Explosions and gunshots had already started going off by the time the Jeep caught up with the tanks. As she scrambled from the jeep with the other three, mind racing, focused only on the threat before her, she heard calls for a medic. It surprised her not to see Gene rushing around. Dick, Harry, and Nixon started getting troops in order.

Spina and Mampre came into view. One helped a limping soldier, the other dragged a body. Alice rushed to them, past the tanks. Her sniper rifle was no use at the moment. Before long she reached the two medics, but realized it was actually three. Gene Roe limped with Spina's help.

"Give him to me!" Alice ordered, grabbing the taller Eugene Roe. He didn't protest, and neither did Spina, so soon enough she had the head medic at her side. "Damnit Gene."

The sounds of shouting and bullets filled the air. Alice couldn't look back. She, Gene, Mampre, and Spina limped to the protection of one of the jeeps. All around them, chaos. Down the gravel road they went. Alice's breathing became erratic as she just prayed no one would shoot them from behind.

At last they reached a safe distance back. Mampre and Spina dropped beside the man they'd been dragging. Lowering Gene to the ground, she looked at him closely. He gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. As she realized she'd be getting no help from the other two medics, Alice nodded.

"Give me your bag," she ordered.

Gene looked at her. "You ain't a medic."

"No shit. Give me your bag, Gene. Walk me through this."

He didn't protest any further. Easing his medical bag off his shoulders, he handed it to her. The first thing she took out were scissors. It didn't take instructions for her to know she needed to get the wound visible.

With the medic scissors, she cut the pant leg on Gene's left. As they both peered down at the wound, Alice and Gene sighed in relief. It looked minor. Bad enough to bleed, but just a bullet wound.

"Didn't hit the artery," he assured her. "You need sulfa for the wound. And you need to get the bullet out."

"Right."

But Alice hesitated. She looked at Gene again, could see the pain in his eyes. "Do you want morphine?"

Eugene huffed, then gritted his teeth again. "No. I need 'a be able to walk you through this just in case."

"Right." Alice made the mistake of glancing to her right. Mampre and Spina worked fast, trying to stop the bleeding from the soldier's neck. Blood spurted everywhere as they had to keep replacing bandages. A bit of it sprayed across Spina's face. Her stomach churned.

"Alice. Focus."

With a nod, she took the sulfa packet Gene gestured to. She ripped it open. As soon as the white powder began to fall on the open wound, Gene groaned. She watched his jaw set in defiance, silencing the discomfort. With the sulfa applied, she took out some tweezers.

"No morphine?"

"Bon sang! Simplement fais-le!"

Alice huffed but nodded. Putting a bit of sulfa on the tweezers for good measure, Alice moved to take the bullet out. A massive explosion behind them jolted her. She ducked. As the sound faded, she looked at Gene again. He nodded.

The tweezers pushed between Gene's skin. Alice saw him throw his head back in pain, but moments later he got control of himself. She started to apologize. "Je suis désolé! Je suis vraiment désolé!" As her french murmuring continued, Alice finally found the bullet and pulled it out.

The wound began to bleed more. Her training for how to tie a bandage kicked in, and she worked on memory. Gene watched her, whole body tense. Alice hated seeing him in pain. As she did the tie, the world seemed to slow. Her anxiety had shot through the roof. She couldn't let her fear control her though. When the bandage had been tied, she looked up at Gene.

He nodded. She nodded back. Another explosion rocked the area. Gene and Alice both looked towards the city of Helmond. Dozens of Allied soldiers ran towards them. Her heart stopped. Were they retreating? To her left, Mampre and another soldier moved the injured man off on a stretcher towards a jeep. Spina san k down beside her and Gene.

"Holy shit," he muttered. Then he looked at Gene. "You good?"

Gene nodded for a moment. They all turned back towards the road where the soldiers ran back towards them. "Yeah. Yeah." Then he looked at Spina. "The Lieutenant?"

Spina shook his head. "I don't know. We stabilized him, I think." Then he turned to Alice. "Thanks for the help."

She nodded, but didn't say anything. Her gaze was trained on the fleeing company. Trucks had pulled up for them, two full already. She couldn't locate the officers, though. "Spina, get Gene somewhere safe. I've got to find the officers."

"Right."

Alice nodded at him and then Gene before pushing herself off the ground. Blood stained her hands as she held her gun ready. Shames and Peacock passed her, shouting orders to their Platoons. When she saw Buck, she flagged him down.

"We're retreating," he told her. "Couldn't get through."

"Dick?"

Buck gestured down the road. With a quick thank you, Alice moved in the direction he pointed. She dodged the men rushing her way. Weaving through the masses, she found Dick and Nixon at a truck, the former shouting orders to the retreating soldiers. Even as she reached them, though, her heart stopped. A clang, and then Nixon landed on the ground. Alice and Dick both knelt down beside him.

"Nix!" Dick grabbed him.

To both their relief, he moved, glancing around in terror and surprise. Alice watched as he assured them he was alright, frozen to the ground. Her heart absolutely stopped. But as soon as she realized Nixon hadn't died, she grabbed her face.

"Fucking hell. First Gene, then you. Is everyone going to get shot!" Alice looked at him closer. He had a cut across his forehead. Then she grabbed his helmet. It had a whole in it, a bullet embedded in the metal. "Shit."

Nixon took a deep breath and nodded. "Right."

With a nod and another look between both of them, Dick hoisted Nixon up. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

"Casualties?" Alice asked.

Dick shook his head. "Unknown."

While Nixon dabbed at his head wound, the three officers hurried back to the trucks. The last one was getting ready to pull away. While Johnny Martin pulled Dick aside, Alice jumped into the back of their jeep with Harry. His stressed expression reflected her own opinions. Neither spoke.

The trucks moved off rapidly. Machine gun fire echoed from Helmond. Alice ducked a bit. Nixon and Dick barreled into the jeep and away they sped. She looked behind them, back towards Helmond. Smoke rose from the buildings, the dark grey smoke mingling with the white clouds above.

The Battalion regrouped outside Nuenen. The officers spent hours counting casualties, gathering intelligence. As the sun sank in the sky, Alice soon found herself alone again, sitting against a tree trunk on the edge of town. A brilliant sunset painted in the sky. She had so much to process.

First and foremost, Bull Randleman was missing. Dead maybe. No matter how much Guarnere insisted that with no proof, there was no way to declare him Killed In Action, she didn't quite believe it. Alice had shed several tears once she'd managed to get away from the men.

As the reds and oranges became blues, and then purples, and then a deep black, Alice stayed where she was. A peacefulness settled on the world. She tried to focus. It worked until the distinct noise of explosions echoed around her.

She scrambled up. More and more explosions followed. Suddenly the raging flames and smoke began to light the darkness. Alice paused. They weren't bombing the Allies.

The Germans were bombing Eindhoven. They were bombing civilians. In her anger, Alice focused on one thing only. She had to get back there. Grabbing her gun off the ground, she dashed up a nearby hill. By now, the fires raging in the nearby town cast silhouettes of the buildings. Smoke filled the air. She stood entranced.

A dozen men joined her on the hill. Only the booming heavy artillery filled the air. Smoke wafted their way. Alice took a step back.

"Where you going?" Johnny Martin turned to her.

She didn't look at him. Instead she turned back to the flaming city. "They need help. I'm going back."

"Not by ya'self you're not." Bill Guarnere stepped up to her. He nodded. "Johnny?"

"Let's go."

Alice nodded. She looked between them in the dark and then turned. Hurrying down the hill, she went to find Dick. It didn't surprise her to find Nixon and Dick standing on a different hill overlooking Eindhoven. Dick turned to her and frowned.

"I'm going to go help," she said.

Nixon went to protest but Dick stopped him. He took a long look at Alice and then turned to the two sergeants with her. "I need you three back by dawn. Take Spina and a few other men." As they nodded and turned away, he called to her. "Alice!"

"What?"

"Be smart."

She nodded. As they hurried down the hill, leaving Nixon behind to argue with Dick's decision, she turned to Johnny and Bill. "Find some volunteers and get me Spina. I'm going to track down a jeep."

Both of them nodded and hurried off. The jeeps were parked on the right side of the far entrance to Nuenen. It took some effort to shoulder through the citizens of the city who stood watching in horrified awe, the bombs raining down on the city beyond them. She heard children crying, men and women screaming in fear.

Securing two jeeps didn't take long. As the screaming artillery began to subside, the small squad of volunteers assembled. Joe Toye, Babe Heffron, Skinny Sisk, Ralph Spina, Smokey Gordon, Bill Guarnere, and Johnny Martin stood with her. After a moment, she nodded. "Right. Guarnere, Heffron, Spina, with me. The rest of you take the second one."

"Anyone heard anything about Bull?" Smokey asked.

Guarnere scoffed, pulling himself into the seat beside Alice. "His squad went after him."

Alice looked over in surprise. But she didn't have time to respond as she readied herself in the driver's seat. As soon as all her men were in, she started off. Nearly fifteen minutes later, they reached Eindhoven's edge.

Or, what remained at the edge. The walls and half the buildings smoked in ruined heaps. Fires roared around them. Shrieking and crying came from all around. As Alice got out of the jeep, she paused. There were a few other jeeps from the battalion nearby.

She told them to help whoever they could. Spina had gotten extra medical supplies, whatever he could spare and scrounge for. Distributing it to the various men, he then waited next to Alice. She stood, looking inside.

After a few moments, she hurried inside, putting her gun away.  Guarnere didn't leave her, and Babe stuck with him. They moved through the city. The sobs and groans from around the city drowned out any conversation. For half an hour they spent time pulling the Eindhoven citizens from crumbled buildings. The sight of a baby crushed beneath the crumbled walls of its home made her pause, especially seeing the arm of perhaps it's mother poking out from under a huge pile of bricks. She stepped away.

Moving down the next alley, she covered her mouth from the smoke of a nearby fire. But she heard someone ahead. They sounded young and frightened. Alice called out in German, forgetting her Dutch in her panic. The flames began to come closer. She couldn't locate either Bill or Babe. Alice pressed on. She could see shapes through the haze. One hunched over another. Alice called out to them again in German. A man screamed back in Dutch.

She stumbled, her ankle twisting on the rubble. At the same time, she heard a crack and felt her arm get punched. Except it hadn't been. The numbness turned to a burning heat radiating through her left arm. Alice gasped, stumbling to the side. A warm liquid pooled against her skin. The world spun for a moment as she fell into a wall.

Alice pushed herself away as she gained more self control. The flames started encroaching on her area. Smoke filled the air. Alice clambered over the rubble and out of the alleyway into the main area. The shouts and cries around her faded as her focus shifted to the pain in her left arm. It radiated all the way from her fingertips to her neck.

"Alice?" She heard Bill run over as she fell to the ground, heaving coughs. With every cough, her body jolted, sending searing pain through her left side. "Come on, get outta the smoke."

"Left arm," she said. When he moved apart and looked at her in confusion, she shook her head. "Bullet wound, left arm."

His eyes widened. Immediately he looked around. "Babe! Find Spina! Send him out to the jeep, now!" Shifting her with her right arm onto his shoulder, he pulled her forward. "Fucking christ, sweetheart. How the fuck did you get shot by our Allies?"

She didn't respond. Alice's mind was all over the place, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. But the pain clouded her mind. Before too long, Guarnere had dragged her out of Eindhoven. He set her down against the nearest fence.

"Help me get my coat off," she muttered.

Once she'd gotten her right arm out, Bill eased the left side off. Both of them looked at her arm. Bill took out his lighter and tried to get some light on it. Deep red blood trailed down her arm. It pooled in a hole the size of a dime about two inches below her shoulder towards the left edge of her arm.

"Why did they shoot you?" Bill looked at her again.

Alice sighed, resting her head back against the wood of the fence. Tears threatened to fall from the pain. She took a deep breath. "I started speaking German. That's probably why."

Bill scoffed and shook his head. "That was stupid."

When Spina and Babe arrived a few minutes later, Guarnere had tried to compress the wound with bandages as best he could. Spina quickly pushed him away. By the time he'd finished with the wound and given her morphine, Alice started to drift off. The last thing she remembered were Johnny and Bill standing nearby, chatting quietly.