Chapter 18: Currahee
Summary:
Easy splits up, a deadly accident shatters the peace
Notes:
Currahee
Mike stood at a checkpoint with a German soldier. The two were checking the papers of passing civilians and helping refugees get to and from where they needed to go.
Kara and Winn were one their way to relieve the two.
"Well, it's not glamorous but i'll take guard duty over Bastogne any day" Winn drove the jeep to their destination, hand hanging out the car.
"You've got that right" Kara agreed
In the distance, Kara could see Mike and the soldier at their positions. Mike turned to them and waved, a big smile on his face. When they pulled up to him, Mike leaned on the car.
"Finally! Me and my friend Ernst here were thinking we'd be doing this forever!" Mike gestured to the soldier next to him.
The man was older, probably forced to join in the later months of the war. At Mike''s words, he could only laugh. Kara and Winn opened their doors and got out of the car.
"Yeah yeah. Get in the car and here take this" Kara pulled out some cash.
"Treat yourselves, on me" Mike smiled and took the money
"With pleasure Captain. Come on pal, lets go get a drink" both Mike and Ernst got in the car. As they drove off, a truck passed by, dropping a pipe probably from the town cleanup. In his attempt to avoid it, Mike swerved and the jeep flipped right into a ditch on the side of the road.
Kara and Winn heard the accident and ran over. They called a medic but it was too late. Mike was dead at the scene, having broke his neck on the fall. The german on the other hand was much luckier, coming out only with cuts a bruises. But the damage was done. The fighting may be over but the war wasn't done with them yet.
Mike made it through D-Day, through Market Garden and Bastogne, and was killed in an auto accident in a peaceful austrian town. Go figure. His body was sent home, and Easy moved on again, a noticeable empty seat at the bar and a vacant bunk. Mike was finally a good friend and they lost him not long after getting him.
For Kara, it was another man lost under their watch, and it was a feeling he hoped to never have again.
It was now a week after the surrender and the top officials announced that anyone with certain merit points would get to go home and not be sent to the pacific. Due to their distinguished history and the daring rescue in Austria, most members of Easy were going to go home.
Brainy was headed back to Harvard to work again. Winn wanted to go back to Midvale, finally marry Eve. Kara was going to marry Lena. At least that was the plan.
There was only one guy who didn't have enough points.
"Dick, take my points. There's no way i'm letting you go to the pacific." Kara sat with Dick on a dock that was on a lake not far from the Eagle's Nest.
Dick stared at Kara and shook his head "No way. You earned those points Kara. You go home and marry your girl." Dick looked at his friend.
"You've been watching out for me long enough. Time for us to split up. Go live your life pal. I've gotta learn how to live without you at some point." Dick stood up, took off his shirt and jumped in the lake.
Kara decided to leave this for later, then ran and jumped in too.
About half of the second battalion was going home, including Clark and Bruce. Kara and His friends prepared to leave. Kara decided on giving one speech, a way of saying goodbye to the people he made a connection with over three years of hardship.
He stood in the dining room of the house the company had been staying in for the past few weeks. Everyone from Easy had crammed in to hear their leader speak one more time
"It's been a long war guys, a tough war. We left our family, our friends but through the past 3 years, we made a new family all our own. Today we split up, but we will always be together."
Kara looked out at the faces looking up at him, and could almost imagine the faces that weren't there. For a brief moment, Kara saw James, his arm around Oliver. To his left, Barry was laughing with Mike in a corner, beers in hand.
"I read a book recently. It said From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered— We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother." Kara took a deep breath.
"There's a bond we've created that will never go away. Lets always remember these days together with each other, and those that are no longer here that gave this chance"
Kara raised a fist in the air, shouting out with this group one last time
"Currahee!"