"Morning, guys!" The Lieutenant barked at the men. Although the words were friendly, the voice behind them sounded dangerous. Immediately, the men felt silent and waited what the new Lieutenant was going to tell them. But the Lieutenant just let his view wander over the men, sometimes stopped at one of them, smiling, then continued scanning all of them. Most of them felt uncomfortable, some tried to smile back, but it is always hard to return a smile that is full of hate and conviction.
"That's a woman." Luz whispered in the last row, while the Lieutenant looked at all of them. Suddenly, he, or, if Luz was right, she, stopped and turned her head a little bit. Looked directly at him. "That's right, soldier, but I'm sure Currahee will be able to appreciate your intelligence better than I can." Luz stood there, unsure what to do. "Do I speak fucking Spanish, or what? Currahee! You! Now!" The Lieutenant shouted and Luz left straight away.
"So, now after this nice interruption, we'll get some things clear. If you breath to loud, Currahee will be there to welcome you, if you grimace, Currahee will be there to welcome you, if you take any step out of the line, Currahee will be there to welcome you. So, hard question: What will happen if you act counter to my orders?" The Lieutenant pointed at Perconte. "Currahee will be there to welcome us?" There was a smile on the face of the Lieutenant which turned quickly into an evil grin.
"Wrong. I'll shoot you. Currahee, now!" Terrified Perconte turned around, and followed Luz on his way. The Lieutenant cleared his throat, and let the smile disappear again. "I am 1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett, I am here to replace 1st Lieutenant Sobel, and the last Company I worked with, tried to kill me five times. Any questions?" There was some uncomfortable movement in the group but nobody said anything.
"You seem alright, guys." A smile on her face, a smile on some faces in the group of men. "You shouldn't." All smiles fading away, including hers. "Currahee, all of you! If you meet the other two soldiers, take them with you again." The soldiers disappeared, all looking like they were planning their first murder attempts, as well.
"1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett? I am impressed." A voice from behind her said. Donna turned around and looked in the eyes of an old friend. Well, friend was a big word. "Lewis? Lewis Nixon?" Donna asked, looking at the man in front of her in surprise. But the surprise fast turned into anger. "2nd Lieutenant Nixon, why are you still here? Currahee doesn't wait for anybody." Her ex-neighbor nodded and turned around to leave. But before he was out of earshot he responded: "You have changed, little Donna."
The men, all being angry as hell, hadn't realized that another soldier had joined them. A soldier, none of them knew, a soldier which didn't look like he was supposed to be there. He had joined them in the middle of the mountain and was now running at their side, running like he belonged to them. They didn't notice him till they were back, and facing the monster called 1st Lieutenant Donna Bennett, again.
"Seems like you all survived. That's terrible. There should always be at least five deaths during the training of a new unit. Well, there's still plenty of time, I guess." With a nod of her head, she dismissed the soldiers, which all looked pretty happy about this. Only two of them stayed, the soldier nobody knew, and 2nd Lieutenant Lewis Nixon.
"What to you want Nix?" Donna asked and raised her eyebrow. "I wanted to talk. I didn't expect you, to join the army, or to meet you again. Just some friendly talking about the past." He smiled, but stopped when he saw the cold look in her eyes. "There's really no need to talk, Nix. I've got more important things to do." After he had left, Donna applied her attention the the unknown soldier. "What do you want?"
"Well, 1st Lieutenant Bennett, I could ask you the same question. But, I know what you would answer, so I am not going to ask. I only wanted to talk a little bit, you know about the good old times." Donna took a step forward, feeling like she should know this soldier. "Oh come on, is your memory really so bad?" The soldier, who had stood there the whole time with his face to the bottom, raised his head now, and smiled. But the smile was made to freeze the earth.
"You are supposed to be dead. You died six year ago, in a car accident. You are not supposed to live." Donna stuttered and took the step she just made, backwards again. "You really thought, that I would die so fast? God, I always thought you would know me, well, it seems like I have been mistaken. Well, I'm sure I have been mistaken, since I never thought that you would really go to the army." The soldier answered.
"You still didn't answer me, Jo. What are you doing here?" Donna hoped that the answer would satisfy her, but as far as she knew her opposite, it wouldn't. "I am here because I joined the army. I am nothing else than you. Well, except that I am better looking." Jo wanted to say more, but was cut off by 2nd Lieutenant Winters who had reached them.
"Ah, 2nd Lieutenant Joanne Coleman, I guess. I see you already met 1st Lieutenant Bennett. I am sorry Lieutenant that I couldn't tell you earlier but I had to run Currahee." He said, with a small nod, to Donna before he addressed Joanne again. "You are going to stay with the 1st Lieutenant, since you two are the only female officers. My sympathies." He nodded at both and turned around. "This will have consequences." Donna muttered, but then turned around to Jo.
"This won't be nice, neither for you nor for me, but I think we both have the same interest in not letting everybody know, what has happened in the past." Jo nodded. "Good. Well, you already ran Currahee so I guess you can leave now." Jo nodded again, and left Donna, with a smile on her face, which spelled trouble.
Donna looked up to Currahee, this majestic mountain, which would help her so many times and nearly bowed to it. She was sure that she could trust this freak of nature, more than any human being on this world. Because nature doesn't act out of a feeling, nature acts how it is supposed to act.
Joanne had asked her way to her shelter and was now waiting for Donna to show up. In fact, she hoped desperately that the 1st Lieutenant would show up soon, because it always took so long to wash blood out of textiles. She knife in her hand was shining brightly, and reflected her face perfectly. And was a shame, to ruin something so innocent and beautiful with the blood of a monster, but it had to be done, and it was the only way it could be done.
"I always promised you, that there would be revenge. Now it is time. It's a shame, that it took so long." Jo whispered as she stroked the blade. She had never been a very forgiving person, in her eyes the only thing you could do after something did hurt you, physically or mentally, was to do the same, or even worse, to them. That was her life motto, if you wanted to call it so.
She just sat there, on the bed and waited. That was something she had always been good at. Waiting. What a nice word, for something so simple. You just had to stay calm, and your thoughts in your mind. Because letting your thoughts drift away was the biggest mistake you could make. This would make your concentration weak. And weakness, no matter what kind of, was bad.
When she heard the footsteps which were so familiar to her, she quickly stood up and took her place next to the door. She could already smell the monster, which was walking towards its death. But something disturbed her. The presence of another pair of feet, which were walking in front of those claws, the monster called feet. And those footsteps were familiar as well, although hearing them was more calming, and nearly made her smile.
As the door was opened, she put away the knife as fast as possible and really started to smile. "Oh, come on, Donna, don't tell me that is what you always dreamed about. You always wanted to do something with people, I know, but I'm sure killing them was not what you meant, when you said so." Nixon was clearly confused by Donnas appearance, but it seemed like he was already accepting the fact that she didn't tell him the truth.
"Believe me Nix, I've got my reasons, and I'll be glad to share them with you as soon as it is time to do so. And now, please welcome your other old friend Joanne." Both, Nix and Jo, produced nothing else than a snort, about this use of the word friend. Friend was clearly the last word they would use for each other.
"Nice to see you, Jo." Nix nodded while falling down on Donnas bed. Obviously, he didn't care at all what the owner of the bed would say to this, but he had never cared about the opinion of Donna or Jo. That was probably one of the main reasons, that they could stand each other. "So, you joined the army too?" He asked, not even trying to look at her.
"Well, it's never wrong to support others by killing people, don't you think?" Nix shook his head, but a small smile appeared on his face. "I have to admit, I expected you to do something like that, although I hoped that your appearance would happen with more special effects, and less politeness." Jo nodded and sat down on her own bed. Donna was standing between those two, looking like she wanted to me anywhere except for the place where she was.
"God Donna, stop looking so afraid. We won't kill each other, at least not while you are here. We just have a nice chat, you know." Now it was on Donna to snort, but she nodded and left the shelter. But Nixon and Joanne knew that she did it with the fear to find one of them dead, when she came back.
"Now, she's going to scream at some soldiers, and make them pay for our behavior, right?" Jo asked but didn't need any answer by Nix since Donna gave it herself. "You, you and you, Currahee, now!" She shouted at three poor souls, right after she had left the other two.
"Who is this?" Guarnere asked, while they were all watching someone running up Currahee for the third time in a row. "I've got no idea, but whoever it is, he must have really annoyed the Lieutenant." Liebgott answered and shook his head in disbelieve. "At least she didn't shoot him." Webster noted and tried to tell who it was. "I would have preferred getting shot, than running Currahee three times in a row." Luz added, and they all continued watching the soldier running in fearful anticipation. Who knew who would be next 1st Lieutenant Bennett would make run Currahee so many times.
"You can stop being scared guys. This is, Lieutenant Bennett." A voice from behind them explained and laughed a bit. "By the way, I am 2nd Lieutenant Joanne Coleman, an old friend of the 1st Lieutenant. At least, she would say so, I would prefer other words to explain our relationship." The soldiers all nodded, since no one could imagine Bennett having friends, and introduced themselves as well.
"Guys, she will run that stupid mountain till she is dead, and when she comes back I wouldn't like to be the one she sees first, so I would give all of you an advice. Go, and hide till she is in better mood." Jo explained, and the soldiers all nodded, totally able to imagine what would happen if the 1st Lieutenant would met them.
"But this would mean to hide forever, so just don't face her till she wants you to see her." The 2nd Lieutenant added and the ice, which had never really existed, was broken, because when a 2nd Lieutenant makes fun of a 1st Lieutenant in front of normal soldiers, is that a sign that this Lieutenant is a really nice person. Or at least, to his soldiers.
After they had all left, Jo continued looking at the silhouette which was running up Currahee again. It was really surprising how fit Donna was, although it was probably not the best idea to use this fitness for running up a mountain, while it was starting to rain. "You'll catch your death, little Donna." Jo muttered and really hoped for it. When Donna would kill herself, she hadn't to soil her reputation as a nice person.
"You shouldn't say something like this, with so much pleasure." Nix responded and stepped next to Jo. "You know that this is exactly how I am feeling." Jo answered and took a glimpse of his outline. He had grown, and really looked like a man now. "That's not quite true. I guess that this is how you are feeling, but I can't know, since neither she nor you told me the whole story." "You are really philosophical, Nix. What happened to the alcohol?" He smiled and shook his head. "I don't think that this matters right now. Why don't you just tell me? I can tell, that you want to see her dead, but I don't know why." Now, Jo was the one who shook her head. "I'm not good at telling stories Nix. Ask Donna, when is done running Currahee like she's insane."
It had started to rain, while they were holding their small conversation, but it bothered neither the two nor Donna who was still running. "She's really going to kill herself." Nix muttered and turned around. "But I am not going to hold her back this time." Then he left Jo, who continued watching Donna running.
"Lieutenant Coleman?" Winters had appeared next to her, looking unsure whether it was intelligent or not to disturb her. Her only response was a small nod. "Can you stop 1st Lieutenant Bennett? I really don't think that it is very clever to run Currahee so many times, especially not when it is raining." Jo shook her head but smiled at him. "I'm impressed Lieutenant, I am really impressed. Not only that you watched her the whole time, no, but you also only worry about the number of times she is running and the weather, but not about the fact that she is a woman and therefore weaker than you."
Surprised by her directness, Winters took a step back and waited, in hope for a better answer. "You won't receive any other answer. If you want to stop her, run and tell her, but I really hope for you that you don't do so, otherwise she is going to either kill you straight away or she'll make your life to hell. It's your choice." Winters nodded and then, to Jos surprise, started running towards Currahee.
"Oh god, Lieutenant that was definitely the wrong choice." She muttered to herself and finally left. She wasn't interested in seeing Donna react to Winters request, and didn't want to be the first person either of them would met.
Nearly at her shelter she met Nix again. "Have you seen Dick, I mean 2nd Lieutenant Winters?" He asked and looked at her suspiciously. "He just went to stop our 'old' friend from running Currahee." Nixons eyes widened when he realized what this meant. "Couldn't you have stopped him? He is just way to nice, god she will kill him." "I tried to, I really did." Jo responded and started walking towards her shelter again. The last thing she heard where some words spoken by Nixon in anger: "I remember the last time you tried something 'really' hard. It nearly killed me."
When Jo sat down on her bed, she pulled out the knife again, and waited. Donna would be defenseless, annoyed and totally out of it, so it was the best moment to finish everything. To finish her biggest nightmare, to finish the monster that had continued hiding under her bed for such a long time. The monster wouldn't even know what happened, and then it would all be over.
Although, Jo had always imagined the monster to have a painful death, this was the only way which would finish it fast. And being fast was more important, than being monstrous. "This will be the night everyone at home will speak of. The night, when I finished the monster, when I did revenge. They would celebrate if they'd knew what I am going to do. They would help me. Oh little Donna, oh poor little Donna, you didn't think that it would end so fast, didn't you? You thought that you would have many more years, but let me tell you something. You haven't. You took your last run, and you took it up Currahee. It was your own decision. We stand alone together, you remember? That's what it means, and this will be the words, you'll die with."
The fast footsteps outside which were coming towards the shelter let her interrupt her monologue and look at the door in expectation. But it wasn't Donna who appeared there it was Nixon, who firstly looked at the knife in surprise but fast got himself act together again. "Jo, stop playing with your knife and come. We've got a problem. A big problem."