35.
~ Arthur swore to never drink again. Lieutenant Eames had told him the drink was the best way to forget his wife for the time being. But Arthur didn't want to forget Ariadne. He wanted the wound of her absence to fester and hurt.
He looked over the two pictures he had of her. The casual shot of them from a local who had charged him five dollars. Worth every penny as she looked so lovely. Captured forever as his sweetheart. The other was her face. Looking embarrassed to have her picture taken.
He told her that he would be home so soon that he would barely have time to miss her. That he only needed her pictures to show her off to the other men. How wrong he was. It felt so empty to not have her here. To not be able to see her except in this sepia world of memories.
~ "I know your glad to be officers right now, Sirs." Said an enlisted man as he drove the jeep over the rugged terrain. "Rest of us had to march all over here this morning." Cobb and Arthur said nothing as they approached the tents at the front.
"Keep your weapons at the ready, Sir." Arthur mumbled to Cobb as they looked over the battle torn camp. "We can't be sure this area is secure."
Cobb nodded and took the Major's advice to hide his rank. To an outsider, the two of them appeared liked ordinary soldiers. Their men were all under orders not to salute them in case of snipers.
For Arthur, this was easy. He was naturally distrustful of his surroundings and that made it easier for him in war time. Patton had been insistent that the 3rd march forward into the heart of Germany and forward they advanced.
The Major was quick to duck into a newly dug trench to find his Lieutenant, Dax.
"Lieutenant." Arthur said gravely as Dax handed him binoculars to peer out of the trench with.
"Good to see you ladies made it to the ball." Dax teased.
"Hows the old ball and chain?" Dax asked popping a cigarette in his mouth.
"She'll be better once we take this forest." Arthur said peering at the movement behind the trees. "I can assume this field if mined?" He asked.
"You bet you ass it is." Dax said as Cobb came to crouch next to them. "I already lost a man to one of the little bastards this morning. Dead before he even knew he stepped on the damn thing. Could have been worse. At least he didn't suffer."
"We have to wait for a team to come and disarm them." Cobb said logically.
"That will take a few days." Dax added.
"Giving the enemy enough time to get away." Arthur grumbled. "Who do we think is behind the tree line?"
"Not an army. Not by any stretch of the word. It looks like a rag tag band of men who are just trying to get the hell out before the Allies roll in. Can't say I blame them." Dax said casually.
"Were under orders to take this sector." Arthur said bitterly. "How many grenades do you have?"
"Sir?" Dax said his cigarette hanging loosely from his lip. The match he was about to light it with burning low as he stared at the Major in surprise.
"It'll take days to get a team out here to disarm those mines and we can lose a lot of men in the process. They have the cover of the trees, and the high ground." Arthur explained. "We need to push forward and flush them out."
"Few grenades are not going to make them surrender." Cobb said.
"Where's our ordinance, Lieutenant?" Arthur asked. Dax sighed and nodded to one of his enlisted men.
"Give the Major what he wants." He told him. "Sir, I assume was need to beat a temporary retreat?"
"Yes, but do it quietly. Keep your fires burning. And the trucks here. We don't want them to think were actually leaving. They might get suspicious."
~ "Sir, this is crazy." The skinny corporal said as Arthur laced a string of explosives together. Cobb and Dax had quickly evacuated the platoon away from the front lines. Their sudden flight had been swift and silent, leaving only the major and a skinny corporal behind. Radios were left blaring and cook fires were left burning. It was eerie to be in the trench at the moment. Like the two men were ghosts, forgotten by the living.
"Relax." Arthur fumed. Annoyed at the young man who had always trusted him before. "I know what I'm doing."
"You've done this before?" The young man asked.
"No." Arthur said casually. "Now, you know what to do, right? Throw the rope out and pull the red line?" He said roughly handing the skinny corporal the explosives. They were tied together like Christmas lights.
"Sir, this is crazy." The young man said again.
"I agree." Arthur told him. "You wait for my order and then pull the red string. You cover yourself good because there is going to be an explosion you won't ever forget." Arthur warned.
The young man was shaking.
"Hey!" Arthur barked. "Look at me." The young man looked at the Major. "This will work. You'll be fine." He said.
~ The two men didn't waste anymore time. The Corporal following Arthur's orders to the letter. In the silence of the empty trenches and camp, came a horrific explosion as the mines were all blown up at once and heavy shrapnel rained down on the Allied camp as well as the men hiding in the forest.
Arthur had covered himself fairly well under the trench but he felt the ground jump with the force of the explosion. He could only pray the skinny corporal had made it. The shrapnel had fallen into the trenches and the Major was thankful nothing too heavy or sharp hit him.
The blast did however, make his ears ring and deafened him to everything else.
The Major never heard Dax and Cobb call for the advancement once the mine field was blown, but he saw the Army tank run over the ruined and smoking earth and fearlessly blast the tree line.
Cobb was pulling the Major to his feet as Arthur watched the broken band of Nazis surrender. Their bodies bloodied by the mine blast and later the cannon fire.
"Stand down!" Dax and Cobb shouted as some of the enlisted men started to beat the wounded prisoners. "Were under orders to take them alive!" Dax pulled off a privet who had knock a prisoner in the face with his riffle.
Arthur pulled out his silver cigarette case and opened it. He looked at his pretty wife and smiled. He didn't take part in the victory. His normally immaculate clothing was full of dirt from the blast and his hearing was still fuzzy. He decided to smoke one of his cigarettes and casually sat on the hood of a jeep. He was smoking and watching around forty prisoners being rounded up like cattle and a razor wire fence put around them. No tent for the prisoners and next to no medical care for the wounds the blast and gun fire had caused.
"Tree line is secure, Sir." Dax said with a grin. "Good to see married life hasn't stumped your sense of fun." He laughed.
Arthur only nodded and saw the skinny corporal coming to sit next to him. The major offered him one of his cigarettes and the two of them smoked in silence for a while.
"Told you it would work." Arthur said finally.
"What?" The young man shouted.
~ Ariadne couldn't wait to get on the boat to America. A few days with the Matron as a bunk-mate had made her stop procrastinating and she finally booked her passage.
She had said a tearful farewell to Doctor Kikie and he promised to write her. The older man hugging her close the way she almost remembered her father holding her as a little girl.
It occurred to her suddenly that she would not see her friends again. She was going to America and they were still in Europe. The last she saw of Trixie was her wedding day. She might never come back to France or London again.
Her voyage easy an uneventful as she carried only her little bag with her few clothes and small possessions. It suddenly occurred to her that this was the third time she was arriving in some strange country, alone with so very little to her name.
~ She had telegraphed Arthur's sister Beth that she would be arriving in New York that morning. Ariadne had wondered if this mysterious relative of her husbands' would truly be there. She might be better off getting a cab to a hotel. Meet the family on neutral ground. That was how enemies met in war time.
I will post another chapter soon. Don't worry, this won't be a rehash of "When we were lost" I'm keeping the stuff I like.
I've also put pics up for my stories! I love that feature on Fanfic. I don't have them all, but I'm working on it. Tell me what you think.
Love yo faces! Kiss! Kiss!