Older Than Feudalism: A frequent occurrence in The Iliad: while a fallen warrior's friends try to carry his corpse off the battlefield, his enemies try to take his armor as a trophy. This usually leads to more casualties on both sides and sometimes more fights over more corpses.
In Dragon Bones Ward is manipulated to leave his group by reminding him that his aunt, who trained him in swordfighting, wouldn't approve of leaving someone behind, while one group member is absent. It's a trap.
Subverted by Sheriff Bell in No Country for Old Men. After the rest of his squad was hit from a mortar shell annihilating the farmhouse they were monitoring radio signals in, he manages to ready up the squad's 30. cal machine gun to attack Germans advancing in his direction. He shoots at them and pins them down, but all the while, he is said to have heard groans from his squad, indicated at least some were alive. He then chooses to abandon the position and flee after the day goes dark, and remains haunted on how he was the only survivor, getting a Bronze Star he didn't want to accept (he assumes the brass wanted to scrap something out of how their position was lost).
A brutal example of this being used against a character occurs in a story from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire world. At one point in the bloody history of Westeros, a rebellion was led against the current king by one of his bastard half-brothers. Legend has it that at the decisive battle archer Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers intentionally critically wounded one of the twin sons of the rebellion's leader with an arrow, knowing that the father would not leave his son's side on the battlefield while he was alive. Rivers then proceeded to kill the father with numerous shots, and the second of the twins as well when he picked up his father's sword and tried to lead the army.
Featured prominently in Starship Troopers, and realistically gets a lot of characters killed, as observed — and justified — by the characters. "Men are not potatoes." Indeed, one of Rico's instructors at OCS claims that it's "mathematically provable" that they should invade an enemy planet in full force to recover one lost infantryman. According to author Robert A. Heinlein, soldiers cannot fully commit themselves to the service of their society if they don't know that the society is equally committed to them. Said math is not shown, of course, so we have to take his Author Avatar's word for it.
In Space Cadet (Heinlein), Dodson's training cruise on the Aes Triplex has the mission of searching for the missing Patrol ship Pathfinder in the asteroid belt. They find it with all hands dead but the cadets reflect that the Patrol would have brought them back alive if they hadn't been killed by a meteor puncture of the ship. Later, after the cadets and their superior officer are marooned on Venus, Jensen comments that the Patrol will eventually find them but they need to work towards their own rescue since that would be expected of them.
Subverted in the StarCraft novel Speed of Darkness when the main character intentionally shoots a dying (flamethrower-armed) Firebat, forcing the enemy to stay back. Though some of his squadmates give him a hard time for it, the vets acknowledge it as necessary, even effective. In fact, the Lieutenant of the main's group points out that their standard ammunition is designed to cripple, not kill, saying that "if you maim an enemy on the field it takes four of his friends to haul him back from the battle and even more of his friends to patch him up and care for him. Kill an enemy and you decrease the force against you by one. Maim an enemy and you decrease the force against you by ten." Pity the hive-minded Zerg never try to recover the wounded, or that the super-advanced Protoss are hardcore and will fight to the bitter end (and if they get crippled, they will become Dragoons and Stalkers so that their crippled bodies can fight to the bitter end).
When Domor is wounded and blinded in First & Only, although his wounds will prove fatal without adequate medical attention, Gaunt tells him he's coming if he has to carry him himself.
In Traitor General, the inability to bring Feygor with them because of his illness strikes all the Ghosts very bitterly.
In His Last Command, when Maggs is thrown through a Chaos warp gate, Mkoll cites this and jumps after him. Although the scene is both bitterly cold and impossible, and breaks down Maggs, he gets them both to another gate and out — alive, although covered with frost.
In William King's Warhammer 40,000 novel Space Wolf, when Ragnar and other Marines were sent to bring news of a nest of Chaos Space Marines, one of them is wounded. Ragnar (who had just realized that he does not, and should not, want Revenge on the wounded man) orders the others on while he tends the wounded. When they are attacked again and he gains more injuries, Ragnar finally carries him to safety.
In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40,000Ultramarines novel Dead Sky Black Sun, Uriel is reluctant to leave behind even hopelessly tortured victims he could not save; later, Vaanes leaves behind the others of their band in a torture chamber, and Uriel and Pasanius stay to free them. Later still, the mortally wounded Colonel Leonid has a hard time convincing Uriel to leave him behind, and Uriel finds it Dirty Business — but Leonid succeeds, and through a Heroic Sacrifice buys them more time.
The cover of the Ciaphas Cain novel Cain's Last Stand features Cain heroically helping a wounded cadet through enemy fire. This really happens in the story itself, the only difference being that Cain was using a laspistol instead of a bolter. Cain briefly considered leaving the cadet behind out of pragmatism and self-proclaimed cowardice, but he knew doing so would damn him in the eyes of the other cadets.
The villain reaction is used in Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. Inc. In Action. Guido and Nunzio, two Mob bodyguards, join the Army and are not impressed with the training or equipment. During target practice, Guido puts three crossbow bolts into a dummy's shoulder, and the drill sergeant asks, "If you can shoot that well, why not shoot him in the head?!" Guido, forgetting he's not in the Mob anymore, replies, "ANY idiot can kill somebody, but it takes SKILL to leave 'em in a condition where they can still give information, OR pay protection, OR..." Nunzio tries to avert disaster by explaining that what he MEANT was that wounding an opponent takes three men out of the action since two have to carry the wounded one.
In an earlier book in the series, Aahz forces his apprentice Skeeve to promise that if Skeeve can rescue the person they're there for, he needs to get out and go, even if Aahz is in trouble. Naturally, this very situation comes up, and Skeeve does try to abide by his promise, but everyone else on the team flatly refuses to budge; Skeeve is not unhappy to be outvoted.
In Chessmen of Mars, Gahan at first hesitates to abandon Ghek, even though he can not escape with them; only Ghek's pointing out that they will kill Tara lets him overcome this (with some help from Men Are the Expendable Gender). Later, Gahan briefly convinces himself that Tara hates him when he is left prisoner without her aid.
but presently both my heart and my judgment told me that Tara of Helium could not have deserted a companion in distress, and though I still am in ignorance of the facts I know that it was beyond your power to aid me.
In The Gods of Mars, John Carter is frantic when the Mobile Maze cuts him off from Tars Tarkas. A prisoner asks him when he is trying to get back to where the monster is.
"Because my friend fights there alone."
In Thuvia, Maid of Mars, a Master of Illusion convinced Carthoris to go on with an illusion of Thuvia, and Thuvia that Carthoris had asked her to stay behind, but Thuvia rejects the charges that he fled without her because:
"You lie!" she said quietly, "the Heliumite knows less of disloyalty than he knows of fear, and of fear he is as ignorant as the unhatched young."
In the Brotherband book Slaves of Soccorro, a mistake during a reconnaissance mission to the slave market results in Ingvar being actually taken as a slave. While Hal allows it for the moment (as his group is outnumbered and unarmed), he makes it clear to the remaining members of the group (especially Lydia, who's furious at this turn of events) that he does not intend to leave Ingvar imprisoned.
Subverted in John Hemry's The Lost Fleet where Captain Geary tries to make good on this only to realize that several ships are clearly not going to make the escape from the enemy until another ship (commanded by his grandnephew) performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
However in the rest of the series, they try their damnedest to save any escape pods and liberate any POW camps. This attitude leads to them saving an Syndic colony that was left to die. This leads to a Syndic CEO have a Heel–Face Turn because her brother was on that colony and she helps the Fleet get home.
In Invicible, Geary orders Tulev to sweep the human wreckage from space — all the ships' parts, and above all, all the human bodies. Tulev quotes the trope name, though the motive here is to avoid letting the aliens discover anything about them.
In the X-Wing Series novel Iron Fist, Phanan is shot down over an Imperial-held planet. Face followed even though he was squadron leader at the time, telling the others to regroup without him. He found Phanan badly wounded and tried to take him to the nearest settlement, but it was pretty obvious that they wouldn't make it. Face was about to call the Imperial forces out looking for them because even though they'd be imprisoned by their enemies this would mean medical treatment, but Phanan talked him out of it before dying. Then Face went back to his starfighter, destroyed his friend's body, and returned to the Wraiths guilt-ridden. Wraiths and Rogues in general try very hard to avoid their teammates Dying Alone.
Exploited in I, Jedi. When the Space Pirates whom Corran Horn has infiltrated unexpectedly run into a New Republic fleet (including his home unit, the elite Rogue Squadron), he orders the other fighters with him to use their ion cannons on enemy fighters so the other side will be slowed down by search-and-rescue, allowing Corran and the others to escape.
In Andre Norton and A.C. Crispin's Witch World novel Gryphon's Eyrie, Joisan stands over her fallen husband to keep him from shadow creatures, but when she, being pregnant, realizes that the creatures are after her baby, she is afraid that it will mean she must leave him.
In Andre Norton's Science Fiction novels, this trope is occasionally invoked as an ironclad rule of space travel: No One Gets Left Behind on a strange planet, no matter if he's your worst enemy.
In Android at Arms, this leads to the protagonist and some of his companions searching for an untrustworthy fellow traveller until they find his body.
In Dread Companion, Bartare wants the other three to go. Kilda talks with her but thinks even as she does so that she can't leave Bartare behind.
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth includes the story of how Théoden's son had died, just before Gandalf and company's meeting with Théoden in The Lord of the Rings. After he fell fighting orcs, his men fought to keep his body from them; having fought them off, they discovered he was still alive, but he lived only long enough to tell them to bury him there.
At the Battle of Dale (which took place around the same time of the Battle of Minas Tirith), King Dáin II Ironfoot dies defending the body of King Brand of Dale outside the gates of the Lonely Mountain, after the people of Dale have fled there.
In Nick Kyme's Warhammer 40,000 novel Salamander, after Tsu'gan's Pride ensured his captain's death, Tsu'gan refuses to let anyone near his body
maintaining a cordon of protection that no one could breach and live. After the fight, a comrade reassures him that his battle-brother will live — having assumed he was protecting the still living Dak'ir.
Subverted in one of Mack Reynolds' United Planetsspy stories. Section G's top operative, Ronny Bronston, takes a new agent on a training mission to an enemy planet. Ronny is wounded and tells the newbie to kill him so the enemy won't capture him. The rookie instead helps Ronny to their escape vehicle. The subversion comes because Ronny wasn't that badly wounded; it was an impromptu Secret Test, and by not being ruthless enough to kill his comrade, the new guy failed and gets washed out of field agent training. Ronny's boss points out that the rookie was trying to save Ronny's life. Ronny replies flatly that saving his life wasn't the mission.
In C.S. Goto's Dawn of War trilogy, having discovered reason to believe Rhamah was still alive, the Blood Ravens engage in a deeply risky maneuver in warp, as the only way to retrieve him.
Subverted in Bravo Two Zero, which is Andy McNab's re-telling of the famed S.A.S. mission. The troop of eight men were given strict orders to leave any man who was seriously wounded as it would hinder the mission or their escape if they were compromised. This is actually standard procedure for many British spec-ops. However, McNab goes out of his way to show the soldiers' reluctance to do just that, and just how much they couldn't bear to leave a mate behind. There were several points in which the opportunity arose that they had to leave a bloke behind, but they couldn't bring themselves to do it, and McNab himself says he often wonders about what would have happened if they left the man behind, but whatever the case "you make a decision and get on with it, whatever it is".
Subverted in the Dale Brown novel Warrior Class, where Patrick McLanahan decides to go against orders to rescue two of his downed crewmen, and while he succeeds, gets into serious trouble with the high command for it. However, it's less because they don't care about the crew and more because Patrick nearly started an intercontinental war that could easily have gone nuclear to save them. It's not the first or the last time he does this, either.
Lois McMaster Bujold's novel Diplomatic Immunity. Admiral Vorpatril has this attitude, which was one of the factors leading to the escalation of the diplomatic incident that Miles has to sort out. Vorpatril had been left behind himself, by Miles' father, when Vorpatril was a junior officer during the failed Escobar invasion. Miles realizes that the quaddies have a different perspective on the incident.
"So," said Miles gently, "after we shot up the police station and set the habitat on fire, what did we do for an encore?"
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Moving Pictures has the two dogs, Laddie and Gaspode, set fire to the Odium to destroy the film-creature. When Gaspode's leg goes, Laddie picks him up and carries him, despite Gaspode's protestions that there's no time, and he's just going to get them both killed.
Mustrum Ridcully, Archchancellor of Unseen University lives by this tropes. Ridcully refuses to leave a fellow wizard in danger, even if they're a zombie (Reaper Man), almost totally incompetent at wizardry (Interesting Times), or an ape (The Last Continent).
Subverted in Night. During the march from Birkenau to Auschwitz, anyone who moves too slowly is shot. Rabbi Eliahou can no longer manage to run, and loses his son in the crowd, but is determined to find him. Eliezer declines to tell him that said son abandoned him after seeing him limping, and prays to God for the spiritual strength never to abandon his own father. He doesn't get it, and is ultimately too cowardly to help his dying father.
In Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, Thursday went back to get the wounded against orders. If the press hadn't gotten wind of it, she would have been court-martialed.
The Left Behind book series averts this trope with the Rapture of faithful Christians at the beginning of the series. However, those who are left behind to face the Tribulation and become Christians do get supernatural help from God. Also, by the end of the seven-year Tribulation period, the raptured Christians come back with Jesus Christ in time for the Curb-Stomp Battle of Him versus Nicolae Carpathia and the Global Community army.
Earlier in the book, he also retrieves not just Ron, but the abandoned Gabrielle from the bottom of the lake (although, it turns out she wasn't in any real danger- Harry just took the egg's threat more literally than it was actually meant). This causes him to return last, but after the judges learn of what happened, they award him extra points, giving him the second-highest score in the task, for showing good moral character by being willing to sacrifice the competition to ensure the hostages' safety.
In the Loic Henry's Military Science Fiction book Loar, this his how planet Bihan keeps or buys the loyalty of its spies: If one spy's cover is blown, they'll order as many spies as necessary to blow their own cover and escape with the first spy (they'll still have a few dozen spies left in the place afterwards anyway).
Death to the French: Subverted leading to Dodd's separation from his unit and subsequent adventures that result from him trying to rejoin them.
In Noob, Athéon has to make a point of enforcing this, being the leader of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits guild in a MMORPG in which Continuing is Painful. Otherwise, two of his guildmates would be all too happy to continue while leaving the other behind.
The Finnish soldiers' attitude in The Winter War by Antti Tuuri. For example, a horse gets lifted up from a hole in river ice, under artillery and machine gun fire, to make sure a wounded soldier gets into treatment in time. Also extends to the fallen ones.
In Martin Cruz Smith's Wolves Eat Dogs (the fifth volume of his Gorky Park series), Arkady engages in some mild Snark-to-Snark Combat with a female doctor who served as a Combat Medic in Chechnya. She describes him as "the self-appointed captain of the lifeboat", who has to save everybody. He deadpans that, as a homicide detective, everyone he is supposed to "save" is already beyond help, so he can't be doing that good a job. She then replies, entirely seriously, that while she was in Chechnya, even mortally wounded soldiers were dragged to safety by their comrades - they knew they were dying, but were still grateful to not be left behind. She analogizes that even if Arkady's "patients" are dead, they are still better off if someone is trying to find justice for them.
Alph: We never, ever leave an agent behind, Skampersky. Don't you forget it.
In Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap, three men are unaccounted for after a partial mine collapse. Two come out, one dragging the other. He asks if anyone is still inside, and, directly against orders, an EMT tells him yes, and the miner "shakes off" two people who try to stop him from going in after him.
