Start Crawling

Meanwhile, Winters was checking Nix was okay after a ricochet. As Luz went past Winters asked for an update,

"We've got 4 dead, 11 injured and sir, Bulls still missing"

"Randleman?"

"Yes, sir" Luz then walked away

"Where's Bull?" Winters questioned himself

"I don't know, I didn't fire a shot the whole time. I did hear one thing though, Lieutenant Brewer is gonna make it" Nix smiled

"Impossible" Winters said shocked

Nix shrugged "He's headed back to England, Fizzy did a good job on him, she's a diamond that girl" he smiled.

Winters suddenly looked around him "Speaking of Fizz, I didn't see her come back. Anyone know where Fizz is!?"

With his question all the men suddenly started looking around for her, Lieb shouted to Gene "Roe, where's Fizz!?"

"She's not here? I told her to retreat!" Gene shouted back panicked

Garcia then piped up tears in his eyes "I...I saw her"

The men all listened intently, fear crossing their faces.

"She had been to see if Compton was okay, before she started retreating, a sniper got her, in the head" Garcia said then started crying.

"NO, NO YOUR LYING" Bill started shouting, as the men started to feel sick and a few were. Malark, Joe and Skip had their arms round each other. Web and Shifty went and sat out a bit farther from the group, no doubt to cry.

Dick and Nix entered the CP tent with Lip, Luz and Gene.

Dick put his head in his hands and was taking slow even breathes.

Nix was drinking......a lot

Lip was biting his bottom lip while his eyes were filling up, as were George's.

Gene looked impassive. He held nothing in his eyes. It looked like he had given up.

Dick then shakily said "I have nothing to say. In an ideal world, we would have time to grieve. But this is war, we have no such luxury" and that was all he said on the matter.

They heard shouting outside. They ran out and saw Garcia and Bill fighting. Bill was shouting "You should have brought back her body you bastard! Now the bastard krauts have her, they're gonna burn her".

Penk and Joe pulled Bill off and took him on a walk away from the scene.

Gene spoke quietly "Is there any way?"

Nix spoke slurred "No".

***

In Nuenen, Bull was sat on a barn floor with Fizz in his arms. When he had seen her lying there unconscious it had scared him. But he crawled over and checked her pulse, she was still alive.

Flo started to stir and Bull clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes flew open then relaxed.

"What happened," she asked groggily

"From the look of the cut on your head, a sniper grazed your head and you got knocked unconscious"

"Bloody hell, no wonder I feel rough" she whispered, She then took a look at Bull, he looked shattered  "You can get some sleep Bull, I'll keep watch, I take it we're still in Nuenen, did the rest get out okay?"

"Yeah, they got out fine, okay but if you feel sleepy, wake me," Bull said and yawned.

She sat there trying to listen for any signs of life outside. As she looked out the window, she saw a group of dead soldiers lying near the entrance to the town. She had to do a double take but it looked like one had moved. 'I can't leave someone to die' she thought as she crawled out of the barn and into the open.

She scanned the area but couldn't see anything, so she continued forward.

As she was crawling, she crawled through what she thought was puddle was actually a deep trench filled with muddy water and blood, she made a large splash as she didnt anticipate the depth and a loud gasp left her mouth before she went head first into the pool. She lifted her head up and spat the filthy water out, when she heard a door open. It took her 5 seconds to take a deep breath and push her head under water. She had flashbacks to when the waves had been too strong for her in cornwall and she'd had to be rescued from drowning, 'come on Flo she thought to herself, just a few minutes'. Eventually she had to put her head up and a quick glance up told her the soldier was standing in front of her with his back to her.

Slowly she pulled out the pen knife the boys of Easy had given her as a birthday present in 1943, who knew that it would be used for this, she quietly and swiftly stood up, trying not to disturb the water.

She leapt at him, and with one swift motion stabbed the knife into his neck and she placed her hand over his mouth, but he didn't make any sound as the life drained from him.

She slowly lowered him down, got back on her belly and started crawling again.

She reached the first man and whispered "Hello, can you hear me"

The man half-opened  his eyes "Hiya love, am I in heaven"

"Nah mate they don't want you yet, where are you hurt?"

"My side"

"Okay, whats your name mate?"

"Matt Jones"

"Okay Matt, I'm gonna fix you up and get you out of here"

And she did.

She did her work and pulled him to a ditch where he could slowly crawl back to the CP.

And she kept doing this.

She found 5 dead men, but found 23 injured. Throughout the night she slowly patched men up, on the 13th man she ran out of morphine.

"Sorry, love ive got no morphine, but you'll soon be at the aid station" she whispered

"That's alright, thank you for helping, whats your name?" the man smiled

"Florence Hilton, whats yours?" the man looked up in shock

"My names John Gibbon, is your brother James Hilton?" he asked

"Yeah, do you know him?" she whispered shocked

"Yeah, he's in a POW, I'll let him know through the red cross that you're here, he won't believe it. He always said your such a girly girl"

She smiled "I think he's got me mixed up with someone else, now start shuffling back" as they started to move she saw a door open. She immediately went limp and whispered "play dead".

The jerry came over and went to the grass to have a piss. She stopped breathing, her heart had stopped she was so terrified.

Eventually the jerry left and she hopped to it and moved everyone quicker. She managed to move all 23 injured men into the ditch and she could see them moving towards safety.

Flo then took the dog tags of the dead and moved back to the barn with Bull, who whispered "Lets get out of here".

They were about to leave when a jerry came in having heard something, they hid before Bull popped out and covered his mouth while trying to stab him. But the jerry was fighting back and turned in Bulls arms and was choking him.

Flo pulled out her knife again and plunged them into the Germans neck. He immediately went limp and Bull pulled Flo to the door, checked them pushed her to the ground and they started crawling away.

Meanwhile, news had travelled to Dog that the female medic in 101st airbourne had died. The men watched as one of their platoon leaders slowly turned round and went into his foxhole, he stumbled a few steps but recovered. He knew his face was full of pain and when he heard the news he had heard and felt his heart shatter. He felt sick and like the advice he had given Blithe, he felt dead.

***

Back at Easy's line Bill and Skip were restless

"Fizz might be dead but Bull ain't, I'm gonna look for him."

"Not by yourself you're not." Skip replied

"I'll go with you, let me get some ammo." Malark replied

"That's okay." Bill said

"I'll go." Johnny added

"Me, too." Cobb said, none of them really liked Cobb

"All right." Bill said

"Go get him." Winters replied, today they had felt the hit of two of the most popular members of the company being lost.

"All right, what the hell..." Webster said as he got up to join them, he had been hard hit over Fizz.

As they were walking they spotted planes above them

"Webster, us or them?" asked Skip

"Not us." he replied

"They're bombing Eindhoven." Cobb asked

"Yeah." Web replied

As they were walking they noticed movement in the grass and came upon dozens of soldiers crawling with bandages wrapped around injuries.

"Hey what happened to you?" Malark asked one of them

"We were all injured at Nuenen, but this Florence the female medic came and treated us and helped us escape.

"When was this?" Skip asked urgently

"About 2 hours ago" the soldier replied

"Cobb run back and tell them we need help getting these men back to an aid station" Bill ordered, "And don't mention Fizz, I don't want to get their hopes up"

Cobb started running back and the others carried on with their mission.

First they saw Bull,

"Where the fuck you been?" Bill asked smiling

"Ive been looking after this little one, as she's so keen to get into trouble" Bull said as he stepped aside and the men saw Fizz, covered in blood but smiling her bright smile.

"Fizz, thank god. We thought you were dead, Garcia saw you be shot in the head" Malarky said hugging her so tightly she couldn't breathe.

She shared a similar hug with all of them as they passed the red cross helping carry the injured men she had saved.

When she entered the CP and base, the men could have cried for joy.

"You can't keep our fizz away from us you kraut bastards" half the men were shouting.

They each gave her a tight hug, Gene was shaking when he hugged her.

"Gene I'm fine" she said as he was checking her head.

"Floss, you were shot in the head, your not fine"

"Oh but I am" she replied cheerfully

Gene just smiled and then her and Bull were given coffee and ordered to explain their ordeal, which they did. Afterwards all the men said and were ordered by Winters to watch Flo during battle and Gene needs to make sure she is with him when they retreat.

"Are you sure your alright Floss? I would be easier if I sent you off the line for a few days" Winters asked

Flo immediately shook her head "No sir, that would be the worst thing you could do to me"

They all looked concerned, they had noticed when she stood up or moved quickly she had to steady herself. She also looked glazed like she was about to faint, but they couldn't force her. Even if they were technically in charge of her, all she had to do was give them a look and they let her do what she wanted.

"Okay, but you let Gene take care of you and give you meds, you understand Floss?" Winters said seriously.

"Yes sir" she said and smiled while giving a salute.

He just rolled his eyes and smiled. She was back with her boys.