices and chance intertwine, and how even small decisions can have fatal consequences.

The Wager and the Promise

Bagger's promise to the angel—that he will never take another life if she saves Arno—becomes the story's central moral dilemma. The promise is both a blessing and a curse, forcing Bagger to choose between mercy and violence, self-preservation and sacrifice. The breaking of the promise unleashes catastrophe, literalizing the cost of war and the difficulty of true redemption.

The Vision of the Engine

The angel shows Bagger a vision of a hellish machine that turns the dead into bullets for future wars. This allegorical device exposes the futility and perpetuity of violence, the way hatred and suffering are recycled across generations. The vision is both a warning and a call to break the cycle through mercy and refusal to participate.

The Angel's Transformation

The angel's final transformation—her wings unfurling, her halo replaced by horns—embodies the duality of mercy and judgment, hope and destruction. She is both the answer to prayers and the instrument of doom, her departure leaving the world changed but not saved.

Narrative Structure and Foreshadowing

The story's structure mirrors its themes: sentences without periods, cycles without end, choices that repeat and echo. Foreshadowing is woven throughout—Bagger's luck, the Bible's protection, the consequences of wishes—culminating in a conclusion that is both an ending and a beginning.

Analysis

Daniel Kraus uses the supernatural as a lens to magnify the psychological and moral crises of World War I, transforming the battlefield into a crucible where every act of violence or compassion reverberates with cosmic consequence. The angel at the story's center is not a simple savior, but a mirror—reflecting the desires, wounds, and failings of the men who encounter her. Her miracles are never free; every wish granted exacts a price, and every act of mercy is shadowed by judgment. The novel's structure, looping and recursive, mirrors the endless cycle of violence it depicts, while its surreal visions—of engines grinding the dead into bullets, of angels with devil's wings—force readers to confront the true cost of war. Ultimately, Angel Down suggests that the only way to break the cycle is through radical mercy, the refusal to participate in violence, and the acceptance of responsibility for one another. Yet it is honest about how difficult, even impossible, such mercy can be. The story ends not with triumph, but with a fragile hope: that even in a world built on suffering, the choice to protect, to love, and to forgive can still matter.

Last updated: October 30, 2025