Before We Fall

Chapter 8

Italy, November 1943

Rain hit my jacket as I walked across the stage, to where Steve was hiding.

"Hello Steve." I greeted him. He turned around slightly at his name. Then once he noticed me, he fully looked at me. He looked overly surprised to see me.

"Hi." He said back.

"Hi." I said.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Officially, I'm not here at all." I said as I sat down on the edge of the stage. "That was quite a performance."

"Yeah." He signed breathlessly. "Uh, I had to improvise a little bit. Crowds I'm used to are a little more twelve."

"It's my understanding you're America's new hope." I told him. He looked away from me and out at the heavy rain fall. I looked down the side of his face, memorizing it.

"Bonds sales take a ten percent bump in every state I visit." I raised an eyebrow at him. The tension I had noticed in his back as I walked up, worsened.

"Is that Senator Brandit, I hear?" I asked him. His shoulders loosened a bit at my voice, but didn't full ease the tension.

"At least he's got me doing this. Phillips would of had me stuck in a lab." Steve admitted. I pursed my lips at the thought of that. The thought of Steve becoming a test monkey. I looked over his shoulder and saw he had drawn a dancing monkey.

"So these are you're only two options? A lab rat or a dancing monkey? You were meant for more than this, you know." I told him. He gave me a look. "What?"

"You know for the longest time. I dreamed about coming over seas, being on the front lines. Serving my country. Finally got everything I wanted.....and I'm wearing tights." He admitted.

We both turned back as sirens sounded. A medic truck pulled up to the med tent.

"They look like they've been through hell." Steve said. I turned back to him, him still looking behind me.

"These men more than most. Schmidt sent out a force to his army. 200 men went up against him and less than 50 returned. Your audience contained what was left of the 107th. Rest were killed or captured." I told him. He jerked his head to him.

"The 107th?" He asked. His eyes held worry, and fear.

"What?" He jumped up and I followed him.

"Come on." We both were belted by the rain as he led me into a tent. I saw Coronel Phillips sitting at a table, signing papers.

"Coronel Phillips." Steve announced his name. Phillips looked up at him.

"Well isn't the star spangled man with a plan and what is your plan today?" Phillips asked him.

"I need causality list of Wizono." Steve ordered.

"You don't get to give me orders, son." Phillips replied back to him.

"I just need one name. Sergeant James Barnes from the 107th." Steve pleaded to him. Phillips pointed his pen at me, with a stern look of his face.

"You and I are gonna have a conversation later that you won't enjoy." My body stiffened at the threat.

"Please tell me he's alive, sir. B-A-R-""I can spell." Phillips interrupted him. "I've signed more of these condolence letters today that I could count. But the name does sound familiar. I'm sorry."

My heart dropped. It seemed like this Sergeant Barnes was extremely important to him. I looked up at his face and it broke my dropped heart. Steve's face was heart broken but soon turned emotionless.

"What about the others? Are you planning a rescue mission?" Steve asked him.

"Yeah, it's called winning the war." Phillips told him.

"But if you know where they are, why not re-""They're 30 miles behind the lines. Through some of the most fortified territory in Europe. We'd lose more men than we'd save. But I don't expect you to understand that because you're a chorus girl." Phillips interrupted him again.

"I think I understand just fine." Steve's voice was monotone.

"Well then understand it somewhere else. If I read the poster correctly, you have some place to be in 30 minutes." Phillips walked past us. My jaw hardened at how much disrespect I just saw.

"Yes sir, I do." Steve said before walking out. My eyes followed his body until I couldn't see him no more.

"If you have something to say, it would be the best time to keep it to yourself." Phillips said to me. I followed after Steve and saw him packing a bag.

"What do you plan to do, walk to Austria?" I asked him.

"If that what it takes." He replied to me. He stuffed more things into the bag.

"You heard the Coronel, your friend is most likely dead." It hurt saying that to him. But I knew it hurt him more. He glared at me.

"You don't know that." He said.

"If so, he advising a strategy-""By the time he's done that, it could be too late." Steve growled at me as he interrupted me. He walked past me and out of the tent.

"Steve!" I called after him. He threw his bag in the trunk, including the shield. Then he turned to me.

"You told me, you thought I was meant for more than this. Did you mean that?" He questioned.

"Every word." I admitted.

"Then you got to let me go." He said, getting into the truck. I grabbed onto it so he wouldn't leave. I knew he wouldn't try because I knew he wouldn't try to hurt me.

"I can do more than that."