Lane wandered into the assembly area. She was dehydrated, she hadn't slept since her drop and she had to find Nixon and regiment HQ. Lane had to report Amy MIA, and she needed to tell Katie, Mia and even worse Speirs about Amy being captured.
Nixon was talking to Hester; they were both looking at a map, and trying to figure out where there would be the largest number of enemy concentration.
Hester looked over Nixon shoulder, Nixon noticed Hester's facial expression change, he turned around and saw Lane standing there looking like she had been walking around the French countryside for days, instead of twenty hours.
"Lane, oh god sweetheart, are you ok?" he asked
Nixon hurried over and ushered her over to a chair. Lane fell down on the chair and buried her hand in her hands, she looked up at Nixon, he could see the tears in her eyes, and about five seconds later Lane was a blubbering mess.
"Lane what happened? tell me please" Nixon said, he was on his knees.
"It's Amy, she…she is gone" Lane said
"Gone as in…." Nixon trailed of
"No, No, she was captured by the Germans" Lane said, and started to cry again.
"Oh god, oh I am so sorry, we have to tell Sink, and Speirs…he is going to flip his lid, this is bad" Nixon said
"I know, I know, it's just hard, can I have some water please?" Lane said
Nixon handed her his canteen, Lane took a big gulp of water, and handed it back to him
"Let's go find Sink, so we can get Amy back" Lane said
Nixon escorted Lane to regiment HQ, Nixon and Lane saluted Sink and Strayer.
"Captain Easterday, damn good to see you, sorry about your mission, where is Lieutenant Hunt?" Sink said
"Well sir, that's why I am here, Lieutenant Hunt, was taken prisoner by the Germans almost immediately after our drop" Lane said fighting her tears.
"That's…, a damn shame, we have to find a way to locate her, and get her back here safe" Sink said
Lane and Nixon both waited for any further instructions from the colonel.
"The two of you get back to finding a way to destroy the 88 we are hearing" Sink said, and dismissed the two S2 officers.
Lane looked at Nix and sighed, he pulled into a hug and kissed her on top of her head, "You should go and get yourself checked out by Mia or Katie" Nixon said
Lane nodded and looked at Nix, he kissed her and send her off, he watched her walk away, he needed to find Speirs and Winters and if possible Lipton.
Nixon walked toward the makeshift barn where Easy was assembled; he saw Winter and Lipton there.
He looked at the two men "I need to talk to you" Nixon said
"Sure, what's up Nix?" Winters said
"What can we do for you?" Lipton said
"I don't know how to say this, but Amy was taken prisoner by the Germans after the drop" Nixon said
Winters stared at him, not sure he heard him right "Excuse me what?" he said
"Amy was captured by the Germans" Nixon said, and looked at the two men, who were now in chock.
"That's, that's, I don't know what to say" Lipton said
"Has anyone told Mia and Katie yet?" Lipton said
"Lane is at the aid station right now, so I am guessing they know by now" Nixon said
"I have even worse news, you are going to take out the 88, we can hear over by the manor, so gather your men Dick, this show is yours" Nixon said.
Winters gathered his men, and told them about the mission. Nixon stood and watched them for a minute, before he had to go and find Speirs and tell him about Amy.
Nixon found Speirs by Brecourt Manor; he was watching some German Prisoners while smoking.
"Ron, I have some news for you" Nixon said
"What Lew?" Speirs said, he hadn't seen Amy yet and he was getting edgy. Nixon looked at Speirs, he was about to make the man's world turned upside down "Amy was taken prisoner by the Germans, and we don't know, where they are keeping her yet" Nixon said
Speirs looked at Nixon with anger in her eyes. Speirs walked over to the German prisoners and offered them some cigarettes. Nixon knew the conversation was over, and walked away. On his way towards HQ, Nixon passed Malarkey who was on his way to find Easy.
Malarkey saw Speirs handing out the cigarettes to the prisoners, before slinging his Thompson sub machine gun around and shooting down all the prisoners.
Speirs stood and looked at the dead Germans, their fellow soldiers had taken his Amy and Speirs had once promised, he would kill anyone who harmed her, and maybe one of those dead bastards had been part of Capturing Amy.
Speirs was blind with anger and rage, he rounded up his platoon, and ran towards the guns Easy was send out to capture.
Speirs came sprinting down the trench, where Winters was taking cover.
"You mind if Dog, has a go, at the last gun?" he asked Winters
"Go ahead" Winters said
Speirs sprinted toward the last gun, and at one point he ran out of the trench, and made a suicidal run for the last gun.
Winters mumbled under his breath "Guess he heard about Amy"
The men who were with Winters, looked at him with horror in their eyes, especially the men from third platoon, "What about Lieutenant Hunt?" one of them said
Winters sighed, he wanted to tell all the men at once "Lieutenant Hunt was taken prisoner by the Germans after the pathfinders jump" Winters said
The men became silent and someone muttered "Son of a bitch"
"Yeah" Winter said.
After the final gun was destroyed, and Easy had the Germans on the run, Winters and Easy walked back to the assembly area. Winters had found a bunch of maps, and wanted to hand them to Nixon, they looked important.
Winters found Nixon at the aid station, he was hugging Lane. Katie and Mia both looked at Winters with red eyes.
As soon as Katie saw Winters, she threw herself around his neck and started to cry "I can't believe she is gone" Katie said
In Katie's mind Amy was dead, there were no way, the Germans was going to let her live.
"We will get her back, don't worry" Winters said and kissed Katie on the head.
He motioned to Nixon, who followed him outside the aid station, "I found these" Winters said and handed the maps to Nixon, Without any warning Nixon took off, Lane saw him take off and ran after him.
They ran three miles to the beach; the map had every German artillery position on it, and Nixon knew it was important for the Navy guys to get the map.
As a thank Nixon and Lane got a ride on the first tank that landed on beach, they rode back on the tank, and when they saw Winters, Lane smiled "Hey soldier going my way?" Lane asked
Winters looked up and climbed on board the tank, and told the tank commander where he wanted them to fire.
By mid afternoon Brecourt manor and surrounding area was secured, and cleared of any Germans.
They all moved to Culoville, and the guys were in the back of a truck, laughing and just enjoying being alive.
Mia opened the flap and climbed in, she was searching for Lipton, and lord be hold there he was.
Mia sat down next to him, there was a god awful smell in the back of the truck "Lord what died in here" She asked
"Malarkeys ass" Guarnere said.
"Mal, you are Irish, what the hell do you know about cooking?" Mia said
Malarkey turned around and looked at her "If you have reservation somewhere else, I would love to join you lieutenant" Malarkey said.
"No that's ok, I can eat whatever, you are cooking" she said.
Mia settled down, she was getting sleepy; she leaned into Lipton who put his arm around her and squeezed her tight.
He was glad she was here with him, but he couldn't help but think about Amy, and where she was, and if she was safe and alive.
After sleeping about a half an hour Lipton shook Mia, "Mia honey, you need to move, dinner is ready" Lipton said
Mia opened her eyes and Lipton got lost in them, she was something else, Mia was the kind of person who put other people first, she would give somebody the clothes of her back, if she thought they needed it more.
Mia sat up, and smiled at the men, she was exhausted, but she was determined not to show it, she was the company nurse, she needed them to trust her at all times, and be ready to tell her if they were hurting emotionally or physically.
Mia ate what Malarkey had cooked, without saying a word, Lipton and the rest of the men looked at her in awe.
Mia looked at them "What?"
"I can't believe you, you just eat whatever people hand you, don't you?" Guarnere said
"Well, if you grew up in a household with four brothers, you just eat whatever they hand you, so you won't starve" Mia said
Mia and her brothers had lived with their mother after their father passed away, they were poor as dirt, and the reason all of her brothers and herself had joined the army was to escape poverty.
Mia loved her family, and was devastated when Tommie died in Algeria.
The rest of Mia's brothers served in the 82nd airborne, she hadn't seen any of them yet, but she hoped to see them soon.
Katie was finally able to take break from the make shift aid station. She had worked hard all day and most of the night, she stepped out and took a deep breath of fresh air. She saw Winters walking towards the edge of town, fumbling with a can, while trying to open it.
She walked up to him, and took the tin can from him, and opened it "Here, don't ever get a cat" She said.
Winters looked at her and smiled; they walked in silence and eventually sat down on an abandoned jeep.
They looked out over some tree tops, and they could hear the battles going on in the back ground.
"If we make it out of this I alive, I promise you, I will buy us a nice and quiet place, where we can live in peace forever" Winters said
Katie smiled, she knew that was the closes thing to a proposal, she would ever get from Dick.
Katie was thinking about her child and young adulthood, she had always been the smart one, the one her parents counted on to make it big, she had been paced most of her life, so the promise from Dick about a life in peace and quiet sounded perfect to her.
The next day the 506th moved out towards Vierville and St. Come du Mont.
Easy was in the lead and not long after moving out, they were fired on, from the rear.
The enemy was quickly destroyed. Winters saw Speirs walking towards battalion HQ; he looked very angry and upset. Dog had a rough morning, and their Company commander had been killed, and McMillan had taken over from Grosse.
"Ron, Wait what happened?" Winters asked the angry Lieutenant
"I had to shoot one of my sergeants to prevent fratricide" Speirs said
"I am sorry, that couldn't have been an easy decision" Winters said
"No, but it was the only way to save the rest of the company" Speirs said and walked off.
On June 11th Easy and the rest of 506th set out on a night march to Carentan.
"First platoon on your feet, it's getting dark soon so, I want light and noise discipline, and no playing grab Fanny with man I front of you Luz" Welsh said
"So if Captain Easterday is in front of me, I can grab her fanny?" Luz asked, all that got him was a slap on the back on the head from Lane.
The columns moved out. Welsh and first platoon was in the lead.
Easy company had their fair share of night marches with Sobel, was fully prepared for the march.
After marching two hours Welsh stopped the company, Winters walked up to Him "Hey Harry What's the problem?" he asked
"We lost Fox company, god damn it" Welsh said
"It's not your fault, this is about officers crapping out on their training, just send two men out to find Fox" Winters said.
This continued and together with the fact, that regiment kept changing orders, Easy and the rest of the 506th was late not reaching Carentan until 05.30 half an hour late.
The orders came to attack at 06.00.
First platoon under Welsh was on the left side of the road, with second platoon on the right, and third under Buck was in reserve.
They were in the ditches, everything was Erie quiet, and the Germans hadn't revealed their machine-gun position or fired any mortars.
At 06.00 Winters ordered "Move out"
Welsh kicked off the advance, running down the road toward the T-junction 50 away, his platoon followed.
Welsh and Luz was caught up against a wall by machinegun fire "Where the hell is everybody" Welsh screamed
"I have no idea" Luz screamed back
The German machine gun opened fire straight down the road, it was in perfect position.
When the German opened fire, the seventh man stopped and stayed in the ditch, and so did the rest of the platoon, trying to hide from the Germans.
Winters jumped out in the road, yelling and screaming at the men to get moving, they didn't move, and Winters grabbed them, and pulling them out of the ditch, and pushing them towards the town. Winters were like a mad man, yelling at the men and kicking them.
Nixon, Lane and the rest of the battalion HQ was hollering at Winters to get them moving.
Welsh were up ahead trying to deal with German machine gun, and Winters knew he was dead if he didn't get the men moving.
Finally the men started to move.
Mean while Welsh was taking care of the German machine gun, while he wondered where the hell everybody was, he and the men with him tossed grenades at the at the gun, followed by some burst from his carbine.
The rest of Easy poured into the Carentan cleaning out houses, Tipper got hurt and Liebgott dragged him back to the aid station
Lipton and Buck led third platoon into the intersection, there was an explosion, "we need to clear the street in back" Lipton was yelling, when an explosion sounded almost knocking Lipton over.
"Move out, take cover, they got us zeroed in" Lipton was yelling to the men, trying to get them of the street.
Lipton got hit by an explosion and took some shrapnel to the face, wrist and groin.
Talbert took him to the aid station, where Mia and Katie was very busy taking care of the wounded from the ongoing battle.
When Mia saw Talbert carry Lipton in to the aid station, she almost panicked, but she knew she had to be the one who was calm and collected, she put a smile on her face and walked up to the stretcher Lipton was on
"Well, let's take a look at it" Mia said and cut Lipton pants up to assess the wound.
She smiled at him "Don't worry C, everything is exactly where it's supposed to be" She said.
She decided it wasn't bad, and Lipton would live to fight another day.
Taking care of the wounded men and sending them on their way, Mia weaved around the aid station, checking on Lipton every so often.
When the jeep came for him, she held his hand "I will see you back in England ok?" She said and squeezed his hand and kissed him.
Winters were standing in the middle of the road, when he caught a piece of a ricochet in the leg, he got himself to the aid station where Roe fixed him up and bandaged his leg.
Talbert and Luz was clearing out houses in town, for some reason Luz decided not to throw in a grenade, and just kick the door in, the two of them rushed up stairs and when they opened the first door it was empty, but the next room wasn't.
Tied to a chair in the middle of the room, was a soldier, an American soldier, there was a lot of blood, and they weren't exactly sure the soldier was alive.
Talbert rushed over and untied the soldier, when he tilted the head of the soldier back, Talbert sucked in a breath, and Luz let out a string of choice words, the Soldier was Amy, she was beaten and tortured and barely breathing.
Luz picked up Amy and carried her to the aid station. Speirs saw Luz carrying something in his arms, and it only took him a second to realize it was Amy, she looked like she was dead, and Speirs immediately ran up to Luz and took Amy from his arms.
Speirs carried her to the aid station, and he yelled for Katie and she came rushing. Katie about burst into tears when she saw the condition Amy was in; she had trouble breathing and had lost a lot of blood.
"Out everybody who isn't needed here get the fuck out" Katie said, half of easy company was gathered around Amy, the word had spread that Talbert and Luz had found Lieutenant Hunt.
Katie closed the door to the room; they had put Amy in, and turned to Mia, "let's get her clothes off, so we can assess the injuries"
"She looks like, she been to hell and back" Mia said.
When they got her clothes off, they found that Amy had been badly beaten, and her body was covered wounds, from where they had beaten her with different objects. She had three broken ribs, which caused her forced breathing, she was lucky she hadn't been raped, just beaten a lot.
Speirs was pacing up and down the hall; he was pissed off and concerned. Amy had looked more dead than alive when he brought her in, what if she died? what if he lost his Amy?
The door to the room opened and Katie walked out, she saw Speirs and Winters waiting in the hall, "She is going to be just fine, she has just been through a lot, and if she wakes up in the next few hours, I believe there is no brain damage, we have to get her to England as soon as possible, but for now I am keeping her here with Mia and me" Katie said.
Speirs walked in and saw Amy laying in the bed pale and covered in bandage, she was only wearing a tank top, she looked so innocent and beautiful, and Speirs sat down besides the bed and just held her hand.
A counter attack from the Germans was expected, and Easy received orders to go to high ground and dig in with Fox and Dog company on their flanks.
Easy was walking towards high ground, Perconte was complaining as usual "How long are we going to walk George" Perco said
"Jeez I don't know, until they tell us to stop" Luz answered the pesky Italian.
Welsh had first platoon dig in at a tactical position covered by the hedgerow, and Buck did the same after consulting with Welsh and Winters.
Ordering two in each foxhole, Buck ended up sharing a foxhole with Sergeant Talbert,
At 0300 Talbert was to be relieved from guard duty, he tapped Smith on his helmet with his gun, Smith being scared and sleepy just saw a person in a German Poncho and stabbed Talbert with his bayonet, Talbert cried out and the shout for a medic sounded.
Mia, who was in a foxhole with Luz, was half asleep she woke up and sprinted towards the shout for medic, she could see Talbert leaning up against a tree, and Smith kept repeating "I am so sorry, so sorry"
The order came to attack at 05.30 and right on time the attack started, the Germans had superior fire power.
Welsh saw a German tank head their way, he grabbed a bazooka and pulled a private with him, "I will shoot, you just load, when I say, I have to cook it and its weakest spot, when it tips up" Welsh was calm, even when tank turned their 88 at them, Welsh waited for the perfect moment to fire, after firing he just ran back to cover with the private hot on her heels.
Lane was standing on a jeep, with Nixon, Strayer and Sink, watching the Germans almost over run the companies. Dog and Fox had to retreat and that left Easy high and dry.
"get Easy on the horn and tell them to retreat" Sink said
Lane put her hand on his arm "Don't, they will be alright" She said
Sink gave her a suspicious look and just then 2nd armored came over the ridge and in a minute they had the Germans fleeing and Easy let the Germans have it.
Welsh screamed "hello beautiful babies"
Welsh let out a breath and turned to high five Shifty next to him.
Easy and the rest of the companies returned to Carentan, Speirs hurried to the aid station to see Amy.
He found her awake and very happy to see him, she cried when he held her in his arms, she really wanted to tell him everything that happened, but she couldn't, not right now. Speirs just held her and let her cry, he was grateful he had gotten her back alive.
Soon after they were interrupted by third platoon, who busted into the room, wanting to see their CO. Amy was happy to see her boys, but after five minutes, she kicked them out, she was tired. Amy was shipped off to England the next day, and not long after that Easy company followed her.