The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

25: Do Not Freeze

"I'm hoping we finally meet the surgeons once we get where we're going," spoke a different girl through the darkness. "I hoped we'd meet them before going out into combat, but oh well."

"As long as we meet 'em before we're elbow deep in some poor boy's guts, I don't care," said Mabs with a strained laugh.

Charlie smiled half-heartedly. Her stomach did a flip.

The nurses made small talk as they drove rapidly through the country lanes to pick up the Fox Company nurses. Re-introductions were made - they'd all met each other before once or twice, having operated out of the same hospital for the last few months, but none of them had paid as much attention to each other as now. The Dog Company nurses were named Viv, Ellie, Betty, and Cat, and all of them were nice. Charlie was surprised none of them had ever really spoken to each other before, but she was glad, at least, that the other girls they'd be working with were easy to talk to. She felt they'd need each other once they got over there.

Once they'd picked up the Fox Company nurses the back of the truck was a tight squeeze. Knees and elbows and boots and hands all dug into each other, giggles and apologies the soundtrack to trying to get comfortable. They all chatted quietly, trying to keep the nerves at bay, until they arrived at their destination a little under two hours later.

It was still dark outside when Charlie disembarked the truck along with the other nurses. As soon as the driver shut the doors behind them he raced back around to the cab and drove away.

All around people in military uniforms dashed about, shouting to each other and hurrying people along.

Charlie decided now was probably about the right time to put her helmet on. She always struggled with the clasp. Today was no exception.

They were by the sea, somewhere on the southern coast of England, Charlie presumed. They'd been informed by Lieutenant Maddox that they'd be going overseas by boat when the time came - she'd had to make sure she was aware if anyone was prone to seasickness. Charlie recalled the debriefing they'd received not long after arriving in England with a sickness in her stomach which hadn't been there before. She hadn't said she was prone to seasickness, because she wasn't, but what if it was the nausea from the nerves that would bring her down on the way over? She couldn't tap out before she'd even gotten to help.

Just as the worry started to settle over her and materialise into something more sinister, Lieutenant Maddox appeared out of the chaos alongside two other nurses Charlie could only assume were the commanding officers of Dog and Fox Companies.

Maddox barely stopped in front of them before she gestured stiffly to her right. "This way," she ordered above the noise, then turned sharply in that direction and marched them over.

The group was silent as they followed after Maddox. Mabs grabbed hold of Charlie's hand as she fell into step beside her. Neither of them spared each other a glance, but both gave the other's hand a squeeze.

Each of them had to physically push their way through the hurrying crowd of military personnel racing to get all of the nurses ready to go. Charlie used the elbow of her free arm predominantly, but also made good use of her legs. The army orderlies ran everywhere with such a sense of self-importance they didn't care one bit who they were cutting across, but stress and nerves made Charlie irritable and she had no qualms about shoving them out of the way right back.

Eventually, they came to a stop in front of an army medical truck similar to the one they'd arrived in. Its back doors were thrown open and held back by any number of wooden crates piled high on top of each other.

Lieutenant Maddox stuck her hand into the topmost crate on the left pile and produced a handful of white cloth. "Armbands," she said, thrusting them at Autumn.