Charade (Band of Brothers)

" SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT "

It was nothing like the many practice jumps Easy had completed over the English countryside. The aircraft shook so violently from side to side that half of the men were picking themselves off the floor, only to be thrown down again in the barrage of flak and anti-aircraft fire the Germans were hurling at them. From what little Kate could see out of the opening in the plane's walls, it was obvious they were merely hundreds of feet above the ground. As the fire increased, the pilots split off from the formation, evading the drop zone completely, even if it placed the paratroopers in peril. Upon the order of, "stand up, hook up," Kate grappled at the sides of the fuselage to stand up straight and fasten her chute. Beads of sweat formed along her brow as she heaved under the hundred pounds of gear on her webbing, leaving little opportunity for her to worry about the leap into the darkness. For now, she just wanted to get out of this god-forsaken aircraft, which, as far as she was concerned, was her express ticket to a fiery and wasted death. The air was ripe with the smell of vomit, sweat, and fear, and heavy with the heat of two dozen apprehensive bodies. The plane barreled to one side as one of the wings was hit, causing a tangible upheaval in the restlessness of the men, who were all raring to get out just as Kate was. The tension shifted as the first man leaped into the night, succeeded immediately by the next man, and the next, and the next. Kate barely had a few seconds to comprehend it as she was hit with a wave of fresh air. The pressure in her ribcage was relieved for a split second as the man in front of her fell away, and no longer crushed from both sides, she took a hasty breath. Before she could completely exhale, the momentum of the men in the plane, moving not one by one, but as a single unit, pulled her out of the fuselage and into the burning night.

Kate had uncharacteristically kept her eyes squeezed shut as she exited the aircraft. The air around her was thick with smoke, and the din of hundreds of Dakota engines and anti-aircraft fire overwhelmed her senses. Her pants were sagging under the dozens of pounds of equipment strapped to them, but, unfortunately, not for long; the wind resistance whipped away a few of the clasps fastened to her legs. Still, Kate refused to open her eyes and check exactly what had been lost. Upon the violent jolt of the parachute opening, however, Kate fluttered her eyes open and was met with a breathtaking sight. For miles and miles in front of her, fields were lit up with muzzle flashes and the burning fuselages of an alarming amount of C-47s. Fires tore through hedgerows where the flaming debris had landed. For a moment, Kate actually believed she was descending into hell. In the opposite direction, the black expanse of the sea was much closer than she had anticipated. The fleets of ships that she had seen from the sky were no longer visible. Whether that was due to the darkness, or because they were simply too far away, Kate didn't know. What she did know, however, was that she was descending fast into a patch of shrubbery by the edge of some farmland. Scanning the fields for enemy movement, Kate tore a hand away from the risers and felt for her rifle. To her relief, it remained attached to her side. As long as she had that, she would survive - she was sure of it. It would seem luck was on her side - as far as she was aware, the small area that she was about to drop on was free of movement. Her adrenaline had fully nullified the drowsy effect of that air-sickness pill from before, so with keen instincts, she straightened her legs as the ground rushed up to meet her.

Shit!

The ground was much softer and much closer than Kate had anticipated, sending her crashing through the undergrowth. She tore through a sleeve and sustained some scratches on one of her cheeks as she finally came to a halt at the base of a small tree. Perhaps she had even hit her head on its trunk - it was all a blur to her. It was as though all the training jumps she had been through - and aced - were from a different lifetime. Kate knew it was silly, but she was embarrassed to have screwed up her landing so bad, and hoped none of her fellow soldiers had seen from afar. It seemed as though she was completely alone, though, and after her initial relief, she realized that this was certainly not a stroke of luck. As she ceased her shuffling, the silence immediately around her was deafening. The gunfire and engine noise from afar was muted in her terror as she realized that she had no idea where she was. The Dakotas had turned the light on so far from the drop zone that Kate was struggling to picture her position on the many maps she had studied.