A Brand New Hope (Band of Brothers)

*-The Day the Innocence Died-*

The plane was all that Ricky could hear, other than her own heart beat. She felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her chest. She could almost feel the feelings of Judas who was beside her, sleeping. Ricky looked up at Brice, who was going through is medic bag. Oliver was beside him, eyes glued in front of him, his hands running up and down his legs. 

They were getting closer, Ricky could feel it. She clutched the Star of David and the wooden cross tightly in her hand, whispering a small prayer. She was so scared for her fate, for what could happen to her brother, mother, and father. Her family was scattered away from each other. Her brother was somewhere in the sky, heading for Normandy to help with the beaches. Ricky was in a plane going over Europe to Normandy. Ricky and Eugene were going to the same place, but they would be miles away from each other, fighting their own battles. Ricky's father was somewhere in Germany, suffering and being tortured. And her mother. Her poor, innoccent mother was in Chicago all alone, suffering by herself just as the rest of her family was. 

"It's going to be okay, Ginger." Judas whispered in her ear, Ricky nodding at the sentence and closing her eyes once again. She would be okay. 

Suddenly, Ricky heard noises that sounded like thunder. But it wasn't thunder. It was bombs. Bullets. They had finally come to it. War. The red light soon turned on, and Ricky went into solider mode. It was time. 

"Get ready!" Winters' voice bellowed through the plane. "Stand up!" the Paratoopers stood up instantly. "Hook up!" Ricky hooked up her hook to the line above her. "Equipment check!" 

Ricky felt Brice making sure she was all set to jump behind her while Ricky checked up to see if Malarkey was ready to go. 

"Sound off for equipment check!" Winters yelled. The line went down, men shouting their numbers out over the explosions. 

"Six okay!" Brice shouted, patting Ricky on the back. 

"Five okay!" she shouted with everything she had. 

"Four okay!" Oliver continued. 

"Three okay!" Judas shouted. 

"Two okay!" 

"One okay!" Winters yelled. As soon as he stopped shouting, in almost an instant, they entered the world of war. They were here.

The plane shaked and bounced as bombs exploded all around the plane. Ricky's eyes went wide with horror as she saw an entire plane split in half, the back of it dissapearing into the night. Those boys never even made it off the plane. They died without knowledge that they were ever going to win the war. Ricky stood with determination. She was ready to fight. She was ready to kill and survive. At an instant, the plane tilted right, avoiding being crashed into by another falling plane. The plane was getting lower and lower, and soon they weren't going to be needing any parachutes at all. Then, at once, the light flashed green. 

"Let's go!" Winters shouted before dissapearing into the raging night. Another man went, and then Ricky watched as Judas jumped. And then Oliver. She prayed that she would see them again. And then it was her turn.

"Pour toi, papa." she whispered. And then she was gone. Ricky counted silently in her head, bombs going off all around her, and than her body jerked up, and she was decending out of the sky. She opened her eyes, her hands on the risers, and looked around. Ricky was surrounded with hell. Planes were going down, parachutes were falling from the sky. She gulped as she saw a Paratrooper's chute get torn through, and then stared wide eyed as the man dissapeared from view. He was surely dead. 

Ricky looked down, and noticied she was coming towards a tree line fast, and she directed herself so she wouldn't get stabbed by the branches, but than something else happened. Her own chute got shot through, and Ricky went hurdling towards the ground, crashing through the trees, and then falling hard on the ground below. She got caught on a few branches along the way down to break her fall, but it still hurt. Her chute was gone completely, and her leg bag was no where in sight. She still somehow had her pack with her. The chute must've ripped off the risers. She quickly tore everything off, equipted her sniper rifle, and she headed off towards the trees, determined to find her way to the DZ, which she clearly missed.