All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

36: Rations

"Wells, that you?" a voice which belonged, unmistakably, to Malarkey asked.

Posey grinned. "Malarkey!"

"Ay! Wells!"

"Luz!"

"You gonna do a fuckin' role call or are you gonna sit down?" Guarnere heckled, but his words were clearly strained around the attempt to hide a smile.

"Guarnere!" she exclaimed, just to annoy him. She came and sat with them all wearing a smile so wide it almost hurt. "You guys have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"Where the fuck you been, Duckie?" Toye asked, covered in dirt and looking exhausted from what she could see of him through the darkness.

"Yeah, you missed all the fun!" Liebgott teased.

"You show up by yourself?" Perconte added.

Posey rolled her eyes. "I've already been interrogated once today and I'd rather not go through it again, if we could all relax with the questions, please."

"Who the fuck interrogated you?" Liebgott wondered, unwrapping what appeared to be a K-Ration and beginning to eat it loudly. His doing so reminded Posey that she hadn't eaten since being in France and all of a sudden she was ravenous. She patted her body down in the search for her rations and swore under her breath when she realised she must have lost them on the jump, along with almost everything else.

She glanced up and opened her mouth to say so when a K-Ration promptly landed in her lap, having been tossed over from her right. She looked over at Guarnere with a look of mixed excitement and surprise, and he shrugged before looking away.

"Who interrogated you, Duckie?" Toye asked, drawing her attention back to the conversation at hand.

She unwrapped the K-Ration and took a bite before considering the question. "Well," she began, only speaking once she'd finished chewing - old habits died hard, "I was going the wrong way for hours. Ended up going far enough that when I stopped for a break I got a knife pressed to my throat, see?" She gestured to her neck which had all of them leaning in close immediately, squinting through the darkness to see the wound. "The Resistance found me, interrogated me, then pointed me in the right direction. That's how I found you guys."

"You been on your own the whole time?" Malarkey wondered.

"Other than with the Resistance group, yeah," she replied, taking another bite and chewing quickly. It wasn't the most pleasant thing she'd ever eaten but she'd take it. "I am gonna sleep so well tonight," she commented, smiling at the thought.

"Tonight?" Toye echoed. "It's tomorrow, Wells. We'll be moving out soon as it gets light, I bet."

"It's tomorrow?" She must have been crawling for even longer than she'd thought. "Why are you all up then?"

"Me and Luz got back just before you did," Perconte explained, sticking a toothbrush in his mouth and scrubbing away. "Don't feel too sorry for yourself."

Posey giggled quietly and nodded before turning back to her food. Her interest in conversation had disappeared, replaced by a rumbling stomach and an urgency to sleep whilst she had the chance.

She settled down for the night where she was, laying back on the floor and curling up tight in the hopes of getting some sort of comfort. She was too tired to worry about what tomorrow might bring, or even to reflect on the events of the day, and fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes.

When she woke she found she was the last one up, all of the others already sat up and eating K-Rations for breakfast. Posey sat up slowly and rubbed fiercely at her eyes. After a moment, she dropped a hand to check on her neck, entirely without her realising.