Women of War - A Band of Brothers Story

Spaghetti and more

A/N: Hello my dear readers! So sorry for not updating last week, but I ended up with the same illness that has plagued my brother and I've been a bit of a zombie these past few days... I'm feeling better now, so I decided to post the next chapter :)

As always, I cannot thank you guys enough for all your votes and comments! I'm so happy that you like my writing and if you have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to leave me a comment or send me a message and I'll see about integrating them into the story.

And now, without further ado: On with the story.

Not more than a few days later, Sobel's ruthless training methods reached new heights. Many of them had been surprised to see two gold bars on his collar and everybody expected him to rub their noses in it, but this simply defied description.

"Who in God's name thought it a good idea to promote him?", Irene whispered to Helen, who just shrugged, equally helpless.

Sobel's promotion wasn't the only change of ranks among the officers of Easy Company, though. Lieutenant Richard Winters had been made First Lieutenant the same day. And to test his organisational skills and command potential, Captain Sobel had designated him mess officer.

***

"I can't believe it", Frances gushed, plopping down onto a free spot and digging into her food with unusual fervour. "Spaghetti!"

Theresa shook her head. "Long noodles with something that maybe once was tomato sauce", she corrected. Not that she wasn't eating with just as much enthusiasm as anybody else. After all, a good, actually recognisable meal wasn't something one got to see every day in the Army.

"I don't care", Kathleen dismissed, "compared to the other stuff, this is delicious!"

Their joy and appetite were very short-lived unfortunately, because not even two minutes after the last person had found a seat, the door flew open and Captain Sobel, the Black Swan himself, barged in.

"Order's changed, get up!", he bellowed.

Everyone surged to their feet, some in the midst of chewing. Maxine hastily swallowed her mouthful of spaghetti, very nearly choking on it.

"Lectures are cancelled", the CO continued, "Easy Company is running up Currahee! Move! move!"

As they rushed out of the mess hall, Catherine could only think one thing: This is going to be a disaster.

***

And it was. People were throwing up everywhere, stumbling and staggering as their bodies were forced to reroute all energy from the digestive process to their muscles. To complete the picture of misery and add insult to injury, Sobel continuously bombarded them with mocking jeers, singling out soldiers and yelling taunts at them for the whole company to hear.

"Not looking so tough now, Fields!", he called, running alongside Louise, who was trying to coordinate running, breathing and bringing up her lunch. "You still think a woman can be a sniper?"

The young British woman viciously spat out another mouthful of bile and stubbornly kept her gaze trained on the person in front of her. She had half a mind to vomit onto his shoes. Luckily, Sobel decided to move on to another soldier so he didn't catch the hate-filled glare she shot at his back.

"What are you doing here, Helak?! Women will never be paratroopers, they do not have the right disposition!"

"You're a washout, Private Hoobler! You should pack up those ears and go home!"

"Getting tired, Vaughn? Huh? What about you, Griffith? You want it to stop? It can be over right now!"