The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

76 | agony

" Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes."

- George Orwell

✰✰✰

After their meal, Easy had to move back to their old positions. And of course, they'd just dug out new foxholes, but they had to push the Germans back through the forest. 

Hazel pulled her sniper over her shoulder, as she rubbed at her numb nose, that was constantly running from the cold. She followed in line after Luz who had his radio strapped to his back towards their old position and old foxholes. As they walked away, they saw a few members of Easy Company, strung on the ends, attached to that of Dog Company. When Hazel walked past them, she gave a small smile their way, towards Webb, Christenson and Perconte, before turning and following after Luz again. Her feet felt frozen as she walked, and her entire body was numb to the biting cold that moved through her uniform. She heard the men behind her saying things, to not drink too much, or be careful if he offers you a cigarette. 

Hazel knew they were all talking about Lieutenant Ronald Speirs, a platoon leader in Dog Company. She remembered the stories from D-Day, but like most of the girls chose not to listen to them. He was an officer after all; she assumed that if he needed to do something he'd do it. She had met the man a few times, like back on Christmas in 1942, or just run ins when she had a massive amount of supplies she needed to get somewhere. She had offered a smile though, like she did with everyone and kept moving. 

Hazel continued by Luz for a majority of the afternoon, her eyes trailing over the snow in the tracts his footprints made, weary and tired as she attempted to keep herself somewhat awake. Her ears were cold, but with the helmet on her head, they felt numb to the touch; the helmet did nothing when it came to keeping out any sort of freezing cold. Easy Company eventually reached their foxholes by the late afternoon, when the wind had picked up and she was just walking past Joe Toye, when he started yelling about his foxhole.

" Ah, you gotta be fucking kiddin' me." she had heard him yell, as she glanced over her shoulder toward him, " Someone's gonna die. Someone's gonna fucking die." She had smirked to herself, she had already seen the shit in the foxholes and was just trying to find Shifty again. She couldn't keep her eyes from the trees. When they were gone, their positions must've been taking quite the shelling. 

Many of the trees were cut right through the center, the tops gone, and insides split open, waiting to splinter someone, as the leftover debris that didn't impale someone lay on the ground, in the rubble of trees, branches and leaves covered in snow. She gulped to herself. 

Treebursts. 

The thought was terrifying, but she tried to put that out of her mind for the time being. With Foy so close by, now, it seemed to send a constant tremor through her body when she thought of who could've died here. There were men, German down in Foy who had killed American soldiers with their tree bursts and shellings. It made her heart pound.