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Riley walked towards the officers that were present during their attack on the German lines. While approaching the chatting men, she unbuttoned the pocket of her army green jacket and slipped the tin container back in its place, two pills sitting in her hand. She placed them on her tongue and swallowed them with no problem, her body slowly starting to react towards the medicine. Her anxiety was silencing and her heartbeat slowed down, there were no unnecessary thoughts screaming in her head anymore. She had been relying on this medicine ever since she started living in France and hasn't stopped since then.
"Wilson, over here," Harry Welsh said in a whispery voice. He was wandering a bit around, walking from fox hole to fox hole. The officer was just talking with his men, trying to make sure that they we're all alright and ready to sleep.
Riley crawled towards the edge of the hole and lifted herself over the dugout place. Her long hairs fell down the sides and hung there, softly brushing against the mud. She quickly took the strands between her fingers and locked them underneath the collar of her clothes, keeping them away from the dirt. Showers weren't easily accessible, so Riley tried her best to keep herself as clean as she possibly could.
"Harry, Riley." Winters tapped her shoulder softly and motioned with his head that she should follow him, Welsh staying close behind. She nodded at his demand and waved friendly at Blithe before crawling on her feet. He whispered a sweet 'goodnight' even though he knew that she wouldn't get a lot of sleep. He was thankful for her help and showed it quietly by always greeting her or smiling at the young woman when she passed him.
"S2 said the Germans only left a company to defend Carentan, the rest pulled out last night."
"I knew that town was too easy," Harry mumbled.
"They regrouped south of town. May have been going to a counterattack when we ran into them here. Strength unknown."
"I might have an idea about the strength." Riley took an opened envelope out of her shirt and motioned that they had to sit somewhere, so that she could examine it calmly. She needed peace to read all the clues between the lines and work her way with the code that she made with all the groups she was working with.
"Got much of a limp," Harry stated while looking at Winters' wounded leg.
"I'll survive."
"How is it?"
"Hurts"
"War is hell!" Welsh sat himself down on a fallen tree and patted on the empty space next to him, Riley and Winters taking that free spot.
The young girl started to unfold the letters and gave the two maps she got to the lieutenant next to her. A red colored pencil rolled out of the envelope and she started using it to draw some circles around important words or numbers.
"You have to flip the map with the markings on it over and then turn it 90 degrees to the right," she explained to Winters, helping him with the papers in his grip. The man did what he was told and waited for the next instructions she was deciphering. Riley took out the lighter she normally used for her cigarettes and pushed the button so that a flame would light above the wick. She then asked for the maps and put the flame underneath the two papers, the red pencil lines now visible through both of them.
"Can someone hold it for me?" Harry took the lighter from her hands and Winters helped him by holding the maps just like she did. Riley drew over the red lines and the two men started to understand what she was doing. A clear path was now sketched over the roads, a path only the people who knew about the codes could draw.
"These arrows show the positions of the Germans. This is the symbol of something that you have to avoid because it is too crowded with Krauts. You see this? That's probably a coffee stain because the person who send us this was very tired from all that hard work," she laughed, pointing at the brown circle in the corner of the paper.
"Medic!"
"They're calling for you," Harry said before placing her hand on his shoulder and helping her to stand on her feet again. She then put the papers in one of her pockets and ran towards the scream of a wounded soldier.
"What the hell are you doing? That's Talbert." She recognized the voice of Liebgott in the distance and hurried even more to get towards them. Riley noticed another person running, he also had the medic band tied around his arm, just like hers only a bit older than the one she got.
"I thought he was a Kraut."
"It's okay, Smith. You didn't mean to hurt him." Riley pushed him down in his fox hole and stood in front of him, making sure that he couldn't look at the wounds he had made on Talbert. She took his hand between hers and slowly brushed over his skin with her thumbs. She didn't say a word, Riley was listening to whatever the men behind her were saying. She heard how Joseph was worrying, asking Talbert if he could breathe and demanding the soldier to look at him, so that the medic could aid his wound.
"Get some rest, private," Riley said to Smith after the medics brought Talbert to the hospital. She had been able to calm him down. He was already resting with his eyes closed, but she noticed his rapid breathing and knew that wasn't sleeping. He couldn't fall asleep, not with the amount of guilt he was experiencing.
"Riley, come on. I have to bring you back to your car." Liebgott stretched out his arm for her to intertwine hers with, a habit they've built through the short time that they've known each other. She waved a last goodbye to the sleeping soldier in his foxhole and then went with Joseph towards the place she came from.
"You really are a magnet for wounded people, aren't you?" she asked him quietly.
"Who, me?"
"Yes, you." She chuckled silently, her beautiful laugh echoing in his mind. Joseph shook his head with a smile on his lips, a smile created by the presence of the young lady.
"You're more around the wounded than I am."
"I'm a learning to become a medic, Joe. It's kind of my job."
"Well, you're doing a great job. Muck said that thanks to you, Blithe can see again," Joseph complimented.
"I just calmed him down, but Winters was the one who had done most of the work. He Blithe's officer, so his support means more to him than mine."
"Fuck, Riles. You really can't take a compliment, can you?" She pushed him softly against his arm with a laugh escaping her soft lips. Joseph laughed as well, but did also notice how Riley was hiding her hands in the pocket of her jacket and didn't answer on his question. Instead she started asking him more about Talbert and who he was, since she didn't really know him yet and always tried to understand somebody's personality more.
