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That night, the moon was full and it lit the sky. There was not a cloud in sight and the cold air that filled the night was frigid. I bundled up my coat a little tighter, trying to lock in some of the warmth that was left.
I stood close to Dick for warmth. Buck was also standing with us and I watched him, trying to gauge whether he was okay or not. For the current moment, he seemed fine but I wondered how much of it was a facade. Suddenly, I heard, "Sir?"
We turned to see who was coming up to us. Dick asked, "Lieutenant Peacock?"
Peacock stopped in front of us. He asked, "Sir, have you seen Colonel Strayer?"
"Where's the company commander?" Dick asked. I bit my lip. That was a question we had asked throughout the course of three days. I forgot to mention that to Dick earlier.
Peacock asked, "Who? Lieutenant Dike? I've been looking for him all day." He huddled around our little fire as he asked, "I mean, how is it the 4th army's problem gets dumped onto the Airborne?"
Before anyone could reply, we heard a new voice shout out, "Lieutenant Peacock! Lieutenant Compton! Captain Winters...Kate." Dike had walked up to us and saluted. The fact that he completely ignored my rank irritated me. At least Sobel addressed me by my rank, aside from that one time, but still. Dike was really getting on my last nerve.
Dick stated, "Lieutenant Dike, I've been looking for you." I wanted to chime in saying that all of us had been looking for him, but I stayed out of it...for now.
Dike ignored Winters. "Sir, we have a problem. Colonel Strayer has not yet returned from a wedding he's attending in London. Can you believe that? We're going to the front! We're going to the front here and our CO isn't even in the same damn country!"
Winters looked at me and I shook my head. He turned his gaze back onto Dike and replied, "You have a bigger problem, Lieutenant Dike. You have men returning to action without proper cold weather clothing and not enough ammo."
Dike looked shocked. "Sir?" I could see that unforgettable look on Dike's face, wondering how it was his problem, and wondering why he wasn't informed earlier.
Winters stated, "I suggest you take a canvas of the entire base. Get what materials you need before you roll out. Or have you done that already?"
Dike looked at me, then back to Winters. "No sir."
Winters didn't flinch. He continued ordering Dike, "K rations, as many as you can scrounge. We don't know if we'll be re-supplied or not."
Peacock asked, "What about ammo?"
Winters shook his head. "There is no more ammo. Distribute it amongst the men as best you can, so at least everybody has something."
Dike looked clueless. He said, "Lieutenant Compton. Lieutenant Peacock. Inform Lieutenant Shames of the situation. Get all the platoons as best equipped as you can, then report back to me, understood?"
The two exchanged glances. "Yes sir." They walked away from us. Winters glanced at Dike briefly as we walked passed him.
I sighed and Winters looked over at me. "What?"
I stared out in front of me and said, "Just...Dike."
"What about him?" Winters asked me.
I stopped walking and shivered. I glanced back in the direction we last saw Dike and said, "I thought Sobel was bad. This is a whole new problem."
Dick looked at me. "What are you talking about, Kate?"
I bit my lip, and looked up at him. "No one has seen him for three days. The first day that you left for Paris, I was ordered to get him up to speed with how we operate Easy. I couldn't find him. No one could." Dick shifted in his spot, crossing his arms for more warmth as I continued, "When I finally found him earlier today, he refused to tell me where he had been, and he told me that he was already trained..."
"So, what do you think?" Dick asked me.
I looked away for a moment. "Honestly?" I looked back at Dick. He nodded and I sighed, "I'm afraid of what he's going to do out there."
Dick stepped closer to me so that we had the added privacy to talk, not to mention the heat between us. "Keep going."
"I know him, Dick. I grew up with him. He's not a soldier...he's a pencil pusher. He shouldn't even be here!." I crossed my arms and continued, "He's going to get a lot of good men killed. I'm not even sure that I won't survive this unscathed."
The look in Dick's eyes told me everything that I needed to know. He was genuinely concerned. I could see it in his eyes. He nodded. "Well, there isn't much we can do at the present."
I nodded in agreement. "I know that. I also know that we have some good men to help run Easy while Dike is MIA."
We continued walking and stopped when we saw Sink's Jeep. Nixon climbed out of his Jeep and joined us. Sink stated, "Welcome to Belgium. This area is known as Bastogne." He pulled out his map, setting it on the hood of his Jeep. We leaned in to get a better look as Sink continued, "Strategic crossroads town. Seven roads leading in, seven roads leading out, which makes it ideal for Kraut armor. Now Ike wants to make sure that the Krauts can't use these roads. So, we're gonna put a perimeter around Bastogne, dig in tight as a tick. 2nd Battalion will be deployed over here to the East in this wooded area."
A voice spoke from behind us, "Thank God! Barely made it!" We turned to see Strayer join us.
Sink replied, "Better get you some O.D.s, Bob."
Strayer blinked. "Okay." He walked away from us.
"1st battalion," Sink added, "is to the North on your right flank. 3rd battalion's in reserve." He looked at his driver and ordered, "Andy, let's roll."
Before he could leave, Nixon pointed out, "We're a little short on ammunition."
Sink asked, "How short?"
Dick replied, "There was a limited supply in camp, sir."
Sink climbed into his Jeep. "Captain, you beg, borrow or steal ammo, but you defend this area."
"Yes sir," both Nixon and Winters replied as they saluted. I half heartedly saluted. Sink drove away from us as we stood there trying to think of a way to get ammo.
I turned away from Dick and Nix as they were talking to each other. My eyes fell upon a large amount of men marching past us.
These men were pretty banged up. A large amount of them were bandaged in places, using old clothes, or cloth that they could find. My mouth fell open as I watched them walk past us in a comatose state.
Suddenly, a familiar face appeared in the mass. I walked up to him and tried to get his attention. "Hey." He kept walking and didn't even look up. I placed my hand on his chest. "Hey." He finally looked up to meet my gaze. He blinked as though he recognized me. I asked, "Do you know who I am?"
He nodded weakly. "Yeah..."
"What happened?" I asked.
He blinked slowly. "We were slaughtered..."
I inhaled slowly, trying to keep calm. "What happened to my father?"
The man looked up at me. "Your father?"
"General Patterson...what happened to him?" I was losing patience. He said he knew who I was, so why was he behaving this way?
He sighed, "He's not with us."
I finally gave up on him. I realized that something bad had happened to these guys and he was in shock. I grabbed his bag. "Give me your ammo."
"Take it...take it all," the man replied as he took his bag off his back, tossing it to me, before continuing on down the line.
I stepped aside next to Talbert. I looked at him and ordered, "Take what you can from these guys."
Soon, everyone was taking supplies from the walking dead. Talbert and I walked towards Winters, but I stopped.
I suddenly found myself scanning the area. The man that I had recognized was the aide to my father. I had hoped to see him in the crowds, but when the lines were thinning out, I knew that the man was right. My father was not with them. Maybe this was a different unit than the one my father was currently commanding.
I swallowed as I kept scanning the area. I also realized that Dike was once again missing. I closed my eyes trying to keep calm. I started to panic. How were we going to survive this place when Dike, who was our CO, kept running off?
Another thing that I realized as I looked around was my habit of saying goodbye. It was dark and I couldn't make out a lot of the landscape before me, but I took it in. I wondered if I had always done this, if I had always looked at each place I had ever seen, and said goodbye.
A gentle hand grabbed my right elbow and jolted me back to the present. I looked up and met the comforting face of Dick. I saw so many things in his cerulean eyes and I couldn't pick out just one emotion. I could see that he shared many of my feelings, and his smile was the only thing to keep me calm, to keep me sane, and I prayed that I would be able to see it each day we were in this frozen forest.
We started walking into it, side by side, and I knew that as long as he was near, I would be okay.
