Saints and Soldiers

(This was a bit difficult to write because of all the action so please forgive me if the action seems staccato in places. As usual, I don't own the characters and I'm not making anything off of this except experience to write better. I hope you enjoy it.)

Chapter 9 - The Enemy Strikes

They came upon a small band of German soldiers on a snowy road. They were working on one of their vehicles as steam poured out the engine. From behind a large snow bank, the Allied band of soldiers cautiously watched them.

"Let's take 'em," Kendrick said. Gunderson looked at him like he was crazy. "Or not," he rethought, realizing his stupid statement. "We lay low, keep moving."

"That's good thinking, Kendrick," Gunderson scolded him. "What are we, about a mile from Lyon?" he turned to Winley.

"Sounds about right."

"Alright, sun's starting to peek through. Let's go, boys."

They moved towards the direction of Lyon, avoiding the Germans all together. Deacon watched, squatted down making sure they weren't seen. Gunderson knelt down next to him.

"How you doing?" he asked Deacon, still concerned about him.

"Aright," Deacon nodded. The rest he had gotten had done wonders.

"You know," Gunderson grinned, looked around, " this really is beautiful country."

"Yeah, I knew you liked her," Deacon teased, referring to Caterine.

Gunderson snickered. "I think I want to learn French."

Blood splattered in Deacon's face as Gunderson's neck split open. He went down in the snow holding his throat and gurgling on his own blood. Deacon turned and fired at the German only hitting the tree he was hiding behind. The German ran calling for the others.

"Damn! Gunderson! NO!" he called out as the snow around Gunderson turn crimson.

Blood poured from Gunderson's mouth and neck as he struggled to breathe. Gould was immediately there and reached for him, trying to stop the profuse bleeding. Deacon followed the German and killed him with a bullet to the back. The group of Germans were immediately alerted by the rifle fire. Deacon ran back to Gunderson.

"Stay with me, Gundy!" Gould kept saying to him.

"Gundy! Gundy! I'm coming," Deacon called out.

"Breathe, breathe!" Gould said over and over as he held the bandage over the gaping wound. Gunderson struggled, kicking in the snow and then became quiet.

"No! Help him!" Deacon pleaded.

Gould checked him. "He's dead."

"No! No, he's not!" Deacon wept.

The group of Germans rushed towards the sound. Rudy, who had been was sitting behind the wheel, watch them go, uncertain of what to do.

Gould heard the Germans coming closer. "Come on, we gotta go! We gotta go, now! Come on! Come on!" he grabbed Deacon, pulling him away from Gunderson's body.

A German positioned himself behind a tree and brought his rifle up but Kendrick saw him first and fired. The German slumped over dead. Winley raised his pistol and was hit in the thigh.. He collapsed on the ground screaming. Kendrick pulled the pin on a grenade and launched it towards a group of running Germans. It exploded, killing three of them.

"Come on, Winley, let's go," Kendrick yelled, reaching down.

"I can't," Winley moaned in pain.

"Come on, I'll help you," Big Kendrick lifted him up, practically carrying him. They moved through the trees trying to get away from the enemy.

Kendrick tripped and the two of them fell. Gould and Deacon rushed over to help them.

"Kendrick, go see if we're being followed," Gould told him.

"Go to hell, Gould."

"Now!" he yelled.

"You go! Or are you too worried about saving your own skin!" The words stung because he was afraid. He was afraid to die.

"I'll go," Deacon told them.

"No, you're not going anywhere," he grabbed Deacon but Deacon pulled away. "Deacon! Deac!"

Going back the way they had come he watched as the Germans stripped Gunderson's body. His heart sank to see his friend was being treated in such a manner. Deacon knew he had to do something to get them to safety. Looking around he spotted what looked like the ruins of a stone fortress.

Gould was trying to bandage Winley's leg when Deacon returned.

"They're still all over the place," Deacon told them.

"What do we do now?" Kendrick asked.

Winley's leg was bleeding badly and Gould knew he had to get the bullet out of his leg before he bled to death. "We need to find a place I can work on him."

"Can he move?" Deacon asked

"Yes, yes, I can move," Winley winched.

"Alright, follow me."


At the fortress behind a wall, Gould cut Winley's pants to get to his leg. Winley moaned loudly in pain. Deacon kept watch as Gould began to work on Winley. Kendrick covered his mouth with his big gloved hand to help stifle his screams. "It's alright, you're doing good," Gould encouraged him. Winley quivered in pain as he bit down on the glove and screamed a muffled scream. "I got it, I got it. Alright, you're gonna be aright, " Gould told him as he pulled the bullet out of Winley's leg with a knife.

"Hang in there, Winley," Kendrick said, as he watched Gould sprinkle sulfa powder over the wound. It both cleansed the wound and helped the blood to clot.

"You're not gonna bleed to death," Gould comforted him. "We'll take you to an aid station. You'll be alright," he told him, as he wrapped a compression bandage around Winley's thigh.

"Shhh!!" Kendrick warned as he heard something behind them. "Krauts," he whispered and pointed

Whistling a strange little tune, a German soldier was behind the crumbling wall. Swinging his machine gun over his shoulder, he urinated onto a bush. Gould finished bandaged Winley's leg while Kendrick kept an eye on the German, rifle ready, waiting for him to finish and leave.

Glancing down, the German saw bloody tracks in the snow and followed them with his eyes. That's when he saw Kendrick's helmet below him. Shouting a warning to the other Germans, Kendrick heard him and quickly fired. The whistling German collapsed dead on the urine soaked bush.

"Let's go!" he shouted, hearing the sound of running boots approaching. Gould could see them moving in the upper levels of the fortress.

"Heads up! Get moving!" he shouted. Kendrick picked up Winley and they took off following Gould. Gould fired at the enemy between a gap in he wall but missed.

"Triples on the right flank!" Gould yelled and Deacon turned and fired. There was an exchange of gunfire as they made their way across what looked like the a courtyard.

Finding an opening that was enclosed by a short wall of decorative bricks, they jumped over the wall and into some sort of alcove. It provided a little protection. Deacon threw a grenade at a German and it exploded sending him sailing in pieces.

Gould fired over and over as he knelt behind the wall trying to hold off some of the Germans so Kendrick and Winley could get away, but Kendrick stopped behind them and waited. He had laid Winley down. One German found a place behind brush pile and fired nearly hitting Gould. He ducked, as the bullets ricocheted off the wall around his head.

"I got him!" Deacon yelled and raised his rifle, killing him.

Behind a pile of dirt and rocks more Germans positioned themselves firing at Gould and Deacon. Deacon tossed out another grenade but it went off in front of the dirt pile doing no harm. Shooting at them over and over, Deacon kept their heads down .

One German raised up to throw a potato masher at them but Deacon's bullet found its mark and he fell backwards as the masher rolled in front of the other German. He picked it up to throw it and it went off in his hand.

"I'm out!" Deacon yelled. Gould tossed him a clip of ammo and turned to find better footing. That's when he saw Kendrick. He had thought they had moved to a safer place by now.

"Kendrick, get Winley outta here!" he screamed.

Kendrick picked Winley up and moved away.

"Alright, ready? Move!" Deacon ordered, as he brought down three more Germans.

Just then a German grenade landed close to them.

"Grenade! Move! Move! Move!" Gould screamed and they both ran. It exploded barely missing them. The Germans advanced after them.

Kendrick helped Winley, trying to find a way out of the maze of stone walls and steps. Just as he turned the corner a German soldier did the same from the opposite direction and raised his rifle. Kendrick pulled Winley into a doorway as the bullet ricocheted off the wall missing them both. Setting Winley down he swung his rifle around and jumped out firing on the German killing him.

"Come on," he said to Winley as he helped him up again. Winley moaned in pain as he put his arm around Kendrick's shoulder. Gould and Deacon ran up some other steps, firing behind them trying to keep the Germans at bay.

Reaching the top of the fortress, Kendrick found some trees and knew he could hide in them. Winley was weak from blood loss and so he put him on his back and carried him through the snow.

"Stay with me. Stay with me," he kept saying to Winley over and over. "We're gonna make it. We're gonna make it."

But just as he reached the tree line, a German popped up and fired, hitting Kendrick in the chest. He fell sending Winley sprawling on the ground. Winley pulled out his pistol out and waited for the German.

"Quiet," he said to the moaning Kendrick. He could see the German cautiously moving towards them.


Gould and Deacon ran to the end of the wall that led to yet another path. They were beginning to wonder if there was any way out. Hiding on either side of the opening where they had just come from, they stopped to catch their breath but could hear the Germans running, nearly upon them.

"Fire in the hole," Gould said and tossed in a grenade. It rolled down to where the Germans were running and exploded killing them just feet away from where Gould and Deacon had just stopped.


Winley could hear the German's boots crunching in the snow and he waited as he approached. The German saw Kendrick as he struggled on the ground and raised his rifle to finish his task. Just as he came around the edge of the tree to get a shot, Winley fired his pistol hitting him in the head killing him instantly.

Kendrick held his hands over his blood soaked chest, wheezing and coughing up blood.

"Hang on, Hickey. Hang on. Gould will be here in a second," Winley pleaded. "Just hang on," he begged.

"Help ….," Kendrick gasped and gurgled.

From his jacket pocket, Winley pulled out the pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. "Just hang on, hang on!" he shook as he cried, placing it in Kendrick's mouth and attempted to light it. Over and over he flicked the lighter. "Hang on! Hang on! I'll get it! Hang on!" he kept pleading with Kendrick.

Kendrick's expression relaxed and his hand dropped lifeless to his side.

Winley stopped as he realized that he had just lost the man that saved his life. The same man that he had teased and tormented so badly. "I'm sorry," he wept. "I'm so sorry."


Deacon and Gould finally reached the top of the hill the fortress was built on, trying to locate Kendrick and Winley.

Winley limped painfully, trying to find them. Struggling, he stopped on a rock and sat, holding the bloody bandage with his hand. He could barely move.

"Where are they?" Gould scanned the area.

Deacon was also looking when he saw Winley sitting on the rock. "Right there!" he pointed.

Below Winley was a swollen stream of water that crashed over jagged rocks. He heard Gould and Deacon calling him and tried to move towards their voices. Struggling trying to move, he stumbled and grabbed a limb. It snapped and he fell crashing into the freezing water below. He gasped, his body shocked from the cold, and tried to upright himself grasping at the rocks, but the current was strong and he was swept down stream.

Running alongside the river, they spotted Winley lying face down alongside the bank. Over and over they yelled his name but there was no reaction from him.

"Come on!" Deac said as they made their way down to where he laid.

"Winley, we're here. Winley."

"Hang on, buddy. Come on let's get him out of here."

They each grabbed an arm and pulled him out of the water and onto the side of the stream. The ground was still covered with snow. Rolling him over he spurted and coughed up water as he gasped for air.

"I can't swim," he admitted. The two of them laughed.

"Is that your big secret?" Gould asked him.

As they tended to him, a German soldier snuck up from behind them in the woods, his rifle drawn.

"Where's Kendrick?" Gould asked.

"Kendrick's dead," Winley looked up at them, shivvering violently. They stopped and looked at each other sadly.

Gould looked at Winley's bluish face, concerned, when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye in the trees. His eyes widdened in fear. Deacon looked up at Gould and then over to what he was looking at.

There stood Rudy, his weapon drawn. Recognizing them both, he looked around to see if anyone was watching. Seeing no one, he trotted up to them. Rudy spoke to Deacon. Gould listened, not knowing what these two were hatching. Was this when Deacon and his Gerry friend would collaborate against him?

Lifting his finger to his lips, Rudy pointed towards the sound of where the column of the German vehicles were moving out. Then he pointed to a captured American jeep with a Nazi flag draped across the hood, that had obviously been forgotten. Deacon nodded and answered him. Rudy sighed heavily and spoke something to Deacon and then to Gould, patting each on their shoulder, and left.

"What was that last thing he said? Gould asked him.

"He said, 'God be with you.' "

Gould was speechless. Not only did the enemy help them to escape, he then blessed them.