A few of the more heroic of the dragoons managed to sneak forward and recover a few casualties. Lieutenant Moore had requested that Evans assist her in the casualty center. Evans ran upstairs and saluted, “Amy, I’m sorry about your company. It sounds like you guys had it pretty rough.”

Amy shrugged, “I didn’t know any of them that well. I was thrown into the company at the last minute.”

Evans shrugged. After a few seconds, he stood to attention and gave a mocking salute, “Well what do you need me to do Lieutenant Moore?”

“Get a few beds ready for the incoming wounded,” Amy went to check on a few of the soldiers, “How many unwounded from my company?”

“About twenty. Your Captain was killed, and Lieutenant Lansbury took charge,” Evans looked sadly at Amy, “As I said, you guys had it very rough. Straight into an ambush.”

Her face went pale, Amy sat down on an unoccupied bed, “When you said rough, I didn’t think it was that bad.”

Evans sat down next to her and tried to console her. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before the first casualties came in. It was hard work for hours getting all the patients stabilized. Evans slumped down against the wall. He didn’t bother wipe the blood off. He watched Amy move from patient to patient.

Someone slid down next to him, “Hey Goldfish.”

“Hey Lucy,” Evans pulled a cigarette out of his jacket and lit it. He offered one to Lucy, who refused, “The dragoons really caught hell.”

“Really ruins my whole happy, just had sex feeling,” Lucy stared at the cots, “I think your uniform might have more blood than dye now. I should get back to the Captain.” Lucy stood up and left the room.

Evans sat for a few minutes before he put out his cigarette and stood up. He walked over to Amy and saluted, “Permission to join the hunt for wounded Ma’am?”

Amy hugged Evans, “Be safe. It’s bad enough with all these people I don’t know.” She then went back to tending to the wounded soldiers.

Evans leaned his rifle against the wall of the medical room and went downstairs. He drew his pistol and loaded a magazine. It was dark outside. There was a candle light flickering under a makeshift tarp. He ducked underneath and saluted Lieutenant Lansbury, “Sir, I’ve been released from my evening duties and would like to join the search Sir.”

The Lieutenant nodded, “Thank you Private. We have another patrol going out now. Go to the overturned cart, Lance Corporal Booth and Private Hindley are getting ready now.”

Evans saluted and left the tent. He slowly worked his way to the overturned cart that he had seen earlier. He whispered out at the two silhouettes, “Hey, I’m from Fox Company, I’m here to help. I’m Evans.”

The taller silhouette whispered with a masculine voice, “I’m Lance Corp Booth.” Evans could make out the taller silhouette pointing to the shorter one, “She’s Private Hindley. What gear do you have with you?”

Thinking for a moment, Evans responded, “Benett Pistol, Bayonet, and flashlight. I used up all my dressing at the aid station.”

“Sounds Good. You’ll take the rear. Hindley has a rifle and Flare Pistol, so she’ll take center. I’ll take point with my Benett Pistol. Stay low, and if a flare goes up, close one eye and freeze in place. Then wait until the flare goes down. When we get there, we will move to the East side of the square. Don’t make any noises,” Booth pumped his flashlight for a moment and used it to look at his watch, “We should move out now.”

Booth shuttered the flashlight and clipped it back to his jacket. The three took off in the moonless night towards the square. Every few minutes, a flare went up. Occasionally a machine gun burst would follow. When the flares were down, Evans could barely make out Hindley, who was only two meters ahead of him.

It was half an hour before they had managed to slowly snake their way to the square. Evans could make out Hindley’s shadow lowering to the ground. Following her lead, he started crawling behind her. They slowly crawled from body to body, checking to see if anyone was alive. Evans got into the habit of aiming his watch towards himself when he heard a flare. The hour passed quickly with only dead soldiers.

They were by a dead horse when a flare went up. The flare was followed by a burst of machine gun fire that thudded close by. Evans took cover behind the dead horse. Booth and Hindley joined him behind the horse. A few more rounds thudded into the horse. Booth, figuring stealth wasn’t that important anymore, yelled over the gunfire, “When This Flare Goes Down, We Run!”

Evans nodded and fired a few shots from his pistol wildly towards the machine gun. The flare slowly dipped. Without waiting for the flare to go out completely, the three took off sprinting.

The bullets were whizzing past Evans head. He wasn’t paying attention to the two dragoons. He just kept running. He stumbled over something. It might have been a body. Another flare went up. Evans closed his left eye and dived behind a dead horse. He waited. The flare went down. Just as Evans started to run, there was a short flash of light followed by a loud roar. Fuck.

He ran behind a low wall and slumped down to try and catch his breath. A shadow came around the wall. Evans pounced on it’s source, knocked the rifle away, and started to beat it with his pistol. Evans dropped the pistol and grabbed for his bayonet. The shadow kneed Evans in the groin and forced him over. Cringing in pain, Evans froze. The shadow applied more pressure to his groin. He heard a knife being drawn.

Another flare went up.

Evans stared into the bloody and beaten face of Hindley, poised over him with her knife. There was a flash of recognition on her face before she dropped onto him to hide behind the wall. Evans yelled into her ear, “Sorry! I thought you were Vledscan!”

Hindley spat some blood out, “You didn’t notice the tits and the bun!? At least I was fighting someone who could be an enemy!”

“So what happened to Booth!”

“I have no fucking clue!” She rolled off Evans and grabbed her rifle. Evans grabbed his pistol. Hindley pointed to a nearby storefront, “When it goes down, grab my hand, and we’ll run over there.”

The flare finally went down. Evans grabbed onto Hindley and she sprinted to the store. They reached it just in time for another flare to go up. A few machine gun bullets conveniently smashed the window, so Hindley and Evans jumped through, careful of the shards of glass. The pair slowly crawled their way to the back of the store. There was a washroom in the back with no windows.

Evans unclipped his flashlight and pumped it a little. He looked over Hindley’s bloody face, “Shit, I really fucked you up. I’ll clean you off a bit.” Hindley sat down in a chair while Evans grabbed a washcloth. He slowly dabbed the blood off Hindley’s face. The machine gun fire that chattered outside was slowly petering out.

After he was done, he drew his pistol and opened the back door. It was an empty alleyway. Evans and Hindley worked their way back to Fox Company’s building. Booth wasn’t there.