Humanity of the Broken [ Band of Brothers ] 2

SIXTEEN

It seemed the only time Alice had a chance to talk to anyone for more than a brief moment was in the evening. The numbness, the inability to cry she'd experienced after the deaths of Skip and Alex, still hadn't lifted. George, who Alice learned had actually seen them get hit, took most of the day by himself. But he did speak briefly to Malarkey, to check in on his friend. She decided to do the same.

The waiting infuriated her. Foy lay a few hundred yards away across the field. They had to go there. Why the hell they couldn't go there now, Alice couldn't figure out. In her brain, she knew it had to do with support and intel, but the fact remained that the longer Easy and the rest of Second Battalion sat in the treeline, the more people would die from artillery barrages. The Germans had them zeroed, and somehow knowing that made everything ten times worse.

By 2000 hours, Alice figured Malarkey would've finished seeing to Second Platoon and probably gotten himself back to his foxhole. Alice yawned as she went to find him. After a brief coughing bout, she nearly screamed in frustration. Earlier that day, Gene had managed to give her one of two doses of penicillin he had received. They could only hope it would knock out what Gene said was probably a nasty case of pneumonia.

The crunching snow beneath her boots reminded her of how cold she felt with every step. It hadn't snowed in nearly a week which meant the previous layer had now been mixed up with dirt and tree bits, somehow even less appealing than a fresh blanket of snow. Alice sighed. Then she coughed, falling to her knees against a tree.

"Warum ich? Scheisse!" Alice heaved, trying to breathe. Her eyes watered as she continued to rattle off German curses. "Fick dich, Hitler." She sputtered again, trying to breathe. "Ich hoffe du stirbst ängstlich. Und, ich hoffe du stirbst alleine." With half a scream of anger, she grabbed a small but thick fallen branch and hurled it off into the forest.

She meant it, too. As Alice lay her head back against the tree truck, desperately trying to get enough oxygen, she tried to calm down. Anger pulsed through her. Suddenly, though she couldn't cry, she could scream. And she would've, if she knew it wouldn't wake up all of Easy and half the town of Foy.

"Someone pissed you the fuck off," said Liebgott.

Alice opened her eyes. Lieb looked down at her with the stupid smirk he always had plastered on his face. Taking the biggest breath she could manage without starting another fit of coughs, Alice tried to calm herself.

He picked up a stick. For a moment he looked at it before tossing it aside. Then Liebgott turned back to her. "So, who's gonna die scared and alone?"

"The mighty Führer."

Lieb's smirk only grew at her furious sarcasm. He shook his head. "One can only hope, right?" When she nodded, chewing at her lip, his smile dropped a bit. "That cough is fucking ugly. Does Doc have something for it?"

"He gave me some medicine today." Alice sighed. After a brief pause, she heaved herself up with the help of the tree. "Hopefully it works." Then she turned to him. "What are you doing out here?"

He shrugged. "Needed to stretch my legs."

"Well be careful," Alice told him. "Don't take any unnecessary risks."

He let out a sharp laugh. "Says the woman wandering around a frozen battlefield with fuckin' pneumonia."

Alice just sighed. But with a frown she nodded. "Go on then. I'm heading to a foxhole. You should too."

"Yes ma'am," he said with a wink.

Alice half huffed, half laughed at his sass. But when he turned and walked away she just took another breath and steeled herself to keep going. She knew Malarkey's foxhole wasn't too far away. And indeed, after walking another few minutes, she found him sitting quietly alone in his foxhole.