Band of Brothers - Sunshine Solider

chapter 27: carentan

" Is that you Sunshine?" the voice mumbled. The young girl didn't recognize the soldier, blood covering his face, but she promised to make sure to see him when he healed up.

" It's me, buddy." she cooed, ripping the sulfa bag with her teeth again and pouring it into the wound. She wrapped his leg like she did the other soldier, tightly, and securely, before racing off again behind buildings and through rubble to the rest of the men and the gunfire. She maneuvered her way behind another building when another call for a medic arose. She moved through the gunfire and moved around a corner seeing Lipton's platoon. She crouched, hurrying past the waiting men and yanking the man back behind the fire line. The soldier in front of her was young, the wound in his arm, ugly and bloody. She carefully, pulled her scissors from her pocket and cut open the area where the wound was. She pulled another sulfa packet out and began pouring it to the wound and wrapping the wound in a bandage to contain it. She then plunged the morphine into his body and set him gently against the wall. Another cry for a medic echoed and she adjusted the soldier in front of her gently.

" Stay down!" came a guttural voice. Charlotte launched forward, shielding the soldier she was crouched over top of. She yanked the bandage in her teeth as the soldier cried underneath her.

" I got ya buddy, it's gonna be okay." she called through the piece of fabric in between in her teeth. All the sudden, the front of the building exploded, and Charlotte launched forward onto her stomach again, moving past the soldier she had just taken care of. Someone collapsed nearby, a sharp, high pitched shot echoing.

" Merde." she hissed under her breath. " Sniper." She hauled herself to her feet, throwing herself behind a rock wall, her butt slamming onto the rock hard ground. She pushed her helmet up and out of her eyes, and peeked out from behind the wall. Another explosion echoed and she curled into a ball, shielding herself from the explosion and debris. Her wide eyes watched as glass pierced the cobblestone streets, and she froze for a minute. Fear rocketed like adrenaline through her entire body as heavy breaths rasped her body and she tried to grasp her boundaries again. She looked around the corner again, seeing Welsh running full speed at the main building, a grenade launched into the unsuspecting German. The building insides exploded.

" Medic!" she heard someone scream from her left. She hopped up from her spot on the ground and navigated herself behind the buildings finding a soldier grimacing in complete pain, a bullet graze on his palm from where he was holding his weapon.

" Hey Doc." he called in a grimace. Charlotte pulled her scissors from her pocket cutting open the spot where the burn was.

" Hiya bud." she answered, " This may sting, but then I'll wrap it up nice and tight for ya."

" Whatever you need, Doc." he answered with another grimace. Charlotte pulled gauze and a wrap from her pack and cleaned the wound out quickly before wrapping it up. He grimaced, but she quickly pulled the wrap around a bit tighter again and tied it off.

" This'll heal up real nice." she called turning on her heals and jumping in the air avoiding a few shots fired her way. She raced forward a few Germans stumbling out of the building Luz had burst into coming out and collapsing to the ground. Guarnere's squad came up and hurried into the other building. Charlotte raced straight out in the open, the calls of another medic being rung throughout the town. She narrowly saw more soldiers and paratroopers making their way into the streets of Carentan. A house exploded near her, making her fly to the ground and collapse in a huddle. She felt a ringing in her ears, a pounding in her head as she turned to stare at the building. She slowly got to her feet, dizzy and disoriented. 

The last she'd been disorientated like this was when she'd jumped into the ocean near her house, and the waves had rolled her over and over again back to the shore and she couldn't tell up from down. She stumbled over her feet, and collapsed on the ground near the injured soldier. She shook her head and focused. She saw the bleeding in his foot, and focused on the blood gushing from the area. He cried in pain.