Author's Note: Characters are all fictional.

Beach of Death

June 6, 1944 D-day

John Melendez stood next to nine men, he was waiting, they all were waiting. They were in a Higgins boat moving at full speed to a beach on Normandy code-named Omaha. Dozens of Higgins boats are moving at full speed next to and behind them in a military order. To John's right is Joseph Gorron who apparently was seasick and reaching over the side of the boat he barfed, throwing-up masses of his last meal. On John's left is Fred Berger, he's the explosive specialist, he carried almost every single American infantry explosive known to the military, who was now checking his grenades. In front of them is Kris Brown, the medic, checking his First Aid Kit. Next to him is Jason Gallagher, regular infantry like Joseph, reloading his Curbine Rifle. On the other side of Kris is Sam Gonzalez, or Captain Gonzalez, the leader of this 132nd infantry squad. In front of them are three more men, Kurt Stilo, flame-thrower, Robert Rivera, communicator, and Eric Delia, engineer, the three, straight from bootcamp. And lastly the driver of the Higgins boat, Phil Smith.

"Five Minutes!" yells Phil. A bomb explodes next to the boat, rocking it with extreme force. Pchsssh! The boat to the right explodes sending Allied troops into the sea, the screams of the men drown under the rush of water. "Two Minutes!" " Are you ready John?" asks Joseph. "The real question is are you, cause barfing doesn't help us win." John replies back. "Yea, yea, whatever you say." " 30 seconds!"

Beeeeeppp!! The front of the boat opens, and Eric gets shot in the chest, Kurt gets shot in the hip and then the flame-thrower explodes open sending flame everywhere, lighting him in a growing fire, automatically everyone else jumps out the side of the boat. Robert had started crawling when the doors open, and now he is behind a tank-trap, crouched waiting for the others to reach him. Underwater, Joseph grabs a badly wounded Jason and swims to the beach at full haste. Bullets whiz by striking water. Breaking surface he sees Robert and hurries towards him. Limping he makes it behind an another tank-trap, pulling Jason behind it also. He notices Jason has three bullet holes, one on his hip, and the others in his legs, Joseph yells madly, " Medic!" About 10 yards away, Kris hears the call, and running in a crouched manner, he works his way towards them, stopping behind tank-traps for protection. Finally reaching them he drops and quickly works on the wounds, "Joseph, Robert, Captain Gonzalez needs you, him and Fred are making their way to the fence! Go now! We'll be right behind you two!" Joseph and Robert nod and take off ducking and crouching under and behind anything for cover.

Stopping behind a tank-trap, they both see chaos all around. Men running over mines, and blown to shreds. Others killed instantly by scores of bullets, and some walking in circles looking for their arms. Rookies fresh out of boot camp were lying behind tank-traps, crying for their lives. Joseph snaps out of it, and forces himself to another tank-trap grabbing Robert. Another ten yards lies Captain Gonzalez and Fred Berger, lying in a ditch parallel to the fence. They both run straight at it, jumping into the ditch. Kris and Jason soon jump in after; " Told you we'd be right behind you."

In the distance John and Phil are crouched behind a destroyed Higgins boat that was launched into the beach by an explosion. "There's the Captain, we can make it!" Ignoring Phil's remark, John runs head on to the ditch; he suddenly jumps to the right behind a log, barely dodging an incoming onslaught of bullets. Motioning back, Phil cautiously moves onward to John. They both jump into the ditch beside Joseph.

"Glad to see you two! We thought you were dead!" Joseph says.

"I almost was, but John here saved my butt!" Phil exclaims

"No problem, I couldn't let you die drowning, ha ha!" John replies.

Fellow soldiers yell, "Bangalores! Get Down! Bangalores!"

Suddenly about five yards of the fence explodes creating a hole into the German compound. "Go! Go! Go!" yells the Captain, and soldiers jump through the hole, most getting shot from the bunkers, others make it against the bunker wall. The eight men from the 132nd squad run full speed to the wall. Fred gets bolted down by bullets and the Captain steps on a mine, exploding to shreds. The last six remaining make it safe to the wall and watch as soldiers run from the bunker to the next bunker, only to get shot by two German gunners, or explode from mines hidden beneath the earth. Seeing a crater about a third of the way, Phil gets an idea, "Joseph and Jason, we need covering fire, John go to that crater and snipe out those gunners! Robert, send a message that there is a hole in the fence at our coordinates. Once John gives the signal we'll go from crater to crater all the way to that bunker!" The five soldiers nod, Robert starts the message and finishing, looks up and nods. John turns, breathing a long, hard breath. " Ready, covering fire!" Joseph and Jason jump out shooting at the German gunners, two seconds later, they are against the wall and John has made his way to the crater. Lying down, he steadies his rifle with one hand, and with the other he pulls out a necklace with a cross and outlining the cross in the sky, he mutters a prayer. Putting the cross away, he aims the rifle at the first gunner, he takes a deep breathe and holds it, heart pounding cross-airs on the German's head, he pulls the trigger. Thwooo! The shot echoes as it hits it's target, John has already aimed at the other gunner, doing as he did before. Before long two dead German Gunners lie dead, bullet holes through their heads.

Signaling to the others, John runs to the next crater, and to the next, until he reaches the second bunker, closely followed by the others. He jumps into a ditch leading into the bunker and two German soldiers pop out from the sides. Phil jumps on top of one soldier, pounding his rifle into the German's face, killing him with a bashed in head. Jason shoots the other Nazi soldier. Allied troops storm in from the fence, killing all German soldiers, and taking over the bunkers. A few Germans are captured for questioning, and a few hours later, a allied base has been built. Communicators send out the good news that the Normandy beaches have been taken over, only to get back news that the paratroopers have been separated throughout Normandy. A high ranked Captain approaches our tired out squad.

"You, over there with the helmet on!" the Captain says pointing at John.

"Yes?" John asks.

"How old are you?" says the Captain with a rude face.

"I'm eightee.." John tries to say.

"No! Your real age?"

" 15, sir."

"I thought so! Looks like your stuck here till the war ends! Ha! Ha! Well anyway is your older brother Jacob Melendez?"

"Yes Sir! Why is he alright?" John says looking up hopefully.

"No, he's not, we got Intel that his squad, including him, are captured after a rough landing, they are about 20 mile East of here. You in a few hours, have fun!" the Captain says, he walks off towards another squad giving them their next mission.

John turns and mutters to himself, "I'm coming bro, just hang in there, cause I'm coming."

So what did you think for my first story, please review, thank you.