Despite knowing that lying in the grass on a hill a hundred yards back would give her more protection and a better vantage point from which to snipe her targets, Alice again felt slighted at the posting. She knew it wasn't Dick's fault, or Nixon's, but her anger threatened to spill over every time she thought about the location she'd been sent to. Alice lay on her stomach, rifle poised before her. Her watch said 0520. The sun had just risen, and with it, they prepared to attack.

But a mortar explosion down in the hedgerows jolted them all from their preparations. Alice peered down the sights. It didn't take long to start seeing German troops. Nazi troops? Alice lifted her head away, breaking her view of the grey-clad soldiers. Her breathing quickened. Another mortar burst near the men below her.

Alice looked down the scope again. She saw the 506th scrambling into positions. Across from them, beyond the hedgerow, she saw the enemy advancing. Alice positioned her gun. Briefly she hesitated. As she saw the man in her sights raise his rifle, she pulled the trigger.

He collapsed. Alice took a deep breath. She moved the gun to aim at the next target. It surprised her how few men stood in view. It surprised her until a moment later, Alice caught a glimpse of greyish armor and a massive gun barrel.

Panzers. Alice shifted, pulling out a pair of binoculars that Nixon had gotten for her. She put the gun down and tried to take in a bigger picture of the battlefield. She cursed as she saw what looked like Harry and someone else rush into the open with a bazooka.

Alice pulled up her rifle again. Trying to slow her rapid heart and breathing, she stared down the telescopic sights. The first German to step into view who was a threat to the idiot that was Harry Welsh, she pulled the trigger on. But her Karabiner 98k couldn't take out a tank.

She watched in horror through her sights as a Panther tank rolled over the bracken and brush around the German lines and into the open. It took aim and fired. Alice didn't see who exactly it had aimed for, but it had missed Harry. The bazooka the man helped aim went off. It glanced off the Panther's armor easily.

Alice fired again. A few infantrymen began to use the Panzers as moving cover, and she intended to end that as quickly as possible. With her tenth shot, she downed a man who took aim at Harry. Alice held her breath as the Panther's barrel moved to aim at Harry and the other soldier. She swore as it fired.

Harry still stood. She watched them set up the bazooka again after the close call. Alice stopped firing and just watched. She couldn't think, couldn't breath. The bazooka aimed at the barrel of the Panzer. The Panther tank moved forward. It drove up and over a small bump in the terrain.

Alice nearly screamed in joy as Harry and the other soldier shot the bazooka into the underbelly of the Panzer. It teetered before falling, broken to the ground. Alice picked off the one soldier who managed to climb out of it. He fell from the tank like a ragdoll.

Over the next five minutes, Alice did her best to take out any threat that the men below couldn't easily handle. She spotted a German sniper and took him out just as she saw the muzzle of his rifle angling towards herself. The battle seemed to be a lost cause, though, and it wasn't until she heard yelling that she realized the new grey armor rolling towards the battlefield was theirs.

The 2nd Armored Division had finally arrived. With all the gusto Alice had come to associate with Americans, the Sherman Tanks rolled into the fight. Almost immediately the tide turned. Alice lifted up her rifle again. With practiced ease, she picked off the now-retreating German paratroopers.

It surprised her again how quickly and without fanfare the battle ended. Americans whooped and hollered with joy as the Shermans destroyed the Panzer division. With the last of the infantry defeated or surrendered, Alice set her rifle down. She rolled onto her back, looking up at the early morning sky. She shaded her face with her arm.

Alice listened to the sounds of war fading. The machine gun fire had mostly finished. Shouts and bullets faded. Above her, white clouds drifted across the sky. For the briefest of moments, leaving her Karabiner untouched at her side, Alice tried to feel like she was home. The grass tickled her cheeks and her hands. Blue skies stretched endlessly in all directions. Home felt tantalizingly close. She felt that if she reached out, she could snatch it.

After lying in what little peace she could find for several minutes, Alice sighed. Rolling back onto her stomach, she grabbed her rifle and stood up. Below she could see the Americans congregating in groups. She took off her helmet. Running a hand through her sweaty, grimey golden hair, she felt the wind on her face. Then she turned away.

It didn't take more than fifteen minutes to find the officers. Strayer stood to the side with the officers from Dog and Fox Companies, apparently mad as hell. Ron looked about as irritated and put at as Major Strayer, too. Moving to join Dick, Buck, Nixon, and Harry, she couldn't decide whether to yell at the last of them first, or hug him.

"There's the last one," Nixon said, grinning. He pointed over to her as she moved to join them. "Put your helmet back on. Do you want to get shot in the head?"

Alice rolled her eyes and didn't comply. She continued to hold her helmet at her side. The feeling of the gentle wind through her very disgusting hair felt too good. "I'm fine to die now. I'm in Europe."

"No one's dying right now," Dick argued.

Alice nodded. She rounded on Harry. "Speaking of, what the hell was that stunt you pulled?"

"What, you mean the part where I saved us?" He smirked. "You're welcome."

With a sharp, unconvinced laugh, Alice shook her head. But she didn't push the issue as Strayer came over to join them. He still looked furious. Stopping in front of them, he nodded. "We owe Easy for holding the line while they pulled back. Good work."

"Just doing our jobs, sir," Dick said.

"Better than they are, that's for sure." Strayer shook his head before walking away. "Nixon, we need to debrief."

With a quick nod at the other officers of Easy, Nixon hurried after Strayer. Alice stood with the others, but she didn't pay attention to them. Instead she looked around at the enlisted. Catching glimpses of the member of Easy chatting and sharing smokes set her more at ease.

They returned to the town of Carentan that night. The town became the base of operations for Easy over the next two weeks, as they fought off various counterattacks. The morale of the company remained surprisingly high despite the constant combat. Wounds were minor, and they got Lipton back in not too long.

Alice lay on her back in the center of the square in Carentan. The sun began to set, blues, purples and pinks painting the sky above her. A few stars poked through the darkening sky. With a deep breath, she relaxed. Only First Platoon had been tasked with doing anything that day, following Nixon and Dick out on a small errand to investigate a farmhouse.

To her right, Joe and Bill chatted quietly, smoking cigarettes as they sat on the ground. Beyond them, she could hear Skip, Alex, and Malarkey joking around. It felt peaceful, an odd sensation in the middle of a warzone. With the sun finally gone, and the beautiful painted sky dark, Alice closed her eyes.

The sound of pounding boots on hard pavement pulled her from her exhaustion-induced rest. Alice sat up. With Joe and Bill, she looked to where First Platoon returned. Harry looked more weary than she'd ever known him, his face drawn in anger and fatigue. Beside him neither Dick nor Nixon spoke. They all frowned. The enlisted who followed didn't look much happier.

Pushing herself to her feet, Alice hurried over to the officers first. She went to speak to Harry, but the glare he sent her stopped her in her tracks. She let him pass. Turning to Nixon, she lowered her voice. "What happened?"

"Blithe got shot in the neck. Then we found out we're getting pulled off the line." He shook his head. "If they'd told us five minutes earlier, he'd be fine."

Alice's heart sank. "Is he going to make it?"

Nixon shrugged. He didn't have an answer for her. As he and Dick went to find Strayer, Alice watched them go. Her heart went out to Harry. Where he'd disappeared to, she had no idea. Instead she decided to go find Gene. The man had offered to go with First after Spina had been off the line with the flu for a few days.

He stood by himself, gulping down water from his canteen. Based on his non-reaction, he wasn't the least bit surprised to see her approach. Before she could say anything he shook his head. "I don't have any answers, Cherie."

"Just thought I'd ask."

Gene sighed and shook his head again. He let his arm drop to his side, canteen in hand. Alice looked at him carefully. Dark circles lined his eyes. She frowned. Pulling out her pack of Lucky Strikes, she offered one to her friend. He took it gratefully. She lit it for him.

"Merci," he muttered.

She nodded back."De rien."

They stood together, leaning against a brick wall of a house in Carentan. Smoke wrapped around them. Alice tried to block out the sounds of war around them. She could, on the edge of hearing, recognize Sherman tanks rolling by the town, and still machine gun fire would occasionally drone in the distance. But these days in Carentan, the war had mostly faded.

The invasion had been deemed a success. With July just beginning, their month long expedition in France would be coming to an end. But it had been a success due to the sacrifices of the men. Smokey, Talbert, and Popeye had been transferred to a hospital in England. Blithe now would need intensive treatment, if he was to live at all. And that wasn't to mention the twenty-two men declared Killed in Action. Most of whom hadn't made it to the ground.

Alice sighed. Her cigarette had burned to the end. Dropping it, she squashed it under her foot. The stars above them twinkled in the clear night. Over the past week or so, the temperatures had dropped uncharacteristically. But she liked it. It felt like the Alps.

With a last long look at the stars, Alice turned away. She said a quiet goodnight to Gene. Alice had set up quarters in one of the local houses alongside Bill and Joe. With thoughts of England on her mind, Alice decided to try to sleep.