Oh Suzannah, Don't You Cry For Me

Chapter Forty-One: Runnin'

Song title is from Adam Lambert's Runnin'.

Chapter Forty-One: Runnin'

Day 3

Two Germans spotted them.

A young couple, probably too young for their parents to trust them being alone together, caught Richard, quite literally, with his pants down when he took a bathroom break early in the morning.

The few seconds he locked eyes with the young man of the couple froze him in the longest and most awkward moment of his life. Like most people, he valued privacy when using the bathroom. The army had almost completely quashed any privacy by forcing men to shower and use the bathroom in open places. It still bothered him, though, and long before he found out Suzie wasn't a man, he understood why the young soldier wrapped a towel around her when showering. He almost felt jealous of the nurses—and Suzie who used the nurses' showers whenever possible—having much cleaner and more secluded bathrooms. Ladies always got better treatment from the brass, which he supposed made sense but he still couldn't help the sting of envy.

Ironically, their lakeside camp offered more privacy than the shower tents, even though guards would've prevented unwanted attention from wandering into the 358th's camp. Having only three people, they couldn't always stay on high alert, especially when only two of them rotated out guard duty to let Bucky recover from whatever ordeal he had experienced.

The young man's girlfriend let out a loud gasp, prompting her boyfriend to break eye contact to shove her behind him. The shocked expression of the young lady granted Richard a chance to hoist up his pants and dash toward their camp. Any American soldier near a German town would scare the citizens, so he assumed the couple must've run away to alert the proper authorities about a possible American invasion.

In hindsight, they should've taken more time to set up a more secluded camp further away from the town. The trees and their false sense of security had lured them in when they all wanted a break from marching for several hours straight. Now, they would pay the price for making an important decision while exhausted and hungry.

"We need to leave," Richard announced, bursting into their tiny camp. No fire burned because smoke would alert unwanted attention to their location, so Suzie and Bucky snuggled under a blanket to conserve warmth. Thank goodness she had finally calmed down enough to keep watch for half of the night because Richard didn't know if he could pull an all-nighter again.

Suzie shot to her feet, startling Bucky who sat up eyes half-closed and hair a complete mess from using Suzie's backpack as a pillow.

"What happened?!" Suzie shouted and reached for her gun.

Richard took a step back and held up his hands. "Woah, easy. We're not under attack." He waited for her to set her gun down before elaborating. "Two German citizens saw me. I think they'll either keep quiet or tell their authorities."

"Let's not wait around to find out," Suzie said. She snatched the blanket from Bucky who pouted at the sudden lack of warmth and started rolling it up.

Richard took down their truck canopy tent, folded it into a rough square, and shoved it deep into his bag. Bucky stumbled half-asleep to water the trees, leaving Suzie and Richard to pack up their camp.

Everything organized and tucked away in minutes, the trio headed out. Conscious of the rising sun bringing the potential of more German citizens waking up to start their day, they stuck to sideroads and treelines and hid whenever a car passed.

They tried to follow the river, but it snaked and curved and broke into smaller tributaries, turning them around and making it feel like they walked in circles. Over open fields, up small hills, and down the sloping banks of creeks. Tall grass in the plains swished along to their marching, and marshy wetlands squelched and tugged at their feet.