#doc roe

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.