I run down the stairs of the bell tower, being careful on a few of the more unstable and broken steps. I actually have a rifle now; one of the ones that belonged to a soldier that was killed here when the paratroopers first took the town.
I run to the Captain as he looks up at Daniel in the tower, looking at his hand signals about what's coming.
"Disperse, you know what to do!" Miller shouts. I reach them and hear the captain then tell Reiben to get on the rabbit, which Reiben does immediately. "Mellish and Henderson lock and load! Everybody check your ammo!"
I run over to Mellish and Henderson, checking if they need any ammo, but they tell me they're good for right now. I join Upham at the Alamo, one of the soldiers telling us to hustle up. We grab some more ammo, as much as we can carry in our pockets and around our necks, and go back to the front line.
"Corporal Upham, Lieutenant Jackson, we don't have a 30 cal machine gun at this position. Either Mr. Mellish, or Mr. Jackson in the bell tower need that," Captain Miller says. Upham goes to get up but I pull him back down.
"Daniel is fine, he's got enough, and I already checked with Mellish and he has enough too," I say. "Upham, listen to me. I want you to stick with Mellish, do what he says, I'll cover Daniel with the ammo."
Upham nods rapidly and I look closer at him. His breathing is unsteady and he's shaking slightly. "Upham, calm down. Relax, slow your breathing. Stick with Mellish as much as you can, follow his orders… you'll be fine. Just run fast, shoot if you have to."
He nods again, taking a deep breath before getting up and running over to Mellish and Henderson. I look at the captain and Ryan as Reiben returns, jumping off the rabbit and running to our position.
"They're turning the infantry cap'n, I don't know if they took the bait though," Reiben reports.
We all turn and look over the little hill we're taking cover behind. They all raise their guns and we just wait; hearing the tanks moving and coming closer. Eventually we hear shouting, and then men followed by a tank.
"Panzers didn't take the bait," Miller mutters and looks up at the bell tower. Daniel signs a few more things, I don't understand but the others do. "Infantry's moving to the left."
"Half-track just went by with about twenty troops," Ryan reports.
"Lilly, get to the bell tower, stay at the bottom unless someone calls for you," Miller orders and I run for the tower.
I stay at the base of it, running into it through a wall that was half blown up, leaving a decent sized hole in it.
The tanks get louder and the shaking starts to move the lighter pieces of rubble. Then there's a huge explosion, a smoke cloud coming from the main street. Then the shooting starts, both from above me and from the others across the street. I can hear Miller's voice above the gunfire but just barely; the noise is almost deafening. Then there's another explosion and I see Mellish and Henderson running down the street, with another cloud of smoke spreading. Mellish calls for Upham, who follows them until they disappear around a building.
I stay where I am like Miller ordered and a minute later another machine gun starts firing again closer by to me than before.
"Get down! Get down!" Miller shouts and I instinctively crouch down and cover my head. I'm nowhere near the explosion, but I can hear it, and feel it under my feet.
"Lilly! Lilly! Ammo!" Mellish shouts and I stand up straight. I grip my gun and peer out of the building. There are a few guys but it looks like Parker is taking care of them. I run out and toward Miller and the others. Miller, Reiben, and some of the paratroopers are going to a tank they just knocked the tracks off of. Miller pushes Ryan down and when I reach a few feet behind him, I freeze. The tank is now pointing toward us and Reiben yells our names. I reach down and grab Ryan as Reiben runs for us. Reiben takes Ryan's other arm and we run to the left. The tank fires a shot, the corner of a building imploding as its hit. The dust and smoke in the air makes me cough a little and I see Reiben push Ryan down and sit on his back.
Miller runs over, yelling Ryan's name as Reiben tries to calm Ryan down, who is shouting for Reiben to get off of him.
"Are you alright?" Miller asks.
"Yeah, we're fine too captain, thanks," Reiben says sarcastically.
I then remember that Mellish was calling me, that's why I ran this way, and get to my feet. I run around the corner and see a group of Germans pushing some sort of machine gun.
"Captain! Reiben!" I shout. Reiben comes up behind me and curses when he sees what I see.
"Captain, 40 mil!" Reiben shouts. "Get those men off the tank!"
Miller follows his advice and yells at the paratroopers to get down. Most of the men manage to get off the tank before they're fired upon, but some aren't so lucky.
The 40 mil then turns on us and we displace, Reiben grabbing me and dragging me along, but I shake free of him and head for the bell tower, hearing the 30 cal on the top has stopped firing and has been taken off the wall. They must've run out of ammo. I'm closer to them than I am Mellish. I hope Upham will reach them in time. I run toward the tower but a few troops come up and I run to the right, taking cover behind a broken wall. It leads to a building and I run through it to the other side. There are a few men and a tank right around the corner and I notice the men being picked off. Daniel.
But then the tank's barrel rises, pointing at the top of the tower. My heart stops and I don't even think, I just run for the tank. I have a grenade and I take the pin off, tossing into the gap the gunners use to see their targets. It explodes inside, but the force of the explosion makes me lose my balance and I trip. I fall to the ground and hit my head on a sharp piece of stone. I scramble to my feet and reach the building to the left and a hand pulls me into the window. A few glass shards fall out of the window as I fall through it. I hit the floor and I'm pulled to my feet. I realize its Reiben and then a huge explosion resounds through the town.
I look out the window and I can't breathe when I see the top of the tower has collapses, smoke rising from it. Tears come to my eyes and Reiben shakes me.
"Lilly, he's gone! I'm sorry, but we're not done yet!" he shouts. I wipe my eyes with the back on my hand and nods. He's right; the others still need my help. Mellish, and Henderson- they'll be overrun without more ammo. They could die too.
I pick up my rifle and run to the door, looking outside before making a dash to where I see Upham is. He's slowly making his way up some steps, looking utterly terrified. As I get inside the first floor of the building, I hear crashes and screaming from upstairs. It's Mellish, and he's calling Upham's name, my name, and even Reiben's.
I push past Upham and run up the stairs. There's a body lying before the doorway and I look around the corner to see Mellish on the ground, trying to keep a Kraut from putting a knife in his chest. I don't hesitate; I take up my gun and fire at the German's back. He flails a little and Mellish pushes him off him. I lower my gun, breathing heavily, and Mellish collapses on his back in relief.
"Thanks Lils," he says and gets up.
I nod and swallow. "Need more 30 cal?"
"Yeah," he says and goes to the machine gun, holding out his hand for it. "We need to displace, this flank is about to fall."
I nod and he brushes past me down the stairs, carrying the huge gun. I follow close behind him and grab Upham by his jacket, roughly pulling him after us.
We run to where Miller is dug in and Mellish sets up the 30 cal. Miller threads the ammo as Ryan uses some sort of ammunition and turns them into grenades.
"What ammo you need?" I yell over the gunfire.
"Bangeler," he shouts back.
I open one of my jacket pocket's and take out three clips. "That's all I got."
He takes it, quickly loading his gun and starting to fire again. I stuff the ammo he was using earlier as grenades in my now empty pocket; we may need it later.
"Panzer shrat!" Ryan yells and takes one of the ammo-grenades and uses it to blow up two more Germans.
A noise then comes from above us and we all look to see the front end of a tank. We scramble out of the hole and run for it before the tank crushes us. We run through the rubble, with bullets flying around us, and hitting the ground near our feet. We reach the sandbags and barbwire at the entrance to the bridge and I run with Ryan across it. We fire behind sandbags for cover, managing to hit a few that fall into the water. We're at the Alamo, so we just have to reach over to get ammo now. Miller and Mellish join us and the captain reaches for the detonator for the bridge. I see some blood on his hand and the medic part of me wants to find out where he was hit, but I know he won't let me.
"We're blowing the bridge, get out!" Miller shouts.
"Displace, come on!"
"Hurry up Sarge! Come on Brooklyn!"
"Reiben, Horvath, come on!" I scream.
Ryan, Mellish and I continue to fire, trying to give Horvath and Reiben some sort of covering fire. They reach us and Reiben is helping Horvath run. He puts him down and Miller yells, "Sarge! Mike, are you alright?!"
"I just got the wind knocked out of me," Horvath responds but I see a large amount of blood on his chest. I crawl over to him, keeping my head down and see he's been shot multiple times in the chest and stomach. I take out some bandages and give him a dose of morphine.
"Get them out of here, we're gonna blow the bridge!" Miller yells and Ryan runs to us, with Mellish providing covering fire. We help Horvath to his feet and practically carry him away from the bridge. But we're then knocked off our feet. I can feel bits of stone and concrete hit my back and helmet, as my ears are overloaded by the sound of an enormous explosion.
The cut I got earlier in Neuville has opened again, and blood is trailing down my face. I get up on my hands and knees, my ears screaming. I lean on the sandbags to get up and Mellish comes to my right, pulling me with him behind more sandbags.
Reiben is firing his BAR, shouting at the captain from my other side and I crawl back to the Sarge. I turn his face and see he's dead. Reiben dashes over to Miller and pulls him down before starting to fire again with Mellish on the Germans pushing onto the bridge.
I run over to Ryan, pushing him over so he's behind a short wall instead of out in the open like he was. I see the captain stand, then fall to his knees as he gets shot. Oh my god, Miller just got shot. Reiben moves to grab him, but I catch him and pull him down, not wanting him to get shot too.
I look at him and he just looks back. Mellish kneels behind the wall and shares our look. This is it, its over- at least I'll be with Daniel. Reiben takes my hand, holding on tightly as we basically wait for the Germans to come over the bridge to our position. We can hear the Tiger tank moving and we all harden our resolve. We're not just going to sit here and die- if we're going to die, we're not going to make it easy for them. We prepare our guns and then I hear something. It's not the loud noise of the tank. It's…coming from behind us. I turn my head around and then I see it in the sky.
I hit Reiben's arm a few times until he turns around. He follows my gaze toward the clouds and sees an airplane. It flies over us and the Tiger tank explodes. It's American, and more planes join it, bombing the Germans. We duck and cover our heads as a myriad of explosions go off on the other side of the bridge. Jeeps full of men drive into town, unloading soldiers that swarm the place. They rush over the bridge, some shouting and quickly take out the remaining Germans. Reiben, Mellish and I stand and we look around. I see Ryan doing the same, a lost look on his face with tears on his face. Reiben brushes past me, running like a man possessed toward the bridge. He skids next to Captain Miller and I follow, kneeling on Miller's other side. Mellish stands over us as Reiben puts his hand under Miller's jacket where the bullet hole is. His hand comes back bloody, and his hand is shaking. He takes out a bandage and I steal it from him, putting it on the wound.
"Go get another medic, I don't have supplies for this!" I yell and Reiben runs off. Mellish takes his place and puts his hands on mine, trying to help me apply pressure.
"Medic! Medic!" Reiben is shouting. Ryan comes up behind us and kneel downs next to us. He sees Miller looking at the sky, at the planes, and Ryan tells him what they are.
"They're tank busters sir, P-51s."
"The angels on our shoulders," Miller says, struggling to speak loud enough for us to hear.
He says something else and Ryan leans forward. "What sir?"
Miller raises his right hand, over my arms to grab at Ryan's. He whispers in his ear something and when he pulls back he says, "Earn it."
He then stills and I just stare at him. I remove my shaking hands from his chest and sit back. I put a hand to my face, smearing Miller's blood on it as tears pour out of my eyes. Mellish seems to be in shock, and Reiben returns with a medic. He falls to his knees next to Mellish and touches Miller's shoulders. He starts to cry and takes out a piece of paper from Miller's jacket, slowly backing away, trying to breathe and stop his tears as he folds it into his own jacket. The medic tries to work on Miller, but he's gone, and there's nothing anyone can do now.
I put my head in my hands, sobbing. Please, no. First Carpy, then Horvath, Daniel, and now Miller. When is it ever going to stop? This isn't right, it's not fair.
I flinch when someone touches my shoulder and I put my hands down to see who it is. It's Reiben and he sits next to me, pulling me into a hug as we both cry. I hold onto the back of his jacket so tightly my knuckles turn white, not that you can see it through the blood I have on them. I squeeze my eyes shut, shaking with the force of my sobs. A minute later I've calmed down and open my eyes, the first thing I see is the bell tower in the distance. I let go of Reiben, rubbing at my eyes and getting up on shaky feet. I take off at a run across the bridge.
"Lilly!" Reiben shouts before cursing. "Lilly! Lils!"
But I don't stop. I have to know- I have to see it for myself. I have to know for sure if he's really dead.