Love You Till The End (Robert Zussman x Reader)

47 - Y/N L/N

December 25, 1944
Christmas Day
The Ardennes, Belgium, Luxembourg

Before we could be relieved and left alone to try to enjoy the rest of Christmas day, we had to walk the German prisoners to a loading zone where they would be taken away by trucks and eventually be placed in P.O.W* camps.

There were a small number of prisoners that surrendered after the bombardment, but until we were asked to search around, we ended up finding more in hiding and most surrendered without giving us any problems. In total, we had rounded up at least 30 German prisoners. 

I walked alongside Zussman who was right next to a German prisoner while Daniels walked behind him since he was the last prisoner in line. We walked slowly, eyeing the prisoner every so often with our guns in hand in case we had to use them.

The line was moving slowly since there were soldiers up ahead patting down each prisoner for weapons or documents that could contain intelligence. I was beginning to feel annoyed since I just wanted to be relieved from watching over the prisoners, but I also knew resting would give us more time to focus on the cold.

Moving at least gets the blood flowing; sitting there just lets the cold attack you even more. Sometimes not even moving helps because we easily get drenched in sweat during tough tasks, such as digging trenches, due to our uniforms and winter coats creating heat. Once we stop moving, we're left with damp clothing that doesn't help against the cold even more and is uncomfortable to wear.

"Wasser, bitte," the prisoner suddenly said as he stopped walking and looked at Zussman. (Water, please.)

"What's he want?" Daniels asked.

"Wasser, bitte," the prisoner said again.

"Here." Zussman removed his gun from over his shoulders and handed the prisoner his canteen.

Before the prisoner could even open the canteen, Pierson came storming over to us and slapped the canteen out of his hands.

"Goddamn it, what are you doin', Zussman?" he asked fiercely as the prisoner quickly got on his hands and knees to grab the canteen.

"Lay off, Sergeant," Zussman said before bending down to pick up his canteen.

"What's that?" Pierson roughly shoved Zussman, making him fall to the ground. He towered over him and asked, "Huh? How's that? Huh? How's that work for ya?"

"Much better."

"You son of a bitch," Pierson muttered, walking closer to Zussman.

"There's no need for this, Sergeant," I suddenly spoke, realizing the words had left my mouth just as Pierson spun around and started walking towards me.

"Oh, there you go, trying to save the day. Make yourself useful by shutting your goddamn mouth," Pierson said through his teeth as he got close to my face. I refused to let him think he scares me, so I didn't break the eye contact we had going on.

"Sergeant." Daniels walked up and put his hand on Pierson's chest, lightly pushing him out of my face.

"Hey, you stay out of this too!" Pierson pushed Daniels' hand away.

All of a sudden, the German prisoner hit Pierson in the head with a rock and began to run away. Daniels was the first to break out in a run after him before the rest of us followed behind.

The prisoner was fast, but Daniels was right on his tail. The terrain we were running on was hilly and full of rocks, but luckily none of us tripped. The adrenaline rush made our legs move faster, but even then we couldn't catch up with one another. Daniels was way ahead of the rest of us while I was outrunning Zussman.