Flirting With the Wind

When I woke up the sky had begun to lighten and I sat up running my hand over my face. I had to admit that I felt just a little bit better after the sleep. It had to do with my outbursts and sobbing on the previous night, as terrible as it sounded but I wanted to make him know the pain I had felt for him to know what I had gone through after he left. Maybe it was selfish for me to want this but I had all this pent up for so long.

Putting on my belt of throwing knives and needing a cigarette I grabbed an extra cigarette from the night stand then headed downstairs as I struck the match against the railing. I lit the cigarette as I quietly made my way downstairs. Jean Claude was an early riser as I had become and he stood outside smoking his pipe like I had grown accustomed to seeing him do. Quietly I made my way outside and Jean Claude kept looking at the horizon.

“You shouldn‘t have done what you did,” Jean Claude states looking at the heap of soldier corpses in the distance.
“It was a sloppy and discordant job I admit but they are dead all the same,” I reply calmly as I took a drag from my cigarette.
“You didn‘t bother to ask if there were reinforcements,” he counters.
“There are always more, must we reiterate that fact,” I respond looking at him.
“You seem well rested after your outburst last night,” Jean Claude comments turning to me taking in my appearance.
“That was pretty bad wasn‘t it?” I question guiltily.
“You sure know how to chop a man‘s balls off and serve them on a silver platter,” he says.
“Are we speaking metaphorically or literally?” I counter.
“I’m positive you are capable of both, my dear girl,” Jean Claude responds looking at me intently, “He‘ll recover if you want him to.” I looked off into the distance knowing who he was referring to.
“I am going to get their radio,” I announce as Jean Claude merely nodded whilst I headed off the porch towards the dead Nazis. Reaching the bodies that smelt of rotting flesh I stepped over their bodies and headed towards the one with the largest pack.

I leant over inspecting the bag and found what I had been searching for. Removing the bag off the dead Nazi soldier I slung it over my shoulder and headed back towards the house. Jean Claude followed me back inside as we headed to the kitchen where I set the pack down on the table. As I unveiled the radio and began tinkering around with it Jean Claude prepared a cup of coffee and set it front of me. Requiring a tool to tighten a loosened part I held my hand out behind me soon receiving a butter knife from Jean Claude to serve as a flathead screw driver.

“You shot bullets into it ay?” Jean Claude comments touching the holes in the radio.
“Don’t touch Jean,” I say swatting his hand away gently.
“Wouldn’t have to fix up radios if you stopped to interrogate,” he reminds a hint of humor to his voice.
“I don’t appreciate the immense amusement you get from me trying to fix these damn things,” I reply as I tinkered with the radio some more by taking out the bullet rounds lodged into some spots.

“Well it is one highlight of my days, you just always seem to make things harder than they seem, you are very blind when it comes to some common sense,” Jean Claude says.
“I’m a woman therefore entitled to lack of sense or rationality,” I state as I pulled out a hair pin from my head and stuck it in the contraption then turned it on. The reception was fuzzy but I could hear the German voices.

“You are getting quite good at that Shep,” he responds sounding impressed.
“What’s goin’ on?” Aldo’s Southern drawl questions walking into the kitchen.
“Shh,” I order twisting the hair pin around in hopes of getting better reception.

I strained to hear the words and only caught on to a few from the headphones. Something about an ambush, and reinforcements getting the Americans holed up in a house. There was talk of sending over fifty soldiers to take care of things by noon. The hairpin burnt out and I brought my hot fingers to my mouth blowing on them slightly as the radio smoked up significantly.

“You broke it,” Donny states.
“No the bullets did,” I correct.
“The bullets you shot into it when you killed the Nazis,” Jean Claude adds.
“Details, sheer details,” I wave off.
“Hear anything significant?” he asks looking at me as I sipped on the coffee.
“We’ve got a little over fifty soldiers creeping their way over here and they should be here by noon,” I propose.
“We could hold them off and Raine and his men can dodge off to their next mission,” Jean Claude comments.
“Sounds great I’ve been wanting to try some of those new guns I picked up, oh and those grenades,” I list thinking over my inventory with a smile.
“Nah no need, we’re stayin’ to fight, can’t let you two have all the fun,” Aldo states.
“That puts at us about 6 Nazis per person,” I pout.
“Chin up sweets maybe I’ll give up a couple to you,” Donny says with a playful nudge.
“Call me sweets again Sergeant and find yourself giving up more than just a couple of Nazis,” I reply smiling sweetly at him.
“Oh yeah like what?” he questions cockily a smirk on his face.
“Is that something you are willing to risk finding out Sergeant?” I question looking from his face to his crotch smiling evilly with an arched eyebrow. Donny backed away his eyes a bit wide and I chuckled lightly whilst I took another sip of the coffee.

“Shep we need a game plan,” Jean Claude states.
“Alright, what do you propose?” I reply looking at him.
“I say a diversion is in order,” he comments.
“There’s a trumpet in the living room,” I respond.
“You don’t play the trumpet,” Jean Claude replies giving me a look.
“I know but a bad trumpet player is a hell of a distraction,” I state with a smirk.
“I’m being serious,” he scolds.
“You know I’m only joking, but if you really want to throw them off and separate the masses, then we can use the record player, set it up on the other side of the woods crank it up when its time let them come to whoever is at the other end, the rest will approach the house,” I counter strategically.

“That’s not a half bad idea,” Aldo says nodding his head.
“Do your boys have troubles splitting up for a little while?” I ask Aldo.
“Ya we’re good, Donny wake the boys up, do you two have any artillery?” he replies looking at both me and Jean Claude. Jean Claude looked to me and gestured to me.
“Shep show the man our recent collection,” Jean Claude says. I stood up holding the cup of coffee in my hand and waved Aldo over to follow me.
“Right well, maybe some have noticed maybe you haven’t because you weren’t looking, weapons are hidden all over the place. Upstairs each room with a window has a sniper area set up, its like a regular Easter egg hunt except with guns, anyways in here is some more,” I say as I opened the closet door to reveal shelves of guns.

“Damn ya been busy,” Aldo whistles out.
“Understatement Lieutenant,” I respond taking another drink of my coffee.
“Mind if we have some?” he asks.
“By all means, Jean and I can’t carry all this on our own, we just collect a lot when we stay in one spot for too long,” I shrug.
“Can I count on you not to shoot any of more of my men?” Aldo inquires.
“I give warnings its up to them to listen,” I state as I made my way to the downstairs bedroom to grab the record player. Not caring or really thinking I entered without so much as a knock being that it was sort of my house anyways. Apparently it was the room Hugo took residence in for the night and he was sitting up in the bed rubbing his injured shoulder.

“Quit touching your shoulder if you keep fussing with it, it will only get worse,” I state as I walked in heading towards the dusty wardrobe.
“What are you doing?” Hugo questions staring at me.
“Getting something do you have a problem with that Hugo?” I counter as I set the glass of hot coffee on a nearby vanity table so that I could open the wardrobe.
“This is all my fault, I should’ve-” Hugo starts to say but I cut him off. Now I did feel bad for having been so callous with him yesterday, I could see the pain in his eyes.
“Its not your fault and you couldn’t have done a thing, the only one to blame is myself, I made every decision from the very start, my words and actions came to bite me right in the ass, this was never your fault, if I were in your position I would have done the very same,” I say seriously.

“So where does this leave us?” he asks quietly as I grabbed the record player from the wardrobe.
“Let's face it we're strangers to one another now, so I guess that leaves us back at square one,” I answer as I balanced the music player on my hip whilst I grabbed my cup of coffee then left the room.