* * *
The sixteen man column was once again back on the route to their bridge objective. Now with an extra two Americans in tow the group was slowed down by the additional stretcher on which the wounded Corporal Martinez lay. It had been forty five minutes since they’d left the woodland and they were nearly a third the way to their objective, the Orne River Bridge. Though they’d missed the first stage of the attack, there were only two options and both required their presence. First, if the British soldiers had already captured it then they would be needed to help with the defence of the bridge. The second scenario would be that they had somehow failed to take the bridge, if this was the case then Lieutenant Harvey and his men would have to capture the bridge themselves and hold it till relieved.
The terrain was flat and they were moving from one field to another. Behind them was the thick cover of yet another piece of woodland. There were narrow roads a short distance away but Sergeant Smith had advised keeping off them, especially after their first encounter with the mysterious German convoy. They were following the perimeter boundaries of the fields as the broken walls and fences provided handy cover if needed and also broke up their shapes as they moved in the open terrain. Off to their left flank was a thick wood that eventually reached a small village off into the distance. It looked like a road ran the other side of the wooded area, another reason to keep well away from it. Smith had made sure that the broken fence lay between them and the woodland, just in case.
Sergeant Smith and two of his corporals were at the front of the column, around a hundred yards ahead of the rest of the men. After coming across several unexpected surprises he was taking no chances. This position was commonly known as taking point and essentially put the three men in the most dangerous position if they came across trouble. The primary benefit was that the rest of the column would have time to respond. By keeping an experienced man like Smith at the front their chances of surprise were greatly reduced.
Lieutenant Harvey walked alongside the wounded American soldier, talking quietly and trying to learn more about the men that had attacked him. He was very concerned at the change in the man’s leg wound. The blood had congealed very quickly and was now starting to look like the kind of wound he would expect to find on a dead body. It simply didn’t make sense, unless the man had a serious case of gangrene, but so quickly!
“How are you feeling Corporal?” asked the Lieutenant whilst looking at the man’s leg.
Surprisingly the American soldier seemed more alert than he had been just a short time before.
“Actually, I’m feeling much better now, Sir,” he replied. “I can’t feel my leg, but the pain has gone and I‘m not as tired as before.”
“Can you move your foot?” asked Harvey.
“Yeah, I think so,” replied Martinez as he wiggled his toes. “Yeah, look!”
Incredibly the man’s foot was moving from side to side.
The group went silent, Harvey looked ahead to see the hand signal from Sergeant Smith. The group dropped to their knees, weapons ready, expecting to be attacked at any moment. Martinez, now on the ground where his stretcher had been lowered, lifted himself up to a sitting position so he could see what was happening. Nervous, probably from his previous encounter with his attackers, he reached for his weapon and checked it was loaded. On his lap sat his Colt 1911, he was taking no chances. He could hear the sound now; it was a number of people crashing through the distant woodland. The rest of the paratroopers now positioned themselves against the broken fence, pointing their weapons towards the tree line. A spine chilling scream echoed across the fields followed by shouts, it was a woman’s voice.
In the distance Sergeant Smith signalled, the order came down the column, they were to hold their fire. Harvey looked towards the trees, the shouting was louder now and he could just make out shadows moving at the base of the trees. Then he spotted them, two young girls, maybe teenagers, running for their lives. One of the privates stood up at seeing what was appeared not to be a problem. He was shouted at immediately by Captain Scott, “Get your head down boy!”
The two girls kept running, now well out of the woodland and making their way across the open field in the direction of the soldiers. Corporal Martinez whispered to the Lieutenant.
“What are they running from, Sir?”
The officer shrugged, he obviously had no idea and continued watching the drama unfold.
“No idea, we need to keep low and quiet though, we’re not in a position to get stuck in another fight, unless we have no other choice,” he said.
Without even checking the fence the girls dragged themselves up and over only to find waiting arms grabbing them and pulling them to safety. They started to scream but Captain Scott and Trent managed to cover their mouths, beckoning them to be quiet. The two girls, seeing the line of armed men struggled, having no idea which side the men were on, or even if they were there to help or attack them.
The American captain intervened.
“Bonjour, mon nom est Capitaine Scott de la 101e Division Airborne.”
The girls looked confused, they were obviously in shock.
Captain Scott continued, “Je suis un soldat américain. Nous ne vous blessera pas.”
One of the girls relaxed a little, “My name is Madeleine and this is Adrienne,” she shook his hand. “You’re an American? Your French is very good!” she smiled.
Before anybody could say anything else they were interrupted by the men shouting, Scott looked back to see a large group of men shambling across the field towards them.
Scott turned to the girl, “Are these people chasing you?”
“Yes,” Adrienne answered indignantly, “one of them was trying to bite us.”
Lieutenant Harvey crawled over, he looked at the girls, then to the Captain.
“Are they being chased?”
Scott nodded, he pointed to the girl with the bite marks.
“Look, she’s been bitten as well, what’s going on?”
“Those soldiers attacked our friends. We were trying to get away when Madeleine was bitten, but she was lucky it was only scratches and we managed to get away,” replied Adrienne.
As the officers talked the strange group of people continued their slow progress. They were either still following the girls or they had spotted the soldiers because they were heading right for them. The distance was a good hundred yards and they would take a short while longer to reach them.
Private Wilks called out, “Behind us!”
The men quickly checked the space behind them only to spot more of these people. This second group was much larger. Sergeant Smith had made his way back to the group and consulted with the officers.
“I don’t like this, I think these guys must be drugged or something…”
Chard interrupted, “More like pissed, Sarge!”
The Sergeant looked at him, his expression said enough to make Chard return to watching the group. Smith continued.
“Either way we can’t go back and this other group from the woods is heading this way.”
Captain Scott spoke to the French girl again.
“Why are these people chasing you?” The girl shrugged.
“I don’t know, they were trying to eat us though!” she answered in a panic.
The conversation was stopped by howling and wailing, the same sound they had heard back at the landing zone.
Smith called out to the officers, “Sounds like the same ones we heard back at the convoy.”