we're on each other's team [band of brothers / hbo war]

7: d-day, part two

Once the plan leveled out and everyone regained their balance, Cobb yelled out, "Jesus Christ! Let's go! Let's go!"

"The light isn't green yet!" Lipton retorted.

All of a sudden, there was a white flash and glass and shrapnel broke through the windows between Cobb and Madison. Madison had gasped, feeling a few small cuts somewhere as Cobb yelled out in anguish.

"I've been hit!" Cobb cried. He was yelling and Madison and the paratrooper behind him had to help him sit down.

"Unhook him!" someone yelled and the man behind Cobb did.

The light turned green.

"Go! Go!" Everyone was suddenly moving, walking at a fast pace. One by one they were jumping out. Madison didn't get very far, however, when Compton ordered her to stop.

"Klein! Unhook yourself and move back to Cobb!"

As fast as she could, Madison unhooked herself and went over to Cobb, who was being assisted by Lipton.

"Is there anything that you can do?" Lipton asked. In the background, their comrades were jumping out of the plane and the explosions and flashes of white light were getting louder and brighter. Leave it to Madison having to help out one of the people she disliked the most as it all went down.

Madison tried to assess Cobb's wounds on his face, but it was hard to do in the dark. It was clear though: by the man's distress, the wounds were deep in his face. She doubted that Cobb could do the jump.

"No sir," Madison yelled over everything. God, it was so loud. "Judging by how deep his wounds are, sir, he shouldn't jump, sir." Oh boy, was Cobb going to kill her later for that, or what?

"I want to jump, sir!" Cobb exclaimed. "I can make the jump!"

"You can't! Your wounds are too fatal! You heard the medic!" Lipton told Cobb. He then turned to Madison. "Go, Klein! You gotta make the jump!"

Madison nodded fervently. As she got up, she almost fell back down because the plane was rocking back and forth, making it hard for anybody to stand up. Then someone grabbed her roughly and hooked her up.

"Let's go, medic! Come on! Move it!" Compton yelled at her. He was pushing her hard and she was quickly coming to the door and she was able to see everything and....

She jumped.

Well, that, or Compton had pushed her out, Madison didn't really know. But she was now out of the plane and in the night sky.

Holy Mary, Mother of God.

It was...it was something else. This was not like jumping out of the planes back in training, oh no. It was in real, live action.

Madison fervently looked around herself, as far as her own two eyes could see. First off, it was pitch black. Secondly, don't look down. When she looked down, she saw the earth that was very far away from her. She could see fires on the ground and she was hoping with all her might that she would not land in it.

When Madison looked up, she saw that the planes were getting smaller and smaller as she was getting closer and closer to the ground. All of the paratroopers around her were various sizes, depending on where she looked. She also saw fires up in the sky and debris showering all around her. Don't get hit, don't get hit, don't get hit—

It must have taken a few minutes for her to finally land on the ground. When she hit the ground, she wasted no time in tearing the parachute strings off of her, shoving them off and away. She took everything that wasn't a part of her mandatory uniform off. She reached to tear off her leg bag when she realized that it wasn't there.