ESO SOLDADO

Part Nine - Why We Fight

April 11, 1945 – Thalem, Germany

Liebgott, Perconte, Webster, George, Bull, and Rene sit on a top floor of a building, the placement, and the lack of a roof, giving the group a perfect spot to watch the Germans clean up their town. George speaks around his cigarette, staring at the townspeople cleaning up the town, as three men begin playing instruments, "tell you one thing about the Krauts – they sure clean up good."

"Yeah, all you need's a little Mozart."

Rene turns around, as Nixon walks up, standing next to him. "Beethoven."

The men's heads quickly turn towards Nixon, "sorry, sir?"

"That's not Mozart. That's Beethoven."

One Month Earlier – Strurzelberg, Germany

"Rene."

The sound of Speirs' voice causes Rene to look up from his gun as he puts the last piece of it back together, "Sir?"

"Take a walk with me?" Rene nods as he gets up, setting his rifle down on his cot before turning and following Spiers out the door.

The two are walking in silence for a moment until Rene breaks it, "where are we going, sir?"

Speirs glances at Rene, "to get some of my stuff from Janovec." Rene nods, silence taking the two again. Speirs glances at Rene again, before he looks forward, "I got word that you got after another replacement today."

Rene makes a face as he takes a deep breath, clearly hesitant to talk to Speirs about it. He glances at Speirs who raises an eyebrow, causing Rene to nod his head slowly, "yes, sir."

"You hit him with a pack of cards."

Rene scoffs, "yeah, and he's lucky I didn't hit him with anything else."

Speirs sighs, "Bean, I understand your frustration, but you can't just throw a deck of cards at every replacement who upsets you. This is getting out of hand," Rene scoffs, causing Speirs to scoff, "this is the fifth one this week, and it's Wednesday."

Rene stops, Speirs following, the two facing each other, and Rene sighs, his voice soft, and exasperated, "he told me he was bored, sir." Rene scoffs, his anger now showing through it "he's goddamned lucky I didn't fucking shoot him to cure his fucking boredom."

Speirs' has a ghost of a smile on his face, as he shakes his head, amusement clear in his voice, "you can't shoot a replacement."

Rene tilts his head, deadpanning, "no shit, sir." Rene smirks, "that's why I threw a deck of cards at him." The two begin walking again, as Rene lets out a breath, "I didn't know what else to do, sir. I was getting annoyed. He wouldn't shut up for the past hour. What was I gonna do, just let him keep talking?"

"I understand, Bean. But maybe for you, let's not go straight to violence."

"You think I went straight there?"

"I know you did. Especially with a replacement."

Rene shrugs, "must be the only thing I go straight for."

Spiers gives Rene a smirk before he lets out a soft, "ha," surprised he understood the joke. He shakes his head as Rene shrug as Speirs opens the door to the building, they're in front of, calling out, "Janovec?" The two move through the house, walking up the stairs as Speirs calls out again, "Janovec!" Speirs pushes open the door he's in front of, walking into the room. Rene follows him, snickering as he takes in the scene in front of him.