Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or any characters associated with the movie. I do, however, own the characters of my own making!
Warning: This chapter contains depictions of bloody scenes!
The Long Road Ahead
By, THE DARK SOLDIER06
Chapter Three: A Beautiful Day on the Beach
June 6, 1944
1:43 p.m.
Nick sat on a ledge which overlooked the beach he had been on mere hours before. The view which presented itself to him was quite a different one compared to what it looked like. The beach looked a little cleaner than what it had before, though he could still smell the coppery scent of blood and see the recovery of the fallen taking place. The fortifications the Nazis had set up to slow their progress were being taken down and replaced with command posts and tents with a hundred other designated uses.
While Nick sat there on that ledge, he reminisced about the events that had recently taken place. He thought about the moments on the boat, he thought about his fellow comrades, he thought about everything he had done. All of the events that corresponded with the thoughts, felt like they had occurred an eternity ago.
After all that had happened, Nick was burned out. The grueling task of establishing a beachhead on this godforsaken spit of coastline had taken a hefty toll on the fox, physically and mentally. Nick lied down on a soft patch of grass he had found. His mind focused on the sound of waves lapping against the shore and the sweet melody of the wind moving through the grass. He just wanted to rest, to take a break from the predicament he found himself in. The fox did just that, he slowly drifted into the welcoming arms of sleep, hoping that Sergeant Wolford was nowhere around to disrupt his midday nap.
2hr. 30min. Earlier
11:16 a.m.
The ramp dropped down and almost immediately afterward, they were plowed into by the Landing Craft that was struck by artillery and set ablaze. It would have taken some time for the mammals to recover, sadly, the Nazis were not merciful in those regards. Just seconds after the collision, the first three rows of soldiers still in the boat were mowed down by machine gun fire. One of those soldiers was thrown back into Nick from the force of the bullet. When Nick finally got out from under him, he saw that the poor guy had his head blown off along with a good portion of his upper body. Nick said a few choice words before refocusing on his predicament.
Lt. Turner was shouting at everyone to go over the sides of the boat. Everyone that was still in the boat threw themselves over the edges. Even with the change of tactic, some were not able to escape the unrelenting hail of lead. Nick hopped from the side and was submerged in water that was tainted red from fresh spilt blood. Next thing he perceived was that he was being hoisted out of the water. Once he emerged from the water he was met with the face of his Lt.
"Get your head down and keep moving!", the golden retriever then turned around and started wading the rest of the way to the beach.
Nick was following close behind the golden canine. Once he was completely out of the water, he ran to follow Turner. Nick was met with a strafing run of machine gun fire which caused him to duck down behind the closest bit of cover. He planted his face in the ground on his way down, and when he looked back up, he wished he had stayed there.
The first thing he saw when looking back up, was Turner saying a short prayer to whatever god he believed in. Turner was startled by Nicks sudden arrival, though he quickly composed himself and started giving orders to Nick.
"Take the Bangalore and get to the seawall. We have to clear a pat...", Nick started to lose focus on Turner and instead let his eyes drift across the scene that lay before him.
It was mainly a scene of great carnage. Mammals were on fire, screaming for someone to help them. There were limbs scattered around, no doubt from the mammals who were blown apart by artillery. Then there were those who had been hit by artillery and were still alive. There were the bodies that had been turned into Swiss cheese from machine gun fire, and the worst part about it was that there was so much of it.
Nick was brought out of his daze when Turner grabbed hold of the fox and shook him. When Turner had finally regained the attention of the fearful fox, he addressed him again.
"Wilde, this is what you trained for! Now pick up that banger!", Turner shouted as he pointed to the Bangalore. Nick went to pick it up from under the mammal who had fallen on it. Once he had retrieved it. He looked up at the state of the individual who was the previous carrier.
"You can do this Wilde", Turner shouted as he stood up, laid down covering fire, and advanced forward.
"Yes sir!", was the fearful reply from Nick. He looked back down at the fallen comrade before him and said his second curse of the day. He thought about how his mother would probably whack him with her salad spoon for having such inappropriate phrases leave his mouth. Though, now was not the time to think about such things.
Nick pulled himself together and took his rifle from his shoulder. He looked up at the beach which lay before him, and through the smoke and dust, he could see the seawall.
'Ok, gotta get over to there ', he thought to himself, 'Just gotta do it without getting killed'.
With a fearful determination, Nick rose from his position and dashed from his cover. He knew that if he stayed exposed for too long, he would eventually get shot at. So, every chance he had, he would jump behind what little cover that was on the beach. He continued to do this while still under the constant threat of having an artillery shell blow him apart or someone up in the bunkers turn him into Swiss cheese.
He was almost to the seawall, he just had one more dash and he would be there. He jumped from cover and ran for it, sadly, it wasn't enough to keep him from being grazed by one of the many bullets that were still heading his way. He fell against the seawall and clutched his arm. It was a fairly large bit of skin the bullet had shaved off.
His attention was brought from his arm, when someone fell right next to him. The mammal's helmet was covering most of their face, so it took Nick a moment to realize that it was Judy. He hadn't thought about her since they were on the boat and was glad to see that she was unharmed.
"Nick, use the banger, I'll cover you!", she shouted out, "After we breach keep pushing towards the bunkers on the other side!"
Nick pulled out the Bangalore from where he stowed it and tried to put it together, but his hands were so shaky, that it was a hard feat to accomplish. On one attempt he dropped one half of the device. Judy saw this and picked it up, offering it back to Nick.
Judy must have seen the fear in the tod's eyes because the bunny gave Nick a warm smile and gave him some words of encouragement.
"It's okay Nick, were almost there, just a little further", she said. It did help Nick calm down despite the chaos which reigned around them. With his now steadied hands, he put the explosive together, laid it against the wall, warned everyone in the vicinity and pulled the charging pin. He tossed it up onto the wall and fell backwards to keep clear of the blast radius.
Doing what it was designed to do, the explosive had done its job of clearing away a small section of the wall. Lt. Turner shouted to the mammals to make ready their weapons and charge. Judy was shouting for Nick to hurry up as she went through the gap.
The gap being really rather small, it was easy for the first volley of enemy lead to find their targets. That did not stop everyone though. As Nick cleared the gap, he came across his first Nazi.
He was a young deer buck, who Nick would love to pass by and go on his way. Thing was, the buck had a rifle leveled at his head. Nick ducked down, right as the buck let off a round. Nick retaliated by sending a slew of rounds from his M1, into the buck's chest. The buck went down and didn't move.
While Nick was sad that he had to do it, he wasn't going to stick around to join the kid. Nick kept heading left to an access point to the trenches.
As he entered the trenches, he saw some U.S. soldiers already in there. They were in a struggle against the Nazis that were in the trench. Nick ran over to help them as quickly as possible, but was still too late. The Nazis killed his friends. Nick didn't hesitate to send a volley of lead through them, effectively killing them. As he made his way through the trenches, it wasn't long before he ran into Judy.
Judy looked over her friend and saw the wound on Nick's arm and offered him help.
"That wound looks bad, here take one of my med kits", She threw the kit towards him, and he caught it. He immediately went to work on treating his wound, and due to his training, was able to do it quickly, wrapping his graze wound with anti-bacterial gauze.
Nick took point as they moved through the trenches. Just a little way down the line, Nick came across a US soldier and a Nazi wrestling over a rifle. Nick knew he had to act quickly, or his comrade would be overpowered. He took aim and neutralized the threat. His comrade picked up his rifle and turned to Nick, offering words of thanks.
After that, they and a few other soldiers cleared the rest of the trench. They exited the trenches by a staircase and were immediately surrounded by machine gun fire. The group made a dash for a nearby concrete wall and took cover. There was a pillbox that was covering the path up the hill. If anyone tried to advance up the hill, they would be gunned down.
Luckily, Wolford was nearby and threw a target smoke, which landed right next to the gunport.
Somewhere off shore, aboard a destroyer, an observer sees the smoke. He points it out to the range finder, who then calculates the range, and thus the elevation the ships guns must be at in order to hit that target. He then sends that data to the gun crews manning the turrets. They point and elevate the gun in the right direction, load the gun, close the breach and fire the gun. The shell leaves the barrel of the gun with great force. As it soars through the air, it arcs gracefully, only to end its journey suddenly and violently, bringing death and destruction to the enemy.
With the pillbox destroyed, Nick, Judy, and everyone else push up the hill, mopping up a few stragglers along the way. They make a left turn, heading down a narrow pathway which will lead them toward the bunkers.
"Wilde, Hopps, I need you to take point and clear those bunkers", Turner said as the squad moved down along the trench towards the first bunker. Nick and Judy moved down the trench side by side for a little while before coming to a corner. They rounded the corner and came under a hail of gunfire. Nick acted quick and tackled Judy to the ground and then dragged her to the nearest bit of cover.
"That was close", Judy said, still a little shocked that she had gotten that close to death again. Without wasting anymore time the duo sprang up from cover and laid down covering fire for their squad to move up with them.
Nick saw an opportunity to flank the enemy element that had holed up at the entrance of the bunker. He quickly gestured to Judy what he intended to do, she nodded in understanding. He quickly moved from cover-to-cover until he was in position. He took one of his grenades from its place on his chest, pulled the pin, counted to two, and threw it. Two seconds later came a satisfying boom, and a small cease in the gunfire. Nick could tell that it had been a good throw.
He quickly moved up and took care of the rest of the Nazis and took point at the door. His team was quick to follow him and stack up along the door.
A coyote who Nick barely knew was second man, and thus the one responsible for opening the door. When the door came open there were a few moments of silence before a hail of gunfire came through the doorway, tearing through the flesh of the coyote. He slumped to the ground and started screaming for help.
Nick was the closest, but in order to avoid a similar fate as the coyote, he threw a smoke in through the doorway in order to conceal his movements more. He took the coyote by the strap of his pack and pulled him out of the enemy's line of fire. The squads Corpman quickly came up beside Nick and told him to join the others and that he would take care of the coyote.
Nick turned to see the last bit of his team going through the door. Nick quickly followed them through the smoke to catch up.
He was immediately surrounded by the sound of gunfire. He imagined that the enemy was having a fun time trying to find them through all the smoke.
He came out the other side of the smoke screen and quickly found some cover with the rest of his team. He assessed the situation and saw that in order to clear the rest of the bunker he would have to move forward through the bunker barracks. He moved up as he capped a capybara and a hare.
His squad moved up with him and cleared the room quickly, each member of the squad shedding their fair share of enemy blood. There was another door in this room that lead deeper into the bunker and from the sounds of it there was a mortar team on the other side of it.
"The fact that they are still firing that mortar means they don't know we are here", stated Wolford.
Turner looked around the room they were currently in for anything that could help them, and what he found made him happy.
"Nick, pick up that flamethrower right there", Turner said as he gestured to the weapon which was currently hanging on the wall.
Nick didn't hesitate to suit up, make sure all the fuel lines were hooked up, and that the pilot flame was on.
"Ready", Nick said.
The next moment the door swung open and the first of the group swarmed in, Nick followed them. After surveying the room, he found a group of targets and let flames loose.
In the small confines of a bunker, the weapon Nick wielded was especially deadly to anyone on the receiving end.
They cleared the room quickly and stacked up along the door that led to the last bunker they needed to clear.
"Wilde, Hopps, you two clear the last bunker, Grey, Dessertail, you two come with me to the bluff", Wolford shouted out.
Nick and Judy stacked up besides the door and checked their guns to make sure they were ready.
"Oh, and for fucks sake, don't get yourselves killed", Wolford said as Nick opened the door.
The duo ignored his last words and made their way towards the last bunker. As they rounded a corner, they saw the entrance to the last bunker and the three enemies rushing out the front to meet them.
Both sides ducked behind cover. Nick laid down covering fire as Judy came around the side of the enemy and surprised them with a burst from her Thompson that hit one on the ground floor. Nick quickly picked off the two enemies who had posted themselves on top of the bunker and he rushed up in front of Judy.
"Allow me to get that for you ma'am", Nick said as he grabbed the handle of the door.
Judy rolled her eyes, wondering how someone could joke at such a time.
Nick opened the door and stepped through and had barely gotten a look inside the bunker, before a young deer buck stepped in front of him and tried to stab him with the bayonet on his rifle.
Nick dodged the blade and grabbed hold of the rifle trying to wrestle it away from the buck.
Judy, seeing that her best friend was struggling to maintain hold of the rifle, decided to take action. She jumped up and kicked the buck in his stomach. All three went down to the ground with Judy on top of the buck. She was trying to throw a few punches at the buck's head, but he easily blocked them as he reached for the knife on his belt. Judy didn't see it coming. One moment she was trying to stop the buck from hurting her friend and the next she was on the ground with a knife plunged in her abdomen. She went down to the ground unable to move.
The buck picked up the bayonet blade from his rifle and refocused his attention on Nick. Before the buck could plunge the bayonet into the fox, he was stopped as Nick grabbed his wrist. While the two wrestled each other, Nick used a move he learned from Basic Training to sweep the bucks legs out from under him.
Nick was now on top of the buck. He didn't let the buck get used to the sudden change in position as he held the blade against the ground and reached for the nearest thing. The object he grabbed was a German helmet and he used in the most effective way he could at that time.
He repeatedly smashed the helmet against the skull of the buck. He continued to do so until he was sure the buck wouldn't get back up. He stood up and his attention was instantly on Judy. He rushed by her side and grimaced when he saw the slit in her uniform that was currently bleeding.
"Can you walk", Nick asked hurriedly. He knew he only had so long to get the bunny help before it was too late.
"No", was the pained answer he got back.
"Ok hang on, I'm gonna get you out of here", Nick said as he positioned himself behind her and started dragging her by her pack straps.
He pulled her out of the bunker and out into the open and started looking around for help. Through the smoke and fire, he could make out the insignia of a medic station. He didn't hesitate to start moving in the direction of help.
The journey through the field to the medic station was long and hard. Nick would have to continuously stop and fend off enemies with his 1911 pistol. As Nick and Judy got closer, an enemy soldier rushed them from behind. Nick didn't see it coming and couldn't react in time. As the soldier leveled his rifle at Nick, the fox expected the worst and shielded his eyes.
He heard a big bang come from right next to him and looked up to see Judy drop her own 1911. He looked at where the enemy soldier was and saw him lying in a heap on the ground. After a few seconds, Nick regained his breath and turned to Judy.
"Thank you, Carrots, that was close", Nick said.
"Say thank you, by getting me over to that CCP station!", Judy replied with strained irritation in her voice.
"Oh, right, my bad", Nick said as he grabbed Judy and started dragging her again.
As the duo went on, they had to hop down into a trench. There were a few enemies down there which Nick quickly dispatched. Nick looked behind him and saw Lt. Turner standing at the top of the stairs, waving to Nick to come up the stairs.
"Hurry, get up here!", Turner shouted.
Nick started to drag Judy up the steps to the station but was surprised when two bunnies rounded the corner and took aim at him. Though, before they could get a shot off someone behind them let loose two quick bursts of fire, quickly ending that threat. Nick looked behind him to see that it had been Turner who saved his and Judy's hide.
Nick wasted no more time and dragged Judy up the steps and over to an open space, where he laid her down and quickly gave her the little first aid he could. He saw that Judy was displaying obvious signs of blood loss and was beginning to go into shock.
"Okay Judy, stay with me now", Nick said as he applied pressure to her wound.
"I need morphine", Judy said with a pained look on her face.
Nick immediately went to his belt, opened the pouch that had the morphine in it. He took out one of the tubes, pulled off the needle cover with his mouth and stuck it into Judy's thigh. The effects of the morphine kicked in a few seconds later and Judy calmed down. Nick knew she wasn't out of the woods yet, though. He scooted sideways a little so he could get a better look at her face. He looked her in the eye with a determination in his own.
"You gotta hang on Judy. Those bucks in Paris are waiting for ya", Nick said, trying to bring a smile to Judy's face. It worked as she smiled and even chuckled.
"Really?!", Judy said with a strained voice.
"Course they are", Nick said at this point, he realized Judy was starting to fade and was just trying to keep her talking.
"Ok...Okay, uh, wake me up...when... we... get... there", Judy said as she laid her head down and closed her eyes.
Nicks stomach dropped when he saw this and started shaking Judy.
"No,no,no, you have to stay !", Nick tried to wake her up, and it worked for a short while. Judy looked up at Nick.
"Nick", Judy's voice sounded hoarse and tired.
"Hey, I'm here", Nick said starting to straight out panic.
"Help me", Judy said.
Nick Looked up and looked around before yelling out.
"I need a goddamn medic now!", To Nicks relief, an ocelot with a medic band around his arm came up to them, put pressure on Judy's wound and told Nick that he had Judy covered and that he needs to go.
Nick stood up, grabbed his helmet and gun and started looking around for his Lt.
He spotted Turner moving through the CCP station, heading towards him. When Turner looked around and saw Judy and the state she was in in he turned to Nick and said with determination in his voice.
"He'll take care of her. I need you with me Wilde", Nick looked Turner in the eye and nodded. Turner turned away from Nick and started to address the other mammals he had gathered.
"Okay, Listen up. There's a GPF cannon by the farmhouse up the road. Its tearing up the beach. Let's move", Turner finished and turned to start moving while reminding everyone to check their ammo and grenades.
Before the group left, Nick looked back at Judy and reassured her that they would come back.
As the group made its way up the hill, Wolford was spouting off remarks about how they were slow and telling them to move.
Turner cut off Wolford and told everyone to be ready to engage once they get to the farmhouse.
As the group came around the corner, the farmhouse came into view. The group rushed to grab cover. Some rushed quicker than others. Sadly, the quick bunch of the group were unaware of the incendiary mine that was right underneath them. As Nick ducked behind a rock, he heard a boom then the screaming of mammals. He looked around his rock to see the small bunch of his comrades writhing on the ground in agony, screaming in pain all the while.
Nick ducked behind his rock again and that probably was a good thing too, as the machine gun nest stationed in the barn behind the gun started lighting up the road. Nick checked his trusty M1 and made sure it had one in the chamber then some more to follow. He then jumped out from behind cover and nailed the first enemy he saw. He started to move while shooting and eventually ducked behind cover to reload. He continued like this until he made it to the barn.
He went upstairs, turned a corner and shoot down the mammal behind the machine gun. As he got right next to the Machine gun, he heard Wolford shout.
"Krauts inbound, their coming down the road!", Nick looked in the area Wolford described and saw a great number of enemy soldiers heading his way. Nick thought to himself.
'I can't shoot enough of them, quickly enough to do enough damage', that's when it hit him. There was a weapon right in front of him that could handle the job.
He went over to the machine gun and pulled the action back to check for a round. It was nearly full. Nick smiled to himself and posted the gun out the side of the barn overlooking the road and when the enemy was in range, he pulled back the trigger.
The hail of bullets came out of the barrel of the MG at an extreme rate and nearly took the fox backward with the recoil. However, he was rewarded with the sight of the first bit of the enemy group crumpling to the ground.
The enemy wizened up and scattered to cover and returned fire. More than a few decided to focus on Nick and send their own lead in his direction.
As the area around Nick was being shot to pieces, he kept on firing, only stopping when his magazine was empty, only then to reload and keep firing.
Nick was able to keep a steady fire rate, but there came a time when so many enemy barrels were trained in his direction that he knew it would be foolish to continue. As Nick sat there with bullets passing overhead, he checked his magazine to see how much he had left. Only about half a magazine.
'Okay', Nick thought to himself, 'Running low on ammo, and getting shot at too much, I need someone with a godsend at this point.'
Nicks thoughts were answered when a M4 Sherman rolled up a side rode and burst into the clearing. It turned its turret towards the enemy just as they started to run back the way they came. It let loose a 75mm lead projectile that blew through the retreating force, followed by the rhino machine gun built into the tank. As the tank advanced, Nick and the rest of his squad cheered.
As Nick went back down the stairs of the barn, he saw one of his comrades pools together a few bricks of thermite into an enemy infantry helmet and lay it at the foot of the GPF cannon before beckoning Wilde over, asking him for one of his spare thermite grenades. Nick handed the grenade to the soldier, and he pulled the pin and put it in the helmet with the bricks. Both him and Nick ducked behind cover as the Cannon was disabled by the thermite explosion.
Afterwards they all rallied on Turner and started heading back down the hill, back towards the CCP station.
As they were heading down the hill, Nick overheard the conversation ensuing between Wolford and Turner.
"Wolford, I'll need a casualty report. We lost so many", Turner stated.
"But we took the beach", Wolford returned.
"Paid a damn high price for it too", Turner said before walking off to deal with something else.
Meanwhile, Nick made it over to CCP and made out the forms of both Finnick and Judy. As he got closer, he could see Judy was awake. This immediately relieved Nick.
Judy looked over and saw Nick and shifted into an upright position as he knelt down to speak to her.
"Hey there Nick", Judy said sounding tired, which was understandable.
"Hey there Carrots", Nick said as he grabbed her forearm.
"Boy, I thought I'd seen everything...", Finnick remarked, "That Kraut really stuck ya, Judy".
"She gonna be alright?", Nick asked as he looked up to Finnick.
"Yeah. They tapped her up pretty good", Finnick said as he flicked away his most recent cigarette.
"I should have stayed on the boat", Judy said with a groan.
"Oh, now she tells us", Said Finnick.
Nick refocused on Judy, which got her attention.
"Hey, what you did back there, I owe ya", Nick said with a thankful tone.
"I say we're even", Judy replied.
"We'll see this through", Nick said with determination.
"To the end", Judy said with a smile as she offered her hand to Nick.
"To the end", Nick returned as he grasped her forearm and shook it.
The moment was interrupted when Turner announced they had taken the beachhead, and that they were gathering a little ways away. Nick got up and walked away from Judy to start heading his way to the meeting point when Wolford stepped in front of him.
"Welcome to the Bloody First fox. You're a long way from Texas, farm boy", with that, Wolford walked off.
Nick stood there for a couple of seconds just lost in a world of thoughts trying to sort through all the chaos which had happened over the past couple hours when Turner came up beside him.
"None of us could have prepared for that", the Lt. Said, "But you came through when it counted".
"Thanks sir, I, uh...thank you", Nick said with a shake in his voice, as it starting to come back to him. All the things he had done the past few hours.
"Hey, you'll be alright son", Turner said reassuringly as he pat Nick on the shoulder.
"Yes sir", Nick said as Turner walked off. He looked down at his hands seeing they were covered in blood. Who's blood it was, he did not know but the fact that it was there spoke to the struggles he had endured.
"Of course, I will", Nick said to no one in particular.
Nick decided that he wanted to take a bit of a rest before his unit regrouped. So, he walked over to a rock which sat on an edge overlooking the beach. He thought a bit more about the events which transpired and tried to not think to hard on the events that could possibly take place in the near future. With that he laid down with his head on the rock and drifted to sleep.
Authors Note:
Happy to be back and posting again. I truly hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of The Long Road Ahead.
Can't wait to hear feedback, and if you feel it's worth your time, follow this story.
Due to some schedule changes, my story, The Inside Counts, will be put on hold for now. Hopefully once it clears up a bit, I will be able to start it back up.
Again, hope you enjoyed this chapter, unsure when the next one will come out, but it will come out.
But until that time, I Wish You All Fair Winds and Following Seas,
THE DARK SOLDIER06.