The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

50 | in sickness and in health

" Health is not valued till sickness comes."

- Thomas Fuller

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That night, as the rain continued to pour Easy arrived at their positions which was a muddy looking, open field, surrounded by trees. Hazel, in the past week had been assigned partners with Shifty for when they did patrols or the two had a duo patrol to do and so they became foxhole partners. And Shifty was one of her closest friends, here, and the two respected and thought of each other highly. Joe had been partnered up with Alley from that time on, because of the patrols they were being sent on. 

It was just like a big buddy system. So Shifty and Hazel dug out their foxhole that night as the rain continued to pour and then bedded out that night, trying to make the most of sleeping at that point, if it were in a downpour in the middle of Holland. 

By the following morning when Hazel and Shifty had been awoken from a dead sleep, snoring and just completely exhausted, they were practically yanked out of their foxholes and sent on the first patrol at 0700. Leading the patrol was Bill Guarnere and it seemed that random groups of people were pulled from each platoon. As Hazel and Shifty arrived where Bill and about 8 other people stood Bill gave the two a nod.

" Alright, Battalion wants us to head out early, scope out the town a bit, see what's living in there, stuff like that. Supposedly, there's an attack planned for later today to try and get through the town so we can push towards Arnhem again, or so they say." Bill explained and a few nods and sighs echoed around the group.

" They're not expecting many people, if so just civilians, but it's Holland we were promised old men and kids and that ain't what we got, so just keep those eyes peeled." Bill explained and the group nodded.

" Now, Joe," Bill said pointing to Joe Toye who stood with a rather exhausted looking face. Joe gave a sarcastic smile.

" Don't go running through this town like you did Aldbourne and scare the shit out of these guys, alrigh? That was Aldbourne and you had half of them shaking on their knees from fear. We don't do that here." Bill said a slight smirk on his face.

" Yeah, yeah, I gotcha, no scaring the civilians." Joe said as Bill smirked at him with a nod.

" Alright, we're moving." Bill said and turned, heading through the trees towards the town which sat on an upwards slope. They had the high ground. The group moved through the trees of the forest, their footsteps attempting to be as quiet as they could be, as the clouded sky barely showed semblance of a rising sun.

" You think there's gonna be Germans in this town?" Hazel asked softly to Shifty who crouched by her side as they moved behind the rest of the group, where Hazel saw a dew soaked machine gun resting on Smokey's shoulder, as he exchanged cigarettes with Alton. She watched Shifty's gentle doe eyes glance her way and through the trees.