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"Wait, Hoob's death?"
"Yeah, his Luger went off and shot a bullet right through the main artery in his leg." Lipton stirred with his spoon in the warm food he had just gotten. His mind wasn't really piecing together were to begin with his food, the whole day he had been waiting on a plate filled with hot lunch that could warm his body up. But now that he held that plate between his cold hands, he was debating if he should start. He didn't want to eat it all without thinking and then look at the empty plate for the rest of the day.
"Killed by his own weapon, how stupid can it be?" Riley asked him, her attention on the dinner interrupted by the news she just heard.
"Every death is stupid," Buck answered instead of Lipton.
"Yes of course, they are. But, ugh, you know what I mean –"
"I understand, I do. It's just unnecessary to make a difference between his death and someone else's."
"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry." She pushed her fork inside an intensely cooked carrot and stuffed it in the back of her cheek, chewing with much enjoyment on the piece of vegetable. During her time in the war, Riley had taught herself that she must be grateful for every bit of food she got. It wasn't all that easy to bring those large pots to the front, but the cooks did it for their soldiers and didn't dare to complain, so neither would she. Their watered down soup brought so much energy to the fighting men, it also brought warmth inside their bodies that were constantly shaking from the freezing temperatures.
"Almost every single of these guys had been hit at least once. Except for Alley, he is a two timer," Muck said to a new replacement, telling everyone's names and also giving the information that it wasn't so bad if the boy ever got hit, it happened to everyone around him. Without really understanding what he was doing, Muck kind of reassured the replacement. A wound didn't determine if you were a bad soldier or not, it mostly showed that you were a great one. A soldier who didn't hide from the danger.
"Liebgott over there, the skinny guy, he got pinned in the neck. But we all believe that he wanted to get wounded, so that he could go to the hospital."
"Why's that?" the replacement asked, kind of confused about why Muck told him that.
"Well, he got kissed by our most beautiful medic."
"Didn't know you liked Doc, Liebgott."
"Got kissed? I'm not the one who started it."
"I've never heard you complain about it, Riles." Joseph turned himself towards the girl, who leaned against the tree right behind him, and he laughed with the small wink and kiss she blew in the air. He returned the kiss, patted on the free spot besides him and helped her with sitting down on the fallen tree covered in the white snow.
"Riley got hit on D-Day. Bullet shot right through her waist, even punctured her groin. She couldn't walk on her own for three weeks and limped for the next five months. Has it healed now?" Muck asked, trying to say everyone's names to the new replacement.
"Almost completely, just a large scar on my hip, but that's it."
"We've got mail for Wilson."
"I'm over here." Riley thanked the boy who handed her three letters and opened them immediately. She had been waiting for these for so long, she couldn't hold it any longer and tore the envelope from the fully written papers. Her eyes scanned over ever sentence and her mouth fell more and more open as she got further down the message.
"What does it say?" Guarnere asked, his thick accent playing with the words.
"People are going missing."
"What?"
"It says 'Sarah, Sebastian and Marie have gone on a vacation, we don't know where and for how long, but we'll wait here until they come back. I hope that they'll see Harry there and that all of them will return soon.' ," she read out loud, most of the guys not understanding what was actually written behind the code language.
"You really don't get it, do you? 'Gone on a vacation, don't know where.' They're gone and nobody knows where they are. Harry must be the name they've used instead of Harold, who has gone missing since the night of D-Day."
"Are you sure Harold didn't just escape?" Riley shook her head at Liebgott's question. The scenario had ghosted so long in her mind, every possible escape he could've done, was out of the picture for that one detail she remembered clearly from that night.
"He couldn't have. I've heard him talk to the Germans, tell them the same thing we said to every Nazi. That we were just a student group who got stuck in France because of the war. So the Germans that were in our house that night had seen him and they wouldn't be so stupid that he could sneak out. Harold's also not really the one to do that, he's not impulsive enough and always needs someone else to tell him what to do. He follows people, no one was there that moment to lead him out. The Germans have captured him, there is no other explanation."
"But why capture him and kill all the rest? It doesn't make sense," Lipton interfered with the conversation. He put his plate on his belt with a ribbon made out of an old shirt and joined the circle that was passing down the first letter.
"yeah, I have no answer for that. But there must be a reason for it, right? There was something about Harold that made them want to capture him, want to keep him alive. I don't know a lot about him, he never really told a thing about himself or his family, so I don't know why they didn't kill him."
"I think we just have to be glad he's still alive."
"No, I don't think we should be, Lip. Who knows what they are doing to him."
