German-Jewish

Chapter 6

This is short, but I think its okay because its not a bad ending and plus I already have the next chapter ready! Enjoy!

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                It's been a good three weeks since we left Aachen. We've been clearing the nearby forest to allow tanks to get through.

Zussman and I were walking back to the tent to eat lunch. "We're not terrible far from my hometown, you know," I commented.

"Really?"

"Yeah," I said softly and took his hand in mine.

"We're a thing?

"Yeah," I said again. "Just... not publicly."

The next thing we did was take Hill 493. That was... something. I was told to go with Zussman, Aiello, and Pierson and no matter what anyone said, Pierson couldn't be deterred. We needed reinforcement and people to cover us, but he wouldn't listen. It ended up getting Aiello hurt. He would live, it wasn't deathly, but he had to be in a hell of a lot of pain.

He'd also taken all of us and the second platoon. A lot of people got hurt. Things got pretty heated between Turner and Pierson, to say the least. Then again, what else was new?

We'd done everything else like we were supposed to and it still wasn't going well. We were somewhat close to the end (no matter what the ending was going to be) when I could hear someone yelling about how he wouldn't make it. That wasn't unusual, but the voice was too familiar. It was Turner. Everything was going wrong right now.

"Get out of here, I'll hold them off," Turner said seriously.

"No!" Daniels yelled. Me and Pierson dragged him away while Zussman and Stiles helped Turner up. "No! We can't leave him!"

"Daniels, we have to leave!"

"We can't leave him!"

"It doesn't matter. We have to!" We kept dragging him away.

As a result, Daniels got promoted. "It's because he can easily mold Daniels. He knows Daniels isn't going to stand up against him like Turner did," Stiles said. Right now it was just me and him in the tent. It was so cold that I drank my coffee so fast that I burned my tongue because I thought it'd freeze before I actually drink it.

"Just let him have this," I said. "He didn't ask for it, that's for sure. And who knows what Pierson will be like now. I understand where he comes from, but he doesn't have to be an asshole."

At this point, it's been six weeks since Turner's death and its Christmas Day.

That night, I looked at the "Christmas Tree" they made. It looked like shit, but everything around here does. We sat around a campfire. Daniels made some sort of toast to Turner, and Aiello was being nasty about Daniels being promoted. Pierson had been drinking, which couldn't be good. He was being himself since Turner's been gone, and the man I once respected and understood was slipping away.

Eventually I'd had enough of everyone being awful to each other that I went to go to bed. Daniels followed me. He and I ended up talking for a while.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," I replied and wrapped my blanket around me, along with a second one I managed to take from someone who wasn't using it anymore. I hated the stealing, but I had to.

"How were you able to just leave Turner the way we did? I ain't saying it was a wrong thing to do, but obviously I've had hard time with it."

I looked at him for a moment, unsure how to answer. His eyes seemed a lot duller than they used to. "I suppose that practice makes perfect," I shrugged. "I've had to make decisions like that in my life, so I think I've just had too much practice."

"I hope it's something I never perfect," he said quietly and looked at his hands.

"I hope the same for you," I said and started to lie down on my cot.

"Thanks."

I was almost asleep when Zussman came into the tent. This seemed to be a common theme: him interrupting my sleep.

"You ready to cuddle for warmth, boys?"

"Oh, yeah," I groggily muttered, "I love being in the middle of this man-sandwich."

"The finest man-meat in camp is laying right next to you, sweetheart," He said jokingly and put a hand on my hip while inching closer to me. "You know I love being big spoon."

"You guys are so gross," Aiello groaned. "Get a fuckin' room!"

"As soon as you three leave it's all ours," he retorted.

I rolled my eyes and we all got pretty close. "If your hard-on hits me all the way over here, though, I will throw you into a river," Aiello said.

I shook my head and buried my face into my pillow.

"I'm humbled by your expectations," Robert replied.

"Oh my God," I groaned, "go to sleep!"

They kept talking. I hit Robert in the side. "Ah, damn, that was my bad side."

"Then you'll lean to shut the hell up," Stiles muttered on my other side.

"Jesus Christ, go to sleep!" Daniels shouted.

These boys are like children ata sleepover.