We finally arrived to a railroad cross roads. We would hold position here until morning when we would make the assault onto Carentan. We settled into are fortified positions with ease.

I pulled out my notebook and began writing another letter to Darla. The moon gave just enough light for me to be able to make out what I was doing.

I stopped writing when I saw Ramirez stumbling towards Tipper. The closer he got to us, the easier it was to see that he was carrying bazooka rounds. My heart stopped.

I put my notebook back into my coat pocket and watched the two of them.

Tipper hissed, "What are you doing? Put the pins back into those rounds!"

I sat up straight at the sound of that order.

Ramirez extended his arms with the armed bazookas towards Tipper. "I don't know where they are! I tossed them away!"

Tipper spat, "Well find them! You're so jittery and shaky, if you drop them now, even at that height, those rockets will blow us all up, crazy!"

Ramirez looked terrified. "I'm sorry...you said you didn't want a second wasted if we were attacked!"

"If we were attacked! We haven't been attacked yet! God! Find those pins!" Tipper ordered as he started to look around on the ground for the safety pins.

I crawled around the area helping them look. I was scared as we searched. I found one of them and whispered, "Tipper! I found one!"

Tipper crawled over to me. "Good! I've got the other one! Now we got to put them back into the rounds...So help me God, I'll kill him!"

I handed him the pin and watched as he walked back over the shaking Ramirez. Once the pins were replaced into the rockets, Tipper took the rounds away from Ramirez.

I let out a sigh of relief once Tipper gave the all clear. I sat back down and pulled out my notebook, writing to Darla about what had just happened.

As I finished scribbling into the notebook, I glanced up as I placed it back into my pocket. Across from our position, was D Company. I couldn't make out a lot of the men from where they were set up, but upon examining the silhouettes, I knew who was Speirs.

He was the only on standing up, pacing along the line. I shook my head as I recalled the rumors of Speirs. Even though people that I trusted had told me that the rumors were true, I had a small glimmer of hope that they weren't.

I looked up into the sky and saw the faint glow from Polaris as the clouds began to roll in. I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes.

I felt hands on my shoulders shaking me awake. "Emmeline. Wake up!"

I blinked a few times, allowing my tired eyes to adjust to the low light. "What?"

"It's time to get up. We're moving out," Webster whispered as he stopped shaking me.

I sighed. "What time is it?"

"0530. Come on. Let's go," he whispered as he extended his hand down to me.

I took his hand and he pulled me to my feet. I muttered, "I feel like I just fell asleep."

"You did," he stated as he brushed some of the dirt from me.

"I...what?" I asked, still half asleep.

He chuckled. "You did just fall asleep. I've been next to you all night."

"Oh..." I didn't remember him being next to me, but clearly he had.

Once we were up and our things picked up, we started forward down the lane towards Carentan. It was going to be a busy day, but I hoped that we would have an easy time getting into Carentan.

Webster stated, "I overheard some of the officers stating that Carentan is being held by one small unit."

"Are you sure you heard that right?" I questioned.

"Yeah, why?" he asked as we walked.

I shrugged. "I thought this town was as important to them as it was to us."

"It is," he replied.

I furrowed my brow at him. "Then why would they leave a small unit to hold it? Wouldn't they be expecting us to attack them?"

Webster shrugged. "Who knows? I was just sharing what I heard."

I nodded but said nothing more on the matter. I felt as though I might be over thinking the situation, and in the process, annoying Webster who was just trying to be friendly.

We didn't have far to walk as we had camped on the outskirts of town. When we reached the crest of the hill, Winters had ordered us to stop so he could look around.

We crouched on the road, out of sight, waiting on orders. Winters whispered to Welsh before looking down at his watch.

I watched as Welsh led the first platoon over the hill. Because I was in the back of the group, I couldn't see what was happening, but I could hear it. Within seconds of Welsh and first platoon disappearing over the hill, gunfire opened up all around us.

The bullets snapped around everyone. I lowered myself further onto the road, but suddenly felt hands grabbing me, pulling me into the ditch near the road.

I started to protest, but stopped when Webster shielded himself over me.

Muffled orders were being shouted, and I couldn't make them out. Soon enough, they were louder and clearer, as if they were above us. "Move! Get out of that ditch! We've got men getting killed! Move!"

Webster cursed under his breath as he reluctantly stood up to follow his orders.

I hesitated to get up, and Winters looked over at me, somewhat surprised to see me. "Stay down!"

I nodded, feeling my entire body shaking with fear and adrenaline. I had no idea what to do. I didn't know where to go, if I should go anywhere, but with his order to stay down, I was glad to follow.

When the bullets seemed to be gone from the road, I slowly peeked out from the ditch. I could hear a lot of gunfire and grenade explosions. I started to get up and head down into the town, when I heard protests behind me.

"Nurse Banks! You stay down!" the order came from behind me.

I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. I could see Nixon and Strayer overlooking the mission. I shouted back, "I have to do my job! I'm sorry!"

Without giving a second thought to their protests, I continued down the road. With each step that I took, I could see the bodies on the road. I knew they were dead just by looking at them. I wanted to stop and look them over, take their dog tags for my book, but I knew that I was in the open. Even though the fighting seemed to be focused solely in the town, I didn't want to risk it, so I kept moving.

I rounded the corner to the right and continued into town. The ground shook under me, causing me to stop and brace myself on a nearby building.

"They got us zeroed! Get out of the street!" Lipton's voice echoed.

My heart raced to the point that the bile in my stomach was slowly making it's way up my throat. I forced it to stay down as I continued forward. I took a step forward and saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I froze, quickly looking over to see what caught my attention.

Huddled in the corner of the street against the building was Blithe. I cautiously approached him. "Albert?"

"Emmeline? Is that you?" he asked, eyes wide.

I bent down in front of him. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

He didn't look at me. "I can't see! Oh God! I can't see!"

"Okay, calm down! Let's get you out of here," I cooed.

"I can't see!" he shouted again.

I reached out for his hands but he pulled away from me. "Blithe...I need you to work with me. You need to calm down!"

"I can't see, Emmeline!" he shouted at me again.

I sighed and slapped his cheek a few times. "I know! I heard you the first time! Let's get you to the doc!"

He stopped shouting about his lack of vision long enough for me to help him up. He cried, "Why can't I see?"

I started to help him walk away from the area. "I don't know."

We didn't make it very far when the ground shook so violently that it threw us to the road. Landing hard on my stomach, all of the wind in my lungs escaped and I felt my helmet fall off. When the ground stopped shaking, I propped myself onto my elbows and quickly glanced about the area. I could see several German troopers running behind buildings and in alleys.

I swallowed, praying that they weren't going to attack us.

I heard soft cries coming from next to me. I looked over at Blithe. "Are you okay?"

He sniffled and nodded, not saying a word.

I pushed myself off of the ground and bent next to him. "Come on, Albert! I need you to work with me! The enemy is moving in! I need you to get up!"

Blithe surprised me by cooperating with me. He stood up and I tossed his arm over my shoulder as we started to make a run for a safe spot.

We rounded the corner and stopped dead in our tracks. Standing before us, clearly startled by our sudden appearance was a German trooper. He stared at the two of us, aiming his weapon at us.

The German looked me over a couple of times as he approached us. I muttered to Blithe, "Stay quiet, Albert. Okay?"

The German stood in front of us and looked at the dazed Blithe before turning his stunned blue eyes onto me. I swallowed, holding my breath. He reached out for me and held my blonde hair.

He fiddled with my hair for a while before meeting my gaze. Suddenly he glanced down at my pack. He raised an eyebrow at the medic insignia before returning his eyes to me.

My heart raced as he stood over me. I held his gaze, unsure of what else to do. He finally stepped aside for us to continue onwards.

As I passed by him, I bit my lip and whispered, "Danke."

When we passed by him, I released a heavy sigh. Blithe asked, "What happened?"

"We've been given a second chance, Albert," I stated.

"We were stopped, weren't we?" he asked.

I whispered, "Yeah."

We continued towards the back line in silence.