Morning of December 26, 1944
The Ardennes, Belgium, Luxembourg
"Daniels, wake up."
I jolted up before my eyes were open. As I wiped the sleep from my eyes, I quickly touched the snow-covered ground with my other hand, feelin' for my rifle.
"What's goin' on? Are the Krauts attackin'?"
"Woah, woah, calm down, Corporal. There ain't no Krauts," Aiello said, standin' up from his kneeled position.
"Well, anyone care to tell me why y'all are up before me?" I looked down at my watch to see it was 0624*. I didn't have to be up to start wakin' up soldiers until 0700*.
"L/N appears to be...missing. Zuss woke up and she wasn't next to him, so he's been going around looking for her," Stiles explained.
"What? She's missin'? I think it's too early to start thinkin' that."
"That's what I tried tellin' Zuss, but that boy is whooped." Aiello slightly shook his head. "She probably got up to get coffee or somethin'."
"Aiello, I'd be quiet if I were you," Stiles mumbled, motionin' his head towards Zuss who was comin' towards us. "Zuss isn't looking too great and I swear you're really good at easily getting on his bad side without saying much."
As Zuss walked towards us, he was lookin' down at the ground with his helmet in his hand, bitin' his bottom lip nervously.
"Fuck!" He threw his helmet at the ground as soon as he got near us. It made a loud THUNK! as it hit the frozen ground.
I approached him, but he didn't let me get one word out.
"Don't even think about tellin' me to calm down, Daniels! I checked the whole damn camp and she ain't here!"
"She could be off takin' a leak," Aiello suggested.
"It's been almost half an hour since I woke up to her gone. If that was the case, I think she'd be back by now."
"Hey, maybe she got a bad case of diarrhea."
"Aiello, you're really pissin' me off!" Zuss shot a glance at him.
"It's practically a talent by now," I heard Stiles mumble.
"Alright, enough. Fightin' really isn't gonna help anythin'. You two should know that by now," I said. "Zuss, take a seat. You need to calm d-."
"Fuck no! Our comrade is missing and you guys are lookin' at me like I'm crazy! Daniels, L/N isn't here!"
"Alright, Zuss, I understand why you're worried," I said before turning to the two other men. "Now that I think about it, if none of y'all have seen her since last night and if Zuss checked the whole camp and didn't find her, then I think it's reasonable to be worried now."
"I don't see her as the type to get up and desert us, so I think that option can be left off the table, especially since her stuff is still here," Stiles said. He pointed at her bag, canteen, tin cup, and poncho still near the tree where her and Zuss had slept last night.
"Yeah, I agree with College there," Aiello said.
"What if...what if the Krauts have something to do with this?" Zuss spoke slowly. "What if...they took her?"
"You really think Krauts came walkin' up to our camp and just took her?" Aiello asked. "No fuckin' way, Zuss. We've had men on watch all night, plus Krauts wouldn't care for just one soldier. They know we're closing in on 'em; they'd want to take out as many of us as they could."
"Well, it looks to me like they didn't find us because we didn't wake up to any gunfire last night, so what if she found them?" Stiles suggested.
"We gotta tell Pierson." Zuss began to walk away.
"Zussman, wait," Aiello blurted out, makin' Zuss turn around.
"What the hell do ya have to say now, Aiello?"
"I just feel like tellin' Pierson ain't gonna do anything. Think about it: the guy has always treated her like crap. He'll think of it as a waste of time to go lookin' for her."
"I'm not gonna sit around while she could be in danger, alright? All of her guns are right there which means she has nothin' to protect herself with. I don't even want to think about what those damn Krauts could do to her."
"Alright, Zuss, go ahead and tell 'im. But let me ask you this: what the hell you gonna do when he says we ain't gonna go lookin' for her?" Aiello crossed his arms.
"Fuck it, maybe I'll run off and look for her myself."
"What a great idea," Aiello said sarcastically. "Good luck with that, lover boy."
"Crap, here he comes." Stiles quickly stood up. I looked past where Zuss was standin' in front of me to see Pierson comin' towards us. I stood up straight and got ready for whatever order will most likely just be thrown my way.
"Is that Finley with him?" I heard Aiello mumble.
Sure enough, Private Finley was walking alongside him, holdin' his hands behind his back with his eyes focused on the ground. Now I began to really worry, especially since I'd never seen Pierson and Finley say a word to each other. After all, as Pierson would probably say, he doesn't care to get to know the new recruits.
"Mornin', Sergeant," I was the first to greet him as soon as he reached us, only earnin' a glance from him.
He turned his attention to somethin' on the ground and when I followed his gaze, I realized he was lookin' at L/N's belongings.
"Goddamnit..." Pierson mumbled before looking back up at us. "Have any of you seen L/N?"
"No, sir," each of us replied.
"She's missing, sir," Zuss said in a low voice.
"Just great," Pierson said sarcastically before looking over his shoulder at Finley behind him. "Well, don't just stand there, Private. Show them what you found."
"Sorry, sir," Finley quickly said before steppin' up and holdin' out a helmet he had been hiding behind his back.
I examined it and realized it wasn't just anyone's helmet; it was L/N's helmet with the photos that are important to her, still bein' held tightly by the strap around it.
"Where'd you...where'd you find this, Finley?" Zussman took the helmet from him and stared at it. I wasn't sure if it was 'cause of the cold of the mornin', but he looked paler than usual. His knuckles were white from how tightly he was grippin' the helmet.
"Not too far from here, actually. I could show y-."
"Did you find anything else?" Zuss cut him off.
"I...uh...also found a lot of blood." Finley looked at the ground, almost scared for Zussman's reaction.
"You think she's still out there doin' her business now, Aiello?" Zuss suddenly charged towards Aiello, shoving him with one hand. "I knew somethin' wasn't right!"
"HEY!" Pierson yanked Zussman away from Aiello and got up close to his face, holdin' 'im by the collar of his coat. "You better calm the hell down, Private, or I'll calm you down myself and send you face first in the snow. I know you don't want that."
Zussman stayed silent as he forcefully pulled himself out of Pierson's grip, still holdin' L/N's helmet in one hand.
"The blood isn't L/N's," Pierson suddenly said.
"How do you know that, sir?" Aiello asked.
"Because this was found near her helmet," Pierson held up a combat knife with the blade covered in blood, "and it looks to me to be an American knife."
"Well, even if she stabbed somebody, that doesn't mean she's not in danger. She obviously got kidnapped," Zussman said. "Call me crazy, but it's gotta be Krauts who took her."
"Were you the last to see her, Finley?" Aiello asked.
"I believe so. She woke up last night while I was on watch duty to go do her business and I told her to be careful. She said she would be, but she never came back." Finley paused for a moment. "I started to get worried towards the end of my shift, so I went in the direction she went to search for her and that's when I came across her helmet and the blood."
"Sir, what actions do you think we should take?" I finally spoke up, making brief eye contact with Pierson who immediately looked away.
"The obvious one, of course! We need to start lookin' for her before those damn Krauts who took her get any farther." Zussman turned his attention to Finley. "Take us to that blood trail. We gotta follow it."
"We're not following any blood trail, Zussman." Pierson raised his voice.
"What do you mean, sarge? Do you just expect us to do nothin' while our comrade is missing?"
"This is exactly why I was against whatever you and L/N have going on because she's not just a comrade to you; she's your goddamn lover," Pierson said, eyeing Zussman. "You were the one who fell in love in the middle of the war, knowing the risks, yet you seem to not understand that the war doesn't revolve around one soldier. There are things you're not gonna like and you're gonna have to deal with it."
"Yeah, you're right, I do love her, but I also know that she's an important part of this squad. Lie to yourself all you want, but she's a good soldier who's proven herself more than once."
"Talk all you want, Private Zussman, but we're not gonna waste any time looking for one soldier. We're in the middle of a war for God's sake; soldiers get taken by the enemy all the time and sadly, we can't just go looking for every single one of them. Didn't you see all the German P.OWs we had yesterday? No one came looking for them."
"You really think the Krauts play nice with their P.O.Ws? Because I sure don't think so and by not bothering to look for her, we're allowin' the enemy to hurt her. What kind of comradeship is that?"
"That blood trail could go dry and then where would we go?" Pierson challenged.
"Well, let's follow it and see." Zussman replied, not breakin' eye contact with Pierson.
"Alright, that's enough. It's too early for this crap." Pierson looked at me. "We need to speak about tonight. Come see me when you can."
"Yes, sir."
Pierson then tossed the bloody knife into the snow and began to walk off.
"I think I know why you could care less about her." Zussman placed L/N's helmet on his poncho on the ground, never takin' his eyes off Pierson walkin' away. "Maybe you're just mad she quickly earned respect from Turner that you lost."
"You little shit!" Pierson turned around and charged towards him, but Aiello and I were quick to grab him. Luckily, our strength combined kept Pierson from ever reachin' Zussman.
"Let him go, boys. I've been wantin' to lay a fist into this guy's face for a good while now," Zussman said.
"Enough, Zussman," I scolded, trying to keep myself from slipping due to Pierson's force.
Suddenly, Pierson stopped moving.
"I could court martial you right now! But we got a mission tonight that the war's end is depending on and we're gonna go through with it, ya hear me?" Pierson yelled. "And that's final!"
He pulled himself out of me and Aiello's grip before finally walkin' off without any interruptions this time. He called for Finley and the young Private was quick to follow behind.
Zussman stayed silent as he picked up the bloody knife in the snow and went to take a seat on his poncho. He examined the knife for a moment before putting it in L/N's bag, straight-faced.
"Zuss." I kneeled down in front of him. I put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me, still gripping L/N's bag on his lap. I immediately noticed his eyes were glossy.
"I hate to say this, but Pierson is right about one thing. I knew- We knew the risks of loving each other in a time like this. We knew we could die, or that we could be separated." He shook his head. "I held on to a little bit of hope that we'd get through this war together, but I should've known better."
"Nothin' wrong with havin' hope, Zuss. She could still be alive and we might have the chance to find her," I said.
"I don't know, Dan-"
"Just think about it: that German airbase we're goin' to tonight is only five miles away. If the Krauts that took her came from there, we could be in luck and find her by tonight."
"You might be right, but what if we don't find her?" He asked, his eyebrows arched with worry."
"Don't give up hope just yet, alright? We're gonna find her and if not us, then some other American soldiers will. Y'know how I know that? Because we're just about ready to be done kickin' Kraut ass and before we know it, we'll find ourselves on a ship back to the States." I playfully shook him, earnin' a small smile from 'im.
"I'm hopin' that day comes real soon."
"We all are, lover boy." Aiello walked up from behind me. "And Corporal's right. Losing hope gets you nowhere. If we had done that back on the beaches, we'd have lost the war by now."
"That's a good point. We're gonna have to put up one hell of a fight tonight, that's for sure," Zussman said.
"When don't we?" Aiello smirked at him.
"Hey, Zuss, do you need help putting L/N's belongings away?" Stiles walked up and kneeled down in front of L/N's poncho. "After all, she's gonna want her things when we find her."
"Yeah, let's do it," Zuss said with a grin. "Thanks, College."
As Zuss and Stiles began to pack up L/N's things, I decided I should go see Pierson. I don't need him angry at me if I take more than 10 minutes to go meet him.
"Give me your tins, boys. I'm gonna go check if there's coffee." Aiello held up his tin cup.
"Are you sure about holding three tins full of hot coffee?" Stiles stood up and walked towards his things.
"College, I'm tryin' to be nice here by offerin' to get you a cup of coffee and here you are doubtin' me. Just give me your damn tin," Aiello said impatiently.
"Okay, okay, here." Stiles handed him his tin cup. "Thank you, I guess."
Zussman handed him his tin next.
"What about you, Corporal? Want some coffee?"
"No tha-"
"Now you're gonna try holding four tins? Are you crazy?" Stiles said, making me chuckle.
"Shut it, College!"
"As I was sayin', no thanks. I'm gonna go see what Pierson has to say about tonight's mission and I'd rather not show up with a cup of coffee. He'll somehow find a reason to get pissed off," I explained. "Probably'll say that as Corporal my priorities shouldn't be a cup of coffee."
"Yup, sounds like that sack of shit named Pierson," Zussman said. Him and Stiles had finished with L/N's things and he was now sitting with her helmet on his lap, his eyes focused on the picture of what looked like her and him.
"Well, good luck with Pierson, Corporal," Aiello said before walkin' off.
"Thanks, I'll probably need that," I mumbled as I headed off in search of Pierson.
I greeted soldiers who looked like they were still half asleep as I passed by other squads. Seeing all the squads around me and thinkin' of my own, it made me realize that the war's end isn't the only thing dependin' on tonight's mission bein' successful; my squad bein' complete also depends on it. And if L/N is at that Kraut base, her life depends on it too.
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Chapter song: "Finding You" by The Go-Betweens
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*0624: 6:24 a.m
*0700: 7:00 a.m