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"Most days, I am a museum of things I want to forget." -E.E SCOTT.
"IT'S GOING TO GET BUSY, DOC!" Those were the first words Charlie remembered on the day of Christmas.
Rumbling was heard on the line, and Charlie and the men watched as artillery danced from the trees and out into the open. "Hold your fire, boys! Don't let them draw you out!" Lipton encouraged.
Charlie blocked out the rest of the encouragement and drifted into her mind. What the hell were we going to hit those things with? We don't have tanks.
They began to fire toward Easy, and all hell broke loose. Charlie thought it was no use in firing her weapon if they didn't have anything remotely the same. So instead, she went to Smokey's foxhole for grenades. "Smokey! Got some explosives on you?" She jumped down, searching around for anything that could be useful. "I sure do, Charlie. Right in my pack-"
Smokey stopped when a bullet went straight through him, and he slowly dropped to the ground spilling the hot coffee he was making onto his trousers. "Smokey's hit! Medic!" Charlie yelled out, attempting to hold him up. Charlie grabbed his arms and dragged him out of the hole with the help of Mo Alley. Doc Roe was there in an instant.
Smokey lay there as still as a rock, but his eyes darted to his close friend. "Hi, Mo," was all he said. "Smokey!" Doc called out, ripping open his jacket. "I can't feel my legs," Smokey called out, letting a few tears slip from his eyes.
"My foxhole, get the plasma!" Gene demanded to Mo, who complied quickly. "Here they come!" "Machine guns, open fire!" "Doc, we gotta get out of here," Charlie said quickly, looking back at the chaos. "Lip! Take over for me for a sec and help out the doc!" Charlie yelled for the Sgt. Lipton was there shortly after, and Charlie reached for Smokey's pack once more.
Sure enough, he had a few grenades he had just been saving for something like this. "Shit," Charlie said, fumbling with it in her hands. Charlie ran forward and held her weapon in the other hand, breezing by the men. She watched one of the tanks get stuck in a pile of dirt, and Charlie took that as an opportunity. "Incoming!" Charlie yelled. Some of the men ran out of the way as she pulled the latch on the explosive and tossed it into the neck of the tank.
"Go! Go! Get the hell away!" Charlie shouted as they all ran farther away from the tank. She barely missed the tank's heat as it blew up from the grenade. Charlie wasted no time in returning to the Jeep that Roe had summoned. "Charlie, go with Doc! We'll take care of this," Lip shouted over the loud noise. "Lip-" "Charlie, go! You might not get another chance to see Jude anytime soon! Now go!" Lipton shoved her towards the Jeep and watched as the girl finally complied and slid in next to Roe. Smokey was on the stretcher strapped in, still groaning.
