Word came through the line, Hitler was dead. A strange feeling washed over me at hearing this. I had spent so long now with these men fighting what felt like an invisible hand that kept throwing everything that he had at us. The gravity of the situation didn't really hit me until we were on our way to Berchtesgaden. Leaving the camp was harder than I expected it to be. I thought I would feel the burden of all these lives lift from my shoulders, but the opposite occurred. I could feel the heavy weight of the newly liberated people who had not only no place to go, but whose families may now only consist of just them. The illness and disease that swept through the camp and the relief efforts of the red cross nurses. I wondered if it would be enough. I wondered if it would ever be enough.
I wondered if we were ever going to get moving…
We were stuck on the mountain road. The Nazi's in their infinite wisdom and petulance had caused large rock slides in an effort to keep us out of Berchtesgaden.
I rolled my eyes as another shot from the rocket launcher screamed out and hit the rock slide with a deafening blow.
"That's never going to fucking work." I groused as I watched Webster join in the fun loading up a bunch of live grenades just as Sink's truck came rolling up.
"Oh ye of little faith," I heard Malarkey tease.
"Yeah, if nothing else, the shit show afterwards should at least be entertaining," George added. I glared at him and quickly snatched the cigarette out of his mouth. "Hey! I was smokin' that!"
"Have any of you ever had fireworks before?" I asked ignoring George as a much louder explosion rocked the street.
"Yeah, what's that gotta do with this?" George asked as he tried and failed to take his cigarette back.
My eyes rolled as I tried to explain the fundamentals of clearing a path.
"Look, you place a firecracker on your hand, palm open and what happens?"
"You burn your damn hand," Webster offered.
"You burn your damn hand." I affirmed. "Now, you take the same firecracker and put it in your hand, but this time you close your fist tight around it." I mimicked the movements using my own hand and the cigarette in place of a firecracker. "Now you light it and what happens?"
Blank looks stared back into my dark eyes. "Anyone?" I sighed. "You-"
"You blow your hand off." The men were on their feet in an instant as I casually glance up from my shady spot near the truck's wheel and I grinned up at Speirs, his eyebrow lifted as did a small corner of his lips.
"So, in order to clear this road of the debris, we have to first dig into the debris, then place the explosives and poof! No more hand, no more roadblock."
"So, why aren't we doin' that?" Liebgott asked.
"Are you an engineer?" I retorted.
"Well, no."
"Do you have machinery capable of digging straight into the middle of that rock slide while not only calculating the exact position but just the right amount needed so that another, more massive slide does not occur?"
"N-no…" he stuttered.
"No. That's why we need those lazy asshole engineers that never show up when you need them."
"Yeah," George grinned down at me. "Those lazy asshole engineers with their fancy learning and college smarts." I glared harshly at him.
"I would ask where this conversation is going, but we have orders from Sink to take the the town. Assemble down on the Autobahn." I looked up at him as he towered over me from my seated position in the partial shade and squinted up at my C.O. with a grin on my face.
"Well, it's about damn time," I could hear gasps as I spoke so casually and flippantly to the captain. "My ass has started hurting just sitting around here doing nothin', Sir."
The sound of silence was so deafening you could hear the dropping of the small rocks from where they were dislodged by the blasts. The men looked from me to the captain and back, all waiting on bated breath for what would certainly be my murder. My eyes locked with Speirs as a slow grin lazily made its way across his lips.
"Well, we need your ass up on that Mountain Benally, best to get off it." He held his hand out to me and I grasped it tightly as he pulled me firmly onto my feet.
"As you wish, sir." I grinned back at him and released his calloused hand. He turned to the rest of the men and barked a few quick orders at them, sending them scattering like roaches from the light. I rolled my eyes and helped prep 2nd for departure as we made our way up to the town built on the fundamentalist idea of Aryan supremacy.
…..
"This is more than a little quiet." Malarkey whispered to me as we made our way to the town of Berchtesgaden.
"Everyone who lives and works here is a Nazi," I replied. "If you were part of a town full of Nazis and you know that a bunch of American soldiers were going to come parading up your street, you'd have high tailed it out of here too."
We spent the next hour or so clearing the buildings for our own use as the officers searched out for a place for the colonel to stay at his newly won prize city.
"Benny, Malarkey," The copper haired man jumped as Speirs barked his name. "Get 2nd ready, we're going to take the nest."
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Malarkey and I were the first to jump off of the trucks, others followed in our suite and before we knew it we were looking down on the convoy as we jogged up to the Eagle's Nest. We stopped every once in awhile to yell and wave at the men still on the trucks, but continued our quick ascent to Hitler's favorite gift. We cleared the area when we arrived and waited for Speirs to join us before breaching the house. The view was incredible as the five of us got our first look at the nest. I grabbed anything that was silver or gold and stuffed it into my bag, grabbing a flute of champagne along the way. I saw Speirs leaning over something and I curiously made my way over. It was a Nazi who I could quickly see had taken his own life rather than be captured by us. Speirs grabbed his gun just as Malarkey opened another bottle of champagne, the cork sped free from the bottle and caused a sound not unlike that of a gunshot. What I saw cannot be unseen and if I ever told anyone they wouldn't have believed me! The sound of the cork popping and echoing off the stone walls caused him to jump…
Captain Ronald Speirs nearly came out of his skin in a very rare moment of weakness.
It only lasted for a blink and he was back to himself, with just a bit more annoyance than usual written across his face.
"Here's to him!" Malarkey exclaimed as he took a swig of champagne.
"Hey!" I called and held out my now empty flute. "Don't be greedy."
Malarkey dumped a quarter of the bottle into my glass and I held it up to him in a salute as he did the same with the bottle before we both took a swig of the sweet, dry sparkling beverage. Malarkey wondered off in search of more treasures as I walked over to Speirs.
"Little jumpy, sir?" I questioned, barely holding back my shit eating grin. He leveled me with a glare that could have melted the flesh off my bones… but had little effect as I swigged the rest of my drink in one go and locked eyes with the Captain.
"You can glare at me all you want, sir." I waggled my finger at him, already feeling slightly tipsy. "You've glared at me so much that it doesn't even bother me anymore. I'm immune to it!" I chuckled and the look of annoyance increased on his face ten fold.
"Don't worry, sir, your secret is safe with me." I play whispered as grabbed another bottle of champagne and handed it to him before ditching the flute and grabbing my own bottle.
"Zum Wohl!" I hoisted my bottle in toast before popping the cork and taking a swig. Speirs rolled his eyes at me but drank heavily from his own bottle. I nodded in approval and joined Malarkey as we combed through the rest of the house, taking the best trinkets for ourselves.
….
I stood in the garden of the eagle's nest letting the sun soak through my clothes down into my bones as the cool air breezed past my face and I took in the view. I had never seen anything of the like before.
The mountains in Colorado were different, they were wild and the peaks gnarled and untamed. The mountains here were soft and capped in snow, like a painting come to life. They stood tall and proud and I was thankful that I had the chance to witness them. The sound of the breeze whistled through the mountains, covering the sound of troop movements as I myself was tasked with watching over the castle on the mountain per Speirs' orders. I glanced and nodded my head as Winters and a slacked jawed Nixon walked past me. Winters returned my nod with a great smile as he hopped into the jeep and sped away.
I sighed and walked over to the courtyard, taking a seat on the sun warmed brick wall that matched the rest of the house that blended into the granite of the mountain. Just as I had found a comfortable spot on the stone wall I heard a commotion coming from inside the house. I jumped up and made my way inside, curiosity getting the better of me. I followed the sound of voices until I found myself standing on a balcony looking over one of the most beautiful and vast vistas I had ever seen.
"You okay, sir?" I asked Harry as he shouted out in glee, his voice echoing off the mountains. The only answer I got was another excited shout as Harry let go of Lip and turned towards the mountains. I looked between the three officers Speirs, Lip and Harry and shook my head in amusement before taking one last look at the view and walked back inside.
As I made my way back to the entrance I heard the pounding of hurried feet on the stone floor. I turned towards the sound and saw Speirs barreling toward me and I stopped dead in my tracks, bracing myself. I held my ground with my eyebrow quirked in something akin to amusement.
"Sir?" I asked as he came to a stop in front of me. His taller frame towered over me and I looked up at him. His eyes held a swirl of emotions that changed so fast I felt dizzy... or perhaps that was the fumes of the numerous bottles of champagne that he and the rest of the officers had imbibed, my proximity to the man was so close I could detect the scent of the soap he washed with this morning under the alcohol. His hands came to either of my shoulders and held firm as I imagined he was trying to keep whatever wave of dizziness that came from the swirl of emotions and alcohol at bay.
"It's over," he said in a deep voice.
"Sir?" I asked again, confusion evident in my eyes and voice. He glanced down at his hands as they gripped my shoulders.
"The war," he raised his eyes to meet my gaze once more, "it's over."
When what he said had finally penetrated my fogged mind all I could articulate was a dumbfounded,
"Huh."
I glanced anywhere but at him. I was at a loss. I always thought that there would be a tremendous amount of relief that would wash over me when this day came, but all I felt was numb. I had spent so much of my life at war, waiting to hear those words in both the future and the past and now I felt empty, lost.
Flashes of my life raced through my mind, the war at home and the war here. Will, my dad, my brother, George, Buck, Roe, Nix, Winters, all them men from my present and future came to my mind. These men from the past had become family and now that the war was over what would I do? How could I get back to my future… did I even want to go back? Without my knowing I began thinking of home as a place that included the men of Easy, without realizing it my time became the past.
What would I do without war? It was my life. I didn't know if I could be a civilian after everything I had been through. I didn't know if I could be a doctor after all the blood and gore I had seen and been the cause of.
"Sargent." Speirs squeezed my arms and his strong voice brought me back to the present and to his concerned brown eyes that looked over me in disquiet. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, sir," I don't know. "I'm just…" lost, worried, happy, terrified, "in shock." He smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes as he squeezed my arms one last time before letting go.
"You need a drink." He announced as he scanned the room. "I need a drink," he mumbled to himself as he procured two bottles of champagne.
"I think you've already had a drink, sir." I quirked an eyebrow at him as he stumbled slightly back over to me.
"I need another," he grinned and popped the cork from one bottle followed shortly by the other. He handed one to me and raised his own.
"Happy VE day Jo." Speirs took a deep swig from the bubbly wine.
"Happy VE day, Captain Speirs." I took my own deep drought.
"That's the spirit!" Harry yelled as Lip guided him in from the terrace. "Happy VE day!" He tipped his head back and drowned the rest of his bottle, nearly throwing both himself and Lip off balance.
"Oh boy do I need a drink," I mumbled.
…
We loaded up the last of the alcohol that we could fit in the trucks, my head already spinning from the impromptu private celebration between the officers and I early in the day.
"I think I'm becoming an alcoholic." I said to Luz as we pulled out our poison of choice before closing the bed of the overloaded truck.
"If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em." Luz said as he opened the corked bourbon. I followed suite with my own and we toasted each other.
"You are aware that this means we are now an occupational force, right?" I asked as we watched the truck make it's way back into town.
"I am," we made our way over to the jeep where O'Keefe was waiting for us in the driver's seat. Before jumping in George turned to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. "Happy VE day kid," he whispered to me. "We made it."
My own arms came around to return my best friend's tight embrace.
"We did." I whispered back, feeling for the first time a sense of relief. He had made it through the war, we both did. We were alive and we would be going home…
Whatever that meant.
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A/N : I updated.
I know, you thought you would never hear from me again.
I needed to release stress and I always intended to finish this. I won't promise you time frame in which I will be posting the next chapter, but it will happen, I will finish this. I promise.
I am going to go through this story and rewrite a few things that don't really make sense. I'll let you guys know what chapters have big changes in them so you can take a look if you want.
Edited 8/7/17