It had all been so easy, almost too easy when they finally walked out of Stalag 13.

Klink had surrendered without a second thought to Colonel Hogan when the man had walked into his office with the simple statement that the Americans were coming within the week. Hogan accepted the surrender and told Klink to start taking out his papers and pack them so they could sort them all in London. Klink was at a loss of words, for once looking his true age as he slowly sank back into his chair. Hogan watched him, for once knowing that he had won, but he didn't know how to feel about winning over a man he had considered below him, but also as a pseudo friend.

"Kommandant?"

"Yes, Colonel Hogan?" Klink looked up with a look of despair, and Hogan gave him a legitimate salute before he walked out of the room with all of the confidence of a true officer.

Klink stares for a moment, then rushes to get all of his paperwork together like Hogan had told him to.

When the day arrived, the Colonel had given his orders to the armed men who put their Ex-Kommandant and almost the rest of the germans on one truck, all of them looking nervous or resigned except for two, who rode in one of the trucks with the prisoners. Under heavily armed guards, they were transported out first after the most sick and injured men.

Schultz and Langenscheidt, the only two men who Hogan had already told they were free as soon as they were debriefed in London, had helped the Americans who liberated the camp with keeping the other officers in line and loading the tired prisoners into the trucks, doing one final roll call to make sure each and every man was accounted for. Hogan even caught sight of Langenscheidt comforting some of the overwhelmed soldiers who didn't know how to process finally being free for real, but didn't say a word as he continued on his rounds and helped his own men with the removal of everything from the tunnels.

The last he saw of them, Shultz was dabbing his eyes as he was telling Olsen and Thomas about how excited he was to see his children and Langenscheidt was talking about his new bride, knowing Hogan had already sent her to London where she would be safe until the damned war was finally over. He saluted the men as they left, promising to meet up with them in London.

Long after the last truck leaves, full of the last few troops who helped until their CO practically ordered them out of the camp like a mother telling her children to go to bed after a long day, they were finally the last five to leave; Lebeau, Newkirk, Baker, Carter and Hogan, wanting to make sure that every last man had been taken care of and shipped off to London. They had even made sure that every last bit of their equipment and had that shipped ahead of them before they all spent their time saying their last goodbyes to the place that had been their home for so long.

That alone may have been the hardest thing to do out of all the whole ordeal.

Carter had lined the tunnels with explosives, knowing that they had to destroy any and all evidence that the operations there ever existed. His hands carefully tracing the walls as he remembered his first time actually seeing the hard work that had been put into it. Newkirk made sure to strap extra bombs in their barracks, leaning against the table that had he had played many a card game with the boys, discussed many missions, and sometimes just sat at with a hot drink in his hands while nattering on with the men he thought of as just more family.

Lebeau made sure that the cooler was rigged too, nothing could stay, hopefully not even the barbed wire outside. He knew he would still always remember the nights where he sat in this damned tiny room, hoping and praying that he would get out sooner than later. The Colonel always got him out, especially when it was his own plans that got him in, however, the nights he was stuck tight, he could always count on Newkirk to go out of his way to piss Klink off enough that he ended up right beside his best friend. It was little things like that that made him feel like Newkirk should have been his brother.

Baker lined the recreational hall with more bombs, unable to keep a smile from his face as he remembered the first time he really started to enjoy himself here, when he watched his now former mentor lay out a German soldier. Then, he was asked personally to join them as Kinch's understudy in the radio room. It was honestly a treat, and, ever since Kinch had been personally asked to come to London to help out with their operation, he used that little memory to help keep the faith.

Hogan himself waltzed through the Kommandantur. The charges had already been set around what once was the desk of Helga, then Hilda, and he was just checking the timers on them, knowing they would go off in half an hour, just as they were just out of sight of the camp. However, he couldn't help himself. He instead walked through the door he had gone into too many times that lead into Klink's office.

The room was empty, nothing on the walls, nothing on the desk or in the filing cabinets, the safe was opened and emptied. In each corner was a bomb that would make sure the whole building would come down, just like all of the barracks and everything above and under the ground. He made his way to the desk and took off his cap, setting it where Klink used to set his helmet, and looked out the window to take it all in from here just one last time.

An American car stood in front of Stalag 13, the American captain, Meyers, and a British lieutenant, Stanhope, standing outside of it as they watched the last of the heroes set up the final present for the little camp that they had spent a good deal of the war in. The captain smoked a cigarette as the lieutenant looked over the barren grounds, wondering how such a small camp could have such a high priority, but then settled on the simple answer that he may never know.

They both had heard the rumors, of course, because who hadn't heard the rumors, but there was no way they could be true. About three hundred men, give or take, knowing fully of an operation that was said to do everything from espionage to sabotage to running a grand central station of people from Germany to London like it was nothing.

Stanhope looked to the captain, wondering if he was thinking the same thing as he was, but he doesn't say anything, knowing General Barton's orders were to just get the men, take care of the job, and not ask any questions.

When the five men met up in the middle of the camp, the two escorts retreated into the cab, knowing that they had little to no time to waste.

Lebeau had climbed into the car, thankful he never had to see another explosion as long as he lived after this, Baker hopping in after him, grinning as he practically melted into the comfortable seat, "I can't wait until we get out of Germany. I've been here too long."

"We have been here longer than you," the Frenchman said with a over-dramatic eye roll. They had all been in Germany too long, so the sooner they said goodbye the better.

Carter had an arm around Newkirk's waist as he helped him into the car, letting Newkirk use him as a support for his lame leg. The Englander's pride had kept him from going with the first wave, instead waiting for the last with the rest of his friends, but he still got a lecture from Wilson a few days before the man left with the fourth wave, only getting the man to take off when he promised to get a cane when they made it to England. Newkirk gets settled into the other window seat before Carter seats himself smackdab between his two friends, "Boy, that was fun, let's never do it again."

Newkirk made the ugliest snort as Baker and Lebeau tried to muffle their laughter behind their hands.

"Alright, no dying, the war's already over. Let's try to stay alive until we at least meet up with Kinch," Colonel Hogan gently chides as he climbs into the seat next to Baker, looking more tired than he ever had before.

They all saluted with a chorus of 'Yes, Sir' before the car started to move and they all watched as the camp slowly disappeared in the distance.