We Happy Few | Band of Brothers

Chapter 18: Carentan

Margot's breathing hitched as she and the rest of Easy Company came upon a lake of flames. More accurately, it was a lake on fire, which sounded like something that could only occur in nightmares. This was no nightmare, however, and that lake was definitely on fire. 

Flames climbed high into the air around and inside the body of water where flaming debris had landed. Vehicles were abandoned, weapons were discarded, and bodies had been left to decay and rot.

As the company came to a halt and word spread that they had yet again lost Fox Company, Margot took the much-needed break to let the pain die down a little and re-adjust the bandage over her wound. The machine-gunner could feel eyes watching her as she tended to the cut on her ribcage, the eyes of Annie and Eugene. She knew the medics were only trying to do their job, but so was she. Her job was to fight with her company and that was what she was doing.

"You doing okay with everything?" Smokey approached his partner and gestured to the tripod, extra ammo, and gun barrels. 

Margot nodded as she carefully lowered herself onto the ground to take a seat. The last few times they had lost Fox Company it had taken a little bit to locate them again, so everyone took the breaks where they could and rested their legs.

A few feet away from the men, Welsh, Nixon, and Winters talked among themselves about the problems that arose when officers crapped out on their training. The Lieutenants were clearly more than tired of losing their brother company over and over again in the middle of the night in enemy territory. 

Annie, who had been silently creeping around Margot for the past five minutes or so, eventually decided to sit down next to her friend and confront her about her injury. "I thought you were gonna pace all night," Margot commented. She knew who had sat down next to her without even having to look.

"I'm worried about you," Annie admitted as she began to rummage around in her medic bag. "Please, at least just let me change the bandage."

Margot shook her head in refusal. "No, save your supplies for when someone really needs them."

"Margot, I know you don't want to hear this, but you really need them." Annie tried with everything she had to convince her friend that her injury was serious.

"Annie, please." Margot held her friends' rapidly moving hands in place and looked her right in the eyes. "I'm fine. Please believe me when I say I'm fine. The pain is already less than it was."

Annie exhaled and pulled her hands back. "You passed out."

"I was exhausted." Margot contributed her fainting spell to the numerous other possible reasons. "I was thirsty. I was hungry. In case you weren't aware, my drop didn't go as smoothly as some others' did."

"What happened out there?" the young medic questioned.

Margot's stare drifted off somewhere far, far away from where she actually was. "I did what I had to do."

●●● 

When Easy and Fox Company finally arrived at Carentan, France on D-Day plus six, the place looked deserted. The faint squeaking of a swinging sign echoed through the air and somewhere in the distance, a dog was barking. 

Turning to Welsh, Winters laid out the plan. "I want you to take 1st straight up the middle, hard and fast. We have to move quickly. I'll be right behind you with 2nd and 3rd."

Moving up the hill so his head just poked up and over the crest in the gravel road, Winters scanned Carentan one last time, his eyes settling on a small cafe. Behind him, Easy Company waited patiently for their commands. When Winters gave the order, Welsh waved for 1st Platoon to follow him and began to run up and over the road into the town. 1st jumped into action, Luz taking his place as radioman right behind Lieutenant Welsh.