Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

Of Punishments and Obstacle Courses

A/N: As always, thank you very much for your reads, votes, favs and comments. I'm really happy that you enjoy my writing :)
Also, please note that my Spanish skills are...well...practically non-existent. I can read it and I can understand a word here and there when I hear it, but I never had Spanish in school so I can't write or speak it. So apologies for any mistakes, feel free to correct them :)

Sobel put them down every chance he got. And if he couldn't find a reason to yell at them and punish them, he invented one. Explanations and excuses were always ignored.

One time, Christenson was forced to repeat all 12 miles of the Friday night march because he had gone against orders and drunk from his canteen.

When Catherine protested that she had told him to do it since he had a bad cold and needed to stay hydrated, the CO chewed her out in front of the whole company before assigning her the same punishment as Christenson.

***

Another time that Sobel was on a war-path, he had three of the women run Currahee late in the evening. The sun had already set when he shouted: "Fall out!", meaning they would only return well after nightfall.

The unlucky three were Jessica, Ana María and Mia. Their offenses? Sneezing, being too short and being too flat-chested, respectively.

The three women were fuelled by their outrage and embarrassment as they jogged up the road to the mountain. The rest of the company, many of them angry on behalf of their comrades, watched them go.

They ran in silence.

Jessica's cheeks and the back of her neck were still glowing from the tirade she had received for not being able to contain a sneeze.

Ana María was cursing their CO in her mind, a storm of Spanish insults and expletives swirling inside her head.

Mia's expression was blank while she focused on her steps in the rapidly dwindling light, trying to ignore the burning clump of shame in her chest.

Darkness fell before they had reached the top, making it twice as hard to make it up the slope of the path that became progressively steeper.

Ana María tripped and barely caught herself when her foot suddenly found a pothole. "Puñeta!", she spat, wiping her hands on her PT shorts.

"Are you okay?", Mia asked, helping her up.

"Fine", the Puerto Rican grumbled.

"I'd be a lot better if I could see where the hell I'm going", Jessica chimed in, slipping on some loose rocks a second later.

***

Reaching the top stone, the three women paused for breath. The only source of light they had was the waning moon.

"Well", Jessica quipped dryly, "if we break our necks, least we don't have to worry about Sobel anymore."

Her two companions huffed in agreement.

Mia squared her shoulders. "Alright", she said. "Let's go."

The first part of their way back down was a disaster. The path was steep there and consisted of dirt, crumbly inclines and gravel. Roots peeked out here and there, nature's perfect trip wires and in the darkness, getting a foothold was a matter of trial and error.

Mia went down hard as Jessica crashed into her from behind when Ana María lost her footing and slid into Jessica, knocking her off her feet as well.