Okay, some of you guys liked me to continue... to be honest, I'm glad about it. I haven't decided yet whether Carter should live or should stay dead. But nevertheless I'd like to say Thank you to all of you who did review this story, because I was very happy about that. Hopefully I deserve some more reviews :)
But now I'd like you to enjoy the next chapter.
"Come on, Carter, hurry up", Newkirk hissed at the young Sergeant.
They were behind some bushes and watched the new munitions factory. Next to Newkirk, there were LeBeau and Hogan, also waiting for Carter who arrived with the explosives. He had been a bit behind them because he had to carry all the stuff.
"Calm down, I'm here", he whispered a bit annoyed. Newkirk wouldn't be as fast as he was if he had to carry all the explosives with him.
"Okay, Carter, you know what to do. Plant the explosives in the factory and get back. Be quick about it", Hogan ordered him.
"Okay Colonel", with this words the Sergeant started his way to the factory. Thanks to his German uniform nobody would suspect him to be a spy.
LeBeau shivered. "It's cold tonight, isn't it?"
"Hopefully we would be back in the Stalag in a few hours", Hogan mumbled and watched the German soldiers outside the factory. He prayed that their mission would go right. Lately, they had a lot of luck, they had completed their missions with success and London was pleased with them. He wanted this to continue.
"Yeah, in a few hours", Newkirk commented and shivered, too.
"You'd better be quick, Carter, or you'll find us frozen to death", LeBeau joked half-hearted.
Newkirk snorted and Hogan smiled slightly.
"He's going into the munitions factory", Hogan informed his men while looking through the binoculars.
"I haven't a good feeling about this. Didn't anybody recognize him?", LeBeau asked and looked in the Colonel's direction.
"It doesn't seem like someone did", Hogan answered.
"Ya'll see, in a few minutes we have him back here, save and in one piece. Everything'll be fine and we'll return to the Stalag", Newkirk tried to sound confident.
"Newkirk's right, LeBeau, there's nothing to worry ab- oh crap!", Hogan cursed.
"What's happening?", Newkirk asked, not sure whether he really wanted to hear the answer.
"Hochstetter's just arrived", Hogan said and bit his lip.
"Hochstetter? What does he want?", LeBeau said and felt quite uncomfortable. He prayed that the Major wouldn't discover Carter.
"I don't know. He's talking to one of the soldiers right now. And there comes Carter. Hochstetter doesn't seem to see him. But Carter did see him and now he tries to avoid him. And it seems that he's successful. A little more and he can hide and... Holy Christ!", Hogan told his men and then bit his lip once more.
"What?", Newkirk whispered. He didn't want to watch the scenery in front of the factory.
LeBeau faced him, deathly pale.
"Hochstetter discovered Carter, but hopefully he only asks him some questions and then let go of him", Hogan said and prayed silently to God that nothing would happen to the youngest of his men.
"How much time has Carter to escape from setting the timer 'till the explosion?", Newkirk asked and hoped for the best.
"5 minutes. We couldn't risk that someone discovers the bomb before it detonates", Hogan answered and had the feeling that this could be Carter's death sentence.
"Blimey", Newkirk whispered, but his two comrades had heard him.
"What does Hochstetter want to know?", LeBeau asked and didn't expect an answer. At least he didn't get one.
"Damn it!", Hogan nearly shouted in pure fury and stood up.
"Colonel?", Newkirk asked surprised.
"Hochstetter does suspect him. He takes Carter to his car. The boy struggles against it, but I guess he has no chance to escape. We have to get to him and help him before the bomb detonates", Hogan said in a rush and wanted to run to Carter. But Newkirk and LeBeau didn't let him.
"Let me go. We haven't time for this. I'm not gonna let Carter be a prisoner of this son of a bit-", Hogan hissed.
"Quiet down, Colonel! Think for a moment! We can't help Carter this way. We should find out where Hochstetter wants to take him and then rescue him from that place", Newkirk said with a lot of authority in his voice.
Hogan calmed down in an instant.
"Yeah, you're right, Newkirk. Sorry for this little outburst", he said calmly.
"There's nothing to be sorry for, Colonel", the Corporal said.
Suddenly the bomb went off and the whole factory seemed to consist of fire and flying debris.
Hogan stared in shock at the form of Hochstetter, who stopped dragging Carter to his car and how they went flying through the air because of the explosion and then disappeared in the flames. LeBeau had his eyes closed, his ears were ringing from the explosion, but he didn't care. He didn't want to see anything, because he didn't want the obvious to be the truth. Newkirk turned deathly pale and was so shocked and horrified that he couldn't keep his small dinner down.
After some minutes, Hogan, LeBeau and Newkirk were still there, behind a bush and shocked. Nobody had moved since the explosion. LeBeau who had opened his eyes again stared at the flames which still destroyed the ruins of the factory. He couldn't even think on something, he could only see the flames. In Hogan's head the scene when the explosion started repeated itself over and over again. Newkirk stared shocked on the ground before him. His last words to Carter where still ringing in his ears. Then he saw Carter's form disappearing in the fire.
"Guys, we have to get back", Hogan said calmly and interrupted Newkirk' s thoughts.
LeBeau nodded, but Newkirk now faced the fire, the fire that had eaten up his best friend.
"Peter", Hogan placed a hand on the Corporal's shoulder. The man looked at him, and the Colonel looked in a pair of eyes without expression, with no feeling.
Hogan knew what Newkirk wanted, he wanted it himself. He wanted to run to the ruins of the munitions factory, wanted to look for Carter like he hoped that the young Sergeant lived unless he knew that he was dead and that they couldn't do anything. Hogan understood his men well. But he was the one in command, he had to decide whether they should look for the rest of Carter which surely wasn't more than some nearly ashen bones with no chance to identify it or whether they should get back to the Stalag and avoid some German soldiers which looked for spies or saboteurs. Hogan decided to get at least his remaining men back safely. And so they went back to their prison which would never be the same with one of them dead.
Newkirk woke up with a start. Sweat was all over his body and his breathing was heavy. This dream had been quite strange. He had been able to know everything Hogan and LeBeau thought, additionally to his own thoughts. He was still shocked. Carter died in his dream, one of his greatest fears came true and the results were even more terrible.
Newkirk jumped from his upper bunk to check on Carter who was supposed to sleep in the lower one. He knew it would help him to calm down when he saw his friend save there in his own bunk. First, he was shocked that he couldn't see anything there. Then he remembered that it was in the middle of the night, it was dark in the barracks and he couldn't see anything because of that. Nevertheless, his heart started to beat faster again. Because he couldn't see Carter, he started to touch him, but there was no one the lower bunk! No Carter, just the blanket. Newkirk sat down on the bunk. He closed his eyes and that was the moment that his dream hadn't been only a dream. He had only remembered what had really happened. He had lost Carter.
Not that he only lost the person Sergeant Andrew Carter, he had lost his best friend. And the last words he had said to him were that he had to hurry. Of course, Carter had been able to drive one crazy, with his trapping over nearly everything or with being a little too naïve and so on, but nevertheless he had been the best friend one could have. He had been there for Newkirk when the Corporal had had a problem, he had been there when Newkirk had needed someone to cheer him up, all in all Carter had been the best company, the funniest mate, the most understanding one.
Now, when Carter wasn't there, Newkirk realized how much he had meant to him.
And he realized that he needed someone to talk to. That was right in the moment when he discovered some little light escaping from the Colonel's office from under the door. So Hogan couldn't sleep, too. Newkirk decided to go to the office and look after the Colonel.
The Corporal put a blanket around his shoulders and then went to the door. Carefully with trying to be not too loud he knocked an the wood and then entranced silently with nearly making no sound. Hogan was awake, like Newkirk had expected it, sitting on a chair near the table and staring on the wooden table before him without moving.
"What is it?", he grumbled.
"Er, hello, Colonel. I couldn't sleep after waking up from a nightmare and then I saw that you were still awake. So I decided to check on you", Newkirk explained.
Finally, Hogan moved and faced him. He had dark shadows under his eyes and was pale like a ghost.
"Geez Colonel, excuse me for saying that but you look awful", Newkirk said.
"You aren't looking very well, too", Hogan said and raised an eyebrow.
"Sit down, Corporal", Hogan said after awhile.
Newkirk took the offered seat, not sure what to say or to do.
"So you couldn't sleep?", Hogan asked because he noticed Newkirk being unsure what to say.
"Yeah, I had some really bad nightmare and after that I thought it was simply a nightmare and wanted to check on … him whether he was okay. That was when I noticed it wasn't only a nightmare", Newkirk explained, not daring to say Carter's name.
"I understand. Guess I see it everytime I close my eyes"; Hogan said quietly, knowing what Newkirk was talking about.
"Guess we screwed it really up this time?", Newkirk mumbled defeated.
Hogan nodded.
"I wonder whether I could have anticipated something of it", Hogan said finally.
"No", Newkirk simply said.
"Sorry?"
"I don't think you could have anticipate anything of it. You can't see the future, you can only do what you decide that would be the best in the present. Also we can not change the past. It took me some time to realize it, but now it helps me", Newkirk said in a low voice, watching the wooden table like there was something interesting. He didn't dare to look the Colonel straight in the eye because he knew they both had some tears in their eyes. They both felt that they screwed it up, that they were to blame for something they couldn't have avoided.
"Maybe I have to realize this on my own", Hogan said.
"Yeah, it helps."
After some silence Hogan asked: "Do you blame me?"
"No, I don't. Nobody does. Except you, of course", Newkirk answered.
"Do you really think so?", Hogan asked,still not assured.
"We all do", Newkirk said and looked Hogan in the eyes.
Hogan nodded.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"Would you mind going to bed now?", Hogan asked.
Newkirk wasn't tired, but he knew he had to sleep and Hogan needed some sort of a nap, too. So he yawned and said: "No, good night, Colonel."
The Corporal stood up and went to the door. Carefully opening it, he looked back at his CO.
"And Colonel? Remember you aren't the on to blame."
Hogan tried a smile and then Newkirk went out of his office, closed the door and went to his bunk. Still feeling not able to sleep, he sat down on Carter's empty bunk.
Newkirk deary missed his friend. He knew he would do anything to get Carter back, to talk to him and to listen to all the stories he had wanted to tell him. Newkirk had been annoyed sometimes because Carter liked it to tell stories and once started, he couldn't stop it. Now Newkirk would dearly listen to every silly story Carter would want to tell if Carter would be there. The Corporal knew it was kind of stupid to wish a dead man to be still alive, but he also knew it was human. He remembered all the novel he had read about people who wanted their dead beloved ones to live again and how the miracles happened and they got them back. Usually, this had something to do with some self-sacrificing, and right in this moment Newkirk felt up to sacrifice his dear life to bring Carter back to life. In the next moment, he thought that this was stupid because carter wouldn't be happy with his best friend dead and him alive. Smiling at this, Newkirk thought about calling a witch or somebody like this and getting this person in getting Carter back from the dead. The British knew that was simply impossible, but it would be something Carter would laugh at if he got to know it. Also Newkirk knew that the witch would surely need Carter's corpse. And all of Sergeant Andrew J. Carter had been burned.
"Oh mate, what did you do to deserve a death like this?", Newkirk whispered quietly. A part of him waited for an answer while the other part laughed bitterly at this. An answer was simply impossible.
Newkirk only wanted to talk to Carter. He had known him for what seemed surely a long time. And now, with Carter being dead for approximately a day, he couldn't even remember his voice. He couldn't imagine him talking to him because he hadn't any idea of Carter's voice. Newkirk could easily remember his friend's whole facial expressions, but never his voice.
That was the really disturbing, horrifying fact: With carter being dead for a day, he started to forget him. And that really frightened Newkirk.
tbc
That's it for today. I'm getting tired now, but I wanted to end this chapter. Hopefully you'll like it. Please let me know whether you do or you don't like it. Still, I apologize for the orthografical mistakes I've made. But I hope you liked this chapter nevertheless.
Isa^^