Patrol

Florence looked at the river and made a face. Rowing across a river with a thin coat in the middle of winter and the middle of the night was not on her bucket list, but she had a job to do so she sighed and started making her way down the bank to wait by the boats.

She looked out over the river to see the searchlights, brightening up the sky, the sight was almost peaceful reminding Flo of war-torn London and home however, she was brought out of her reverie when Martin gently pulled her along to the middle boat and almost pushed her in, making her glare at the man behind her, not that he could see her face.

Once all the men had boarded their boats, they started to pull the rope silently along the river, until Flo heard a splash, she sighed and looked back to see Garcia flailing about in the water while Cobb who it looked like had wrangled his way out of another mission tried to help him, to Flo the situation was quite comical and she had to stuff her hand in her mouth to stop the giggles starting to come out. She looked back again to see Jones wave his hand to keep moving forward 'like we weren't gonna do that already' she rolled her eyes while Martin nodded back to him.

Still staying silent, the boats arrived at the other side of the river, Flo quickly made her way up the bank and lay on her stomach next to Babe, her sharp green eyes watching for any sign of movement up ahead while they waited for Martin to cut the barbed wire. With the all-clear, the assault team started belly-crawling past the wire with bombs hanging over their heads, with Flo following at a close distance.

She crouched up against the wall next to Webster as he was also a translator she figured she had better stay close to him.

"Powers go, McClung go." she heard Martin say to the lads as they moved forward like cats, once the two had cleared the area, Martin moved up and whispered "In two's up", the first two made their way past Martin and then she and Webster headed up to take shelter behind a stone wall. Flo was hopeful that they would be able to grab and go since right now she was starting to feel the urge to cough, hopefully, the gunfire in a minute would give her the chance.

Once they were all together again, Martin stated whispering " Powers, Wynn, secure the left flank, Lt, take Grant and Heffron secure the perimeter and the crossroads. Clear?" Jones nodded slightly dazed and started to move off, while Flo stared after him praying he remembered his training and wouldn't freeze, her mind drifting back to Blithe 'bloody hell that was a while ago' she said having a conversation in her head, until Webster patted her leg and they were moving again, Flo held tighter to her med satchel as she stood in a crouch to run forward with them.

Moving carefullly, the group made their way to behind a staircase, noticing the movements of Martin she knew this was where they would try the snatch, she focused in on him preparing the firebomb to launch, he took a breath and fired it into the window, flinching when the glass broke Flo was late in her reactions to grab Jackson as he started going up the stairs before the bomb went off, she lunged forward to grab him but Web pulled her back and she watched in horror as Jackson flung a grenade into the window and started going towards the room.

"Jackson. Wait" Martin started saying in an urgent tone as he tried to get to him in time, "Jackson, wait please!" Flo said her voice going higher as he walked into the room and right into the grenade blast.

Flo broke free of Web's arms and ran up the stairs, immediately crouching down to Jackson and letting her boys come in and point their guns at the Germans.

Jackson was badly injured, Flo immediately got to work pouring sulpha on his face and throat which was where the blast seemed to have really hit him, but in all the confusion she started to get distracted as Web couldn't seem to make the Jerrys understand they were being taken prisoner, so while she worked on Jackson, placing bandages around his throat and on his face she had one ear on Webs conversation, but she could mainly just hear Ramirez and Martin shouting at them to keep quiet.

"Put your guns down"

"Keep those krauts quiet"

This was Flo's least favourite part of battle, of course, it was all horrible but she hated that she couldn't just focus on one thing at a time.

Suddenly she saw hands come to help her, she looked up quickly and seeing Vest she smiled at him before getting back to work. Vest suddenly started to freeze, she looked up at him and he looked pale and like he was about to throw up, Flo pushed him away saying "Help Martin and Web, I'll be fine", he nodded and went to help while Flo was left to pull Jackson up, one of his arms around her before looking and seeing Web, Martin and Ramirez taking a german each and splitting them up, but she was already out the door mostly carrying a weak Jackson as the others set up the explosion.

The machine guns had started on them as Flo moved as fast as she could back to the river, trying to keep to the shadows so she wasn't an easy target, suddenly she heard a huge blast, but she trusted her instincts and kept moving forward, as her boys started noticing her and started providing covering fire.

"Covering fire!" she could hear Martin calling out as she moved as fast as she could towards the boats.

"Everyone fall back now, let's go!" Martin was shouting, even though she had a head start some of the men started overtaking her, as she had another person's body weight entirely on her, luckily Ramirez came and threw Jackson over his shoulder like he weighed nothing, Flo then started running for her life.

The gunfire was coming thick and fast, she knew they needed to blow those whistles quickly as she had the boat in her sights, she felt a bullet land next to her feet and she started to weave so as to not make their target practice so easy.

"Fall back into the boats now!" Martin was screeching, 'why are some not running' Flo thought as the other side of the bank was all she could think of.

Suddenly a mound of dirt flew into her vision, "For fucks sake" she shouted as she realized they had started firing mortars, she kept running, what else could they do. As she was nearing the boats, one of the mortars landed near her, and Babe sending them both to the ground, as Webster lifted her to her feet and pushed her to keep running, although the buzzing in her ears was making the world slower.

"Go!" she heard Jones scream out though it came muffled, she didn't need telling twice, the confusion and almost panic that had spread throughout the patrol came into effect as they all almost hurtled into the water, only some actually making it into the boats. Thankfully, she heard the faint sound of the whistle as she lunged into a boat and the covering fire started raining on the germans.

Although now in the boats, Flo thought it would be safer, oh no, the mortars still landing around them, and in the panic, the boats were flip-flopping around with no control being taken to steer them safely to shore, Flo who was barely in the boat fell into the icy river, coming up to the surface and gasping she momentarily forgot how to use her arms as they seized up.

Another mortar landed in the water causing more panic to set into her system as she put her head underwater and placed her hands over her ears shaking her head as if to clear the buzzing and situation from her mind. Spending a minute underwater she came to the surface to slowly start swimming as she regained feeling in her muscles.

She could hear shouts of her name being echoed in her ears as someone pulled her from the water and dragged her up the bank, where she was immediately pushed underground where people were yelling at her to do something to someone but the cold and sounds were making her dizzy until someone slapped her....Suddenly things became clearer.

She focused on Jackson lying on the ground, she dropped to her knees and shouted "Someone call Doc Roe now!" as she started putting more bandages on his neck "Someone get me some more light" she called as she could tell he was struggling to breathe, she needed to check his airway...It was full of blood.

"We need to get him out of here," she said fear lacing her voice as the lads put him on a stretcher in all the arguments and confusion going on around her she moved through the crowd as Gene arrived and called for silence, the maturity sounding in his voice, "Wren?" was all he said as he assessed the man with his eyes, "Obstructed airway, lacerations to the face, going into panic," she said as she continued to move forward with him, while Gene agreed "Let's get him out of here", Spina was there to help but all Flo could hear was Jacksons repeated cry "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die".

Flo almost fell against the wall and sank down with her knees pulled up against her chest, as the stretcher stopped and Gene tried in vain to calm him "You're not gonna die, I need you to hang on" he said in his drawl she loved so much.

But then Jackson started gurgling blood, Flo turned her head as the water gathered in her eyes, he was choking and there was no way they could help him.

Gene sighed and took his helmet off, while Flo started playing with the clasp on her med satchel, while it was silent in the small basement outside was the sound of guns and mortars, but all the men inside could care about was their dead friend on a stretcher and the German prisoners looking on in what Flo could only describe as apprehension as Martin covered Jackson with a blanket.

Flo breathed heavily as all she could think was 'what a crappy night'.