The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

37 | battle of bloody gulch

" Onward then, to glory and some such nonsense."

- Brandon Sanderson, Words of Raidance

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The following morning, brought a warm, humid heat, and the twittering of bugs that lay in the hedgerow and flooded out fields. It was D-Day plus 7, and the battle at Carentan felt long behind them. Lizzie and Gene had gotten back late in the night after taking Tab to a field hospital, and making sure he was evacuated to safety. 

Lizzie sat next to Gene and Luz in a foxhole, where her and Gene were able to gather their wits and the supplies. Lizzie's hair was in a low messy bun, with some hairs framing her face, as she felt the sweat begin to encase her body. She had trouble sleeping last night after the whole thing with Tab, even thought it had been an honest mistake. Still, hearing the cries of terror weren't exactly what she hoped to fall asleep to last night. Not too far away sat Welsh with a handful of the NCOs, going over multiple plans it seemed. She couldn't exactly hear what they were saying, but she supposed that if the NCOs of Easy knew, that Easy would be in good hands. 

Hazel had been escorted away from the front lines by that of Lieutenant Winters, as she sat with the rest of the mortar squads that were up on a grassy hill, where they could make just the right calculations when firing. When Hazel had arrived up at the grassy hill she immediately caught sight of Skip, Malarkey and Penkala and happily moved over towards them after WInters had showed her the anticipated position she would be in when the attack was initially made.

" Hey there Tiny Parker!" Skip called out towards her as she approached with the giant sniper in her grasp.

" Hey, how're you all doing?" she asked as she slowed her pace nearing the trio.

" Fine as we'll ever be." Penkala said and Hazel grinned at him, " You?"

" Managed to get some rest in all that rain last night, even though Lieb couldn't stop the snoring at about 0400, thought he'd start waking up those Germans across the way." Hazel said as the trio broke into chuckles at her comment.

" The guys got a set of vocal chords let me give you that." Skip said, " I'm pretty sure you heard about Lieutenant Welsh though."

" Yes, the only constant in this war so far." Hazel said with a nod as her helmet shifted. The trio grinned.

" Ain't no way that's water, I'm surprised he still has stuff in there." Malarkey said and Hazel snickered, " He's hauling around that reserve chute though, I mean he can't start shoving those Vat 69's down in there can he?"

" No, Nixon would've gotten them before he could even get his hands on those." Penkala said as the group continued laughing.

" Hey, Tiny, heard you shot one of those Krauts right through the head, with a pistol?" Malarkey asked her eagerly.