The German's lead in the battle didn't last long.

After not very long at all, the Americans had them surrounded, having regained their confidence. As the snipers had feared, the Americans had aimed everything they had at the building with the caved-in roof, and they had been blown to kingdom come. It had been a horrifying sight; Emilie was still traumatised after every battle, despite the fact she had been involved in so many.

"We need to retreat," her CO hissed in her ear, running up to where she had been closing the eyes of a dead soldier behind the cover of a building.

Emilie raised her head, eyes wide. "What?" she called after him, making him pause. "But they've got us surrounded."

He didn't look at her as he replied through clenched teeth, "I know. But I don't want the whole company to be taken prisoner, Demont. It's now or never." Understandably. Life was not good for prisoners of war; the Japanese were infamous for their cruel methods of extracting information, such as cutting off the prisoner's eyelids, but Emilie wasn't entirely sure what the Americans did, nor was she completely certain of her own people's techniques. She wasn't told much. She shuddered at the thought. Half of her didn't want to know.

With one last, sorrowful glance at the corpse beneath her, she nodded and shoved herself upwards with one hand, using the other to rearrange her crutches. Her CO continued to gather up all the troops he could find; some were more eager to go than others. Eberhardt in particular seemed to be in his element as he fired shot after shot from behind a wall, revelling in the fight despite the fact one of his friends was lying dead at his feet. Emilie bowed her head. Even if the dead soldier had been opposed to her, she didn't enjoy seeing anyone dead.

When her CO told Eberhardt they were retreating, he whipped around, eyes wild, and sneered at the ranking officer, who looked taken aback but defiant all the same. "Coward!" Eberhardt spat, "We can't retreat now!"

Her CO took a step closer so he was towering over the corporal, looking down on him with his jaw set. "That is an order, Eberhardt, and it is not up for debate. We are leaving, now."

Eberhardt glared at him for a few seconds longer, before he brought an end to their peacock display and turned his seething, narrow-eyed stare on Emilie, who held his gaze. "You heard the man," she told him, not as calmly as she would have liked. In fact, her voice came out a little shaky, and she cursed her nerves for it.

Finally, they managed to drag the soldier away from his post, and they were making their way towards the woods, sticking to the buildings and going around the back to avoid being spotted. Surprisingly, it worked. But, as Emilie's eyes travelled over the ranks of soldiers surrounding her, her heart plummeted. They were missing well over 100 men. She knew that, despite her desperate protests, a few men had volunteered to remain behind as distractions, but that still didn't account for the considerable loss. Not that many had died. So where were they?

She looked over her shoulder to see German soldiers being roughly shoved out of a large building and onto the street, but they weren't being killed. Prisoners, she realised, sending ice shooting down her spine. Her CO, in his hurry, must not have done a very good job at counting how many men he had gathered to retreat; the other hundred must have been hiding around Foy. She saw one of the men shoot a wistful look in the direction of the retreating Germans, as though begging them to rescue him, but an American promptly stepped between him and the other Germans, blocking their view of each other. Emilie felt regret stab at her heart. There was nothing she could do for them, only make sure they were remembered as heroes if some didn't make it out alive.

At that moment, a few shots of a rifle filled the air and the Germans all instinctively crouched down, glancing back. But, when it was apparent it was not them the Americans were shooting at, they continued on their way, faster than before, not stopping until they were well into the woods.

And, the entire time, Emilie could not shake the feeling that the whole mission had been a huge mistake, that they had lost far more than they had gained, and that she now had 100 more to add to the extensive list of people she hadn't been able to save.

A/N: So, this is purely fictional once again; I just wanted Emilie to be involved in Foy, but needed a way to get her out of there, and being taken prisoner didn't really work for the plot I have going (what?! There's a plot? Ha.) So, I settled for retreating. C: I try to keep this story as historically accurate and use facts from the amazing book and other sources whenever I can, but sometimes that's hard ahah.

Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll update as soon as I can. This fic has basically taken over my life whoops. Review if you like. 3

xx