“Let us live, for we must die”

Band of Brothers

Gory, Gory. - War is a tragic thing. It doesn't care who you are; war will come for you. Those who are caught in its fiery claws never come out the same. Little girls are turned into nurses. Boys become soldiers.

But Josephine Sutton didn't want to pick up a scalpel and bandages.

And after the war personally punches Josephine in the gut, she decides a nursing position was never all that appealing to her anyway.

She'd much prefer to put bullets into the heads of the assholes that started this whole thing.

Gory, gory. What a helluva way to die.

Eugene Roe x Fem!OC

Six months in Toccoa could change anyone. 

It changed boys into men. 

Cowardice into bravery. 

A girl into a soldier. 

Josephine had gotten used to lying in bed at night, thinking about how six months ago she was so sure she was as strong as she'd ever be. How foolish to think that those twig arms and weak legs would carry her through any war. 

Maybe in another six months she would feel the same way. 

Maybe this was just another frail version of herself that would need to change. 

Toccoa was always changing; you had to learn to adapt or die quietly. 

Currahee got easier each run, and thanks to Sobel they never stopped running it. Fewer and fewer men came down in heaps of sweat and burning feet. Forms stayed straight, breaths stayed even, muscles grew to support the strenuous days. 

Eventually, boys ran up Currahee and never came back down; it was only the men of Easy Company now. 

"Alright, listen up!" A nameless officer stood at the front of Easy Company, who had just finished their morning run of Currahee not twenty minutes before. "Today we've got the gauntlet! Take a good look at this field because you're gonna get real familiar with it for the next few months." 

It was a cold January morning; Josephine stood clenching and unclenching her fists repeatedly in hopes of getting them warmer. Before her, a field of dead grass and wooden obstacles beckoned to her with a sharp cut of the wind.

The last six months had only been 'conditioning', as the other lieutenants called it. Now the real training began. 

"You'll break up into groups of four!" The officer's voice carried, reaching even to the back of the large group of men. "The training objective is to get through the obstacles as fast as possible with all members of your group!"

Heads nodded, eyes flittered around, already making mental notes of their team. 

Josephine caught Liebgott's gaze just a few men ahead of her; a sharp nod from him, and the decision for the team was already made for her. 

"Leave one man behind, and you all fail! Then you start over." The officer interrupted their small mental conversation. "You will do it again until you get it right. In the field, we don't leave men to die; we must be prepared to fight harder!" 

Another nail in the coffin of reality: hundreds of men risking themselves daily in the face of death.

Tangled limbs left on a battlefield. They'll never be recovered. Forever missing in action, forever on foreign land.

More telegraphs. More sobbing mothers and cold houses with a fire lit in the hearth. 

How many more Josephines? Siblings, marching off into war prepared to die just like those before them. 

The younger kids always did look up to the older ones.

These thoughts plagued Josephine as she walked towards the field. They always had occupied her mind, but with each stretch of a day, they were closer to becoming reality. No more worrying about what's to come; it would soon be standing on the doorstep. This field, these obstacles were just the first step to letting it into the house.

"Come on, wake up, Sutton," Lieb sent a small slap to her arm, regaining her focus as they looked at the challenge laid out before them. To her left stood Bull and Luz, eyes squinting as they stared down 'the gauntlet'. 

The gauntlet itself consisted of a sequence of mostly wooden obstacles. Some looked relatively easy, a few uneven beams to crawl over or duck under being at the start of the field, closest to the group of boys.

Farther down, large walls stood taunting the group of four. The first one was smaller, maybe ten feet up, the surface smooth and slick with no rope and almost no footholds. The second one loomed past, even taller than the one before it, although three ropes hung off the top as a consolation. 

"Well, at least we got a giant on our team," Luz cracked a smile, head turning to the three soldiers standing next to him. "We can just have Bull throw us over those walls." 

"Y'know, Luz? I gotta better idea. Why don't you just carry me through the whole thing instead?" Bull suggested flat-faced. "Currahee has got my legs a little sore." 

"Oh yeah, sure, Randleman, hop on." Luz squatted down exaggeratedly infront of the curly-headed man, eyes rolling in feigned annoyance. 

A thundering boom sounded off to the left; a lieutenant stood holding a rifle in the air with steady hands. Beady eyes skittered across the entire company, his gaze leaving a burning trail on whoever it touched. 

"Stop wasting my time, Easy Company! Move!"

Within the next breath, dozens of feet were pounding into the earth, racing to be first. 

Luz and Liebgott made it to the beams, throwing their lean bodies over the pole. Josepine followed instantly, Bull being the last one to make it over. 

The soft ground below her feet gave way; she sank. 

Mud. 

Cleverly hidden by a makeshift pit that sat an inch lower than the rest of the ground. 

The field was nothing but interchangeable colors of brown, with the wooden obstacles and splintering dead grass. The mud hid perfectly in it. Luring the boys through a false sense of security, only to slap them all with the brutal truth. 

You can't even trust the ground you run on. 

Moisture seeped into Josephine's boots immediately, burning her already sore feet with a biting freeze. The ankle-deep mud created a powerful suction when she tried to move, her muscles screaming as she pushed to run forward to the next beam. 

"You've got to be shittin' me," Liebgott gritted through clenched teeth as he fought the newly exposed ground. 

Easy Company wasn't pushing to reach the end of the course first anymore; they were pushing to stay upright with each step. Mud lathered across the beams, turning the obstacles that mere moments ago had been considered 'easy' into a nightmare. 

No friction met Josephine's hand as she crawled over the last pole, her body slipping while the mud below waited. 

A burly hand curled around the back of her collar, stopping her from hitting the pool of thick grime just in time. 

"Stay on your feet, Sutton," Randleman softly scolded with a grin. 

"Can't you see I'm tryin' Bull?" Josephine shot back as they lugged to the next obstacle. It seemed with each segment of the gauntlet, the course got harder, and the mud got thicker. What was once a thin layer had turned into an entire casing around her body. 

Josephine strained to bend her knees and elbows, trying to stay ahead of the sun as it raced to rapidly dry out the mud that coated her. The boys struggled to do the same, vigorously rubbing at their clothes between obstacles, searching for some kind of relief. 

The course held all the worst kind of components to race through in the middle of winter. 

Georgia humidity and biting winds. 

Obstacles that Josephine was sure only Satan himself could come up with. 

Bird-sized mosquitoes that somehow always survived the freeze, ones that Liebgott was currently fighting desperately in an attempt to retain some of his blood. 

And all the stupid fuckin mud. 

By the time Josephine had reached the fifth obstacle, she had stopped trying to wipe the brown sludge from her eyes. She had been covered from head to toe in no time after falling into the pits closer to the beginning of the course. 

Before her, a woven rope net hovered about a foot off the ground, held up by small posts that traveled down the length of it. Beneath that, more mud sat tuanting her. Yet, the thing that truly caught her attention, the amount of bloody innards that decorated the ground under the net. 

"Holy shit, is that guts?" Luz whined as all four group members stood at the beginning of the netting, not quite brave enough to go in. 

"Pig guts," Josephine's eyes trailed over the bloody pit. "Heard the officers talkin' about getting some from the cooks this morning, didn't realize this is what they'd do with it."

"Sittin' here talkin' about it ain't gonna bring them back to life. Let's go," Liebgott ushered the three soldiers in front of him. 

The cold settled and made itself at home in Josephine's bones as she lowered herself onto her stomach to start crawling. The mud became suffocatingly dense, the freezing air making the smell thick enough to choke on. Entrails crowded her each time she pulled her body forward, the bloody pieces sliding their way over her head and along her back. 

In front of her, Liebgott pushed through the pit, determination fueling every kickback of his muscles as he tore through the mud. 

Behind her, she could only hear Luz and Bull following, leaving much to the imagination. Bull cussed at Luz, urging him to move faster so the giant of a man could hold his head straight again after having to keep it bent for so long to not get caught in the net. Luz complained with every inch he crawled; disgust danced through his lips as he continued to dodge piles of intestines. 

Liebgott was already out and rubbing blood and mud from his eyes when Josephine made it to the lip of the pit that signaled her escape. A familiar hand reached under the net before she could hoist herself up, and dragged her out the rest of the way. Once Liebgott was sure she was out and steady on her feet, he ducked back down for the other two. 

"Last one," Randleman encouraged, his head nodding towards the final obstacles, which consisted of the two walls that Josephine had been eyeing from the beginning. 

"We'll be one of the first ones done," Luz smiled, his head wiping around to count the other teams. 

"Just means we won't have to do it again," Josephine mumbled, her focus staying on the strain and pull in her arms as she stared at the looming walls. 

"Who knows, maybe we get sent to lunch early if we don't mess up," George's eyes lit up, the thought of food making his mouth salivate in anticipation. 

"Doubt it, Luz; don't get your hopes up," Liebgott warned as he made the first step towards the new challenge. "I'm sure they want to starve you specifically, as long as you stay lookin' like a little girl, the more we can use you as bait for the Germans."

"Grow your hair out a little, Lieb, and you'd be there right next to me." Luz shot back.

Liebgott remained quiet, moving with such established efficiency as he worked to throw himself over the first wall. George knelt on one knee, offering his presence in the equation to help immediately.

Josephine went up next, using Luz's leg as a step up and grabbing Liebgott's hand, who kept himself lying out on top of the wall, to sling her body over the barrier.

George came over the top of the wooden obstacle next, copying Liebgott and positioning his body halfway over the wall. Their hands reached down together to hoist Bull up. Josephine shimmed her shoulders under both men's boots, giving them the chance to push against her as they pulled Bull over. 

The treads of their boots bit into her shoulders as all four soldiers strained until Randleman was able to find a grip at the top of the wall and make it the rest of the way on his own. Thuds echoed on the ground next to her as the boys joined Josephine on the other side. 

The last wall towered over the four of them, the wood laughing at the wanna-be trainees as it shifted and creaked. Three thick ropes swayed, their weight knocking against the wall like a bell in a boxing match, setting off the final round. 

"Up the ropes as fast as you can," Josephine turned her head to look at the boys on her left. "Be first, fight your way to the front if you have to." 

Three stern nods were all she received as acknowledgement before they were off. 

It seemed only four other groups of soldiers had made it to the last wall before them. Lips curled back in anger as insults spat from the men's mouths, the ropes being tugged between the group of them. 

Bull reached the ropes first, the other three slowing their pace as he paved a path with each tossed body of a fellow Easy Company soldier. He hit the middle rope in record time, startling the men around and sending them stumbling as Bull began his climb. 

Luz and Liebgott broke off to the left as Josephine zeroed in on the rope to the right. 

Bull's chain reaction from muscling his way to the wall continued to work to Josephine's advantage as she came to the small group crowding around her rope. A man she didn't recognize fell, narrowly missing Bull's foot as he shimmed his way up. The fall had him twisting over his own feet, knocking into a blonde man close by who turned and pushed the unstable soldier in retaliation. The blonde's elbow came back in an attempt to steady, ramming into the face of his teammate who had just grabbed hold of the rope. 

Josephine's feet sped up, dropping her shoulder low when she reached mere feet from the wall. She slammed into the blonde man the second his back was fully facing her, sending him crashing into his teammate, who finally released his grip on the rope with the final blow. 

In one fluid motion, Josphine gripped the rough woven lifeline, kicking off the wall as she threw herself farther up, high enough that the other men couldn't pull her back down. Her arms burned wth each pull, muscles straining to climb as the shouts of angry soldiers chased her from the ground. 

The wall had unknowingly been serving as a cover; the wind whipping over the top and searing a freezing pain in everything it touched. Josephone's hands cowered as she brushed them across the frigid metal bearing that held the ropes up, frantically searching for a hold at the top that wouldn't carve away at her already numb skin. 

As she pulled herself over, her eyes raked across her teammates as they already worked towards their descent. Bull was all but sliding down the rope, letting himself fall a few feet at a time before tightening his grip to catch himself. Luz and Liebgott worked with and simultaneously against each other as they went down together. The rope flailed with their movement; both men struggled to get a decent grip until Liebgott exasperatingly called out to Luz before he let himself drop the last few feet. 

Josephine kicked against the wall, feeding the rope through her hands with each rushed push back. By the time she reached the bottom, her hands were red and angry, and her feet tingled with the feeling of the ground beneath them. 

A set of rough hands latched themselves to her shoulders, forcing her attention on a very elated Luz. 

"We're the first ones, Sutton! We did it; we get lunch first!" 

Sure enough, no other soldiers stood in front of Josephine except the ones in her group. The rest of the men grunted their complaints behind her as they worked their way down the wall. 

"Hell yeah, Luz," Josephine panted, the air scratching her throat with each pass. 

"Again, Easy Company!" The lieutenant from the starting line paced a hole into the ground just a few feet away. 

"Sir, we have all of our group. We finished first." Liebgott stepped forward, arguing their case. 

"I didn't ask if you finished first, dwidledee; I told you to go again!" 

...

In the end, the four soldiers and the rest of Easy Company had to drag themselves through the gauntlet two more times before the Lieutenant deemed their suffering enough and dismissed them to lunch. 

As a reward, Easy Company was so graciously given a stale ham-and-cheese sandwich and leftover gray porridge from breakfast. 

Each recruit licked their trays clean within minutes. 

Josephine had just barely swallowed the last bite of her food when Sobel crashed into the chow hall, his voice echoing throughout the large building. 

"Move, Easy Company! To the shooting range now!"

Sore feet rose from the benches and started the trek to once again carry themselves to the next 'training phase'. 

The wind had died down only moments before, agreeing to a short moment of ceasefire in favor of watching recruits clumsily fiddle with a rifle they had never held before. 

The shooting range itself was nothing more than another semi-empty field. Metal targets sat at all different distances, the easier ones staying on level ground and not further back than 80 yards. Past that, they got smaller, going from outlines of men to small round plates that dotted across the hill they shot towards. 

Rifles and a single box of ammo were pushed into each awaiting hand; the voices around her became muffled the second the gun was passed to Josephine. 

A familiar weight it brought as it settled in her hands, calling to her with each side it turned to as Sutton examined it closely. 

The world stilled; suddenly she was six years old again, sliding back the bolt of her father's rifle for the first time as he found different knots in the trees for her to aim at. 

She was twelve, shaking in the forest behind her home as her father pointed to the first buck of the season. His hand dug into her shoulder as he whispered the importance of her pulling the trigger. 

"We need to eat, Josephine. If you bring nothing back, then we all go hungry."

Now she was nineteen, standing in a shooting box with a dozen other men, staring down at her beacon of home. 

Her hands moved with practiced weight, sliding her ammo into the gun's feed. Following the instructions from the lieutenant, careful not to outpace the men in line beside her, Josephine lifted the rifle, pushing it into the soft pit of her shoulder. 

"One at a time, right after another!"

The first man in line was Perconte; he scrambled to bring his rifle up in the directed position before slowly flicking the safety off. His pointer finger hesitated over the trigger, his breathing shallow as he struggled to line up his sights with the closest target. 

He squeezed the trigger; a loud crack filled the air. 

Dirt flew up beside the target. 

"That's sad, Perconte," the lieutenant shook his head as the dirt settled. "Next."

One by one, the men shot at the targets before them. Some pulled the trigger to hear a sharp 'ping' afterwards, relief seeping from them as they realized they had successfully hit one of the metal plates. 

Most just kicked up dust when they missed.

To the left of Josephine, Guarnere had just fired his rifle at a target close to ninety yards out. The plate rattled as his bullet just barely grazed the side, leaving the lieutenant to shake his head as another small dirt cloud appeared. 

"That ain't gonna cut it, Guarnere." He jutted his chin towards Josephine. "You're up, Sutton." 

Jo nodded, pulling the weight of the rifle off its resting place by her leg. Her hot cheek seared into the frigid gun as she lined her sights up, searching through her options for a target. Farther back, at the base of the hill, was the metal silhouette of a man. 

Carefully, she evened out her breaths, counting her heartbeats had become nothing short of instinctual after the many years of her father hammering the lesson into her. Her iron sights stilled at the center of the target's head, her trigger finger slowly dragging down from the side of her rifle to curl around the trigger. 

Inhale. 

Exhale.

A small shift of her hand sent the barrel of the gun down; she fired. 

A soft 'ping' rang out, and a new dent appeared on the target's left shoulder. 

"Congratulations, Sutton, you've given that German a new scar." The Lieutenant grumbled, already walking to stand behind Liebgott, who was next in line. "Too bad the objective was to kill him."

Easy Company had gone through dozens of boxes of ammo by the time the Lieutenant had to 'step away and take care of some business.' 

"Keep shooting, you all need more practice, or the Germans'll slaughter you out there." 

Josephine's rifle was no longer cold; an almost comforting warmth came from the weapon, either from Josephine's own body heat or from the fire that had consistently been shooting from the barrel. Each time her mind drifted, her group of dents on the targets circled closer together as muscle memory took over before she could throw her shot off a few inches. Her last bullet hit the left side of the silhouette head, three inches from the center. 

"Damn Sutton, you're lookin' almost as good as Shifty." Luz hovered over her shoulder, having long since put his rifle down after it had created a sore spot on his shoulder. 

Down the line, Shifty Powers hunched over the cut-out ledge of the building wall, his shoulders loose and his breath steady as he sent one bullet after another into the center circle of the targets. 

Josephine shook her head, ready to shrug off the comment when Liebgott seemingly materialized beside her.

"Are you kiddin' Luz? Almost as good? Sutton is better than Shifty." His chest puffed out at the claim, pointing out towards one of her recent targets with five dents lined next to each other about a quarter-inch apart through the center two circles.

She was sure no one was looking when she had pulled that trick out, curious to see if she could still pass a small test her father would make her do before hunting. 

Unfortunately, she was learning that Joseph Liebgott was always watching everything. 

"That's big talk, Lieb," Guarnere sneered behind Luz, pushing his way to stand infront of Joseph and Josephine. 

"Just an honest fact." Liebgott shrugged. 

"Put your money where your mouth is then." Bill turned his head to the field, eyes dancing between the targets. "I got two packs of cigs that say Shifty can wipe the floor with Sutton."

Finally, Shifty's head popped out from the crowd, his rifle hanging in his hand with the bolt locked back, showcasing a clear chamber. His cheeks seemed painted red from the cold, and his unoccupied hand fiddled with two loose bullets that clinked every time he twisted and turned them. 

"C'mon guys, ain't no reason to start a bet." His voice called out, but was covered by Bill's loud protest.

"There is always a reason to start a bet." He grinned at Liebgott as he slid two cartons of cigarettes from his pocket, wiggling them in the air. "Unless you know you're gonna' lose."

"Shit, I'll take this action." Toye stepped forward from the group, throwing down two more cartons on the ledge in front of the range. The whole company watched as he made his way to stand beside Shifty Powers. "No hard feelings, Jo, but no one shoots like Powers."

As if an imaginary bell had rang to signal them to start, men made their way to the front to pay their way into the bet. Cigarette cartons piled on top of each other; every time Josephine was sure it was done growing, more would be added to it. 

Within a minute, almost the entire company, excluding the men who didn't smoke, had paid and made their choice. 

Bull stood beside Shifty, along with Webster, Penkala, and Hoobler. 

Luz bumped shoulders with Josephine, behind them Skip Muck, Perconte, and Talbert. 

Shifty slowly shook his head before easing the two bullets he had been fiddling with back into the chamber, leisurely making his way to the ledge to set up for a shot. 

Josephine swung around to Liebgott, who was still busy glaring at Guarnere over the top of her head. Her hand swatted at his shoulder to regain his attention so she could properly scold him. 

"What the hell, Liebgott. What's with you and getting me into problems I gotta fix by myself?" 

"It's a bet, Sutton, you ain't gotta fix anything; you just gotta win." He turned to stare out onto the range at the targets she had been firing at mere moments ago. "And if you'll quit with that shit you do to make your shots look bad, you will win." 

Josephine's cheeks burned with anger as she stared at the man before her. Being called out on her cover-up had effectively silenced her as she shouldered past Liebgott to copy Shifty and ready herself to shoot. 

Powers glanced over while she settled by the ledge, popping bullets into the chamber out of habit as she closed her eyes to even her breathing and focus her mind. 

"Hey, I know neither one of us cared for a bet," Shifty offered his hand over to set in between the two of them. "May the best shot win."

A grin crept its way onto Josephine's face at the irony before her. Two people who never wanted a bet, becoming the center of one. Her palm clapped into his and her muscles loosened as they shook hands, a small laugh escaping her as the boys discussed the rules behind them. 

"Okay, rules are simple. First round, you gotta shoot three targets in the center circle; after that, we'll make each round harder until everyone agrees we have a winner." Luz popped his head in the middle of the two competitors, his face full of excitement. "We'll pick the targets for you."

Shifty looked back to Josephine, one eyebrow raised in question as if to ask, 'Are we really doing this?' Jo cracked a small smile as she rolled her eyes exasperatedly. 

"Sure, Luz, sounds good. Her eyes raked across the field at the dozens of targets before them. A familiar tinge of adrenaline buzzed through her veins no matter how badly she urged it to calm at something as simple as a company bet. 

"Which targets are first?"

Luz pointed out three human silhouettes for the first round, his body vibrating with anticipation. This was the first bet that the other boys had allowed him in on since he admitted how bad he was with money. 

Shifty narrowed his eyes; his back tightened as he pushed the rifle into the soft spot of his shoulder. The barrel of his gun stayed steady while he calmly scoped out the targets. 

Moments before, a kind man had stood in front of Josephine and shaken her hand. Now, as she watched Powers' pointer finger dance along the edge of the trigger, she wondered if he was still there. 

If silhouette targets made him vanish, would a dead German kill him?

The first crack of thunder poured from the rifle's barrel; a dent in the first metal target forced its way through, demanding to be seen. 

Luz stood at the front of the group that hung back behind the two sharpshooters, a pair of binoculars pressed so tightly to his face that they left indentation marks. 

A second blow came from Shifty; more ringing filled the air. 

A small shift of the rifle; Josephine could hear his rough hands scrape along the gun. 

A third bullet casing launched itself out of the chamber with another deafening boom. 

Three targets, three headshots. 

No words of encouragement or congratulations spilled from the mouths of the company men behind them. They only watched on in awe as Shifty backed away from the ledge and Josephine rose to take his spot. 

Once again, her cold rifle seared on her hot cheek when she lifted the gun to look down the sights. The first target came into view just as a voice finally wedged its way through the silence in the form of a whisper.

"He's just some guy; he's never hunted something alive and real like Shifty has."

Inhale. 

The world shifted around her, morphing and melting into the familiar woods behind her house. The metal target that once sat before her contorted, bending and breaking until rich brown fur shone against the sun and deep soulful eyes seared into her mind.

Her first buck stood only seventy yards away, huffing a quick breath of air through its nose to send a short grunt at her. 

Iron sights instinctually lined up behind the deer's shoulder, her mind blank and focused as Josephine tightened her trigger finger. 

Exhale. 

The metal silhouette reappeared the second the bullet made contact. 

A new dent stamped in the center circle of the head. 

Inhale. 

Green canvas cloth wrapped its way around the shoulder of the target, silver metal skin stretched as it turned pale and flush. A small German flag sat on the left shoulder of a boy no older than eighteen, his eyes pleading with unshed tears as he stared at Josephine. 

Exhale. 

Her pointer finger slammed on the trigger, and the boy's head snapped back. Just as his knees bent to drop his leg fused together into a steel pole, his body returned to the same old metal target. 

A dent in the center circle of the head. 

If Josephine stared too hard, she could almost see blood running down the target. 

Her eyes fled to the next silhouette. 

Inhale. 

The target once again began to shift. Light brown hair started to extend from the top; the face shifted into a suffocatingly recognizable one. A face she saw in the mirror in the morning. 

Josephine squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the image to abandon her. 

Exhale. 

She slammed her eyes open, pulling the trigger as soon as she had the metal in her sights. 

Headshot. 

...

A box of ammo later, and Shifty Powers and Josephine Sutton were locked into the world's most frustrating tie. 

The sun was retreating behind the back hill; in thirty minutes, they would lose any shooting light they had left. 

Powers and Sutton leaned back against the ledge of the building as the Easy Company boys argued amongst themselves. 

The boys had gone through great lengths to test the two sharpshooters' skills. They had switched from shooting close targets to far targets, random old cans to rocks that Luz would set out. 

It always ended in a tie. 

Every miss from Josephine was later made up for after a mistake from Shifty; they both swooped in when the other slipped up. 

Nagging voices from the group in front of her fueled the fire to a raging headache Josephine nursed; her eyes had eased shut minutes ago to dull the pain.

"Hm, looks like the animals are comin' out for the night," Shifty hummed lowly from beside her.

Josephine peeled her eyes open, turning slightly to watch a tall, hunched figure make small hops across the hill behind them before finding a patch of grass to stop and eat. 

"What is that?" Luz whispered, once again having found a way to creep himself in between the middle of Josephine and Shifty. 

"Hare."

"A rabbit."

Powers' eyes shot to Josephine, a small laugh slipping its way past his lips. 

"Jo, that's a rabbit.

"That's a hare, Shifty." Josephine quipped back at him, glancing back to watch the animal who had yet to move from its eating spot. 

Tall ears, limbs long enough to make you uncomfortable- yes, it was a hare. 

"For such a good shot you really oughta' get your eyes checked, Sutton. That there is a rabbit." Shifty grinned, his arms folding against each other as he stood on his claim.

"For such an experienced hunter, you really oughta' know your animals better, Powers." Josephine huffed out a small laugh as she pushed back on the banter, unfortunately gaining the attention of the other company men. 

"Aren't they the same thing?" Liebgott questioned as he finally stepped away from his argument with Guarnere over the bet. 

"No." 

Josphine and Shifty simultaneously answered hard and fast, no room for any rebuttal. 

"Okay, new rule! Whoever guesses the animal right is the one who wins." Guarnere called out, pushing his way to the front as he squinted his eyes at the hill. 

Immediately, a wave of protests and agreements crashed over him. No one could agree on something that would have them walking away with a few months' worth of cigarettes in their pockets. Although all the men were itching to leave the cold outside air and make their way to the chow hall to recieve their final meal of the day. 

"What the hell is this! I leave my company for thirty minutes, and you regress to bickering little girls?"

Sobel stood at the back of the open building, his presence and yelling effectively silencing the entire group. 

Bodies jumped, backs straightened, and chests puffed out in a large synchronized wave. Hands slapped to foreheads, stiff salutes offered as Sobel crept his way through the group of men.

"Would someone like to explain to me why Easy Company is once again arguing amongst themselves?" 

"We were just having a bet, sir," Toye answers first, his voice becoming as robotic as possible when talking to the insufferable Captain before him.

"A bet over what?"

Multiple responses come flying through the crowd at once, none as eager to talk to Sobel as they were to take their share of cigarettes. 

"The best shot!"

"The animal on the hill!"

Voices became washed away, drowning each other out in a constant battle to be heard first. Josephine and Shifty watched from their spot by the ledge, keeping their eyes glued to Sobel as he took in the information the company boys kept throwing at him. 

The Captain's eyes darted around, a deep fire stoked behind them, looking for the next person he could burn. He stopped once he found the two sharpshooters, rifles still pushed into their sides as if the weapon had become an extra limb for both recruits. 

"Sutton. Powers. Which one of you won?" Sobel marched over to them, his face already scrunching up in disgust the closer he got, over the abundance of cigarettes that were now in his view, or just the hate for Easy Company, Josephine wasn't sure. 

"Neither sir; it was a tie." Shifty retorted, slowly drawing a hidden bullet from his back pocket, sending it dancing through his fingers that he strategically kept from view as the Captain stared him down.

"And what's the tie-breaker?" 

Josephine pushed every ounce of self-control she had through her body to refrain from shaking her head at the stupidity of the situation. Twenty minutes left of daylight, her stomach cramped with a pain, and her hands had gone numb hours ago. Yet, here she still stood, allowing the frigid winds to ravish her exposed skin, all for a bet made by Easy Company. 

"There's an animal on the hill, sir." Josephine gritted a tone of obedience through her teeth. She watched as Sobel's eyes drifted behind her, locking onto the hunched figure that she assumed was still casually eating at the only food it could find during the cold months. "Powers believes it's a rabbit; I believe it's a hare."

"And how does this conclude a bet over who the better shot is?" The Captain huffed, constantly shifting his weight from one foot to the other in a state of annoyance. 

Both Shifty and Josephine's eyebrows furrowed as they cast a quick glance at the other. 

"I'm not sure, sir." Shifty finally answered for both of them. 

"And you're both confident in your answers?" Sobel grinned as both recruits before him nodded.

"Then shoot it." 

A few seconds passed before anyone responded to the Captain's remark, Josephine's brain lagging at the thought of putting the animal down. 

Killing wild game wasn't new to her; it never had been. Hunting had been a part of her life before she knew there was a name for it. Her blood flowed with those she had taken from this world, a sacrifice they made so her family could see another day. 

The animals she took were treated with the utmost respect. 

 Hunting was beautiful; it was survival. 

This was a call for an unnecessary death. 

With hot food waiting only on the other side of camp, what good would it do to kill a hare? 

It would feed no one. Its body would lie and rot; soldiers would complain about the removal of its carcass once it started to stink around the camp. The hare would be wasted, tossed to the side for the point of a meaningless bet started by the very people it had avoided all day as it tucked away in its burrow. 

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't shoot animals I don't plan to eat." Josephine squared her shoulders as Sobel's heated inferno pierced into her, fueled by her refusal. 

"No worries, Sutton, I understand," He nodded gently at her. "That animal is now the only supper you'll receive tonight; shoot it or go hungry."

Josephine's hand curled around her gun, the metal biting into her skin as if to keep her grounded from the superior's antagonizing. He wouldn't stop, as long as he could push the motive of finishing the bet, he would. 

"Sir, Powers is right. The animal is a rabbit." The forfeit felt heavy as it slipped off of her tongue. Shifty fought for a second of notice beside her, his eyes tight with confusion. 

"Is that all it takes?" The Captain chuckled in front of her, slowly stalking his way towards her as a cruel smirk grew from the corners of his mouth. "A little bit of confrontation? I ask you to get your hands dirty, and you bail on your morals?" 

"No, sir-"

"How will you fight in the field, Sutton?" Sobel was screaming now, his face red with anger. "How is your company supposed to trust someone who would abandon them the second he is asked to do something he 'doesn't wanna'?" 

"I will defend my company!" Josephine's skin started to build heat at the comments her superior so carelessly threw her way. The boiling pressure climbed its way from the center of her chest up the back of her neck; her palm squeezed so hard around her rifle she was sure a droplet or two of blood had slid down her finger onto the dirt below. 

"Then act like it!" Sobel dramatically turned towards the company that still stood stiff behind him, his arms thrown around to emphasize the anger rolling off of him. "Shit, you're supposed to be the dependable one, Sutton."

He turned his head, looking over his heaving shoulder to glare once more. 

"You wouldn't fight for anyone."

It would have been easier to breathe if Sobel had slammed her face first into a brick wall.

Wouldn't fight?

Wouldn't fight?

The piss poor man who danced with rage for attention in front of her had no idea who she'd fight for. 

Nicholas. 

Sam. 

Her rifle lifted from the ground, red blood already painting down the side. Hers would be the first to stain it, and she would be the first to use this rifle to make such a stain. 

Joseph. 

George.

The butt of the gun slammed into her shoulder as she turned on her heel, swinging the weapon up to hunt the hill. 

Ma. 

Pa. 

A hundred and fifty yards away, the hare lifted its head, ears twitching as its silhouette blurred around the edges while the day faded into dusk. 

Inhale. 

The hare turned towards Josephine, eyes looking through her as her finger greeted the trigger like an old friend. 

Exhale. 

Her iron sights stilled between its eyes. 

A deafening bang exploded from the rifle, the force of the shot kicking back into her already sore shoulder to claw a wince out of her. 

Slowly, Josephine lowered the rifle to lean against the ledge of the training building. The cold metal left her hand for the first time in hours as she turned to meet the stunned face of her superior. 

"Permission to retrieve the animal, sir?" The last word spat from her mouth with such disdain that she was surprised Sobel didn't flinch back. 

"Yes-yes, go get it." 

The sun had disappeared completely by the time she had reached the hare's body. The force of the bullet had flung its body further back, the small patch of green that it had been eating from now bathed in red that had spilt from the animal's mouth. 

She had been right, a victory she could not take joy in. 

The walk back was made a few pounds heavier as the hare swung from her right hand. Its body hung limp as she walked, bending unnaturally with every jerking step Josephine made. Eyes followed her every move. Easy Company watched silently, huddled in the small building.

They parted for her as she stepped through the doorless entry, just a cut-out part of the wall to make it easy for people to access the range. A path formed in front of her, leading directly to the front of a waiting Sobel, who had yet to move since she had asked for permission to leave the building. 

The hare landed with a thud in front of the Captain, dust kicking up around it as Sobel glanced down, confusion still painting his features. 

Shifty cracked a small smile behind her as he spoke up. 

Josephine knew training would be difficult; she was prepared. 

Jo was not. 

It was laughable, truly. Jo looked like a scrawny boy compared to the other men who showed up to Camp Toccoa.

It's not like she was a particularly petite girl. Josephine had broad shoulders that filled out as she got older and started helping with heavy lifting around the farm. Her arms and legs had muscles spanning over the length of them, a courtesy of all the more work she was left to do after her brothers shipped off and her father grew old and brittle. 

And yet, at Toccoa? She was still considered weak. 

The boys were stronger than she was without even trying. They were faster, with just a casual length of their stride; they left her behind. 

Sobel never let Jo forget it. 

"Let's go, Toothpick!" The Captain's face flushed red with his screaming. "You waitin' for the wind to blow and carry you to the top?"

"No, sir!" Jo's legs burned with effort, pushing to make it to the top of that stupid mountain. 

"Then why are you back here by yourself? Are you trying to cheat your way out of the run, soldier?" 

Jo's eyes darted forward; the rest of Easy Company was ahead of her by at least fifty yards. Sobel had to have backtracked just to come yell insults in her face.  

It was a hot and humid July day, something a lot of the boys weren't familiar with just yet. The ever-dense air of Georgia had tried on multiple occasions to strangle many of the men who had not grown up in an environment such as this one. Three weeks in Toccoa, and most of them still had yet to adapt. 

Farther up the trail, she could spot Liebgott, a man she met on the first day, seeing as their bunks were right next to each other, letting his head swing forward as he ran. Drool was hanging out of his mouth, nothing left in his stomach to puke up.  

Others in the company copied him, the humidity seemingly sucking the energy right out of them. 

That might be the one advantage that God had graced her with; Josephine grew up in heat like this. It would take a lot worse to get her drooling like a dog.

"No, sir!" Jo called back to the angry man who still trotted alongside her. 

"Then move faster, Sutton! I will not have a weak link in my company!" 

"Yes, sir!"

Sobel huffed like her answer barely satisfied him before picking up his pace to harass one of the runners farther up the group, surely. 

It was only Tuesday, and this was the fifth time that Easy Company had been pushed to run up Currahee. It slowly shifted from a cruel punishment that their Captain took pride in to just a part of the trainees' daily routine. 

Wake up. 

Currahee. 

Breakfast. 

Currahee. 

Inspections. 

Currahee. 

The first time the company was sent up that wretched mountain, not a one of them came back down without a trail of puke running down their shirts. At least now that number goes down with each agonizing trip. 

Easy Company was almost to the top of the mountain now, the incline becoming even steeper, and Jo's thighs burned with a rebuttal. Every run-up, she stayed closer and closer to the group of boys. Although she was always the last to reach the top, she was getting better. 

The run-down, back to camp, was a different story. Where the men consistently beat Josephine in speed and strength, Jo flourished with endurance. 

They could run faster, but she could go longer. 

By the time they had all turned around to run back to ground level, most of the boys were exhausted, fighting with every step to keep going. Their bulky frames have to lean far back so as not to topple over while running downhill. 

Jo's strides were light compared to their thundering ones; her footsteps floated with balance and certainty. Typically, Josephine would pass most of the slower boys on the way down, the faster ones too far out for her to catch. Still landing in the back half of the group by the time she got to the bottom of the mountain, but it was better than being last. 

Coming up on her right was a larger-than-life man that she had come to know as Bull Randleman. His shoulders were so broad that they touched both sides of the doorframe when he first walked into the barracks. Josephine had to crane her head upwards to look him in the eyes when he talked. 

"Come on, Bull, almost done," Jo called out, short words of encouragement as she came to settle in a run beside the towering man. 

"Yeah, sure, Sutton." Randleman choked out a strangled laugh. "Running ain't nothin' for you. You're like a, y'know, like a rabbit or somethin'." His breath rasped with each word, his footsteps shaking the ground beside Jo. 

"I'm like a," The large man paused for a moment, to catch his breath or to think, Josephine wasn't sure. "Well, shit, I guess I'm like a bull." 

Jo tried to laugh in return, although she's sure it sounded more like a sad cry for help. 

"You ever been chased by a bull?" The disguised woman recalled hearing the man say he had also grown up on a farm. 

Randleman only shook his head, "Nah, we ran more goats out on my family's land than cattle."

"Well, I have been, trust me, those fuckers ain't slow."

The duo wheezed as they tried not to fall over from the combined effort of laughing and running the small death sentence that they had reluctantly started to get used to.

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it." Bull rasped out as their laughter died off. 

Jo's eyes scanned the others running in front of her, landing on Luz and Toye as the latter seemed to be almost dragging the former to keep him moving. She let her strides lengthen back out and turned to Bull to offer a goodbye. 

"Don't be last."

"I ain't that slow," the large man cracked a grin as the woman left his side to run ahead of him. 

Josephine had met George Luz and Joe Toye at the very beginning of boot camp. It was hard not to notice the duo when they fought for three days over who got the top bed on the bunk they shared. 

Eventually, the woman became well acquainted with them when the two boys recruited her to help in taking the bunk bed apart so they 'wouldn't have anything to fight over anymore'. Needless to say, the beds were separated for a measly few hours before Sobel found out and demanded that everyone involved be punished. 

Shockingly to Josephine, neither boy mentioned her aid in the dismantling, and when their weekend passes were revoked and punishments were dished out, Jo walked away scot-free. 

"Luz! You doin' ok?"

George Luz looked seconds away from stopping and hurling in a nearby bush; his legs shook like jello, the white workout top he wore was completely soaked through with sweat. 

He opened his mouth before quickly slamming it back shut, instead lifting a sad 'thumbs down' to answer. 

Toye rolled his eyes at the gesture as he shifted his hand under Luz's arm to keep the shaking man from falling over. 

"He ate all of his breakfast this morning, and all of Hoobler's." The taller man explained, "Lord knows what possessed him to do something like that."

George's head snapped to the side, "They gave us pancakes, Joe! I'm not wasting perfectly good pancakes!" The passion for the sweet breakfast food seemed to be enough to have the sick man forget about his earlier nausea in return for arguing his side. 

"Well, we wouldn't be in this situation if you could control yourself around anything remotely sweet, Luz!" 

The two fell into a routine pattern of back-and-forth bickering, both still clinging to each other to keep the shorter man on his feet. 

"Y'all need any help?" Josephine offered, as soon as there was breathing room to shove a few words in between the two men. Both of them just dismissively shook their heads as they focused back on insulting the other. 

Nodding, more so to herself than anyone else, Jo focused her sights back ahead. The bottom of the mountain was finally coming into view, a beacon of hope for the screaming muscles in the woman's legs. 

Glancing around at the men running by her, Josephine realized she would finish with the middle half of the company. As sloped land gradually turned flat, Jo slinked her way into the center of the company, avoiding the ever-harsh glare of the Captain, who was already waiting at the bottom of the trail. 

"Move, Easy Company! Move!" his voice rang out over the loud gasps of men fighting for air as they slowed to the end of the run. "All the way to the chow hall! Do not stop running, Easy!"

A collective groan surfaced through the company as speed was picked back up, and across the camp they headed. 

...

"I have never in my life met someone with such a big stick that far up their ass." 

Bill Guarnere huffed as he slammed his lunch tray down on the clean wooden table and dramatically slid into his seat. 

The cafeteria was buzzing with noise all around, bodies pushed close to one another in hopes of everyone finding a spot to eat their poor excuse of a meal. One stuffy building trying its hardest not to explode at the seams as three different companies filed in for dinner. 

"Careful, Bill, he might hear you." Liebgott rolled his eyes, finding a spot at the table next to Josephine, who had been one of the first to sit down. 

"Like I care," Bill quipped back, "What's he gonna do? My weekend pass is already gone, and I know Currahee so well at this point I might as well marry that damn mountain."

"Resorting to marrying mountains already, Guarnere? I didn't realize the girls hated you that much." Skip Muck had barely sat down next to Bill before he was forced to dodge a fork the angry man sent swinging his way. 

Guarnere's lips snarled back, ready to defend his skills with 'swooning the women' when a cheerful-looking Luz slid into the seat next to him on his right. George's plate was stacked to the brim with the stew and stale bread that was being served today, his struggle with running earlier already forgotten in the face of food. 

"Never mind that, why'd your weekend pass get revoked?" Luz questioned with halfway muffled words as he tried to talk and shove a piece of bread into his mouth simultaneously. "I thought you passed inspections?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Luz. Did your mother teach you nothing?" Bill made a show of scooting further from the man, bumping into Muck, who was laughing at the coughing sounds now coming from George as his cheeks expanded to fit the amount of bread he was packing into them. "It wasn't inspections anyway, according to our dear Captain Sobel, I was late to breakfast yesterday."

"Well, were you?" Joe Toye made himself known as he set his tray down on the table, claiming the seat next to Sutton. 

"I was right behind you guys!" Guarnere slumped his shoulders as he started to pick at the oddly grayish food that adorned his lunch tray.

"So, you were late." Josephine quipped out, tearing the old roll of bread on her plate in half as she searched for a softer piece to bite into. Bill's eyes shot up, and a single finger came to point threateningly at Jo's face, or as threateningly as the shorter man could manage. 

"Watch it, Sutton, you don't have a weekend pass either." 

It was true, Jo didn't have a weekend pass. In fact, she hadn't had a weekend pass her entire time at Toccoa. Every week, for one reason or another, Captain Sobel would revoke it. This week, Sobel had decided her running form was 'not good enough for Easy Company.' And she would have her weekend pass revoked until she learned to run like a proper Easy Company soldier. 

Josephine had already come to terms with the fact that she would never get her weekend pass back. 

"Sure don't," Jo shrugged at the accusation, "And I probably won't have one next week, too." 

"Wait, wait, who here does have their weekend pass?" Luz spoke up, finally having choked down all the bread he collected. 

No hands were raised at his question. 

"Y'know, I got this theory," Muck started from the other end of the table. "Sobel doesn't get laid, and he's so miserable that he can't stand the thought of any of us gettin' laid, and so he takes away our passes so we can't even meet any broads." 

"That's not called a theory, Muck, that's called a fact." Toye deadpans at the man seated in front of him. Skip's arms fell dramatically to his sides from where they were held up in a flaunting manner. 

"Was tryin' to give the man a little grace." Muck rolled his eyes in defeat. 

The table drifted into buzzing conversations, flipping from one topic to the next every few seconds. Jo jumped in, offering her two cents occasionally, although she spent much more time observing. 

These would be the men she would go to war with if she stayed hidden that long. Josephine wanted to know everything she could about them. One day, they might not be here to remind her of themselves, of their individuality. How they smiled or talked could be forgotten if she wasn't the one to commit it to memory. 

Liebgott held and ate with his fork in his left hand, even though he was right-handed.

Skip was the only one at the table who would cross his legs, and every five minutes, he would switch which leg was on top. 

Toye fiddled with the buttons on his pants too much; the thin string holding them on was already threatening to break. 

Luz leaned close towards the person he was talking to, even if that meant leaning halfway across the table. 

"Hey Joe!" George called out, torso pressed over the edge of the table.

Three heads simultaneously spun his way, waiting for him to finish. 

"Whoa! That was kinda creepy." George stared back, "We can't have 3 Joe's in the same company! Everyone is gonna get confused."

Lieb rolled his eyes. "I think we'll manage."

"No, seriously," Luz pushed on, "What if we are under fire and someone calls Joe, and then all three of your heads pop up like little goffers. You'll be easy pickin's!"

"Well, maybe they should be more specific; we do all have last names you could call us by." Toye shrugs, "You know, like the military wants." 

"Yeah, and the military tells me this one's name is Guarnere," George jabs his thumbs at Bill, who raises an eyebrow in suspicion. "But I've been callin' him Gonorrhea and the dumbass answers." Luz laughs, bringing his arms up to defend himself as Bill reaches over to deliver a hard slap to the back of his head.  

"I ain't ever answered to that shit."

George turned quick; a smart rebuttal sat pretty on the tip of his tongue, ready to fire at the shorter man next to him. Before a single word could slip out, a loud chime filled the air, soldiers instinctively stood to start filing out of the building.

"I got dibs on one of the first showers," Lieb called out, eyes raking across the group for anyone who opposed. 

"Lord knows you need it," Josephine mumbled from behind him, shoulders raising in a shrug when the man turned to glare at her. 

"I don't need no lip from you, Sutton."

...

The barracks wasn't a room Josephine would consider small. Plain white walls painted a dull background for the multitude of bunk beds that had been shoved as close together as they would fit, while still leaving thin walkways for the boys to shuffle around. A small wooden table sat in the center of the room, supposedly there for officers to sit when addressing the soldiers, but it had seen more use for gambling games late at night. 

Not a small room by any means. 

Although Josephine swore it shrunk every time another person walked through the door. Shrunk so small that the air turned hot with the mingled breaths, shoulders stopped brushing and started pushing past each other. 

Night only fuelled the chaos, boys rushing past each other in a race to get to the showers first. The barracks themselves only had one bathroom, a cramped space that held three stalls with toilets. 

To shower, you had to go three buildings down to a communal bathroom. Light blue tile covered the inside from ceiling to floor. A set of grey lockers sat at the front by the sinks and mirrors, filled with dry clothes for the boys to change into. Further down, shower heads lined along the walls, ten on each side. 

No stalls, no curtains. Just a thin cover of steam and an unspoken rule to keep your eyes above waistline. 

For obvious reasons, Josephine waited to shower.

Always the last to wash the day off. Not only stalling until everyone was done, but until most had already gone to sleep. Jo took no chances. 

Waiting so long had its consequences, of course, as did everything else. While officers had so graciously decided to gift the company with seven hours of sleep, Jo survived on four. 

Josephine had never slept well anyway, even before boot camp; she would stay up late with the owls and be up early for the farm animals in the morning. 

Granted, she wasn't training for a war then, but everything always catches up eventually. Exhaustion had a special way of clawing out from behind her eyes, forcing itself to be acknowledged. 

"Said I need to shower, but you're the one makin' the whole barracks smell." Lieb teased, throwing his used towel on the top bunk while he stood over Jo's form, seated on the floor. Water droplets landed on the back of Josephine's neck, antagonizing her wait.

"I think you've got it organized, Sutton. Shit, it would pass Sobel's inspections. Go take a shower." Liebgott's eyes followed the controlled chaos of his bunk mate's footlocker. Her hands meticulously finding the perfect spot for each item. 

"Gotta finish this, then I'll go," Josephine promised. 

"All the hot water'll be gone by then, don't say I didn't warn ya." Jo huffed, hoisting himself up onto the top bunk to drift to sleep. 

Every night, Josephine would completely take apart her foot locker. Refolding all her clothes and organizing everything so it looked exactly as it did when she took it apart. 

The boys called her a neat freak. 

She called it stalling. 

"Y'know, I think you've got something wrong up here," Jo's head popped out from his bunk to look down, pointed finger tapping into his temple. "Like a missin' screw or somethin'" 

"Who knows, Lieb, maybe." Sutton half-heartedly answered, her hands busy pressing out the wrinkles in her third white shirt. Not fully white, a small grass stain stubbornly stared at her from the bottom hem. No matter how hard she had scrubbed, it refused to budge. 

Third shirt in the lineup, third best shirt overall. 

"I got a cousin like this, sat and redid my ma's whole bookshelf one time just for the hell of it. Had everything in alphabetical order." Jo continued on, his eyebrows furrowing at the careful way his bunk mate laid her shirts in the locker. 

"Sounds cool, maybe I should meet him." 

Liebgott rolled his eyes, huffing as he laid back down and stopped staring at the mess around his bunk. "Hell no, y'all shouldn't meet, I can only handle one weirdo at a time." 

Josephine finally pulled her eyes from the task before her, leaning back to try and catch a glimpse of the man she had started to consider a friend. "Is this you tellin' me I'm the only weirdo you'll tolerate?" 

Jo's head whipped to the side to see a smirk gracing Sutton's face. 

"No, I just said I'll only deal with one." 

"But if you had to choose?" Josephine's grin grew wider. 

"Shut up and go take a shower. You stink." Liebgott mumbled after a few seconds of silence, shifting around under his blankets until his back was facing Josephine. 

"I'll take it as a compliment." She laughed, her eyes cut to the door as two more of easy company walked through after finishing their showers. 

One would think that sneaking out of a building crawling with military personnel would be a particularly hard thing. 

Well, it wasn't 

Jo had done it twice now. 

A major problem with sneaking into the military as a woman, apart from the obvious, was that Josephine was limited to a single nurse for the physical inspections. One nurse, who had a 3-hour shift and only one specific line that led the disguised woman to her. 

The first attempt, Jo had been guided into the wrong line, and didn't notice until she was almost to the front, and got a glimpse of an unfamiliar nurse. The second time, she had been pushed to the back and never made it to her turn before her inside helper's volunteer shift ended. 

Thankfully, she had managed to slip out of the building after both of the failures by simply masking her face in disappointment. No one questioned her sad eyes as they stayed glued to the floor in a shameful bow. All of their pitiful expressions held the same nerve-wracking prayer. 

I hope I don't fail my inspection. 

I hope I'm not sent home like him. 

But the third time's the charm. And after having to wait a month for her friend to get another shift for the physical inspections, Josephine was itching to get it done with. 

"Next!" a voice called out from behind a white sheet, temporarily set up to create a makeshift room. The man infront of Jo moved quickly, disappearing behind the 'wall' for his turn. 

It was a particularly busy day at the aid station, bodies buzzing and squirming past each other to get from point A to B. Documents getting passed from hand to hand, big bold letters stamped at the top of each one in bright red ink. 

'A' you pass, 'F' you fail. 

'Just like school,' Jo thought bitterly.

Getting so caught up in watching the graded papers, the disguised woman almost missed the familiar voice filling the air again with another loud "Next!"

The boy from before came practically barreling out from the temporary room, his smile bright and fresh as he jogged past Josephine to meet with a small group of boys that seemed to be similar in age. They all patted each other on the back, their faces matching in glee as they held up some familiar papers to their friends' faces, multiple large red A's grinned right back at them. 

Jo's feet moved her before her mind did, leading her behind the clipped-up white sheet and into the forgotten presence of a friend she had not seen in years. 

Her blonde hair was styled the same as it always had been, a short, wavy bob curled at the ends to make it seem fuller. Her usual headband peeked out from underneath the issued nurse's hat that she wore. Her feet planted into the ground, and the white skirt twirled around her knees as she turned to look at Jo, her smile as bright and carefree as ever. 

"Well, if it isn't Josephine Sutton- or I guess you're goin by Jo now?" Her smile stretched even farther as the blonde greeted her friend, quickly lowering her voice to a softer tone once she realized she had said the disguised woman's full name out loud. 

"Yeah, that's right. It's been a while, Katherine. How are you?" Josephine smiled back as she stepped towards her old friend and handed out the papers she was directed to bring to the nurse who would conduct her physical. 

Katherine Green moved with grace and glee as she grabbed the papers, her eyes flitting over the few boxes of information that the brunette had filled out. 

"I'm good, it sure has been a while. Since sophomore year of high school, I think." The blonde nurse picked up her own pen as she glanced back up at Jo. "How are you? How are your parents? Oh my goodness, do they know you're here?" Kat dramatically threw her hand over her heart at the question. 

Glad to see she hasn't changed at all.

"I'm good, and so is everyone back home." Josephine tried not to think about how that only included her parents now. It was a good thing to see an old friend; she didn't want to dampen the moment with the news of her brother's death. "They know I'm doing this...I left a note before I came here." The brunette sheepishly admitted. 

"A note- I- Well, goodness gracious, Josephine, your mama probably has a dozen cold sores now from all that stress." Kat stuttered before finally laughing, rolling up the medical papers, and smacking her friend on the shoulder with them in an attempt to scold her. 

Jo did nothing but chuckle and follow the nurse as she directed her to stand on a scale. 

Sitting here now felt weird, listening to the girl who only months ago had been the center of so many grief-driven questions. It had been years since the girls had truly spoken face to face, after the only child had picked up and moved halfway across the state of Georgia. 

They had never been extremely close in school, only enough that they could talk in between classes without any awkward pauses. 

Kat probably thought she was crazy for this. 

She probably sneered when Josephine's first letter came in the mail, asking for her help. 

The short-haired girl couldn't help it anymore. With so many unanswered questions, she needed to know the truth about something, anything. It burned her bones and the muscles underneath; she needed it, one of her 'unknowns' answered to quell the fire in her, if even only for a slight moment. 

"How was your Christmas, Katherine?"

The nurse's face lit up at the question, a large grin painting itself onto her face as she leaned back against the examination table. 

"Oh, it was just wonderful," Katherine clapped her hands together with excitement. "You know, I have been wantin' these new heels I saw in a catalogue book and a new shade of lipstick, and mother got both for me! Isn't that wonderful?" 

Josephine smiled softly at her friend's enthusiasm. 

One question answered out of the millions. 

She'll take it. 

"How was yours?" The blonde's voice rang out as she picked her pen back up to continue filling in the different boxes. 

How was her Christmas? 

Well, considering that only a few days before she was dealt the news of her brothers' deaths...not 'wonderful'.  

It had been unlike any Christmas that Josephine had experienced before. 

She sat in the living room with her mother and father, like any other holiday morning. The Bible lay open in front of them. Although this time there was no one reading verses, no one singing hymns, no one laughing. All three of them sat in the freezing house; the isolated flames licking at the sides of the chimney held no warmth. 

"Good... it was good," Jo replied with a tight smile. 

Katherine didn't notice it. 

"Well, now I feel so silly," Kat ushered the other woman to sit down as she strapped a blood pressure sleeve to her arm. "Here I am talkin' about my new heels, and you're gettin' ready to go fight on a battlefield." 

Josephine's eye flickered to the pressure gauge, watching as the needle bounced between the labeled numbers. 

"Well, that's only if I actually make it through everything first." Jo sighed as the needle came to a rest and the value on the cuff was released. "I still have to go through training." 

"You'll make it, I know you will." Katherine's voice held such certainty; her eyes gleamed with the same reassurance. 

"How can you be so sure?" she chuckled lightly, once again offering her arm up as the nurse grabbed a syringe filled with what Josephine could only assume was the Flu vaccine. 

"Because," Katherine paused, her face freezing in thought. "Because I've never seen anyone look at the world like you do." 

"And how do I look at the world?" Jo didn't look as the hollow needle slid into the skin of her arm. 

The blonde didn't answer for a few moments, instead carefully pulling the syringe away and putting pressure on the now tiny drop of blood that leaked onto Josephine's skin. 

"Like you can change it." 

The short-haired woman just softly shook her head as she reached over and took the small square of gauze from Katherine's pristine hands, pressing it to her own arm. The familiar nurse said nothing as she retreated to the government-issued paper to write down another checkmark, another step closer to sending her old friend out to a war. 

"I'm not trying to change the world, Kat. I'm just trying to fight in this stupid war-"

"You know, I think you are the bravest person I've ever met." 

Katherine's voice held no room for an argument as she turned to look at the girl she had once grown up with. 

Josephine started to shake her head anyway. 

"A brave person who can't take a damn compliment." The blonde interrupted before Jo could object. Her finger, now hanging in the air, pointed scoldingly at the brunette. 

Both of the girls laugh at the attempt before Katherine goes to shuffle around the room some more, pulling out different things from each drawer she passes. 

"I remember in the second grade, when one of those big ol' snakes came up outta' the pond by Mrs. Glibon's classroom." Kat reminisced as she sat back down on the examination table beside Josephine. 

"Class had just been let out, so everyone was outside, and as soon as we saw that snake, we all just took off runnin'" the blonde girl laughed at the memory as she swung her feet back and forth over the ground. "Everyone except you." 

Josephine could still remember that day clearly. She had just taken a snake identification book home from the classroom two days before and was beyond excited to see if she could tell which species it was. 

"You went over to that snake and snatched it up off the ground like it owed you money." For good measure, Kat animatedly made a 'grabbing' motion with her hand, one that Jo was sure didn't actually look like what she had done that day. In truth, the young girl had only picked up the snake so that she could show her brothers and possibly impress the older boys. 

"Not scared at all over a snake that could've been a rattlesnake or somethin'." A small shudder climbed over Katherine's shoulders, as if even the thought of holding such a creature could result in her getting bitten. 

"It wasn't a rattlesnake, it was a yellow-bellied water snake-" Josephine started. It was a memorable snake anyhow, its underside being the brightest color of yellow she had laid her eyes on. 

"Doesn't matter." Kat cut her off. "It was still a snake, and you weren't scared at all." 

"Yeah, well, a war and a snake ain't the same thing." The disguised woman looked down at her hands resting in her lap. What was she getting herself into? Could these hands really kill someone? Or would someone else get to her first? Would their fingers cool the inferno raging beneath her skin as they curled around her throat?

Part of her hoped so; she was so tired of the heat. 

"I'm scared, Kat."

The blonde sat next to her in silence as agonizing seconds ticked past. Impatient feet shuffled just on the other side of the curtain, waiting to be called forward so they, too, could go fight a bloody war. 

"You know, my daddy always says the bravest people are the ones who are scared and do it anyway." Katherine's voice was calm and steady, her left hand slipping over to send a comforting squeeze to Jo before she hopped off the examination table. 

When she turned around to face the soon-to-be-soldier, she had pride etched into her smile. 

"You'll go down as the bravest in my book, Josephine Sutton." 

"Thank you, Katherine." Josephine slipped down off the table herself. "For everything." 

With a shaking force, the nurse grabbed Jo up in her arms, wrapping them around the woman as if she were trying to squeeze all her worries out. The dark-haired woman stood there frozen before hugging the old friend with equal ferocity. 

"And hey, if you ever need someone to write letters to, you know where I am." Kat laughed as she pulled back from the hug, turning around to fill out the last few boxes left empty on the documents. 

"Careful now, I start doin' that, and the guys might think I have someone special waitin' for me." 

"Oh!" Katherine turned towards Jo with a flirty smile, smoothing over her lips. "Which reminds me, if you get out on the line with any cuties, give 'em my mailin' address." 

Josephine's hand slaps over her own mouth in an attempt to hide the giggles that burst through her at the woman's words. The blonde nurse was no better as she bit her lip, trying to contain her laughter while maintaining a serious, sultry look. 

"I'll make sure to hand it out," Jon promised. 

Her gaze flicked to the paper that would lead her to the next step in her plan. All the lines and boxes had been filled in with the same dull and meticulous black ink. The only thing missing being the large red 'A' across the front. 

Katherine followed her gaze before sighing. "Well, I guess this is goodbye then, Jo. Good luck." Her fingers wrapped slowly around the large handle of the ink-stained stamp. 

"Goodbye, Kat, stay safe." 

The thud of the 'A' being marked onto the paper echoed into Josephine's ears. She was a step closer, already past the point of no return, past the point anyone thought she would've been able to reach. 

Katherine's petite hands slid the documents over to Jo, a tradeoff between two women who chose to spend their time defending their country, different fronts but similar sacrifices. 

"You too." 

And with those final words, Josephine was walking away, her feet carrying her as if she were on autopilot. Katherine Green would be the last familiar face she would see until the war was over or until her secret was found and she was prosecuted. 

Thinking back on it, maybe Josephine wasn't scared of the dark; maybe she was scared of the unknown that followed it. A childish fear that she admittedly still carried. Yet, here she was, rushing into the biggest unknown she had ever faced. 

It didn't look like darkness; it looked like scrawny teenagers standing in lines with driven determination carved into their faces. All of them were eager to fight in a war that would kill the majority of them and cripple the rest. 

So eager for blood, but they would cry at the sight of their own. 

Maybe they had reasons like Jo, maybe they had already been hurt, and were ready to return the favor. Maybe it was just blind patriotism. 

Either way, they would all walk out with the large red stamp of approval that Jo now clutched in her hand. Would they die like her, too? Or would she live like them?

How many of them grew up with brothers? How many had the war already taken from them? How many had spent their young days holding yellow-bellied snakes?

If they knew that the snake would eventually turn into a military-issued rifle, would they have ever put the snake down? 

Or were the snake and the rifle always the same thing in the end? 

Josephine guessed not. 

What's it like to not have siblings? 

How does one grow up in a house with no one else to grow up beside them? 

Josephine Sutton grew up in a loud house, the good kind of loud. The kind of loud that let you know it wasn't just a building being occupied, but a home that had enough joy residing inside its walls that there was a reason to be loud. 

Growing up in rural Georgia meant growing up with miles and miles of wild land, land her two older brothers, Sam and Nicholas, made sure she became familiar with. Josephine wasn't stupid; she knew that the land wasn't wild anymore. Somewhere, there was a person who owned the fields her brothers and she stomped around in. She liked to think of him as a tall man in a big fancy suit, the kind of man who had so much money he would forget he owned this land and never come back for it. Then Josephine, Sam, and Nicholas would be free to run through the wide pastures and the arching trees every day. 

But she wasn't stupid enough to believe that either. 

Growing up in rural Georgia also meant the Suttons were poor. More often than not, the siblings would crowd around the dinner table, watching as their mother tried desperately to stretch a single can of green beans out between the three of them. Yes, the Suttons were poor in financial terms, never having a dime to trade or a full meal to eat. But they were a very rich family in every other sense. 

Josephine's mother would smile at her and humor the young girl with old stories. Her father was always eager to teach his children a new skill. There were trees to climb and creeks to cross and a bed to come home to at the end of every day. 

And Josephine had her brothers. 

Oh, where would she be without her dear brothers? 

On her tenth birthday, Josephine's father presented her with the best present she had ever received. Her very own room. 

Their home was small, and the young, bright-eyed girl had shared a room with her brothers since she was born. So for two years, her father spent all his free time building her very own. 

They couldn't afford to buy lumber or even the nails to hold it together. Her father spent months cutting down, shaping, and sanding the slabs of wood that would be the walls to her new bedroom. He collected nails that he found on the ground or pulled out of old, useless projects. Josephine's mother spent weeks decorating it. Repurposing old furniture and sewing together bed sheets with scrap fabric. 

It was the best bedroom the young girl had ever laid her eyes on, crying tears of joy when she first truly saw it. 

Unfortunately, young Josephine had some stupid, stupid fears. Fears like the dark and the boogeyman. Fears she never had to confront by herself before. 

Her new room had no windows, not like her old one, where moonlight would spill in and light up any dark corners. And she was alone, alone and scared. The ten-year-old couldn't help but cry the first night she had to sleep in the room by herself. 

Maybe they heard her, or maybe they could just feel her discomfort through the house, but it wasn't long before her two older brothers were easing their way into the dark room. 

Neither of them said anything as Sam slipped into the bed with Josephine and Nicholas laid on the ground next to her, since the bed was too small to fit all three of them. Nick had reached up to grab her hand, squeezing it carefully every time his little sister even sniffled. Sam laid behind her, softly rubbing her back until she drifted off into a dreamless sleep. 

The boys didn't bring light into the room. The corners were still pitch black, and Josephine's fears still lurked in the darkest parts of them. But they did bring warmth; they laid with her while she cried and offered no words, nothing but their presence. 

And for the Sutton girl, that was enough. 

Sometimes she wondered if they had done it for her just as much as they had done it for themselves. 

When Josephine was young and stupid, as there seems to be a recurring trend with that theme, she had wished she were born an only child. She can recall sitting next to a little blonde girl named Katherine Green in her first year of school; she also recalled that Katherine had no siblings.

The youngest Sutton had been so envious of the girl that she was sure she had spent most of that year sporting a light shade of green on her skin. 

She had always wondered what it would be like to not have to share anything, to actually recieve gifts on holidays and not a sad smile because her parents didn't have enough to get all the children something. That's how it always went; Josephine's mother had always stood on the firm rule that if she could not get all of her babies a gift, then none of them would get one. Most Christmases for the Suttons were spent in their small living room, an open bible between the five of them as they read verses and sang old hymns that her parents had been taught when they were young. 

Josephine was sure that little Katherine Green spent her Christmas opening a plethora of gifts. 

Although that might also have to do with the fact that the Green family actually had money, but what five-year-old wants to hear that excuse?

Now, at eighteen years old, the Sutton girl could only feel pity for the blonde she used to know. Mountains of questions continued to flood her mind. 

What would it have been like to grow up with no brothers? 

What would it be like to get so many gifts and yet have no one to play with them? 

Was Katherine scared of anything?

What did she do when her room got too dark?

Did she run to her parents? Or did she cry all through the night?

Neither option sounded as good as having two older brothers. 

Could Katherine Green even miss something she never had?

It's okay, Josephine missed it enough for the both of them. 

She wasn't scared of the dark anymore, nor the boogeyman; those naive fears had melted away with her younger years. Now she was scared of mailmen with tears in their eyes and telegrams that started with the words 'I regret to inform you'. 

Sam and Nick had signed up for the Navy together, and right before they had left home, the youngest Sutton sibling had made them promise to look out for each other. They had both grinned and joked that they would take care of the other just like they were used to taking care of her. 

Josephine sometimes wondered which one of her brothers died first in the Pearl Harbor attack. 

Did the other see? 

Was it Nick? Did he feel at fault for not protecting his little brother just like he said he always would? 

Was it Sam? Did he start to panic when he realized he would be lost without his other half? 

So many questions. Maybe it was the grief, maybe the grief was making her ask all these impossible questions. Surely it was the grief that had filled her with such insufferable rage. Rage that left a flaming pit in her chest, that she was willing to use against anyone. 

Angry with her brothers for joining the Navy in the first place. 

Angry with her parents for letting them go. 

Angry at herself for not doing something useful. 

But mostly, she was angry at all the bastards who started this stupid fucking war. 

Maybe she could also say it was the grief that drove her to sit on the back porch at three AM and cut her hair with a pair of kitchen scissors. Right above the ears, as close to the back of her neck as she could get it while using an old frosted window as a makeshift mirror. 

The day after the Suttons received the news of the attack and the demise of the boys, Josephine had written and sent a letter to an old friend who was volunteering with the Red Cross. 

Forging medical papers ended up being a lot easier than the now short-haired girl had realized. And after a little more begging, the volunteer nurse had been convinced to help the youngest Sutton bypass all the physicals that new soldiers have to go through. 

According to the U.S. Military, Josephine's name was actually Jo, and she had been a boy her entire life. 

She would not sit idly any longer while a war, in which she was perfectly capable of helping fight, raged on. 

She would not be useless. 

One more soft glance at the old wooden house she grew up in, melting snow dripped off the roof that her parents still slept soundly under. In the morning, they would wake to find their daughter's room empty and a small letter lying on her unused pillow. 

Dear Ma and Pa,

I have gone to fight. 

You raised your children to know what is right and to stand up when something is wrong. 

I will not sit and sulk any longer.

Do not rat me out. 

I am standing like the woman you raised me to be. 

With all my love, 

JS

She picked up her single duffel bag packed with only necessities and walked into the cold, dark night. 

Prologue

Chapter 1: Toccoa

Chapter 2: Train Harder

Chapter 3: Do You Have What it Takes?