With the sound of a frantic woman shouting echoing throughout the building, Margot made her way up the first flight of stairs and into the small apartment of one of the German residences that she and the rest of Easy had been ordered to clear out.
"Tell her she's got five minutes," Speirs ordered to anyone within the company that was able to speak German.
The woman, who looked maybe only a few years older than Margot herself, stood her ground between the soldiers and her young son. She wasn't backing down, and although Margot had no idea what she was saying, it was obvious from her body language and tone that she was very upset. How could she not be? A hoard of American Paratroopers had just barged into her home and ordered her to leave. Anyone would be on edge when faced with a situation like that.
Liebgott groaned slightly as he began trying to persuade the woman to leave, but no matter how many times he repeated the same thing over and over again, she was not giving in. "Sir, she says she's got nowhere to go." Liebgott translated.
Running his hands through his hair in frustration, Speirs groaned. "We're only gonna be here one night," he yelled at the mother. "You've got four minutes!"
The woman backed up even more, her thigh now pressing into the chair that her son was sitting in. Her eyes darted between Liebgott, who was still speaking in German, and Margot, who was standing a few feet back and watching the whole thing go down. Her hands moved to grab hold of her son as she silently pleaded with the fellow female to help her.
Throwing her rifle over her shoulder, Margot stepped between the male Paratrooper and the German mother. "Okay, let's just take it easy here, okay." She placed a hand on Liebgott's chest and pushed him back a little. "Joe, explain to her one more time—nicely —that she just has to find somewhere for tonight and that we will be gone by morning. Tell her I will watch her son while she packs."
Liebgott rolled his eyes before complying, his voice gentler and less authoritative this time around. Slowly, the woman seemed to calm down. With a slow, cautious nod, she grabbed Margot's arm and directed her to stand next to her son before turning and taking off to pack up a few things as quickly as she could.
"I know it may be hard to believe," Margot looked down at the boy and flashed a comforting smile, "but not everyone in Germany is a Nazi. Jus .try to remember that."
With a huff, Liebgott stomped off, presumably to go yell at some more residents and get all of that ever-lasting pent-up anger out. Never before had Margot seen such a skinny man hold so much rage inside of him so consistently. To be completely honest, she had no idea what Annie saw in him that made her want to be his friend.
After another minute or so, the woman came out of her bedroom with a full bag slung over her shoulder. With a curt nod, she grabbed her son's hand and dragged him past Margot and out of the apartment where she and the rest of the tenants were pushed down the stairs and out of the building.
Margot watched as family after family hurried out of their homes, panic on their faces as they worried about where to go and what was going to happen to them. Fishing a cigarette out of her pocket, Margot placed it between her lips and lit it with a single flick of her lighter.
Ever since she had received her letter from Joe and Bill she had been trying to work out what to write back. Like Joe, she had so many things she wanted to say, but nothing seemed to make sense when she put it down on paper. Margot wanted to vent to them—to tell them all the horrible things she had endured since she had last seen them—but she also didn't want to burden them with her problems; they had enough of their own as it was.
With a long inhale of the nicotine, Margot decided that she would not include evicting innocent families from their homes in her letter. Joe and Bill didn't need to hear about that.
After staying the night in the newly vacant apartments, Easy Company was out again bright and early the next morning, just like they said they would be. Packed into trucks like sardines in a can, the troopers moved from city to city, passing by hoards of retreating German soldiers on the way.
As the trucks, tanks, jeeps, and other American artillery moved inward, the median between the two streets was full of Germans moving in the opposite direction. With her elbows resting on her knees, Annie watched as the uniformed enemy marched as one, their heads still high with pride even in surrender.
It was an almost menacing sound—the rhythmic stomping of their boots on the dirt; and if it weren't for the current circumstances, Annie was sure the noise would send chills down her spine.
"Hey, you!" Webster suddenly shouted as they passed the enemy soldiers. Rising to his feet, he grabbed hold of the bar above his head and glared into the sea of Krauts. "Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Kraut bastards! That's right! Say hello to Ford and General fucking Motors. You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking?!"
Reaching up, Garcia grabbed hold up Webster's jacket and pulled him back down into his seat. "That's enough, Webster," he told him. "Give it a rest."
Burying his face in his hands, Webster sat back and let out an exasperated sigh. "He's right." Annie pulled one of her bargaining packs of cigarettes out of her pocket and offered one to the wound-up man. "Yelling at 'em isn't gonna make a difference."
Webster shook his head in polite refusal. "Dragging our asses halfway around the world. Interrupting our lives-" he suddenly jumped back to his feet again. "-for what?! You ignorant, servile scum! What the fuck are we doing here?!"
"Webster, sit down and shut up or I'm gonna report you as deranged and have you sent to a loonie house." Annie huffed as she leaned back, her head resting on George's knee as he sat above her on the edge of the truck, his legs on either side of her body.
Reaching down, George gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. Everyone in the company was going through some form of emotional episode one way or another due to the sudden shift with the mass surrenders. Some, however, hid it just a little bit better than others.
As the vehicles rumbled past an old, abandoned shed of some kind, the steel door burst open followed by a sudden string of tempered shouting—both English and German. Looking up, Annie watched as two American soldiers led three German soldiers out into the open before kneeling them down and shooting them in the back of their heads.
Funnily enough, Annie didn't even flinch when the gun went off and the first German collapsed onto the ground, a stream of blood erupting from his skull in the process. Across from her, however, O'Keefe had the look of a baby deer caught in headlights.
With a sly smirk, Liebgott tossed the ball George had been playing with earlier in his hand. As horrible as it was to say, there was a small amount of amusement that the seasoned troopers got out of watching the new guys experience the glory of war for the first time. Their first night in a rained-out foxhole, their first time firing their weapon in combat, their first time watching someone die.
Over time though, they would get used to it. They always did.
As the convoy rolled into the next small town, a place called Thalem, some of the locals came out into the streets to watch the Americans' arrival. It was hard to tell if their actions were ones of welcoming and good faith or not, but nevertheless, they seemed willing to accept that there was a new force in charge.
When the trucks slowed to a stop, the men and women jumped out of the backs and the orders from the superiors began. Within minutes, Speirs had ordered groups from Easy Company to go on a patrol in the North-West woods. 1st and 2nd would be going straight through while 3rd was to swing around and meet up on the other side.
With the small pack convened, including both Annie and Margot, they headed out into the woods with rifles in hand and heads on a swivel.
The sun was shining down bright and hot that day, but thankfully, the canopy of trees provided much-needed shelter from the heat. In Bastogne, the uniforms hadn't been enough to keep them warm, and now, the uniforms were too much to allow them to stay cool. In the end, there was no winning with the weather; but then again, no one ever said being a Paratrooper was going to be comfortable.
Letting out a slight cough as she walked through the smoke cloud from George's cigarette, Annie waved her hand in front of her face to dissipate the grey fog. "George, could you maybe not exhale right in my direction?" She shot him a look from out of the corner of her eye.
"Oh, you mean like this?" George turned to her and blew a puff of smoke directly into her face.
"I'm gonna kill you, George Luz," Annie deadpanned.
While the medic and the radioman began to bicker quietly between themselves, Margot and Bull were bringing up the rear, their eyes glued to the nervous replacement in front of them. From the moment they had entered the woods, O'Keefe had been gripping his rifle so hard that Margot could see his knuckles growing whiter by the second.
Taking off his helmet and adjusting the cigar in the corner of his mouth, Bull shot Margot a grin before tapping the man on the shoulder. With a flinch, O'Keefe's head spun around faster than an owl looking for prey. "Sarge," he breathed when he saw it was only Bull.
Both Bull and Margot let out a small chuckle. "Why the hell you so jumpy, boy?" Bull questioned.
"I'm not jumpy," O'Keefe denied.
"Weird, because for a second there, I could have sworn you were part frog." Margot teased.
"Shit, she's right." Bull nodded in agreement. "I can hear your heart pounding in Arkansas, boy."
With a snicker from the front of the group, Christenson turned around. "Jesus Christ, will you two give the kid a break?"
"You getting soft on me, Pat?" Margot narrowed her eyes at the man.
"You wish."
For a few seconds, the group fell silent, the only sounds coming from the forest itself and from Perconte chewing whatever it was he was eating. "Hey, George." Frank's eyes scanned the scenery around him. "Kind of remind you of Bastogne?"
Annie let out a snort as she caught the look of pure annoyance on George's face. "Yeah, now that you mention it." George sighed as he overtook Frank and looked around. "Except, of course, there's no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren't fucking exploding from Kraut artillery. But yeah, Frank, other than that it's a lot like Bastogne."
"Right?" Frank somehow managed to miss the sarcasm in George's voice.
"Bull, smack him for me please." George took another drag of his smoke.
Happily obliging George's request, Bull reached forward and smacked Frank on his helmet, a smile on his face the whole time.
"Thank you."
Eventually, after what felt like hours of walking, the patrol slowly began to near the edge of the woods. The foliage had grown thicker, decreasing the amount of sunlight shining down and darkening the surroundings. The birds had stopped chirping and even the slight breeze had stopped.
Suddenly, everything had gotten rather eerie.
"Sure is quiet," O'Keefe was the first to comment on the noticeable change in ambiance.
Frank nodded as the group formed a circle, their backs to each other and their eyes scanning the trees. "He is right, fellas."
"It's the birds." Annie tilted her head back to look up at the higher branches of the trees. "They've either stopped singing or they've left altogether."
For a few more seconds the group stood in place, surveying their surroundings and listening for any little sound. Christenson was the first to switch off the safety on his rifle and one by one, everyone else followed.
Then, in a more organized formation and a more serious mental attitude, they started walking again.
When the patrol first exited the woods and proceeded into the clearing, they weren't sure what they were looking at. Whatever it was, it was big and it was man-made.
Slowly, the troopers fell into line beside one another, their eyes glued to the sight in front of them. Towers, wooden posts, gates, barbed wire, fencing. No one spoke a word, not even a single sound.
Annie narrowed her eyes as her hand went for her small pistol, her breathing deliberate and her heart slamming against her chest. It took her a while to figure out what she was looking at, but when she finally put the whole picture together, she felt as if she might throw up right then and there.
"Are those ... people?" Margot swallowed hard, the words coming out of her mouth making her feel sick to her stomach as well.
"Oh, my God." Annie's shoulders slumped in defeat for the good of humanity. "It's a cage. It's a goddamn human cage."