The Way Back

- 13 -

Lia woke to the sun just beginning to set. A soft orange glow casting its way through the trees. A peaceful setting reminding her of home. Her head lolled to the side, coming face to face with a man clad in a German uniform. 

She panicked, pushing herself back away from the blank stare of the man. His hand still lay clasped to his throat with dried blood seeping through his fingers. 

The shooting pain from her leg drew Lia back to her senses. The fight, the death, the mission. Shifty. She needed to find Shifty. 

Lia forced herself to stand. Her body screamed at her, sending pain echoing beneath her skin and within her bones. It told her to drop back down and give up, but she knew what had to be done. Get Shifty Powers to safety. He had to be alive. 

She stumbled through the trees, a small trail of blood following her as she went. The leaves crunched below her feet disturbed the forest around her. 

An hour passed. Lia didn't know how far she had gone, or if she had even gone far at all. The trees began to blend in as one. Had she been here before? 

Shifty. 

She needed to find him. Where was he?

"Where am I?" She wondered out loud. She didn't know where she was anymore, only the direction she came from. She saw green, a lot of green. And red. So much red. 

"Stop!" A voice called out from in front of her. Fear was laced behind the voice of the caller. She halted in place and her vision grew blurred as she sought the sound of the voice. 

Finally her eyes focused. A man sat against a tree just a few feet away from her. A rifle in hand pointed directly at her along with a large mass of blood around his right side. Lia's eyes slowly moved across the American uniform and up to his face. 

All Lia wanted to do was cry out in relief. She wanted to drop to her knees and scream out to God in thanks. 

"Shifty?" Her voice was strained. 

The man stared for a moment. "Jesus, Lieutenant Creed is that really you?" 

"It's me, it's me." She slowly dragged herself over to the soldier she had been through hell for, and fell down against the tree beside him. 

"What the hell happened to you, Lieutenant?" His face was pulled into one of sheer worry. Lia knew she looked, for lack of better words, like shit.

"I've had a hell of a time trying to find you." Her voice was quiet, she was falling too weak. 

Shifty grew confused. "Find me? Where's everyone else? Why aren't they with you?" 

"Some of the boys from Easy and I got separated in the blasts. Spent the night out here to heal up. I sent them back to battalion when I heard you were still out here." She forced a small smile. "Think I'd leave you behind?"

Shifty let out a pained laugh. "Was starting to feel that way, Lieutenant."

Lia pushed herself up, glancing over at his wounds. His leg was a torn up mess. There was no way he was walking the entire way back to battalion. She would have to carry him. 

"Well, let's get you back, yeah?"

"That sounds pretty nice right about now, ma'am." 

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Lia had begun to lose her senses as her and Shifty made their way back to battalion. Her body ached from carrying the solider on her back, his weight pressing down onto her wounds.