The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

91: A Lid Hat for A Crown

Hitler had shot himself in Berlin, and Easy Company was moving out of Thalham to a Nazi town named Berchtesgaden.

Charlie was not sad to leave Thalham behind. So many dark corners concealing so many haunted faces from everyone, it seemed, except her.

On the journey to Berchtesgaden, however, everything was all sunlight.

They had left Thalham that morning and travelled for six hours, and though it was mid-afternoon by now the sun was just as bright and hot beating down on them as it had been at noon.

A long line of trucks was parked along a road that curled up and around the mountain leading to the town of Berchtesgaden, and currently they were locked out. When the Nazis left it seemed they had expected Allied forces to want to get in, and so they'd left behind a huge pile of boulders and whatever else they could find as something of a housewarming gift. Just in case entering might have been considered too easy for them.

"If they don't hurry up we're gonna have to find Autumn some shade," Mabs said, lying back on one of the benches in the nurses' truck and sunbathing. It was the first time any of them had spoken in about forty-five minutes. "She's gonna bake out here," Mabs explained. "Must suck to be a ginger."

"I probably do need to get my scar out of the sun," Autumn conceded, too hot to even protest Mabs' teasing. "It burns easier than the rest of me."

Mabs snorted. "And that's sayin' somethin'."

"I'll go see what's happening," Charlie declared, pushing herself up from the floor between the truck benches where she'd been sitting with Autumn. Boo was mirroring Mabs' stance and lying back on the other bench, sunbathing while they didn't have any other duties to attend to, while Henry had told them she would be getting information when she'd left a while ago. She hadn't come back since, and Charlie knew for a fact she hadn't gotten any information; she'd gotten distracted talking to Don.

Charlie crawled down the centre of the truck and swung her legs over the edge before hopping down. She left her helmet and her bags behind her and longed to change into something airier - she was sweating beneath her fatigues - but pushed the thought from her mind. Her eyes were squinted against the sunlight, her mouth dry as she picked her way through the many soldiers sitting or lying on the ground and up to Floyd.

"Do you know how much longer we're going to be out here?" Charlie asked, using her hand as a visor to keep the sun out of her eyes. "The gingers among us will probably start to burn soon."

Floyd cracked a smile at this. "Well, the engineers were supposed to be here a half hour ago, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic."

Charlie sighed dramatically and threw her head back, even knowing it would only make her feel hotter, and shut her eyes against the sunshine. "I'm so bored," she complained, smiling when he laughed.

Another loud bang rang out, similar to the hundreds she must have heard over the course of the past three quarters of an hour as the men with bazookas and mortars attempted to break the barrier themselves.

"What do you want me to do about it, huh?" Floyd asked when the noise had ceased once more.

Charlie tipped her head back down to look at him and stamped her foot into the ground. "I don't know!" she exclaimed. "Entertain me!"

He grinned. "Is that why you keep me around?" he wondered. "For your own entertainment?"

She shrugged. "Among other things."

"Like..?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she replied coyly.

"Aw, Freckles, don't be that way," he teased.