" Courage in danger is half the battle."
- Plautus
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On D-Day plus 6, Easy Company awoke within the early hours of the morning, just as the first of the sun's rays were beginning to make their daily appearance. They ate the last bits of the K-rations they were all provided, sipped their water from the canteens and then were on the move. They moved along a dusty road that lead towards the town.
As Hazel walked, she felt her feet with each step give a dull ache, mainly from all the walking they had done. Lip was just a few people in front of her, talking quietly with Lieutenant Welsh. They were discussing the offensive of Carentan; she knew how the officers were with Easy, they cared so deeply for the men of the company and just wanted the best for the company as they marched towards the battle.
By the late morning, it was a bright and sunny day, and it was extremely hot, the sun blistering down on the soldiers, as they were crammed into the dips in the side of the road. There was a creaking coming from a door or shutters from a building in the town close by. The crickets were chirping in the heat as sweat trickled down the many paratroopers' faces. Smoke billowed from certain buildings, going into the blue and slightly cloudy sky.
Hazel was near the front, surprisingly, even as a sniper. She was in her entire get up of gear, with more face paint on her face than the rest, the sweat falling down her face thickly. The gun was slippery in her hands and the heat that moved up from the rocks under her into her ODs made her sweat more in her extra layer of coverage.
Her instructions had been simply.
Coming upon the village had been exactly what she had expected, based on what she had scoped out on previous nights. Buildings surrounded the outer edge of the town and she would have to more in towards the town so she could see things such as the center of the town and larger main streets and places were sniper could possibly be crammed into. Starting out at the front was her best bet. She glanced towards Winters a little bit in front of her and watched as his lips moved speaking to Welsh. He was quick in his tone and words before turning and moving up the center of the road slowly, step by step before peaking up over the edge again. He shuffled back, before stopping at Welsh and glancing at his watch.
" Go." she saw him mouth.
" Let's go, 1st, let's go!" Welsh called in a whisper to first platoon. Harry then slowly stood up a bit, and hurried forward, Luz on his tale.
" Go, go, go!" Winters called going down the row of soldiers on either side. Hazel stayed on the ground to the side as soldiers ran forward, and her heart dropped when she heard a German voice call out, and then shots sounded and fired. A soldier or two dropped as Luz and Welsh continued forward and out of site behind a building.
" In the ditch!" Someone yelled.
" Incoming!" Winters yelled, as Hazel quickly pulled her sniper up to shooting position, facing forward, looking towards the building where the shots came from.
Moving inwards would have to wait.
A machine gun gave out sporadic fire from a window and soon enough Hazel got eyes on it. The machine gunners came from multiple windows as Hazel stayed hidden, having eyes on both. Her finger neared the trigger.
Then she suddenly watched as a small figure ran forward.
It was Lizzie, dodging through gunfire to get to the fallen soldiers on the ground. Hazel watched in fear as Lizzie managed to dodge every bullet and yank the soldiers into the ditch before disappearing where Luz and Welsh had gone.
Lizzie slammed into Luz's side, tripping over her feet as she collapsed at his feet, struggling to stand up again.
" Goddamn it!" Luz called as he slammed into Welsh.
" Where the fuck is everybody?" Welsh called noticing the small medic there as well, out of breath, and holding her heart. Luz came over top of her and attempted to aid the rest of the company, by shooting at the machine gunners.
" Where did everybody go?" Welsh called again.
" I have no idea!" Luz called back before coming over top of Lizzie again and continuing his shooting.
Hazel had frozen for a moment as she watched Lizzie through the scope move smoothly and without fear through the bullets, saving those 2 lives at the same time.
" Guide me and guard me God, let me follow your path and guide me." Hazel whispered softly, as her eye watched the machine gunner in the top house shoot again towards where Luz, Lizzie and Welsh all were positioned near. She cracked out a bullet and watched as it sailed straight into the machine gunner's head, knocking him backwards away from the gun; only the bottom machine gunner was the issue now.
" Let's go Easy!" Winters suddenly called out over the group. Hazel, scooped her rifle into her grasp, locking it quickly, preparing the ammo that was inches from her grasp on her belt.
" Get those MGs moving, will ya!" Strayer yelled.
" They're in the open for Pete's sake!" Nixon yelled back looking up from the map in his hands.
" Go! Go!" Winters yelled as an explosion rattled off next to him. Hazel could only sense chaos everywhere.
" Get 'em going, Buck!" WInters yelled to Buck who sat crouched on the side. " Follow me, Easy!"
" Move out!" Winters had to yell to the men behind Hazel who lay ready to shoot on the next face that popped up and was a Kraut. Winters appeared over the peek yelling at men to move.
" Hazel, move closer!" Winters yelled to her and Hazel glanced back at him with a nod.
They were moving into the town.
Hazel pushed up from the ground, and began racing down after a bunch of other men of Easy Company, down the pebble filled road, as dust kicked up, filling their lungs. Hazel hacked a few times, as she caught sight of someone.
Shifty.
She followed after him as she heard the gunfire from the bottom level machine gunner start opening up again. He burst through a gate in front of him, and Hazel crashed in after him with the rifle, sidling up to his side. She was only a few inches shorter than him as she stood next to him, but she couldn't peak out from next to him. Shifty glanced at her, before a shot echoed in front of them, and the two watched a man fall in front of them.
Hazel stared, heart dropping.
Calls for a medic rang out and Hazel waited to see Lizzie appear somewhere, where ever she had initially gone. Hazel peered out past Shifty, watching as a man hurried forward, a grenade in his hand, fuse ready to go off. Hazel watched as he launched it forward, probably hoping it would create some sort of distraction as he did so. But then a single shot fired out and the man collapsed in a heap on the ground.
" I need to move inwards Shifty," Hazel said, as she moved around him and peered around the corner. Shifty opened his mouth to speak but then a loud, ear-piercing voice stopped that completely.
" Sniper!"
" I gotcha Hazel." Shifty said with a nod, before slowly peaked out around the corner, without adjustment and shooting his weapon before jumping back, quickly killing the sniper in an instant. Hazel grinned. He ripped off another shot and the one machine gunner disappeared. She was then about to step out into the battle and move towards the balcony she had scoped out which would conceal her and keep her high up and away from everyone else.
Suddenly, shots came back, and Shifty shot back into Hazel, pushing her back into the chickens who clucked in the chaos.
" Ah shit!" Shifty yelled as he slammed back fulling into the wall.
" I need to move closer!" Hazel called to Shifty. Her duty was calling her and they were pinned down under machine gun fire. Shifty peaked around the corner and shot back as another blast projected him backwards.
" We need some covering fire, ready, Luz?" Welsh asked the man as Lizzie stood up behind the two. Luz moved around the edge of the building and cracked off shot after shot as Welsh prepared his grenade. He turned to Lizzie and nodded to her.
" When you hear the call, you go, don't worry about us." Welsh told her. Lizzie nodded with a smile.
" Yes, sir!" she said to him.
" Medic!" came the call, and she was off, tearing around the other edge of the building and disappearing. Hazel watched from her point of view as a shortened figure, by which she suspected to be Harry Welsh, raced forward and launched a grenade into the bottom level machine gunner, chunks blowing everywhere inside as the firing quickly stopped. Hazel waited a few seconds as the firefight of the battle continued around them, before deciding on her decisions.
" You okay, Shifty? Parker?" Lip suddenly yelled in their direction. Shifty answered with a thumbs up.
" I'm gonna move." Hazel said, giving Shifty a quick pat on the shoulder, before jumping out into the war-torn street and moving down the alley which had old French posters covering the walls, calling for people to join the war effort. Hazel approached the corner and peaked around it, noticing the bombed out buildings that lay past it. She glanced around and felt as her eye suddenly caught a building, with a shaded balcony that sat on the eves of two converging roofs.
" Perfect." she whispered. Hazel took off down the street, stopping at each corner to take a quick peak of what was down that alley way before moving again. As she approached the building, looking up at the winding staircase she grasped the black handle and quickly began moving up it quickly. She glanced over her shoulder, down the rest of what she assumed was the main street in Carentan. There were people and explosions and gunfire littering the entire place. She could get just about a perfect shot from her position.
Hazel stepped up onto the highest portion of the balcony and slowly climbed onto her stomach, placing her weapon right in front of her face, clicking her scope a few times to get the aim she desired. Then she reached h into her pocket and began loading in ammo to the Springfield, watching each German she could see from her point of view like a hawk.
She watched the Germans rolling a larger artillery based gun that she supposed they would use on the American forces pouring into Carentan, all the way at the end of main street, where it poured into the marshes and swamps. Hazel slowly adjusted, setting her cheek against the pad of the gun, her one finger hovering near the trigger and her other resting on her scope, as she slowly clicked her magnification into focus.
Her touch was gentle, even though the kill would be deadly. Hazel squinted her eye, biting back her lip, as her right eye, stayed focused looking through the scope, straight into one of the German's body.
" Guide me through war, through sin and fight, lead me to light," Hazel whispered, her finger on the trigger, " Lead me to light." Hazel pulled the trigger, and the bullet found its home, as Hazel quickly pulled the bolt, the next, fresh bullet locking into its place. It was as if it were D-Day again, as Hazel sat in the boiling sun atop the balcony, eyes watching every move every man below her made on the battlefield.
" Guide me and spare me, guide and guard." she whispered, as she took her next victim's life, as his body seemed to trip and flop to the ground.
Lizzie tripped over her feet as she got caught in more gunfire. Her luck. She slammed her arms over her head and ran towards a fallen man on the ground, where blood came from his arm. Her knees slammed onto the ground and she immediately pulled her medic satchel toward her front of flipped open the flap.
" Keep your eyes open for me," she called as she gently adjusted him, pulling the body over to a secluded building and began the morphine injection. She hastily wrapped up the wound giving it a quick tie off.
" Hey," Lizzie said as she watched the soldier wake up from his passed out self.
" We're going to get you to the aid station and you'll be treated ok?" Lizzie said gently looking at him and he nodded. " Trust me." Lizzie's actions were quick and clean even under the pressure of the onslaught of gunfire that seemed to rain down in every possible direction.
" Let's get you up soldier." Lizzie said, as she placed her hands under the man's armpits and lifted with all her might to get him to his feet, before looping his arm over her shoulder and moving him back behind the lines.
Hazel remained high up, and was taking easier and quicker shots at Krauts. From across the way, she watched Lip slowly descend up a large stairwell toward a small factory-looking building. To cover his back, she slowly turned her attention to him, quickly sniping a man who appeared around the corner with a grenade. She killed the man. She watched Lip throw a grenade into the concrete building a few floors up, and explode. Then all the sudden, a loud rocking explosion rung out from the center of the town, debris shooting up above the homes.
" They got us zeroed!" Lip yelled. " Spread it out! Spread it out!" She watched as Lipton moved down the stairs calling out and yelling for people to move. Hazel stayed put, as her duty as sniper won over. She had to stay above and back watching over the company. But she watched as explosion after explosion ripped off near the center and looking for signs of large German guns nearby that she could shoot at. Shot after shot, broke out, blowing up sides of buildings and sending shrapnel everywhere, and her worry spiked.
Lizzie jumped past an exploding building, flying to the side, her medic satchel catching her from being cut open by glass. Her feet slipped as she stood and she looked up and saw Gene ahead of her, working on another person as debris flew over top of him. Lizzie moved quickly over him and slammed next to him.
" Let me help ya!" she called over the fire and Gene nodded as the two began working together.
Hazel could see from above the two people with medic brassards working to get someone moved over to the side. Her eyes though sought out Germans. She watched Lipton continuing telling people to move, over and over. She watched then in horror as an explosion shot right at Lip and Lip shot back, slamming into the concrete building behind him.
" Lip!" she yelled in horror, her voice cracking, as she watched the man fly to the side. Hazel shot up like a bullet, throwing her rifle on her shoulder, as she saw Germans beginning to retreat. She pressed a hand on her helmet and began racing down the metal stairs to the ground, hurrying through the streets.
Hazel watched a German round a corner up ahead, and hurriedly grabbed the pistol from its holster and aim it straight towards his face. She cocked it quickly and shot the weapon, watching the man fall to the ground quickly in a heap, as the ground shook. She let out a quick sigh, before hurrying off, shoving the side arm into its holster again.
Hazel raced over to Lip, just as Tab was getting there, and her heart dropped into a pit in her stomach as she slammed down to his side, not even registering Tab was right next to her. Hazel didn't hesitate to begin pulling the spare bandage in her aid kit from her pouch as she glanced towards his wound. She shoved it into Tab's hands as she drew up onto Lip's side.
" Hey, Lip." Hazel said with a small smile, " You're going to be ok." Lip watched her, barely registering or even moving his head in acknowledgment as he did so. Hazel gave him a nod before glancing back at Tab who watched her.
" Hey, buddy." Tab said, anxiously watching Lip struggle to remain conscious. Lip's eyes didn't move from his legs. Hazel met Tab's eyes who traveled to where Lip was looking. Tab reached forward and pulled open where the shrapnel had hit. Hazel watched Tab sigh.
" You're ok, Lip. Everything's right where it should be." Tab reassured Lip who couldn't speak. Hazel gently placed her hands on either side of his terrified face and shell shocked eyes.
" Hey, Lip," she said and he registered her, " You're okay, okay? Tab and I are gonna get you to a med station." Lip nodded anxiously and she nodded with a forced smile to calm him. She looked at Tab with a nod.
" Come on, upsy-daisy." Tab said as Tab and Hazel got on both sides of Lip and helped him to his feet. Then the trio was off, moving their beloved NCO towards the aid station.
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hey! i'm putting up one more chapter today - yay!! i felt the need to complete the carentan saga for you all, as i very much enjoyed this entire sequence and plus we get to see more of lizzie's work in action with the medics, which i know you all will enjoy :)
thank you for all the love and supportive, i appreciate you all so much!!