Valiant Crimes

A couple weeks passed and still Ross didn’t speak unless Aldo ordered her too which generally didn’t happen much because Aldo felt uncomfortable having to ask her to speak. To the Basterds the novelty of her mystery had worn off and now just plain irritated them that she didn’t acknowledge or initiate conversations with any of them. Donny was annoyed the most and thought Ross to be a stuck-up and untrustworthy. He was determined to push her buttons. They all sat around the camp fire and Ross sat furthest from the group perched on a large boulder.
“What are ya too good to sit with us?” Donny demands getting up from his seat by the fire. Ross didn’t give a response merely kept scanning the dark forest for any suspicious movement.
“I’m talking to you Princess,” he continues standing right in her view. Ross gave him a bored look.
“Figures a woman would fuck up killing Hitler,” Donny spats.
“I suggest you go sit back down Donowitz before you get yourself hurt,” Ross says keeping her cool.
“Make me Thrasher,” he retorts puffing his chest out.
“Have it your way,” she replies swiftly grasping his arm and kicking in the back of his leg then twisted his arm behind him slamming his face into the ground with her foot on his back. Ross pushed his arm forward causing Donny a good amount of pain.
“Thrasher cut it out,” Aldo orders and Ross let Donny go so he could stand up again. Donny growled in anger looking like he could kill at any given moment. Ross showed no emotion and sat back down ignoring the many stares on her whilst she began cleaning her guns. Hirschberg stared at her, racking his mind as to why she looked so damn familiar to him. Then it clicked in his brain when his eyes grazed Ross’s customized handguns.
“Holy shit, Ross the Boss Thrasher,” Hirschberg says out loud gawking at Ross. Ross looked up at Hirschberg upon hearing the nickname given to her from back in America.
“What are ya goin’ on about Hirschberg?” Aldo questions looking Hirschberg.
“She’s a powerful mafia boss well she was anyways,” he responds gesturing to Ross with wide eyes. Ross shook her head at Hirschberg a soft chuckle escaping her lips, obviously somewhat amused.
“Is that true?” Utivich inquires looking at Ross somewhat shocked. She merely shrugged her shoulders and went back to cleaning her guns.
“I can’t fucking believe I didn’t get it until now, how in the hell did you get into the service when you were public enemy number nine, hell you’re loaded I’d be sipping on margaritas south of the border if I were you,” Hirschberg rants. No one could believe what Hirschberg just said, Ross kept quiet not really caring from the looks of things and she continued cleaning the nice set of handguns. Aldo looked at her with a newfound curiosity, and wondered just how she got into the service. Donny was still huffing and puffing over her pinning him down so all he wanted to do was get back at her. It was Ross and Hugo’s turn to keep watch for the night while the other men slept. Hugo was curious about this woman as well, they were alike in many ways that they were quiet outsiders of the group once captured and tortured to excruciating points of insanity. When all the men had fallen asleep, Hugo got up and sat next to Ross. He didn’t talk just merely offered Ross a cigarette. She took the cigarette and placed it between fingers casually then put it to her lips, Hugo lit a match lighting the cigarette for her; their eyes meeting for moments as Ross sucked in the toxins. Ross didn’t seem to mind Hugo’s presence as they spent their time smoking their cigarettes in silence.
“You speak German?” Hugo inquires breaking the silence. Ross simply nodded curtly before taking a deep inhalation of the cigarette and blowing it out. It was interesting to hear Hugo speak, Ross had noticed he was about as quiet as she with the exception of when he spoke his native tongue with Wilhelm Wicki. Hugo was a little embarrassed that all this time Ross could understand with words exchanged between him and Wilhelm which sometimes included Ross as a topic. She honestly didn’t care though she was used to the men gossiping about her so it wasn’t like it was something new to her.

While remaining quiet for so long it wasn’t hard for Ross to figure how most of the group ticked, she observed everything surveying them in case there were any problems. The rest of the watch went by uneventfully and once the sun began to raise so did Aldo. Ross watched as Aldo stretched, strangely she felt drawn to him like she was slightly drawn to a few of the other men like Hugo and Wilhelm except the draw occurred more with Aldo for some odd reason. It was probably the fact he wasn’t a Jew yet he led a group of Jews to kills dozens upon dozens of Nazis. He’d be an attractive man had he not hold his face in such a bizarre manner. Ross thought it was a bit funny that these men groomed themselves more than her. Their hair always fixed and faces shaved Ross told herself she was with a bunch of pretty boys as an internal joke with herself.

Aldo noticed the hint of a smile on Ross’s face upon seeing her look at him as if he were some sort of a zoo animal. He didn’t know whether his fly was down or the woman was just blanking out from the hours without sleep either way he kind of liked seeing a form of emotion on her delicate features. One by one the rest of the men woke and they began eating whatever Utivich had made. Packing camp up, they headed out. They hadn’t had any real action since the night they rescued Ross from prison and the Basterds were growing restless with the lack of killing.

Aldo stopped the group to consult the map. Ross caught sight of something strange about three hundred yards up head in full on camouflage; it was a Nazi sniper and his aim was right at Aldo. Everything felt like it was in slow motion as Ross tackled Aldo down to the ground before the bullet pierced his skull. Wilhelm took this chance to shoot the sniper up ahead being that he was the trained marksman of the group. Aldo and Ross quickly got onto their feet ready to fight not having time to take in what had just occurred. Now the Nazis had gathered and were shooting at them all as they pressed their bodies against the trees. There were more of them than there were of the Basterds it was obvious.

“Aldo I’m going to go over there and pluck them off until they figure out where I am, then they are going to single me out that’s when you lot take them down while they are distracted alright?” Ross says to Aldo. Aldo stared at her not knowing whether or not he should agree to letting her go out into the open like she was suggesting. Finally he nodded as conformation and Ross dashed off breaking into a sprint. She kept low hiding her small frame behind some bushes. Soon she got to her spot and got down on her stomach with a rifle poking through the shrubs pointing at the group of soldiers.

Ross began plucking off the soldiers quickly and efficiently killing over half the group without them knowing where the bullets were coming from. As expected the Nazis caught on and Ross got up swiftly to hide behind a large tree trunk as they began singling her out shooting round after round at her whilst she gestured for the Basterds to attack. Aldo was impressed that she called them on what they were going to do and the Basterds took down the rest of the soldiers. As the group cautiously approached the area, there was one last soldier left saying if they didn’t let him go he’d kill the American prisoner.

Being that they could not get a look at the soldier or the prisoner they had to trust that he actually had a prisoner to kill, let alone an American one. Aldo began negotiating telling the soldier to let the prisoner talk. When Ross heard the familiar voice speak she didn’t hesitate to shoot the Nazi right between the eyes. The Nazis fell to the ground the back of his skulls spread on the tree nearby. Ross ran to the area where a lanky dark haired young man with a scruffy beard and clear blue eyes stood up with his hands tied behind his back. She took out her knife quickly cutting the ropes and the man threw his arms around Ross in a tight embrace.