May 8th, 1945

Zell am See, Salzburg, Austria

When the caravan of jeeps rolled up to the massive resort in Zell am See, Alice only had eyes for the incredible scenery. She'd never witnessed such incredible natural beauty. The greens seemed to be just a little more rich, the blue of the sky more calming. Above them, white clouds speckled the sky like cotton balls. Their jeep halted at the base of the resort.

Nixon and Dick hurried out of the jeep and towards the stairs. Alice took her time more slowly with Harry. The massive hotel resort was mostly white, with starkly contrasting reddish brown wooden trim and accents. The view over the lake took her breath away as it sparkled in the sunlight beyond the trees and between the mountains.

As she climbed the stairs, Harry just behind her, Alice could hear Nixon talking to Dick. It made her laugh that he still sounded exhausted. Officers of the Second Battalion flanked them as they ascended into the massive entrance way.

Alice had never witnessed anything as ornate as the resort lobby. Even the Berchtesgadener Hof paled in comparison to the white and gold marble floors, white walls, and dark carved wooden decor. Sunlight streamed in from the many windows. In small bunches around the massive lobby, upholstered chairs and tables sat vacant. Above them, stained glass created a bit of a raised ceiling in the center.

Dick paused for a moment in the center. His gaze traveled around the pristine lobby before he turned back to the Company Commanders who had gathered with him, and a handful of other officers. He nodded. "I want you to get your XOs on figuring out where to house your men," he ordered. "Officers will stay here. There are few other resorts nearby; split them up among the companies. I want Fox Company manning the school, Dog at the church, and Easy will take the Airfield. Rotate the enlisted as you see fit. Get it done."

The commanders nodded. Alice watched as Ron pulled Shames aside and they disappeared back into the daylight. Before long, as Dick turned to her and Nixon, more footsteps sounded. Sink and Strayer moved in unison towards the three of them.

"Sirs, I've given 2nd Battalion their orders," Dick told them. "Anything else?"

"Able Company is bringing in a regiment of German troops," Strayer told him. "Their commanding officers are being brought here. See the Germans are processed correctly."

Dick nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Klein, you're on this one too," Strayer added.

Once Alice nodded, Sink looked back at Dick. "I've gotta call General Taylor, let 'im know how we stand. Get it done, boys."

After Dick, Alice, and Nixon saluted them, both colonels left to look through the resort and find a place to set up as some sort of headquarters. A few aids helped the three officers get a back part of the lobby set up as a desk of sorts. The whole time, Alice felt herself tensing, her anger spreading through her entire body.

When Harry walked in twenty minutes later, expression unreadable, they had just finished getting the table set up. As he told Dick and Nixon that the Colonel and his aid were arriving, she moved away towards the door. Alice wanted a first look at them, at the people who had committed such horrible atrocities in the name of her homeland. She didn't have to wait long.

They stood tall, the same height or perhaps taller even than Dick and Nixon. Grey, silver, and black made up the colors of the Wehrmacht uniforms and she had to admit, they wore it well. Alice scowled. Behind them, two corporals had their rifles loaded but down. They paused when they saw her. The taller one, the aide, smiled.

The Colonel also smirked. He looked her up and down. "Wir haben von dir gehört. Die Verräterin. Ich bin nicht hier, um mich dir zu ergeben."

The traitor. At their comment, she bristled. Traitor? They were traitors to their own people! With a growl, she narrowed her eyes. "Du hast Glück, dass wir uns hier getroffen haben, sonst hätte ich dich erschossen."

"Du hättest es versuchen können."

The Colonel and his aide didn't miss a step as they continued towards the other officers. For a moment, Alice did nothing. Yes, she definitely would've tried to shoot them if they'd met in a battle. She could hear her blood pounding. As Dick talked to them both, Nixon and Harry occasionally glanced at her. She rejoined them.

When the Colonel reached for his sidearm, Alice's eyes widened. But he wasn't stupid enough to draw it on Dick. Instead, the Colonel offered it to him, grip first. "Please accept this as my formal surrender, Major. It is better than to lay it on the desk of a clerk."

The room fell silent. The Colonel's outstretched Luger lay in a sort of limbo as Dick stared at it. Alice felt herself shaking ever so slightly from the anger at how he dared act so civil. He'd perpetuated the system that had attempted to eradicate millions of people. Finally Dick stood up from the table.

"You may keep your sidearm, Colonel," he said.

A ghost of a genuine smile passed over the Colonel's expression. He paused for a few more moments before putting the gun back in its holster. With incredible precision, he and his aide straightened and saluted Dick. When Dick returned it, they nodded and turned to leave. But the Colonel looked at Alice first. He shot her a pointed smile.

Harry grabbed her arm as Alice nearly lunged at him. For the sake of the other officers, she forced herself to stay put even as the two German officers left the room accompanied by the enlisted guards. Her heart pounded.

"I'm not sure if you can murder someone by staring at them," said Nixon.

Alice tore her attention from the closed doors and looked back at him in surprise. He started grinning at her. The other two watched her more closely. Alice just shrugged. "Worth a shot."

"I don't wanna have to hold you back every time one of them surrenders," Harry attempted to joke.

Alice rolled her eyes. But Dick agreed with Harry. He sighed. "Why don't you go find a room. Alice, go find Ron when you're done, see if Easy needs any help."

She recognized a dismissal when she heard it. As much as she hated that Dick sent her off to do mindless work, a small part of her knew it was to keep her out of trouble. Alice bit her cheek and nodded.

Grabbing a room key from one of the aides for a room on the fourth floor and leaving them her name, Alice headed up. The door opened easily when she found it. She couldn't help but smile. A pair of windows looked out over the lake. A fairly large bed sat made to the right of the door, three pillows and two blankets. Alice dropped her bag at the foot of the bed and went to the windows.

The sight of the lake calmed her a bit. The sun had risen in the sky. The sting in her stomach reminded her how close to lunch it was. With a small yawn, Alice turned away from the scenery of Zell am See and back into the room. She took a minute to just lay on the bed.

A knock on her door half an hour later made her get up. She walked across the wood floors and pulled it open. Ron stood at the door. He had a lit cigarette in his mouth.

"You need help with Easy?" She asked. Alice had assumed Dick had wanted her to find him to keep her out of trouble, not do anything useful.

He shook his head. "No they're fine. I gave the Toccoa men the day off. They're gonna go explore the lake."

She grinned. "Never knew you were such a softie, Ron."

"I'm not. But if I let them get this out of their systems, maybe they'll actually listen to me tomorrow," he muttered. "Last thing I need is for the NCOs to start shootin' each other or something."

Alice laughed under her breath. She nodded. "I'll go with them, make sure they don't destroy anything."

When he left her to her own devices, she turned back into the room. She filled her canteen from a tap in the bathroom. With a last look around at her stuff, she left the room and went back down into the lobby. No one she considered a friend caught her eyes. Alice hurried outside.

She took the steps down towards the road. At the base of the stairs, George, Malarkey, Johnny, and Bull stood together the first and last smoking. At the pounding of her boots against the concrete, all of them turned.

"There she is," George called. "Come on."

She scoffed at his shout. But when at last her feet hit the ground, she hurried over to them. The gentle breeze of May pushed her hair into her face. Alice sputtered as some of it got in her mouth. George started laughing at her.

"Come on," Malarkey urged. "I wanna see this lake."

Alice chuckled, but she gestured for them to go ahead. Before long the whole group trudged down an extremely steep, skinny road. To the right, trees reared up around them past a sheer drop. On their left, a layered stone wall then turned into the mountainside to frame the road.

The boys chatted along the way, Johnny deftly deflecting George's attempts to ruffle his calm. Malarkey would join in occasionally. But Alice walked just a bit behind them. She'd gotten caught in her own musings again. With a cigarette to calm her down, her first of the day, she thought all about what would come next. She needed to write Millie as soon as possible.

"Mighty quiet, Alice." Bull's drawling tone pulled her back to reality. He'd fallen into step with her, the others ahead. Johnny looked about ready to push George off the mountain. Bull looked at her again.

She nodded, biting her lip through a smile. "I've got a lot to think about."

The road leveled out when they reached the lake. It continued on around it in both directions, with a large walking path branching off. Unlike the paved road, the path was merely finely pressed dirt, lined on both sides by green, leafy trees. The sunlight penetrated the forest around them to dapple the ground. Alice could hear birds, a noise that made her pause in her step. She hadn't heard such a chorus in months, it seemed like.

She took a deep breath. Alice could hear the gentle lapping of water against stone. Starting off down the path after the boys, she did her best to push away her stressful thoughts. Their laughter echoed down the path towards her until she found them and another group of Easy's Toccoa men messing around on the edge of the lake. Liebgott, Skinny, Grant, and Babe threw stones into the lake, trying to skip them. George stood to the side, heckling them.

Alice stopped breathing. Watching them, their laughter and their coarse language and their different personalities she'd come to love over almost three years, Alice didn't want to leave. But she'd have to. She would have to leave. Again, she would lose a family. Even if she stayed until the war ended, if by some miracle, they didn't go to the Pacific. The war was going to end. And then she'd lose them.

Feeling her throat clench and tears form in her eyes, Alice stuck towards the treeline and continued down the path. She left them to their antics. Instead, Alice went to be by herself. As she walked, their voices faded until she couldn't hear them anymore. Only dappled sunlight through the trees and the melodic waves against the built up stone wall around the lake accompanied her.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, Alice found herself leaving the trees again. She came out towards a dock. The dock, made of stone with a flat top of slate, went about twenty feet out into the lake. Alice climbed the two steps up to it. She went to the edge.

Settling down, Alice slipped off her boots. She sat cross-legged at the edge of the dock, the slate warmed by the sun that beat down on its dark surface. After several minutes of sitting, she eased off her button down shirt and lay back on the stone dock in her tank top. Alice closed her eyes. The breeze off the lake cooled the area, but the sun warmed her skin enough to keep it comfortable.

Alice tried to her mind to think happy thoughts. She pushed away the inevitable goodbyes she'd have to say. She'd said too many goodbyes. Her heart hurt thinking about saying more. With the warm stone at her back and the bright sun above, Alice sighed. She closed her eyes, and she breathed.