We had trekked through the field on our side of the road for about three minutes, before we found the first sign of our allies. We ran into Maxley, Mellish, and Caparzo first. The three were walking around just like us, looking a little weary but still fully intact. Maxley perked up when he saw us and waved, heading right for us.
“Quinn! You guys okay?” He called out, jogging over with a bit of a limp. “Where’s Corporal Norton? And have you guys seen the Captain?”
“Norton’s dead,” I muttered, clenching my fists. “You’re the first ones we’ve run into.”
“Son of a bitch,” Mellish swore, while Maxley gaped in shock.
“Christ,” Caparzo added. “The big guy went down out here? What the fuck happened?”
“Broken neck. I think he just had a bad landing,” I grimaced. “Let’s just find the captain, yeah? Any idea where the others are?”
“Maxley thinks he saw somebody run into that thicket of trees- that one, over there,” Mellish said, pointing out a thicket on the other side of the road. “That’s all we got.”
“More than we had. Let’s check it out?” I suggested. The others agreed, so we headed back to the road. As soon as we reached the road, though, the strike started back up again. The first blast of the second wave went off maybe thirty feet west of us, blowing apart another section of the road. “Shit! Scatter, don’t give them any easy targets!” I shouted, as dirt and grass rained down on us.
“Run, just fucking run!” Mellish shouted in agreement, as we spread out and charged towards the road. Zach quickly took the lead, the teen by far the fastest runner among us. As he crossed the road, the next blast went off several feet behind him, knocking him forward and off his feet. Fortunately, I saw him jump to his feet even as the smoke and debris cleared the air, dashing straight towards the trees. We were close behind, and only two more artillery shots were fired, neither one in range to threaten any of us.
“Flash!” We heard someone call out, as we neared the thicket.
“Thunder!” Caparzo and Zach called back at the same time, relieved. Reiben and Jackson showed themselves, coming out from behind a tree.
“Everyone’s here but Norton,” Reiben called out behind him, after a quick headcount.
“Norton’s dead. Everyone’s here,” Mellish corrected him.
“Fuck… Captain, you hear that?” Reiben asked, looking back again.
“I heard him,” Captain Miller stated, as he, Sergeant Horvath, and Wade came out of the thicket. “Quinn, you’re in charge of your team for now. Consider it a battlefield promotion,” he finished, gravely. “Situation report?”
“Yes, Sir,” I replied. “We all landed on the other side of the road, and they fired on us as soon as we got close to it, Sir.”
“Alright. We’re staying off the road. Let’s move out,” Miller ordered, and we all fell in.
“Are we clearing out the artillery positions, Captain?” Miles asked, nervously.
“No,” Captain Miller denied, shaking his head. “We don’t even know their exact location or how well-defended they are. The Air Force will find them soon enough. We need to get to Neuville; we have our own damn mission.” No one argued, most of us glad to avoid whatever conflict we could. Captain Miller held out a map of Normandy and had Horvath hold his compass, trying to figure out where exactly we were. After they finished charting our course to Neuville we continued our advance, now on foot. For a while we stayed parallel to the road but over one hundred feet away from it. The artillery didn’t open up on us again, so we figured we were relatively safe for the time being. We marched on for hours, the mood of the group rather subdued after our first and unexpected loss. We hardly spoke a word, only occasionally stopping so the captain could check the map. Eventually we abandoned the road altogether, as the sun began to set.
“We ain’t marching through the night are we, Captain?” Jackson asked, scanning the horizons.
“No. No we are not,” Miller replied, assuaging our concerns. Cora and I seemed okay, but the trek had taken a lot out of Miles and Zach. “We’ve got another hour and a half, maybe two, before we can stop. We’ll hunker down for the night and we should be in Neuville tomorrow afternoon." We all agreed, grateful we would eventually be getting some respite. That felt like it was the first good news we’d had all day, and it managed to break us out of our silent stupor.
“Hey Captain,” Reiben started, "I’ve been thinking about this mission-”
“Hope that didn’t hurt too bad, Rich,” Caparzo quipped. Even Reiben laughed a bit at that.
“As I was saying, Captain, does command know how to count? Where’s the sense in sending a dozen guys just to find one man?” Reiben asked, frustrated. “I mean we’ve already lost one of our guys, and we just fucking started today.”
“Reiben, think about the poor bastard’s mother,” Wade said.
“Doc, I’ve got a mother. You’ve got a mother, Quinn’s got a mother. I mean, shit, I bet even the captain’s got a mother!” Captain Miller denied that claim with a wave of his hand, so Reiben backtracked a bit. “Well, maybe not the captain, but the rest of us got mothers.”
I actually recognised most of this conversation from the movie; I was surprised it still came up at all. The original discussion must not have been triggered by Upham’s presence, as his absence and our presence were by far the largest changes to the story we had implemented. Jackson followed it up with a little speech about the mission being a waste of his God-given talent, and he bragged that if he was within a mile of Adolf Hitler, he could end the war singlehandedly.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Sure thing, bumpkin,” Reiben said, rolling his eyes, as Jackson finished. “Hey Quinn, where are you guys from anyway?”
“Arizona. Most of us are from Phoenix, actually. You?”
“Brooklyn. Mellish and Caparzo are from New York too,” Reiben answered, as he lit up a cigar. Some of the others had been smoking throughout the journey, as well. Miles tried one out, but the rest of us Players had decided not to partake.
“Uh huh. And where’s the captain from?” I asked, to test whether or not I could trigger another scene that I remembered.
“Ain’t that the 300 dollar question,” Mellish laughed, several others joining in. “Company’s got a pool, five bucks gets you in.”
“I guess we don’t know what he used to do either? Before the war?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“Not a clue,” Sergeant Horvath interjected. “I’ve been with him over a year and I don’t know shit.”
“Damn. He’s been keeping it a secret?” Miles asked, taking an awkward puff on his cigarette.
“I think he likes the mystery,” Mellish added, smirking.
“Too bad for him, I pay attention to detail,” Caparzo started. “I know exactly what he did and exactly where he’s from, because I pay attention to detail.” He bragged, walking along with a swagger, that ‘I know something that you don’t’ smirk splayed across his face.
“Hey Porter, careful you don’t step in the bullshit,” Jackson said next. Caparzo was quiet after that, going back to a regular pace. Miles just laughed and nodded, continuing onward with slightly rekindled enthusiasm.
Nothing else of note really happened before we broke for camp about an hour later. We didn’t have any real camping gear, just a bunch of blankets, but the grass was fine. No worse than sleeping out on the beach like we had the previous few days, I thought. We broke into five teams of two, each team on watch for an hour and a half while the others slept. Captain Miller decided the medics wouldn’t have to stand watch, and he paired himself up with Maxley. I ended up paired with Sergeant Horvath. I assumed they wanted us, the interpreters, to be as safe as possible, but they never told us the reasoning behind the pairings.
Zach and Reiben had the first watch, so I hunkered down on my blanket, Miles and I on either side of Cora in hopes that we could keep her sex a secret throughout the mission. She’d conversed occasionally throughout the day, though she never initiated any conversations herself. I didn’t think anyone was suspicious of her yet, so I stopped worrying about it and went to sleep.
---
“Surprise!” A young woman with short, straight brown hair and green eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses, shouted excitedly, as I opened the front door of my small apartment early in the morning. She suffered(?) from a condition I like to call “resting smirk face”; even her neutral expressions seemed cocky. The incessant ringing of the doorbell had jolted me awake, so I’d had to hurry to the door, scrambling to get dressed.
“What? What are you doing here, Lucy?” I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and adjusting my glasses. “Did you have to come so early? I was asleep…”
“Early?! It’s already six thirty! I have class in like half an hour!” She shouted again, tsk’ing me and wagging her finger, a hand on her hip.
“Right,” I muttered; Lucy always was a morning person. It had been months since I’d woken up before eight, and it was rather disappointing for my streak to be broken, especially in such a manner. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here…”
“Well, you see, Mom’s car broke down this morning and Dad already left for work, so…”
“So you thought you’d come beg your brother for a ride to school?” I asked, with a deadpan expression.
“Yes,” my younger sister declared, completely unashamed. “Please, oh great and forgiving brother, won’t you drive this poor lost soul to school today?” She made puppy dog eyes and faked a few whimpers.
“Fine. How’d you get here, anyway?” I wasn’t falling for it, having seen her pull the trick hundreds of times, but I’d promised my parents that I’d help her out if she needed it.
“I rode my bike, of course! It’s only a couple of miles,” she laughed, grinning.
“Why’d you have to go to that damn private school in Phoenix?” I asked, sighing. “There are plenty of good high schools around here,” I grumbled, even as I grabbed my car keys. I cringed at her smirk, and stepped outside, locking the door behind me. “I’m already awake anyway, let’s just get this over with,” I finished, defeated.
“Thanks, Lee~” Lucy said, as we went down the staircase to find my car. “I love you~”
“I love you too, kid,” I replied, returning her smirk. Lucy rolled her eyes at that, and quickly reminded me that she was seventeen- “practically an adult,” according to her. We got in my beat-up car then, and I got us moving.
“Lee, what have you been up to lately? We’ve missed you back home,” Lucy asked, as we pulled out , sounding serious for once. Then she gasped. “You didn’t find a girlfriend, did you?!” Her serious attitude was, like usual, short-lived.
“No, nothing like that. We’ve been swamped at work- a few of our guys just quit. And, you know, school is a thing, too,” I added, snickering.
“Don’t I know it,” my sister sighed in agreement. We kept talking for the rest of the twenty minute drive, mostly just discussing our schoolwork. Apparently, Lucy had a big test in her first period class that day, so she hurried away almost as soon as we got there. She did stop to say, “Thanks Lee! You’ll be back at three to pick me up, right?!” I agreed, bitterly, to meet her in the same lot after school. She was lucky I didn’t have class on Fridays, and I didn’t have work until four. “Oh yeah, your shirt is inside out!” She called out, then grinned and made a peace sign, before she ran off.
“Tell me that earlier, you idiot!” I called out, but I doubt she could hear me at that point. I checked to be sure and, of course, she was right. I sighed and pulled out of the school’s parking lot, getting started on the lonely ride back home. I planned to go back to sleep until noon, so I set an alarm on my phone at the first light.
I winced when I saw Lucy’s bike haphazardly parked near my staircase, then sighed and carried it up to my apartment. I threw off the backwards shirt and fell back into my bed, quickly falling asleep.
But the next time I woke up I was in a boat and I shouted, “What the hell is this?!”
---
“Hey, Lee, get up,” Miles said, coughing, as he shook me awake. “You’re on watch ne- are you crying?”
“What?” I asked groggily, and sat up. I raised my hand, and brushed away the tears that ran down my face.
“You alright, Lee? Bad dream?” Miles asked, concerned.
“Yeah, I’m alright. Good dream, actually. It was my last day, before I got sent here. I drove my sister to school,” I said, smiling lightly.
“Huh. I didn’t know you had a sister,” Miles stated, scratching his head. “Well anyway, you and Sergeant Horvath are on watch. Jackson’s getting Horvath now. Everything’s been quiet so far, so you guys should be fine. Just wake up Maxley for the last watch when you’re done; Horvath will get the captain. Goodnight,” he yawned, laying down back in his spot. Jackson took his place on the ground and fell asleep within seconds. I watched him in amazement for a few seconds, until the sergeant approached.
“You up, Quinn?” Horvath asked, while I did a few stretches.
“Sure am, Sarge. Porter said it’s been pretty uneventful tonight,” I told him, while I picked up my new rifle. I was really missing my helmet right about then, feeling awkward and exposed without it.
“Yeah well, let’s hope it stays that way,” Horvath said. I agreed heartily, and we quietly stood watch, pacing about our impromptu campsite. Our block of the watch was mostly uneventful; one sheep meandered by us as the sun came up, but that was it. No artillery shells, no nazis, no tanks. It was wonderful. Though the time seemed to pass far too slowly, eventually our watch did come to an end, and I went to wake up Maxley. The redhead had drooled a bit in his sleep, which I found to be much funnier than it reasonably should have been.
“Hey Maxley,” I started, shaking him by the shoulder. “Get up. It’s your turn to stand guard.” He sat up and yawned, looking around blankly. His eyes lit up in recognition, though, when he saw me.
“Heya, Quinn…” Maxley mumbled, yawning again. “‘I’m getting up,” he continued, while he took to his feet. I just patted his shoulder, then Captain Miller came by, took Maxley with him and they stood guard.
I nodded to the captain gratefully, then went back to sleep, just for another hour or so. My sleep was dreamless and uninterrupted this time.
Captain Miller woke us all up about an hour later, and we had a quick meal before moving out. Over the next few hours of travel, Maxley and I mostly just conversed with Reiben, Mellish and Caparzo, while Miles seemed to fall in with Jackson and Wade. Zach just stuck with Cora at the back of the group, where she could speak without masking her voice.
“We’re getting close,” Captain Miller announced. It started to rain then, so we hustled up, eventually breaking into a run as the town of Neuville came into view on the horizon. Even as we approached we could faintly hear the din of battle. “Prepare to engage,” Miller stated, icily. “We’re going in.”