The jump was eerily calm. The camo parachutes that filled the sky were vacant of bullet holes; a strange contrast to Easy company's first jump. The men floated easily to the ground, quickly removing their chutes and sprinting across the field.
Lia and Piper dropped down in the ditch in front of Randleman. They didn't hunker down for long. The soldiers pushed forward through the field towards Eindhoven, and crouched down with their sights on the town. It was quiet; too quiet.
Lia moved her rifle when she noticed a sudden movement towards the middle of town. One of the windows was swung open, exposing a woman behind it. The liuetenant nearly panicked, expecting to see the flash of metal from a rifle peaking through behind the glass, and held the woman neatly on the other end of her sight.
Instead, the woman shook out a large orange cloth and tied it to the bottom of the window. Celebration. The bright orange was a contrast to the lifelessness of the town. As they marched down the road into the heart of Eindhoven, their presence seemed to spark the life back into every resident.
People danced and kissed everywhere they looked. Cheers rang out, and songs were sang throughout the streets. Lia consistently brought her gaze back to Piper making sure she was still by her side. The blonde sargeant marched on next to her, but instead with a broad smile on her face as she watched the people around them.
Lia's eyes quickly shot to the buildings that towered above them, scanning each and every window. Even though people were celebrating, she feared there were still German's lingering in town and were using this as an easy ambush. She quickly folded the collar of her jacket up to cover her pins that signaled she was in the position of command. Snipers would seek her out first.
The pair walked up to Winters, Welsh, and Nixon, stopping to scan the crowd with them. Lia stood next to Welsh and noticed the flash of metal that caught in the sunlight. She reached over and folded his collar up, tucking away his lieutenant pin. Nixon and Winters watched curiously.
She patted Welsh's shoulders as he drew his eyebrows. "Snipers." She said. "They'll take you out first with that thing flashing."
Welsh widened his eyes, understanding their mistake. He quickly thanked the girl as Winters and Nixon followed suit in folding over their jacket collars.
While Winter's was adjusting his shirt, a woman waltzed by and smashed a chaste kiss to his lips.
To Lia's surprise, the same woman moved on down the line and grabbed her collar to press a kiss to her lips as well. Her eyes widened as the girl waltzed back into the crowd. The three officers and Piper all had their eyes on her, smirks plastered on each of their faces.
"Do I really look that much like a man?" Lia spoke as she eyed the crowd, a hint of a joke on her voice.
The four soldiers next to her burst out in laughter.
"At a passing glance I could see it." Nixon chimed in.
Lia let out a scoff, a smile playing on her lips. Piper's smile only grew wider. The people of Eindhoven, let alone anyone, we're not used to seeing a woman on the front lines. They doubted the Dutch woman even knew she had kissed a girl.
"We got to get to those bridges." Welsh spoke up, spinning the small group into action.
They canvassed through the sea of people dancing and laughing, spinning around as though there weren't German soldiers next door to them. The five soldiers came upon a large group, all chanting words Lia couldn't quite pick out. As she looked over the shoulders, her eyes set on women forced to kneel. Their clothes were peeled back and their hair was being shaved off. Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight.
"What did they do?" Welsh called over the chanting.
A man from behind them spoke up, an accent thick on his voice. "They slept with the Germans."
Piper went rigid, and Lia quickly glanced to her friend. She was German through and through. Piper consistently hid her accent, something Lia had taught her through their years of training. The older soldier knew if they had ever escaped, they would go to the states. After everything done to them, Piper wanted to erase any trace of German in her.
"They are lucky. The men who collaborated are being shot."
Lucky? Lia glanced back at the scene. The women cried out as they were being exposed; humiliated. Being shot might've been a better alternative to living a life in shame. Her eyes found their way back to Piper, who fought to not look at the Dutch man.
The lieutenant didn't bother hanging around for much longer. She moved forward, grabbing Winters arm. He leaned down, listening to her whisper that her and Piper were going to scout out the edges of town.
She didn't wait to hear his answer and dragged Piper through the throng of people, pushing to the outskirts of the town before she pulled the sargeant into a crushing embrace.
Piper wrapped her arms around her friend tightly. Lia could feel the slight tremble of her fingers behind her back. Her voice wavered as she spoke, "What if they find out?"
Lia's eyes watched everywhere around them, looking for any sign of life in the vicinity. "No one will find out. I promise."
"They'll kill me, Lia." Her friend spoke in a whisper.
The lieutenant hated the tone in Pipers voice. The fear in her voice. She didn't deserve to be afraid for something that wasn't her choice.
Venom filled Lia's own tone. "I'll kill them first."
------
Lia and Piper sat in front of the new designated CP building, each taking drags from their smokes. The celebration still went on within the streets of Eindhoven and they could her the music filter down through the small alleyways. The cheers strictly contrasted with the feeling in each of their heads.
"I miss them." Piper spoke, her voice low. At Lia's confused look, she added, "My parents."
Lia nodded her head slowly in agreement, staring out at the field in the distance and twirling the smoke between her fingers. "Yeah, I miss them too. I don't think we will ever stop."
Piper turned to Lia, her eyebrows drawn. "You never talked about your family."
It wasn't something she liked to talk about. The scene replays in her head each evening as she watches the sunset. She was only ten, but she remembered every detail; every sound, color, and feeling. Lia debated for a long moment, finally deciding that Piper deserved to know. That she was ready to talk about it.
"They killed them, all of them," Lia paused. "In front of me."
The men spoke with heavy accents, German accents. They yelled at her family to get on their knees. They came in so fast, bursting down the doors just before sunset.
Lia didn't know why she was separated. Why she was watching her family get pushed down to their knees in front of her. The men held onto her arms, forcing her down onto her her own knees and facing her family.
They held her face. A rough hand wrapped below her chin and another across her forehead, forcing her to stare at her family. Her small findgers scraped at the mans arms, but he didn't budge. Hot tears streamed down her face. She didn't know what was happening. Everything was moving so fast.
"Momma?"
"It's okay, Lia pia. You are not afraid. There is no time for fear, little bird." Her mother had tears racing down her own cheeks. It was the last memory she had of her mother and was to be forever engraved into her head. "You are not afraid."
The knife was brought down within seconds. It was done so quickly that Lia barely registered the movement. Her mother choked on her own blood as it gushed down her chest, an open wound across her throat. Lia wanted to scream, but the hand held her mouth closed. The color red burned itself into her head. She decided then and there that she hated the color red. Her father thrashed in the mans grasp, his cries echoing throughout the house.
He was next. Her father fell victim to the same death her mother had. The sounds of him choking filled Lia's ears, a gurgling she'd never forget. She wanted to pass out. She needed to pass out.
Her youngest brother, fourteen years old, followed in suit. The man held a gun to his head instead. Lia struggled in the mans grip behind her. She was too weak. Too weak.
The gunshot rang in Lia's ears long after her brother slumped to the ground and his blood splattered across her face. Red. Red. Red.
Her oldest brother, eighteen years old, did not have the same quick death.
Lia had to sit and watch for what felt like hours as they beat him. They beat him to death into the beginning hours of the morning. His screams of shattered pain echoed in her ears. She was too weak to stop it. The tears never stopped.
In front of her lay her family, her lifeline. Red, sticky blood pooling around them and filling every crevice in the wood. The sounds of their recent deaths replayed over and over again.
Lia and Piper sat in utter silence after the story. Neither knew what to say. It was heartbreaking for Piper to understand the true severity of Lia's past. Seeing your family brutally murdered at the hands of anyone takes an intense toll of your mentality. To be kidnapped and forced to become a soldier for those same people is devastating.
"Why didn't you go stay with another family member when you got back? Grandparents maybe?" Piper asked quietly, not wanting to push her friend too far.
Lia looked out towards the slowly setting sun. "They killed them all."
"What do you mean?"
"Every last one of them. They told me at the embassy. They sent an assassin to America to take care of my family. I'm the last of my bloodline."
Lia knew they didn't do the same to Piper's family, nor did they to the rest of the girls in the operation. For that, she was thankful.
"I guess I was just a trial run for them. They did a lot of things different with me, and sometimes, I still wonder why."
-------
Speirs and Winters stood behind the front door of the CP building.
They had heard everything.
The pair had just been leaving when they heard Lia's words; 'They killed them, all of them, in front of me.' They knew they shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but once Lia dove into her story, they couldn't help but listen in.
Winters turned to Speirs, heartbreak behind his eyes for their lieutenant. He shook his head slowly in disbelief. The pair quietly returned back to the main room instead of disturbing the two girls by opening the door and dropped down onto the couch. Neither could get a grasp on the story they had just heard.
Speirs let his head fall down into his hands, tangling his fingers in his hair. He threatened to rip out every last strand.
A strong feeling washed over him. He wanted to find whoever 'they' were, and kill every last one of them that did these awful things to her. An overwhelming sense to protect her, and it was only growing.