Doc jumped out of the plane, surprised at the lack of explosions and gunfire. He steered his parachute as best he could against the wind.
Looking down, he saw a barbed wire fence. Working as best he could to avoid it, he tugged at the ropes.
No use.
He tried his best to land to avoid injury.
"Shitshitshitshitshitshit!" Gene hissed as he landed with his right leg tangling in the barbed wire, feeling the blood trickle down his leg. "A lil' help here! I need some wire cuttahs!" He shouted.
"Doc!" Bill ran up to him with wire cutters. "How bad is it?"
"I don't know yet." Gene said through clenched teeth.
Once he was loose, Bill helped him to the others. "Spina! You gotta help Doc Roe."
Ralph Spina checked Gene's leg.
The barbed wire had cut deep, Gene would need to go to an aid station to get stitched up.
Doc missed the party the villagers threw for the American liberators. He didn't mind, he heard it had been a congested mess to get through. Now that it had been a couple of days, he was able to walk on the leg without too much pain.
Gene laughed when he was informed he had been awarded a purple heart for landing on the barbed wire. Since Smokey got one for a boil being lanced back in Normandy, he wasn't too surprised.
He had caught up to the unit on the rode. They had left Eindhoven, riding on tanks and trucks, just reaching Nuenen.
Leutenant Brewer hopped off and went on his own to look round with his binoculars.
Gene felt a pit grow in his stomach.
"What the hell is he doing?" He whispered to Miller.
"Looking around." Miller replied.
"He's being an idiot." Gene muttered.
"Look at General Patton!" Hoobler shouted.
"He makes quite the target target don't he?" Muck quipped.
"Leutenant!" Bull shouted.
Brewer turned around, just in time to get shot by a sniper in the collarbone.
"Sniper!" Everyone shouted.
It was pure chaos from that moment forward.
Hours flew by, and the men were ordered to retreat. Gene had just finished bringing VanKlinken to safety. He heard the cry for a medic by Malarkey.
He sprinted to find Buck on the ground, shot in the rear-end. He began working on him.
"Impressive, Buck. One shot, four holes. Went straight through!" He said, patching him up.
"Leave me here." Buck said.
"What?" Don and Gene said.
"Leave me here for the Germans." Buck said.
"Are you nuts!" Don exclaimed.
"We'll carry you!" Gene said.
"Listen, I weigh more than both you men combined." Buck said with full conviction.
Malarkey thought for a moment and looked around. "Stay with him, Doc." He said, then grabbed two other men and ran off.
They came back a few minutes later with a barn door. Gene helped Buck lay on it before the 4 men pulled him to safety.
As everyone clambered onto trucks in retreat, Gene heard everyone asking where Sergeant Bull Randleman was.
Nobody knew. Everyone speculated whether he was dead or alive.
Bill was reassuring everyone. "If there ain't no body, there ain't nobody fuckin' dead."
Gene could only shake his head.
--
Bull reappeared the next day with a hole in his shoulder from shrapnel.
"Eventful night, Denver?" Gene asked as he stitched him up.
Bull only grunted.
"We lost a lot of good men, Chérie. I miss you more than words can say. But I don't think I'll be with you, nor at home by Christmas." Emily read in Eugene's letter to Alice from Holland.
There were tear-stains on the old paper.
Emily guessed they were from Alice.