I was one of five women chosen to serve our country, fighting side by side with the men, and only some of us had come home. Being surrounded by friends and enemies, having to choose who you can save, who you can love, and how to survive is something...
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The ordered plan should have been easy for each Company to follow but for some reason, the night training for the officers in the other Companies was lacking. We continually lost track of Fox Company, who led the march through the marshes and swamps. Every time they hit a rough patch in the path, they'd take a while to push through. Once they were through, however, they hauled tail as fast as they could away from that position, ignoring the obvious fact the rest of us still had to get through it.
When we cleared the marsh and its bordering hedges, we lost Fox Company once more. I watched as a frustrated Winters kept calm, despite the clenched jaw and rigid posture, in front of all of us. He whispered something to Welsh who in turn spoke to Lipton. Tensions were rising in the ranks of the officers and it put the rest of us on edge.
Lipton slowly jogged past all of us, quietly ordering, "Dig in, guys. Get those machine guns ready. We're going to be here for a while until we can track down F Company."
Some of the men groaned, shoulders slumping forward as they turned to follow their orders. Sisk murmured, "Again?"
It didn't take us long to get situated - by this point, we had this routine down for as many times as we had to do it. As we waited to hear about Fox Company's location, Lipton plopped down next to me, Gordon, and Webster. Within moments of him sitting next to us and releasing a heavy sigh, a nearby German MG-42 fired a few rounds off, just a few feet above our heads, causing everyone to flatten against the ground.
"Gordon," Lipton's voice hissed, catching the man's attention, "set up your gun facing in the direction of that gun," he motioned in the general direction he believed it to be, "We may have to tell them that we're not defenseless out here."
Gordon rearranged his weapon, and in the dead silence of the night, he pulled the bolt twice, loading the machine gun. I cringed at the sound of the bolt as it echoed loudly across the silent night. Lipton scoffed, eyes widening, "Geez, you could probably hear that half a mile away!" We waited for the next shot from the MG-42 with bated breath but it never came. Lipton whispered to Gordon, "Let's hope that was enough to scare them for now."
Word filtered down to us regarding the location of Fox Company -where they were waiting up ahead for the rest of us. We packed up our things and pressed onward to catch up. The night seemed to never end and the lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll on most of us. We navigated the path set for us and eventually, our trail took us through some heavy tree cover.
Our lead scout, Carson, stopped dead in his tracks, raising his rifle instinctively. Every man behind him stopped, some letting out a startled gasp as they raised their weapons. Cautiously, I peered over some of the men's shoulders to try and see what was going on.
Peering out of the darkness of the forest, sitting on a small tree stump, and leaning against one of the tall trees, was a German soldier with his rifle resting across his lap, aimed directly at us. Carson whispered, "Why doesn't he shoot and just get it over with?"
