Cali woke to the sound of truck engines and shouted orders, she opened her eyes to see Lipton staring down at her, and it seemed she had not moved from the bar she had ended up in last night. She turned to find that she had fallen asleep in the arms of Malarkey. This didn't look good.
"Get up," Lipton did not seem to want to be angry; he appeared more amused but needed to show zero tolerance.
"We roll out in 10. MOVE!"
Cali got up and nudged Malarkey, he grumbled and ignored her, Bill had ended up slumped over the table. Webster was nowhere to be seen but Lutz took over form Cali's feeble attempt to wake Malarkey by firmly kicking him in the legs and toppling the chair he slept on. He was not, to say the least, too amused. Cali brushed her hair from her face with little affect only to meet the look of Winters who quickly turned his face to the moving trucks.
Cali had bagged herself a trip on the tanks for her late morning, no one ever wanted to go on the tanks, especially when moving into any unknown area. They were the first thing the Germans tried to shoot. At least it was not raining or cold.
They trundled along the dusty road approaching a similarly deserted town to the one they had left in the morning; the afternoon sun heated the tanks and made them hot touch. Some about the town made Cali sit up, something in the air seemed too still, the Lieutenant ordered the convoy to stop, walking ahead to survey the town. He just walked out, in the middle of the road, Bull gave Cali a sharp look, what was the man doing?
Cali flinched as a click broke the silence; the Lieutenant was on the floor; engines roared as the tanks moved into play and the men scattered to the sides of the road. The lieutenant writhed on the floor as the German machine guns opened fire, he was hit in the leg, and no one went to get him, why had no one moved. Bull shouted at his men to move forward, most of them froze to the spot. Many had never seen real action before.
Cali, frustrated, ran out to the road. Bullets danced about her feet and whizzed past her face, she grabbed the shoulders of the soldier's jacket and started to drag him across the dust. Her feet slipped as she battled against his weight and flailing limbs, blood was spilling out of his neck, covering his chest and face. Cali pressed against the wound but could not stop the flow. Something stung her face and she fell backwards, the lieutenant collapsed on top of her as they tumbled into the gully at the side of the road.