Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

Beginnings

A/N: Big thank-you to all of you who read the last chapters, voted on them and left comments. I really appreciate it.

Less than a week later, they were down to 30. Basic training was far more rigorous and taxing than their previous training. The women did their best to ignore the whispers and mutters, but some of the men purposely spoke loud enough for them to hear it. "The Army's no place for broads." "Should'a stayed home and married."

Some women were quick to silence the critics, whether through words or deeds. Though they couldn't do anything about it when it was their superior officers that voiced their doubts and displeasure.

And nobody was more open about his disgust than Lieutenant Herbert M. Sobel, the CO of Easy Company.

He managed to get every single person in the company to hate - or at least strongly dislike – him already on the first day and reinforced those sentiments a hundred times over every day that followed.

During each inspection, while having them stand at attention for what seemed like hours, he revoked weekend passes left and right, finding faults and citing the most ludicrous infractions. And then he made them run Currahee.

***

"Jesus bloody Christ", Louise cursed, kicking her boots off and yanking her OD shirt over her head simultaneously. "I hate that prick!"

Catherine Wilson, fittingly nicknamed "Mom" by the rest of the women, slid into her PT shorts and replied: "He wants his company to be the best, of course he is going to be tough."

The door to their cabin opened and Irene came in, already in her PT gear.

"Running up that hill won't be that bad", she argued. "It's only 6 miles to the top and back, how hard can it be?" In her defence, she hadn't had to run Currahee yet since she'd been recovering from a badly sprained knee.

"With Sobel?", Ana María Hernandez asked, walking past. "It's a nightmare."

Mia Arricante, who the women had secretly dubbed "The Odd One", laced up her boots and headed towards the door, handing Frances the hair tie she had accidentally dropped.

"Let's just hurry up", she suggested quietly. "Before he decides we're late and punishes us."

***

Irene had to admit that Ana María had been right. Sobel made running up the mountain twice as miserable. At first, while they ran in formation, he asked them a fixed set of questions, always in the same order and always expecting the same replies.

"Where do we run?", he yelled. It had become something of a running joke among the women that Sobel only had two settings: yelling and sneering.

"Currahee!", Easy Company responded as one.

"What's Currahee mean?"

Elizabeth Vaughn shared a look with Theresa while everyone answered: "We stand alone!"

"How far up, how far down?", Sobel continued his questioning.

"Three miles up, three miles down!"

Jessica Helak muttered under her breath: "Imagine that, it's the same length down as it is up." Beside her, Floyd Talbert snorted a breathless laugh.

"Now, what company is this?"

"Easy Company!"

"And what do we do?"

"Stand alone!"