Last Time: Rebecca gains an allie.

"If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill

Now: Rebecca meets her new CO and trains with Easy.


Chapter 7 - The Boys

The next morning, Easy Company was waiting in formation for their CO, Lieutenant Sobel. Normally, Rebecca wouldn't have minded the heat, but boy was it hot, way hotter than the summers in Rhode Island. Bugs were flying everywhere and she noticed Nix standing adjacent to her, smack a fly on his neck. She felt all eyes on her as she moved in with Dick and the other officers. She heard a few whispers behind her.

"That must be the dame that's gonna be fighting with us." Someone whispered

"Shh! She's a Lieu, you can't call her a dame!" A cautionary voice murmured.

"I just can't believe they chose our company! That clearly means we're the best out of everyone."

Rebecca smirked to herself. It was like she was some kind of deity to them. Either that or they were annoyed by her presence. The mumbling made it hard to tell.

"You people are at the position of attention!" Sobel yelled, startling everyone and hushing the whispers.

Rebecca felt an onslaught of nerves as her new CO approached them. Sobel was a tall fellow with dark hair perfectly parted and slicked back with gel, stern eyes, and a very large nose. He almost looked a little too put together considering they were in the toughest training in the army. Sobel paced around the company, giving everyone a once over, looking for infractions. He found his first victim.

"Private Perconte, have you been blousing your trousers over your boots like a paratrooper?"

The short man named Perconte snapped to attention and offered up his rifle for inspection. "No, sir."

Sobel's eyes darted down to the man's boots, "Than explain the creases at the bottom."

"No excuse sir."

"Volunteering for the parachute infantry is one thing, Perconte, but you've got a long way to prove that you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked."

Perconte accepted his punishment reluctantly, even though he knew Sobel was full of shit.

Rebecca's eyes quickly filled with shock as Sobel established himself as their CO with every soldier he picked on. This man was a hardass and now she understood what Nix was talking about at dinner last night. This man was going to make all their lives hell on earth.

Sobel weaved his way through the men and picked out the next sorry man.

"Name?" Sobel sneered, coming inches apart to his next victim.

"Luz, George."

Luz presented his rifle to Sobel and this time he actually took the weapon to inspect.

"Dirt in the rear side aperture. Pass revoked."

Rebecca was astonished. He was going to go through every man and would no doubt find something to punish them for, justified or not. Rebecca was almost certain he would find something to pick on her for. Dread filled her.

Sobel moved on, looking for more ludicrous infractions. When he seemed satisfied, he made his way to the NCO's. He approached one sergeant who stood as a still as a statue, ready for his bombardment.

"When did you sew on the chevrons, Sergeant Lipton?"

"Yesterday, sir," Lipton replied.

"Long enough to notice this?" Sobel sneered, holding up an Irish pennant in front of Lipton. "Revoked."

"Sir," Lipton replied, gracefully accepting his punishment.

Sobel looked over the other NCO's one more time. Apparently satisfied, he moved back to the enlisted men.

"Name," Sobel barked, facing a red headed man.

"Malarkey, Donald G," Malarkey said swinging his rifle over his shoulder, presenting it to Sobel.

"Malarkey?" Sobel began, almost a tone of jest in his voice, "Malarkey's slang for bullshit, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir." He reluctantly agreed, probably hoping that nickname wouldn't stick.

Sobel took the rifle presented to him and examined it. Most likely unable to find and real infractions, he made one up.

"Rust on the butt plate hinge spring, Private Bullshit. Revoked," Sobel said, tossing the weapon back to Malarkey.

Rebecca watched as he walked back over to the officers, seemingly done with his ministrations, and hoped to God he would overlook her. But unfortunately, Sobel made eye contact with her. He smirked evilly and and started stomping over to her.

Shit.

"Name?" He barked, getting far too close to Rebecca's face.

"Rebecca, Clark, A, sir."

Rebecca presented her rifle to him which he overlooked. Instead he began to scan over her appearance. She thought for sure Sobel wouldn't be able to find anything. Rebecca had checked her uniform over at least three times to make sure she passed muster.

"I can see your hair sticking out of your helmet, Lieutenant Clark."

"No excuse, sir."

"You may have gotten yourself into this company with an officer's ranking and you may be a woman, don't think I'm going to treat you any differently. As far as a I'm concerned I'm to see that you fail even more so than the other men. I have higher standards and expectations for you, being our latest test experiment. To me, you're no more than a labrat."

"Yes, sir," Rebecca snarled. Now she knew for a fact that she had a nice, bright red target painted on her back.

Rebecca suddenly felt an inconsolable about of hatred and anger for Sobel. She was no labrat. She earned her spot here and there was no way on God's green earth this long-nosed jackass was gonna scare her away.

When hell froze over. She thought.

She watched as Sobel made his way to the other men.

"Name?"

"Liebgott, Joseph D, sir."

Before Liebgott had a chance to present his rifle to Sobel, he went for his bayonet.

"Rusty bayonet, Liebgott. You wanna kill Germans?"

"Yes, sir."

Sobel took the bayonet and banged it on Liebgott's helmet, emphasizing his point.

"Not with this."

Sobel turned around to face his company. "I wouldn't take this rusty piece of shit to war, and I will not take you to war in your condition."

Sobel took the "rusty" bayonet and threw it into the ground.

"Now, thanks to these men and their infractions, every man in the company who had a weekend pass, has lost it."

Rebecca could almost feel the eyes of anger burning into all sides of her body. They hated him as much as she did, which was nice to know. It was a common interest.

"Change into your PT, gear we're running Currahee."

As Sobel walked away from the men, Winters did an about face towards his platoon.

"Second platoon fallout. We have two minutes."

Rebecca followed Winters and Nixon into the barracks. Feeling disgusted by her new CO, she flopped down on her bed not wanting to change into her PT gear.

"So, what did you think of Sobel?" Nixon smiled elbowing her.

"He's just fucking peachy." She sneered.

Rebeca didn't understand. Treating all his men like pieces of garbage was only going to make them resent him and pretty soon, he'll have a mutiny on his hands. Did Sobel want his men to hate him?"

Rebecca dashed her thoughts aside and changed into her PT gear, not caring about being modest in front of the men. She pulled the PT shirt over head and the black dingaling shorts that were far too short.

"Ah, don't let him get you down, Becca. You deserve to be here just as much as we do," Nixon said, pulling out a flask from his breast pocket and offering it to her.

"No thanks, Nix, and I don't think it's wise to drink before we run."

Nixon shrugged taking a swig, "You have to be drunk to climb that mountain."

Mountain? Rebecca thought, hesitation entering her mind.

However, she didn't have time to ponder on it. She finished tying her boots and scurried out the barrack door.

XXX

Rebecca soon found out why Nix said "you need to be drunk to run Currahee." Currahee wasn't a traditional running path for PT. It was a steep mountain that spanned three miles up, three miles down. Rebecca was no stranger to running. She ran track in high school and even college, she ran for OCS, but she never ran uphill for six miles straight non-stop. Plus, the thick Georgian heat made breathing all the harder. To add to her misery, Rebecca had to continually assure that her shorts weren't riding up too far and accidentally gave the men behind her a show.

With every step on the hill, Rebecca felt her legs growing more like jello and her lungs burning for oxygen. Cramps worked their way up and down her ribs as every ounce of her being screamed for a break.

"What's the matter, Clark? You tired? They didn't teach you how to run in nursing school?"

"You don't belong here Clark, you're a woman. Women don't belong in Airborne!"

Sobel's snide and crude remarks only pushed Rebecca to run harder and faster, despite her threshold for pain already being crossed. She was not going to let this squawking bird get to her.

Even though she was having a hard time herself, most of the men were too. One man named Skip twisted his ankle running up the mountain. Rebecca broke formation to help him but was discouraged by Sobel.

"Do not help that man Lieutenant! Do not help that man!"

Rebecca was disgusted by Sobel. His methods were despicable. She understood training being tough, it was the army after all, but this was insanity. She was always told to help an injured soldier.

Eventually, they all made it to the top, more or less in one piece. All, however, sucking fumes by the time they were able to slap the marble monument, signifying their halfway point. Rebecca wasn't doing too well either. She was absolutely spent by the time she made it up to the top of Currahee and completely aching. Now, they had to run all the way back down. It might have seemed easier because gravity was on there side but, trying to run downhill on tired legs only made it easier to trip and fall. The dirt proved to be even more treacherous and threatened to slip underneath their heavy jump boots.

Dick was the only one giving them all a little bit of encouragement to aid them in running back down hill.

XXX

The rest of the day only proved to be more exhausting. After running Currahee and taking a short, but well needed water break, Easy Company fell into the calisthenic portion of training. Of course, this section was just as intense and demanding as running Currahee.

They sprinted, did high knees through rope, crawled through wooden tubes and under barbed wire, and had to climb an eight foot wall. And all on top of it, they had to complete jumping jacks, push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups; and if they weren't to Sobel's liking, Easy had to do it all over again.

Rebecca didn't know how many times they were forced to do it all over again but, what she did know was that her arms were limp as noodles and her legs were practically numb. It was beyond PT at this point; it was more like torture.

What felt like hours of non-stop misery, the trumpet signalled lunch time and all of Easy practically crawled to the mess hall.

This was going to be a long be a long two years. Rebecca fretted, schelping her body to the mess.

XXX

After the noon meal, Easy was able to relax their muscles for a bit while they sat in classroom instruction. This may have seemed like a blessing for the PT weary troops, but after spending the whole morning exerting their bodies to ungodly lengths and pushing every ounce of muscle they had, everyone was ready for bed.

Exhaustion lingered in every desk in the classroom hut. It was almost like everyone was paralyzed from exhaustion. No one could even muster up energy to raise a hand and answer the instructor's questions. Instead, the poor officer delegated to teach their sorry asses simply called on them by name.

Finally, after the longest day of her young life, Rebecca dragged her carcas back to the barracks, and collapsed onto her wrack. She would worry about a shower later. Now, all she could think about was sleep.

XXX

Second Platoon's barracks was buzzing with sweaty and showered men, trying to cram in some smokes and jabber before lights out. Despite the rigorous training they endured today, all was astir.

Luz sat with his buddies Guarnere, Toy, and another man name Darrell Powers who everyone called Shifty. Each man had a cigarette dangling from their mouths and playing cards in hand. Nothing like a friendly game of poker to wind down with before bed.

"Aw, come on Luz, you're cheating," Guarnere cried out.

Luz smirked at the man with his cigarette fuming. "You can't call skills cheating, Gonorrhea." He grinned.

"Bullshit," Toye objected.

"Hey, anyways, what do you guys think of this new dame?" Luz asked, changing the subject.

"Hey, hey," Toye said, "don't try to turn the subject around, you filthy cheater!"

Lux looked around at his friends waiting for their response. If cards couldn't get their minds off of the miserable hell they were in, then some good old fashioned scuttlebut would.

"Well, what do you think, Shift?" Luz asked again.

Shifty looked up from his cards, a confused look on his face. "Well, nothing I guess. She's here trying to accomplish the same goal as we are. The army must've put her here for a reason."

Lux groaned and took his cigarette out of his mouth. "Come on, you guys don't think it's a little weird that they decided, out of the blue, to get some dame and put in her in with the guys?"

"She's just a nurse, Luz. Ain't no way a dame is gonna hold a gun and fight," Guarnere scoffed.

"Well, it appears she's gonna be going overseas with us, unless she drops out," Shifty said.

The group excluding Shifty all chuckled and threw in their cards.

"There's no way she's gonna last. If us guys are already dropping like flies, there's no way some chick is gonna cut it," Luz finished.

Guarnere and Toy both looked down at the cards in anger. "Ah, I'm done playing this game," Toye exasperated.

Luz collected his cards from each of the guys and put them back into the holder. He wondering to himself, What's a pretty gal like her doing here?

- End Chapter -


A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Like I said, I'm really trying to continue this story but school takes priority. Now that I'm pretty much done re-writing the pre-Toccoa arc, It'll be a lot easier to write because I plan on editing and revising my original story chapters and posting those. Anyways, please show some support cause I could really use it right now. Thanks! :3