Project 43

Absolutely not

Elias stood by the trucks with Charlie and Oscar on both sides of him. Along with many other soldiers, they watched as one after the other, the injured men were carried into the cars. Elias had gotten lucky enough when his superior officers felt that he was still useful enough to be kept around even with his mushed-up leg.

"After the war is over, we'll go to a bar back in New York and never leave," Charlie said to Mikey with a sad smile as he was being carried away.

"Yeah, look me up when you come home, will ya?" Mikey asked smiling back at his friends.

"Of course," Oscar chirped surprisingly loud. He was smiling from ear to ear as usual but there was a sad undertone in his voice.

"Thanks, Mikey. For everything," Elias said not really knowing how to say goodbye to his friend.

"No, thank you. I wouldn't have survived this long if it weren't for you," Mikey said and Elias could see a tear threatening to force its way through Mikey's left eye.

"Come on, man don't get sentimental on me," Elias tried to joke but his chuckle dried quickly.

"I'll see you at the end," Mikey finally called from the car.

The three remaining friends stood there and waited for the trucks to leave. None of them said anything as they just stood there, silently saying their goodbyes. They hadn't been able to say goodbye to so many of their friends so it felt like all of it boiled down to the one they got to have.

After a week since Elias and the others returned, the 114th and the French regiments continued onwards to join an attempt to liberate a bigger city about fifty miles east of Avricourt while the 324th and 71st regiments stayed back to hold the town.

Even tho Elias' leg was getting a lot better and he only needed a cane to move around, he still wasn't well enough to be dancing with the others as they celebrated their last night together, so he watched and laughed. Once more the men drank themselves half-blind and laughed until sunrise.

"Captain America is doing a tour and will be stopping by tomorrow," Colonel Brown explained. After the fight, there was a lot of turnover. The former Captain Brown had replaced Colonel Miller, Alex had replaced Marcus, and the room was filled with many new faces. Elias never really liked Brown but had no reason to hate him either. He was a fine man and a good fighter but something about him was just off.

"The man with a plan?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Elias could see he was trying his best not to laugh and so were many others in the room. Captain America was a joke to the soldiers. Just someone the government paraded around as a piece of propaganda and definitely not a soldier.

As soon as the man in tights came on stage people started snickering. Captain America had a big stage built for him and his background dancers in the middle of the town, decorated in red, white, and blue it was way too colorful to fit in with the dark, fall settings. It felt so out of place, so out of touch, and so wrong the soldiers couldn't help but laugh.

When the girls danced on stage at least some of the men were having fun but most of the laughs and smiles came at the expense of the man wearing the most ridiculous hat in the world.

Elias sat on top of a car parked behind the sea of people sitting on the ground. Most of them were laughing or chuckling at the red, white, and blue clown. Elias couldn't shake the feeling that he recognized the "Captain" from somewhere but he just couldn't piece it together.

"This is just sad," Elias pointed out. He was sitting next to Charlie as Oscar sat on the ground.

"I know, right? Did they really think this would inspire us?" Charlie replied with a chuckle. Elias knew the man was very ironically enjoying every moment of the show.