Tuck Everlasting, The Continued Story.

Chapter 19

The sunlight broke through the tree branches, quickly warming Winnie's face. She squeezed her eyes shut, pulling Jesse's arms tighter around herself, forgetting that she was asleep in a fox hole. She could hear the bustle of the soldiers around her, but she tried to ignore them, focusing on the sound of Jesse's steady breathing. Squinting one eye open, she wearily took in the sight of a small toad sitting beside her head. He blinked at her, curiously. Watching her, watching him. "You remind me of a toad I once knew back home." she thought to herself. The toad regarded her with mild interest, before he hopped away in the opposite direction. Winnie closed her eyes again, feeling the warmth of Jesse's breath on the nape of her neck.

The sharp sound of a gunshot suddenly rang out in her ears, and she bolted upright, Jesse quickly doing the same. The gunshot was immediately followed by the sound of a distant explosion. Before Winnie could react, Miles was upon them, pushing them to their feet. "Follow me!" he said, expertly leaping out of the fox hole. Winnie and Jesse obeyed, ducking down as they ran after him. He led them to a pile of sandbags, then pushed them down once they caught up. 

"What are you doing Miles?" Jesse asked, landing roughly on his knees. Miles looked around, watching the soldiers rush to their battle stations.

"You two need to keep a low profile." he said. Winnie realized that Miles was holding a rifle in his left hand, but she had no idea where he had gotten it. "As far as these guys are concerned, you two are civilians." Winnie opened her mouth to protest, but Miles shook his head. "Just. Stay. Low." he demanded. Winnie glared at Miles. She hated being told what to do.

"Miles, you can't expect us to sit here and do nothing!" Jesse protested angrily. Another explosion went off, much closer this time, and Miles rolled his eyes.

"That is exactly what I expect." he said, before quickly turning away to aid the troops. Jesse and Winnie glared at him as he ran off, and then crouched on the balls of their feet, surveying the battle. The soldiers had positioned themselves around various sandbags, and Winnie spotted Jim crouching behind a low black machine gun. Another soldier who looked around the same age as Jim, crouched beside him, feeding Jim's machine gun with magazine rounds. They both looked terrified.

Amidst the gunshots, explosions, and general chaos, Winnie could hear Sargent McGuire on the radio, sending in his position to base camp. She searched for Miles, hoping to find out where he had gone, when a grenade suddenly appeared five feet away from where Winnie and Jesse were crouched. Jesse quickly leaped on top of it, his whole body tense, and Winnie screamed his name, fearing that he would somehow be killed from this. However, it was too late. 

The grenade went off, and Jesse squeezed his eyes shut, as the explosion sent him flying three feet into the air. When he landed, he breathed a sigh of relief, locking eyes with Winnie. Her hands covered her mouth, her eyes wide with concern, and Jesse couldn't help but grin.

"You OK?" he asked, stifling a laugh. Winnie punched him in the arm, shaking her head.

"Am I OK? How about, are you OK? You scared me!" she said. His shirt was black from the explosion, but other than that you would never be able to tell what had just happened. She looked around, making sure that nobody had noticed, but everyone was much too busy with the battle. The enemy had gotten closer, and Winnie could pick out some Nazi soldiers crouching behind trees. She heard a scream, and looked over her shoulder toward where it had come from. A soldier in his mid twenties held his hand to the side of his neck, stopping the blood from gushing freely.

"Medic!" he yelled, falling back to a laying position. A young man in uniform with a red cross on his shoulder cautiously ran around the fox holes until her reached the soldier. He held a medical kit in his hand, and knelt beside the soldier. "Am I gonna die, doc?" the soldier asked, his voice wavering. The medic reached into his kit, looking for tools.

"Don't worry Danny. I got cha." he replied. Winnie watched, her stomach turning into knots. She had to do something. She couldn't just sit here and watch. She turned to Jesse, pleading with her eyes, and he nodded.

"Go." he said. Winnie didn't need to be told twice. She hustled over to the soldier and the medic and knelt down beside him.The medic looked at her, bewildered.

"I'm a nurse." she informed him. He nodded, handing her a thick bandage.

"Hold this to his neck." he said. She obeyed, pressing it to the soldier's neck. She could feel the warm blood trying to seep through, but the medic quickly wrapped medical tape around it three times until he knew that it was secure. He looked at Winnie, expectantly, and she quickly pressed he hand down on the tape, letting the medic tie it. When he finished, the soldier's eyes rolled, and his face was flushed red.

"Doc," he breathed, "Am I gonna be OK?" he asked. The medic reached into his kit and brought forth a small bottle of morphine. He flicked it with his fingers, glancing knowingly at Winnie. Winnie smoothed the soldier's hair out of his face, smiling.

"You're going to be fine soldier." the medic said. "You're probably going to recover in a really nice place! One with ice cream, and pretty nurses." Danny tried to chuckle, but stopped realizing that it caused his pain. The medic administered the morphine into Danny's forearm, and Winnie rubbed his arm, trying to get the blood flowing.

"The bullet just nicked his neck." the medic informed Winnie. "He's going to be fine." He put his tools back into his kit and glanced at Winnie. "Thanks, by the way." She smiled at him in return, when suddenly, they heard someone else call out, "Medic!"

For the next ten minutes, Winnie ran about with the medic, whose name, she found out, was Nick. They did what they could with the wounded men, but she realized that they were running very low on morphine. "What are we going to do?" she asked Nick. Nick finished wrapping a bandage around a soldier's stump of a leg. He shook his head.

"I don't know Winnie." he admitted. "Sargent McGuire called in back up, but so far-" his voice trailed off with the sound of a machine gun firing in their direction. They both ducked down, and Winnie suddenly wondered where Jesse and Miles had gone. Were they safe? 

As she ducked close to the ground, she suddenly felt the earth around her tremble. She poked her head up and gasped as she saw a mighty green tank crash through the tree's beside her. She could tell right away that it was American, and she breathed a sigh of relief. The backup was here.

Soldiers followed the tank, falling in beside the weary men at the sandbags. Winnie glanced around, and quickly caught sight of Miles and Jesse. Jesse crouched beside Miles and fed a machine gun, which Miles had pointed toward Nazi's. 

"Miles let Jesse actually do something." Winnie thought to herself, astonished. She could see that her job with the wounded soldier was finished, so she quietly made her way to Miles and Jesse, kneeling behind them as they released their rounds upon the approaching Nazi's.

"Winnie!" Miles said, when he realized she was there. "I was wondering where you went." Jesse gave her a small smile, before returning his focus to feeding the gun. They continued for a while, until Miles suddenly stopped firing his gun. He looked at Jesse with disbelief. "They are retreating!" he said enthusiastically.

They watched as the gunshots dwindled, and the nazi's retreated in the opposite direction. The backup troops quickly left their position, pursuing the enemy as they ran away, and the three of them watched from behind the sandbag. Winnie smiled, realizing that the battle was almost won. She looked at Miles to see if he was as excited as her, but instead his face was white. Her heart skipped a beat, when she realized that something had happened.

"Miles, what's wrong?" she asked. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched the soldiers run into the woods. Jesse looked at his brother with concern, but Miles breathed heavily, his face still a ghastly white.

"That- that man." he stammered, pointing toward the soldiers. "I know him." Winnie and Jesse exchanged a glance. Of course he would know some soldiers, he had been fighting in Europe for a long time already.

"What are you talking about Miles?" Jesse asked. "Know him from where?" Without acknowledging Winnie or Jesse, Miles began climbing over the sandbags, his gaze never wavering from the direction that the soldiers had gone.

"Gettysberg." he breathed.