Boo, evil!
October 14, 1943
Major Jean Gaspard gritted his teeth as his M-1 ran dry. Shells whistled overhead, battering the ruins of Kansas City. All around him, the American troops were just laying down their rifles and running. They fought listlessly, like zombies.
Godenot noticed the shift of Gaspard's attention. He chuckled bitterly.
"All they care about is living another day."
Gaspard nodded. "I've lived long enough. We've outlived our homeland, and Britain, and now the whole United States. I'm tired, Luc." Godenot nodded slowly. He handed Gaspard another clip.
German helmets bobbed into view along a trench of artillery craters. Gaspard snapped up his rifle and fired three shots, dropping two men. A potato masher landed in the foxhole, and Godenot hurled it back. The explosion, while it didn't hurt them, deafened them. Gaspard's ears sang with pain. On a nearby ridge, two black drivers commandeered a machine gun and poured fire into the German front lines while the white soldiers fled. Mortar shells started landing around them, but they never flinched. Gaspard and Godenot fired a few more shots, taking advantage of the confusion.
Out of nowhere, a hulking German sergeant flung himself into the foxhole, his knife out. The knife buried itself in Godenot's back, and he went down gasping. Gaspard whipped out his own knife, but the German hurled his whole body against him, flattening him against the foxhole's wall and knocking the knife free. The German had a knee on Gaspard's chest, reaching for his throat. Gaspard jabbed out the German's eyes and clawed his face to shreds. The German shrieked, and Gaspard kicked him off, reaching for his knife. He found it and whipped it into the German's face. As the German died, Gaspard reached for Godenot, but his eyes were already clouded. He was dead.
Gaspard stared down for a moment. He closed his eyes and began undressing.
Three minutes later, he scrambled out of the hole in the German uniform. A pair of Wehrmacht draftees snapped to attention. Gaspard started and saluted them, keeping his head down.
"They're dead. Frenchies, if you believe it. Move east, check those buildings there." The two saluted and ran off. Gaspard smiled grimly, thanking his professors at the Sorbonne for his perfectly accented German. He tore off the helmet, ducking into the ruins of the State Capitol. He had to find a way to get to the American lines, he had to keep fighting. As always, his despair lifted. He just had to keep fighting. Keep killing.
A foot dragged heavily in the dust behind him. He whirled- and saw one of the black soldiers pointing an M-1 at him, clutching at a bloody wound in his belly.
"I'm on your side. I'm with the Free French movement." The soldier paused for a moment and pulled the trigger. Gaspard felt an icy pain crawl from his heart as he stumbled to his knees.
"Goddamn Kraut," whispered the soldier, his black face shining with sweat and pain as he fell to his knees. "You're comin' with me. You killed my brother up there, and now you gonna die too." The soldier groaned, recocking the rifle. Gaspard held up his hand.
He never heard the second shot.