War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 126

Chapter 10

R

ichard groaned with pain and he felt something warm running down his arm. His life flashed before his eyes. The beautiful girl from Baluty smiled at him with her big brown eyes. Mutter gave him a kiss on his forehead to say goodbye the day he joined the Wehrmacht. Lotte grinned and beckoned to him to join her in the water at their favorite lake in Berlin. Ursula and Anna giggled and painted their lips to go out to a dance. Then, Vater walked by and said, “Get up, my son. Stand up and lean on me.” He reached out his hand but Richard could not grasp it.

I want to live a bit longer. I want to be a man and know the delights of love.

He smiled at this extraordinary thought and turned around to see Karl get up and walk away.

“Don’t go now, Karl,” he called out to his friend. He heard an agonized groan.

“Is that you, Karl?” he asked, since he couldn’t move.

“Yes. Are you alright?”

“I can’t move.”

“The damn partisans dragged us into their village, tied us up here, and promised us the gallows in the morning.”

Richard shivered. He would have preferred to return to unconsciousness, but the knowledge of his impending death prevented it. Adrenaline pumped through his body, subduing the ache and the fear. He rocked his shackles. Nothing.

“Don’t waste your breath. These guys know what they’re doing,” Karl whispered.

A person stepped in front of them and unloaded a gob of spit on Richard. The disgusting liquid trickled down his cheeks, but he chose to ignore it. What else could he do?

Polish curses peppered them like verbal bullets, and Richard was glad that he didn’t understand most of it. But then a stone hit his shoulder and he screamed with pain. A shower of stones hurled down on the defenseless men. Karl screamed after a loud clonking sound and sagged against Richard.

“Karl, Karl, are you still with me?” Richard asked frantically, but no answer came. He turned his head to see a huge bleeding gash on his friend’s forehead. “Don’t you dare leave me alone, you hear me, asshole?” But not even the insult caused Karl to stir.

“What a sorry bunch,” someone said. “This war will soon be over for the Germans. And we are on the winning side.”

“I don’t even remember freedom and peace. What will we do?” Another one laughed.

“I have a girl waiting for me.”

“Don’t be too sure of that, comrade,” his companion teased and the others broke into laughter. “It’s been a long war and a long wait.”

“This one has passed.” One man kicked at the body lying on Richard’s other side. He moved his head to recognize Alex, the enthusiastic young lad.

“Let him rot. We’ll string him up with the others in the morning. It’ll be a nice surprise for the German patrols.”

As the hours wore on, Richard dozed off in between the insults and attacks of the villagers.

“Let me have a look at them,” a familiar female voice said. Richard opened one swollen eye, but his ears and his heart recognized the voice even before he saw her. The girl from Baluty.

“They’re Germans, they deserve to be treated like animals.”

“Nobody deserves this,” she said with a resolute voice and huddled down to check on Karl and then on Richard. Her wonderful brown eyes connected with his as she gave him a sip of water. He’d never felt a stronger connection to someone than in that moment. Despite the pain of his wounds, warmth surged through his veins at the miracle of seeing her again.

She leant forward to stroke sweat from his fevered brow and whispered, “Hang on. I’m coming back for you.” Then she disappeared like a stunning and merciful hallucination.

The hours wore on as darkness blanketed the village.

Why don’t Stalin and Hitler just toss a coin and be done?

Richard thought in his desolation.

There won’t be anything left to win at this rate.

Suddenly Karl stirred.

Richard’s heart jumped with joy. “You’re awake, my friend. I was worried…”

“Can you tell my mom that I love her?” Karl’s breathing came out ragged.

“Oh, no. You don’t die on me. Not yet.”

“My time’s running out. Promise you’ll do everything to get home and tell her?”

“I will.” Richard angled his body to lean his shoulder against Karl’s and give him comfort. “Thanks for everything my, friend. It was a wild ride.”

Karl barked out a laugh. “It was.” Then his breathing stopped as his suffering ended.

Tears streamed down Richard’s cheeks as he closed his eyes.

“Wake up!”

A wonderful dream.

The shaking continued. “Wake up!”

It took a moment until his night vision adjusted to the dim moonlit village. It was

her

again, accompanied by a bull of a man in his early twenties.

“Is it really you? Or am I dreaming?” A frightening thought occurred to him. “Am I already dead?”

“You’re not dead yet.” She undid his shackles and grabbed his arm. “Get up. We don’t have much time.”

Time?

Time was draining the life out of his body. He nodded, stifling a moan, and did his best to stand up, but his legs refused to serve. Between the two of them, they helped Richard up and the burly man cast him over his shoulder to walk away from the marketplace harboring his dead comrades.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Katrina?” the man asked. “He’s a German. Do you know what our people will do to you both if they find out you are sheltering the enemy?”

Katrina. What a beautiful name for a beautiful girl

, Richard thought, bouncing up and down on the man’s shoulders with every step he took.

“I have no choice but to pay my debts and save this man’s life as he saved mine,” Katrina replied. “Not a word of tonight’s actions will ever escape my lips, you can be sure of that.”

The man mumbled something under his breath that Richard couldn’t understand. About half an hour later they reached a farmhouse and he dumped Richard onto a bed, before he disappeared into the misty dawn.