The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

66 | god's will

" The Will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you." 

- Billy Graham

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Later that night, a flare, a bright orb was shot into the sky and the night battle ensued. 

Initially, it had woken Hazel from her dead sleep, shooting up from her foxhole, and sitting in a pile of freezing snow so she could possibly snipe out any oncoming Germans, farther back from the front line. Everyone was up most of the night, warding off the cold and the oncoming bullets, but finally the short spit fire fight ended and the group managed to get a few hours of rest. Her and Shifty were weary, side by side, weapons brought up to their eyes as they sat there, awaiting whatever else were to fly their way. 

But something was different about sitting here now. It was the early hours of the morning, but you could tell dawn was on its way. Hazel could tell something was off, by just how quickly the barrage had started and ended. 

And that Hazel's kill tally was racking up closer to 80 now. 

80 harsh slashes that riddled her body in her sleep. 

She never openly talked about her kill tally, with anyone, not even the women or Joe. She just, it was something that was stuck in the pit of her chest like acid, bubbling whenever her hands touched her Springfield. Shifty was beside her. 

Hazel knew Shifty had a fairly high kill tally as well; but like her, he never talked about it and it was something mutual between the two. They both knew they had killed people in this battle and for the reasons they needed to do so. 

But it was a bitter taste in her mouth, like poison. 

There were a lot more bitter pills to swallow out here compared to that of the Normandy campaign which had been like waking up out of a dead sleep and running 5 miles in the freezing rain with Thermes yelling at you. This was just a weird feeling, unsettling at that. Hazel glanced over at Shifty, as the backdrop to the Ardennes forest turned from black to a dark blue, fading ever so slightly to different shades of lighter blue.

" Hey, Shifty?" Hazel said softly. The man looked towards her from under the rim of his helmet a gentle smile on his face.

" Can I tell you something?" she asked him. 

Shifty Powers was a man Hazel trusted, not just because he was an Easy Company member, but because he was like the brother she never had. And Hazel knew she could tell him anything.

" Back when we were first dropped into Normandy, I started keeping a tally of my shots," she said softly, her eyes following the gaze of Lip moving around in the early morning, checking on other foxholes. Shifty softly glanced at her.

" You're the only other person I've found who has done that," Shifty said softly meeting her blue eyes. 

" Really?" she asked. Shifty nodded.