" She was never quite ready. But she was brave. And the universe listens to brave."
- Rebecca Ray
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Hazel was sitting on the edge of her foxhole with Shifty, the two talking quietly when the crunching of footsteps coming towards them echoed. Hazel turned and saw Catherine coming towards her.
" Hazel," Catherine said, " Captain Winters wants you." Hazel glanced at Shifty before looking at Catherine.
" Do I need anything?" she asked.
" Bring your weapon and any protective gear you have." Catherine said. Hazel jumped into the foxhole and grabbed her weapon and some extra gear she would wear as a sniper before climbing out and saying good bye to Shifty. Hazel looked up at Catherine confused.
" What's going on?" Hazel asked Catherine, completely confused.
" They want to see if someway you can recover Julian's body," Catherine said softly as they walked through the snow, as night was slowly falling. Hazel's eyes widened. Catherine stepped inside the tiny CP hut and Catherine followed, removing her helmet as she noticed that besides Winters, was Nixon, Welsh, Lip, Peacock, Shames, and Buck.
" Hazel," Winters said as he came over to her.
" Hi, sir," she said and shook his hand.
" You're probably wondering what's going on, right?" Winters asked her and she nodded.
" I'm not sure if Catherine briefed this to you, but we would like to see if you could recover Private John Julian's body." Nixon told her. Hazel glanced at him and bit her lip.
" This would be one of the first time's we put your position to use out here, but your position will remain most important to us as long as we are out here." Welsh explained to her and she nodded biting her lip.
" If you can recover the body, you can bring it to cover and report back to us, where in the morning, we can bring the body back." Catherine told Hazel from next to her and Hazel nodded.
" I'll be doing this, alone, sir?" Hazel asked Winters and he nodded. Hazel nodded.
" I'll do whatever you need me to, sir." she said. 2 years ago, she would've probably still been scared out of her mind to do so, but she would do anything to help the company. She had seen the way Babe and Catherine looked and it had pained her to see them like that.
" Get some food, and then report back here at 2000 hours." Winters told her and she nodded.
" Yes, sir." she said.
" You're dismissed." Winters said and she nodded, saluting, before putting on her helmet and stepping back out into the snow with a weird feeling in her chest. A feeling of pride, which she hadn't felt in such a long time. Lizzie had heard about the patrol from Chuck, who had been called to HQ with some other NCOs, but not all. He came back and had given her a run down at dinner, and she had sighed to herself.
" You think they'll want another?" Lizzie had asked him softly in the dinner line. Chuck shrugged.
" God knows, they probably will." Chuck said, as Malarkey wandered over.
" Hey, Malark," Lizzie said.
" Hey," Malarkey said, " how are you guys?"
" Just peachy," Chuck answered.
" I'm ok, little sick, little cold, but I'll be fine." Lizzie said.
" You feeling better?" Malarkey asked her. Lizzie shrugged with sad smile.
" Not really." Lizzie said, " I'll be fine though."
" I know you will, " Malarkey said, " have you seen Mack?"
" Up at Battalion, they called for her." Chuck told him and Malarkey nodded.
" What about Babe?"
" Probably with Spina, or Bill, he wasn't doing well after it either," Lizzie said and Malarkey nodded. Even his spirit was lower. That's when Lizzie spotted Hazel coming through the fog towards the line, with color in her face, her sniper in her hands, a determined look on her face.
" Hazel." Lizzie said and Hazel looked towards her and walked over.
" You look," Lizzie paused as Hazel stopped in front of her, Chuck and Malarkey," awake?"
" CP's sending me out on a solo patrol," Hazel said quickly.
" That's what you always wanted right?" Malarkey said with a smile to the girl. Hazel nodded with a smile his way.
" That's great, Hazel," Chuck said smiling at the girl's bright eyes.
" What do they have you doing?" Lizzie asked her.
" I have to recover Private Julian's body," Hazel said and all 3 sets of eyes were on her.
" They told me I'd be best for the job," Hazel said, " and Lieutenant Welsh was pretty adamant about it being my first real use of my position. He seemed happy."
Lizzie smiled. She remembered Hazel back in Athene; that girl probably would've never done what Hazel is doing now. She liked the ambitious person Hazel was becoming or slowly transforming into.
" Hazel!" a voice said and the group of four turned to see it was Joe Liebgott coming towards her.
" Hey, Joe," she said, as the trio watched. The man arrived at Hazel's side and looked at her.
" What's up? I heard you were at Battalion." Joe said. Hazel smiled looking at the group and then back up at Joe.
" I'm going on a solo patrol." she said, her eyes shining. Joe could see how wide her big blue eyes were. Everyone had heard of the patrol and what had happened, and about Private John Julian, but this was where Hazel's expertise would be put to use. Joe had never been happier seeing her like this.
" Stay safe alright?" Joe said as he looked at her. Hazel glanced up at him.
" Of course," she said, but Joe knew he'd still worry for her. He trusted her with his own life, but he'd always worry for her.
" Best friend privileges." Hazel said with a smile up at him, holding out her pinkie towards him. Joe watched her, a smirk growing on his face, as he latched his thumb in hers. That calmed Joe for the moment.
When Hazel arrived at the CP at 2000, only Winters, Nixon, Catherine, and Welsh were there. She figured; the other Lieutenants had important things to do and Dike was never around.
" Catherine will take you to your set off point, but then you'll be alone from there on out, until you finish your initial objective." Winters explained and Hazel nodded.
" For ideal coverage, I recommend heading through main areas heavy set on trees and foliage," Nixon said to her, " the German line will spot you if you take certain routes that are closer to the edge. We found marked spots where they bed down around 1900 and don't wake again until 0600. You have all that time allotted to get done what you need to. That doesn't mean there won't be snipers, and OPs, and watches set up on their side, but you'll have a better time than in the middle of the day." Hazel nodded in confirmation. She knew what she had to do and how she had to get it done.
" Yes, sir." she said.
" Head out," Winters said and nodded to Catherine. The two girls turned and headed out to where, previously, the patrol from today had headed out towards. Catherine beckoned Hazel to crouch by her side and Hazel did.
" Remember, you have prepared for this for over 2 years," Catherine said looking at Hazel and Hazel nodded.
" Trust your gut, you know yourself and what you do. If something feels bad, get the fuck out of there," Catherine said and Hazel nodded. Catherine wrapped an arm over Hazel's shoulder and pulled her into a warm side hug before patting her back.
" Go get 'em." she said. Hazel nodded. Hazel slowly moved crouched towards the tree line before dropping into the snow, into an army crawl. Hazel glanced back, and could faintly see the outline of Catherine's figure through the fog and haze.
Hazel sucked in an icy breath and then continued on her quiet army crawl through the snow. She couldn't take the more open route that the patrol had gone through; she'd be extremely visible. If she laid low and crawled, it'd be better for coverage. Hazel's eyes darted around like a ball bouncy.
Every noise she heard in the wasteland, her eyes moved to the source. With her narrowed and trained eye, she could tell if it was a person, an animal, if there were any here, or snow falling. Each sound caused her to slow move her head in the direction the source was.
Away from the foxholes it was much darker, and eerily quiet. It was so quiet, that Hazel could hear snow falling next to her ears through the trees, lightly onto the powdery ground.
Hazel's helmet had been covered in a feint white-grey plaster that sharpshooters, like her and Shifty wore. Her face was already white from the cold, except for her nose, and her ODs were fading from their normal olive drab color. The snow was soaking through her ODs as she crawled through the icy snow. Hazel was quiet though, slowly crawling through the world that she was in at the moment.
Hazel managed to position herself behind a tree, brushing her loose strands from her braids from her face. She peaked around the tree, and then continued forward, crawling through the snow, before coming upon a clearer gathering, that still had trees covering the area. Hazel licked her lips, before slowly moving the sniper up in front of her, slowly clicking her scope up to its correct position. She then leaned against the rather cold sniper pad and squinted her eye, looking through her scope.
Hazel could see the German line through her scope. She wasn't far from where the position was for where Private Julian had bee shot down. She waited for a little bit, sitting in the falling snow, as she watched the German line. She could see a sniper in her vision, or at least his rifle, but he was sitting back and eating food it seemed. She clicked her scope up a few levels, creating a clearer vision.
Hazel could see men moving around, talking to each other, laughing, just like Easy Company. She sat back a bit from the scope, and let out a sigh.
They were just normal people.
They were fighting a war, not started by them, but their leader. They were just doing the duty that their leader wanted them to do; to fight. Hazel bit her lip, but she sat forward again, looking through her scope again, her eye following the soldiers that walked around on the other side.
When Hazel felt she was good to move again, she slowly closed the bipod on her sniper up. She moved the sniper back into her arms again and began moving forward when she felt she was good enough to move. She slowly came to what felt like the edge of the mass of trees, where the map had pointed to where Private Julian would be.
Hazel glanced around and her heart stopped when she saw a body, lying absolutely still, dried blood, frozen in the snow, lying around his figure. Hazel bit her lip and gritted her teeth before moving quickly across the clearing and moving in behind the massive build ups of lumbar that lined the side of the road, where a split lay in the middle leading towards the Germans line and where Julian laid.
Hazel looked toward Julian's body, as she positioned herself in a position sitting scrunched up against the pile of frozen lumbar, her knees bent upward as she looked toward his still body again. Hazel glanced to her right and saw an opening between the two piles of lumbar, a small one that, but it would do. Hazel slowly crouched over towards the opening, and lied down in the snow under the cover of pine trees.
Hazel set up her sniper, keeping it focused towards the German line. The brown color and rusted areas of the weapon kept it hidden in the night, even against the slightly grey snow. She set the scopes and then finally settled in. She kept her eye on the German line for a bit, every once in a while glancing towards Julian and behind her.
Once she felt that there was no attention on the American side, she moved back from where her sniper was set up and moved behind the lumbar pile again. She sucked in a breath as she did so and let out the icy puff before glancing over towards where the gun was set up. Hopefully if the Germans were to look out to the American line, they'd spot the sniper, which was in fairly blatant sight. She sucked in a breath before looking towards where Julian's body was.
As she slowly crawled on all fours behind the lumber towards the edge, she began to get a closer look at him.
The blood had dried over his entire body, around his head, his neck, and all over his face. His hand remained outstretched towards where she, and his other hand held that wound that had eventually killed him.
Hazel felt sick to her stomach just looking at the sight. Her stomach turned as she saw his eyes open, staring at the tree tops above him towards the sky, where a few stars were visible. She wanted to just yank his body behind the lumbar pile, but she knew it was harder than that.
It had to be.
Hazel slowly peaked her head around the lumbar corner and narrowed her trained eyes towards the German line. Her eyes caught sight of a few Germans, walking around.
In her eyes, their weapons glistened, the moon hitting them just right, as their bodies turned away from her, straps visible in the moonlight as well.
Hazel then looked towards Julian, lying motionless; she hated to say it but he was dead.
She then slowly lowered herself to the ground, feeling the snow soak through her ODs again. She slowly, cautiously and quietly moved through the snow to Julian's side. Her white helmet stayed level as she crept to Julian's side, and moved herself parallel with his body to make it look like nothing had changed. Hazel didn't realize she was holding her breath in the darkness as she laid there next his dead body.
Hazel told herself she had to remain this way, she had to stay calm and quiet and in control of herself or else everything would go downhill. Hazel gritted her teeth, and forced a peak towards the German line. She was in the open, and still slightly surprised she wasn't shot at yet.
Unless a sniper on the other side was watching her every move.
Lizzie felt sicker than she had been. She walked through the frozen tundra they were in, arms crossed tightly across their chest, her nose running, head aching, throat burning, and face pale white, as she stumbled a bit over her feet as she walked. She let out a nasty cough, that left her throat burning afterwards. Her eyes watered at the pain that had filled her system.
" Hey, Doc?" she heard a voice call and turned to see it was Bill poking his head out of his foxhole with Buck.
" Hey, Bill, what's up?" she said as she walked forward and realized how hoarse her voice sounded.
" You ok?" he asked her, as she approached, arms crossed tightly over her chest.
" Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?" she asked quietly, crouching by his side, not to wake Buck who was resting.
" I talked to Doc Roe, about when I pee, it hurts. Told me there was nothing he could do." Bill said watching her. Lizzie bit her lip and sniffled, trying to think.
" I don't know if we have anything, Bill." she said, as she turned and coughed, her lungs seizing a bit.
" You sure you ok?" Bill asked her. She smiled gently.
" I will be," she said, " when we get the first shipment of penicillin in, I'll make sure Gene or I give you a shot."
" Thanks, Doc." he said and she smiled with a nod, before standing to her feet.
" Get some rest, and stay warm," she said, and Bill nodded.
" Of course," he said and with that she was moving away again. Her teeth chattered together as she moved through the foxholes and found herself walking towards where two people sat on a log. Lizzie bit her lip worriedly as she approached.
It was Joe Toye.
Lizzie gently approached him. What caught her eye though was that Joe Toye's boots were off and his foot seemed frost bitten.
" Joe..." she whispered as she approached.
" I'm fine, Doc." he assured her, as Lizzie looked up at him with sad eyes.
" Joe, you have trench foot," she said quietly, as she looked to Joe again.
" Doc Roe just told me that," he said, and pulled his foot away, " I already told him I'm not going off the line." Lizzie watched her, biting her lip.
" You have to keep it dry," Lizzie said, trying to approach the situation calmly, he could lose it if he didn't try to keep it dry.
" I know." Joe said, as Lizzie looked at him.
" I'm going to check in on you, tomorrow, ok? Just to make sure it's doing ok." Lizzie said softly. Joe nodded. Then Lizzie sighed, and felt a cough fill her throat, before she turned away and started coughing. She sighed and looked back at him.
" You ok, Lizzie?" Joe asked her, worry creasing his brow.
" Yeah, fine," Lizzie said as she coughed again, feeling like her throat was clogged with mucus. She turned and coughed again before finally freeing her throat of the mucus.
" Just stay warm," Lizzie said, " and get some rest when you get back to your foxholes."
" Of course, you do the same," Joe told her and she nodded.
" Hey, how's Babe and Catherine?" Joe asked Lizzie.
" Catherine's with Battalion right now, she's seems fine." Lizzie explained, " I checked on Babe and he was with Spina and Gene."
" You got a foxhole for the night?" Joe asked her. She nodded.
" Go rest," Joe told her.
" I'm fine, Joe, I promise." Lizzie said as she wiped her nose on her ODs.
" Get some sleep you need it." Joe told her. Lizzie nodded.
" Stay warm," Lizzie said as she backed away. Then she turned her and crouched running way.
Hazel glanced back towards the German line, her heart racing as adrenaline filled her veins. She bit her lip and only moved her eyes to look towards Julian.
Hazel didn't move.
She didn't want to.
But she knew she had to, to get him back.
Hazel mustered up what courage she had, and slowly grabbed his arm. With what strength she had, she moved up to her chest, and then with each pull, she dug her knees into the ground and pushed back, quickly and effectively, before she was behind the pile of lumbar.
Hazel let out a relief filled breath as she collapsed, sucking in oxygen through her lungs. She was tiny, she couldn't argue that, but if it was to save Julian's body, so that his things could go back to his mother, she would throw herself through life or death to get that done for them.
Hazel slowly moved back over to her sniper rifle and slid into the spot the snow had hollowed out and let her cheek rest against the pad again. She squinted her eye and began looking through the scope towards the German line.
No one seemed like they were looking towards the American side at all. Hazel bit her lip and squinted her left eye a bit more as she shifted her sniper's scope a bit, looking towards the German line again, just to get some sort of confirmation that they were not looking her way.
Hazel then slid back, pulling the sniper rifle away with her, before lying it down in the snow behind the lumbar pile. Hazel knew that wasn't the best for it, but she was more focused on making sure she wasn't ambushed with his body, and that nothing were to happen to them. She slowly crawled over to his head, and found that his dog tags were still intact.
The Germans hadn't messed with his body.
That would've been the thing they would've taken.
Hazel gently took off the dog tag and slid it into her front pocket just as an icy chill hit her side. She shivered, clenching her teeth shut as she attempted to wipe the blood that was around his face and wound away.
Her eyes looked down at the boy.
He hadn't been much younger than her, maybe by a year at least. She couldn't imagine the reaction from his family, his father or mother or his siblings.
Seeing a car drive up and high military officials get out of the car and come to the front steps of his family's southern home, to tell his family that their son who was fighting a stupid war was dead, all because of a patrol that had gone terribly wrong. Something they couldn't control, simply because it was war.
Hazel gently began searching his pocket, so if she had to drag his body back through the snow a bit, they wouldn't get ruined. She opened his front pocket, and found a few photographs, that were a bit withered and wet from the snow, of what she assumed was his family.
He looked just like his mother.
And she was smiling in the photo, with her son next to her, with the same smile.
Her heart broke.
Hazel shoved the photos into her pocket with the dog tag. She then went and found his wallet, where his class ring also was. She pulled them out and looked at them with sad eyes. He was the class graduated after her own of '42. He was '43. She had a few acquaintances in the book club back home, that were in the year '43, and she couldn't imagine them in this position.
Hazel bit her lip and shoved the class ring away and his wallet. She realized his helmet wasn't nearby and she figured that had been the thing the German's had taken, but she still respected that they had enough humanity to not take his dog tags, to let that be something for his family to see. Hazel turned to her weapon, and shouldered it.
Even though Winters had told her to leave Julian here and report back telling them the body was recovered, she knew she couldn't do that. She knew she couldn't leave his body here even though the body was recovered and hidden.
The line was spread so thing, the Germans could still wander over.
Hazel had been taught by Sergeant Coleman how to carry a man, even one who was bigger than her on her back.
Sure Sobel had gone over it, but he didn't spend a few weeks on the concept like the Sergeant had done with Hazel.
This time she knew she could haul up Julian's body and hold his weight and get back to the CP. Hazel felt her heart ache for Julian's family and for him, but she had to get him back. She had to get him back to the CP. She knew this was disobeying, but her humanity was stronger than anything.
Hazel slowly managed to pull his body over her back, as her legs shook from the weight she was carrying. Hazel bit her lip as she had to remain crouched and cross the tiny clearing that seemed to be some sort of road to get to the other side with Julian's body. She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes, as she steadied her shaking legs for a moment. She took a chance in that second, hurriedly moving with Julian's body on her back, before slinking into the forest on the other side and collapsing onto the snow covered ground, her knees feeling like they were crumbling beneath her.
Hazel groaned as she slowly let down Julian into the snow, her shoulders finding a familiar ache she didn't realize was there. She tried to think how long that entire process had taken her, between army crawling out here, waiting behind that barrier, and lying beside Julian, plus setting up her weapon and simply just looking at Julian's body. She glanced at her watch, it was barely 0030 in the morning.
Hazel felt a wave of exhaustion overwhelm her as the adrenaline ran out from her body. Her body collapsed it seemed as she felt herself fall against a tree, the bark rubbing up on her back as she did so. She glanced over at Julian's body, and gritted her teeth together, forcing herself to get to her feet again to get his body to the CP for his mother.
Hazel thought of her own mother.
A mother would want to see her son's belongings and his dog tags.
She would want them.
Hazel remembered the skills Sergeant Coleman had taught her, and encouraged her with, and carefully got Julian's body up again on her shoulders, as her legs shook with exhaustion, and wavering strength.
Hazel needed to get Julian back to that CP, and with each footstep she told herself that, and found strength in each foot step as she did so. She took her rests where they were needed, but kept moving, completely and utterly determined to show up back at the CP with him and his belongings.
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hey! i had to take a few days for editing and writing but i'm back with the updates!! this chapter has a special place in my heart because i feel you really see how hazel has grown and where she started from. we see her solo patrol, we truly see her character and we see her will to go to all lengths, just so humanity can be prominent.
i know there may be inaccuracies, i wasn't sure what happened with private julian's body or if the germans had taken anything, but i was simply writing this for the context of the story!!
and one special announcement if you haven't already seen it is that the soldier of stars is getting a sequel ad astra per aspera!! i have been so excited to debut it, especially the title. :) it'll be posted under my account when the time comes!! <3
thank you for reading!!