We Happy Few | Band of Brothers

Chapter 30: Bastogne

The snow crunched softly under Annie's footsteps, each one giving away her position just as much as the last, but she didn't care. Bastogne was taking everything Easy had, and then some. There was a shortage of food, water, ammo, warm clothing, and most of all, medical supplies. There was no aid station, there was nowhere to warm up, there was nowhere to get dry, and there was nowhere to escape from the harsh reality that was struggling to stay alive.

The fog was too thick for air cover to be deployed and the men on the ground were spread too thin to actually hold the line should an attack take place. Every day they were hit with German firepower, mostly mortars, and every day they were losing men. 

Annie, Eugene, and Spina spent most of their time making the rounds to the foxholes, checking on the men, offering them words of encouragement, and asking if they had any medkits even though they asked them the day before and the day before that.

Making her way back over to where Spina was digging a foxhole along the line, Annie greeted the shivering, red-nosed medic and started pulling out the supplies she had managed to find, which in total, wasn't a lot. Not long after, Eugene came along and did the same, and he had just about as much as her. 

"You know, 1st Battalion's pulled out of Foy," Eugene stated as the three medics plopped down into the half-dug foxhole to rest their legs for a bit. "Heavy casualties."

Spina scoffed as he adjusted the white band with the red cross on his arm. "So, if they're pulling back, then what the hell are we doing sitting here?"

"Freezing our asses off." Annie's teeth chattered between her words. "Freezing and dying."

Pulling a small package out of his bag, Eugene huffed. "We need morphine, this is all I got. You got extra scissors?"

Both Annie and Spina shook their heads. "1st Sergeant Lipton!" Dike's voice echoed through the forest as he stumbled past the medics. "What's this? Three medics in one hole?"

"Yes, sir," Spina answered, not even caring that the company leader was very clearly not happy with what he was seeing.

Dike placed his free hand on his hip and glared down at the three, his eyes landing on Annie a little longer than the other two. "Well, what's gonna happen to us if you take a hit, huh?"

"Well, we'll all die, and then everyone else will all die, sir." Annie, like Spina, was in no mood for tiptoeing around the incompetent Lieutenant. 

Before Dike could speak again and address the female medic, Lipton came up behind him. "Sir?"

"1st Sergeant, where's my foxhole?" Dike turned to Lipton, his attention no longer on the three medics.

Annie had to stifle a laugh at the insanely stupid question, and even Lipton, who always treated Dike with the utmost respect, had a look of confusion on his face. "It's back here, sir." Lipton pointed in the opposite direction Dike had been walking in. "Maybe you missed it, huh? I'll walk you back, sir. You're a bit close to the line here."

"Goddamnit," Dike muttered as he and Lipton turned and disappeared into the fog. 

Once Annie was sure the two men were out of earshot, she turned back to her fellow medics and let a soft, airy chuckle escape her frozen and cracked lips. "Where's my foxhole?" she repeated, the sound of the words coming out of her own mouth making her laugh even harder. 

Even Eugene and Spina, who were usually too stressed to have any fun, chortled. As a particularly cold gust of wind blew past, the laughter came to a halt in order to re-direct what little energy they had left into shivering and keeping warm. The three sat for a little while longer before standing up and getting back to work. Spina returned to digging and Eugene and Annie headed out to pester more men for medical supplies.