Walking up the steps to the second story office building, Jack sighed a little while walking down the hall to Cole's office. It was a slight pain in the ass to find though, the hall was barely lit in the first place. So finding the door was a bigger pain than he had first thought it to be.
Once he did find the door, he wasn't expecting to find the room empty, instead he expected to see a tired man haunched over the desk with a pile of paperwork to fill out involving transfer and replacement orders.
So with no need to really be here for too long, Jack walked up to the clear empty desk and he placed his stacked report on it.
Then as he went to turn around, he saw Cole standing in the doorway with a bigger stack of paper in one hand, and his canteen in the other.
That strong smell of coffee became more noticeable as the two stood there for a moment, looking at each other in the dimly lit room.
"You look like shit Lieutenant, long night huh?" Cole asked before a yawn interrupted what he was planning to say next.
Instead of continuing to ask what he had planned to, he simply moved passed Jack and placed his own stack of paper for resupply and shipment he had to fill out for Carentan here on the desk.
"Yes, sir. It was, I do have my scouting report here as requested from earlier tonight." Jack said as he watched Cole nod his head a little bit before he slumped into his chair. Both of them were tired as hell, and groggy wouldn't even begin to describe it.
"That's.... What I like to hear, you got what I wanted done, done. And without any casualties either which makes things easier." Cole yawned, having to pause momentarily before continuing. Then, he forced himself to sit up straight in his chair as he took a few sips from his coffee filled canteen.
"Go get some rest Lieutenant, I've got word of another attack order coming in around fourteen hundred." Cole said as he picked up Jack's report with interest as he chose to read that first before filling out his shipment requests.
Jack only nodded his head at the order, and without another word, he slipped back into the hallway and descending the steps, going out the way he came in.
*
Jack couldn't remember anything that had happened once he left LT. Col. Cole's office, time felt like a blur and he lost track of it. But, he did feel incredible after waking up, so that was reassuring, plus whatever he was laying on was soft, warm and inviting.
Then once his senses finally came too, and a majority of the grogginess disappeared, he slowly sat up and took his surroundings in. It was a nicely furnished room with cots lining the wall that had sleeping men in them, then the lucky few like Jack here got a nice comfy single bed.
The heavy, brown sulked curtains that were draped across the window was doing a great job at keeping the sunlight out of the room which made it stuffy for one. But still dark at least, dark but uncomfortable, the window wasn't even cracked open to circulate the heavy air.
"Finally awake Jack?" A familiar voice asked, and Jack turned his head to see James sitting across from him in one of the cots against the wall.
A smile cracked on Jack's lips before he shook his head a little and stretched out, "Oh, yes sir Major O'Brian sir! Had one hell of a patrol last night, nearly wiped me out." Jack had answered as he pulled the blanket off of him, and the slightly cooler air rushed to meet his body outside of the blanket.
His brother just rolled his eyes as he rested as Jack found him, stretched out on the cot with his hands behind his head, leaned back against the wall.
"I suspect that you were the one that helped me get here safely last night?" Jack asked as he rubbed his eyes, trying to speed up the process of waking up.
YOU ARE READING
Screaming Eagles
Historical Fiction"You're about to embark on a great crusade..." General Dwight D. Eisenhower had said in his speech to the troops prior to the opening assault on Normandy's shores. However, Jack and James O'Brian never heard that speech, because they were in the air...
