War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 267

Chapter 14

G

erlinde lay unmoving a few feet from her. She crawled toward her friend and tried to shake her awake. Gerlinde stirred and looked at Lotte through tormented eyes.

“Are you alright?” Lotte asked, although she knew the answer already. How could any woman be alright after what had just happened?

“I guess so…” Gerlinde’s feeble voice trembled.

“We need to get out of here.”

“What?” Gerlinde opened her eyes wide.

Lotte dropped her voice to a low whisper, “In their stupor they left the door unlocked. That’s our chance to escape.”

“That’s illegal. We’re prisoners of war.”

“So what?” Lotte put an unruly strand of her fiery red hair behind her ear. “What those men did was illegal, so we have every right to escape.”

“Alex, please…”

“I for one am not going to sit around and wait for this to happen again. So, are you coming with me or not?” Lotte could see the internal war raging in her friend and she added, “Please?”

“I’m not sure… even with the door unlocked, won’t there be guards around the compound? We’re inside a garrison after all.”

Lotte cocked her head, mulling over Gerlinde’s words. Then she shrugged. “Know what? You rest and I’ll check the situation. When it’s clear I’ll come and get you.”

Her friend gave a weak nod and slumped to the earthen ground. None of the other women stirred, they’d succumbed to a deathlike sleep, their minds busy blocking out the horrible ordeal.

Her eyes fell on a forlorn dusty kitbag hanging on the wall, no doubt belonging to the new owners of the garrison. She snatched it from the hook and slung it across her shoulders before she got up and slid through the door, leaving it ajar.

She wondered why the slightest blue stripe dotted the horizon. Then she remembered. The endless summer nights this far north. Nearing the end of May, it would soon stay light throughout the entire night. The extra illumination wasn’t exactly conducive to her purpose of sniffing out a way to escape, but on the other hand, it would be more difficult to find her way in absolute darkness. She’d just have to be more careful not to be seen.

The compound greeted her with absolute silence, all the soldiers seemingly fast asleep. She stayed in the shadows of the huts until she came to a huge building that she recognized as the mess.

Where there’s a mess, there must be a kitchen

. She slid inside through the unlocked door and waited until her eyes had adapted to the near-bleakness inside the room. Thinking that all garrisons looked more or less the same she went to the back wall, and sure enough, a door led into the kitchen.

She didn’t dare to switch on the light, and fumbled around following the mouth watering-aroma of smoked ham until she found what she was looking for: the food storage. Rummaging in the storage, her hands touched a soft, light-colored block and she brought it to her nose. The smell of ripe cheese was so maddening to her starving stomach that she couldn’t resist biting out a big chunk of it.

Hmmmm

. She savored every last morsel, licking her lips, before she stuffed the rest of the block into the kitbag. A chunk of ham, a bread loaf and several tins that she hoped were army rations followed the cheese into her kitbag.

Then she felt through the drawers, until she found two things: a canteen and a huge butcher’s knife. In the absence of other weapons, the knife would help them against would-be attackers.

As she filled the canteen with water from a tap, the temptation to keep the water running and give herself a good washing nearly overwhelmed her, but she was too afraid the noise would wake someone.

Nothing worse than being caught in a military kitchen stealing food

. So, she resisted the cool clean liquid and slipped out of the building.

The blue stripe on the horizon had disappeared, only starlight casting a peaceful light on the premises. For a moment she doubted her impulsive decision to escape. Except for the

incident

with the drunken men earlier, the new rulers had behaved appropriately.

According to Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war were entitled to respect for their persons and honor. Since the British soldiers had clearly violated her honor, she could report them. But after another moment of consideration she didn’t give that endeavor much chance for success. Violations had happened even inside the Wehrmacht and never once had the man involved received more than a dressing-down, while the woman usually was shamed and released from service.

As if she had asked for it

.

Perhaps the best course of action would be to forget all about this, bury the

incident

deep down in her soul, along with so many other painful memories, and hope for the best. Since the Tommies weren’t known to use rape on purpose, as a means to take revenge on the civilian population like the Ivan did, she might never find herself subjected to a similar situation again.

She should just chalk it up to a slip from proper behavior, caused by too much alcohol. An unfortunate

incident

that had caused no real physical harm, apart from a few scratches. But even as she tried to talk herself out of fleeing, her entire body convulsed into one tight knot.

Her despicable attacker might not have done her lasting bodily harm, but he had robbed her of something much more valuable. Her honor. Her dignity. The very core of her humanity. She gritted her teeth at the onslaught of excruciating emotions, doubling over and struggling to inhale.

The Nazis had tried to strip her of her humanity, not once but twice, and hadn’t succeeded. She wouldn’t let some fucking Tommy soldier achieve what the SS and Gestapo hadn’t been able to do. She would not sit by idly and wait to become a victim again.

With her newfound determination she walked over to the hut where the other women huddled. Watching her comrades caught in sobbing nightmares, she nudged Gerlinde until her friend finally opened her eyes from a traumatic sleep.

Before she could scream, Lotte put her hand over Gerlinde’s open mouth and said, “It’s me. Alex. It’s time to go.”

A woman stirred and looked at them. “Where are you going?” she asked, half asleep.

“Pee,” Lotte whispered back. “Do you need to go too?”

“No,” the woman replied and closed her eyes again.

Lotte counted until twenty and then grabbed Gerlinde’s wrist and pulled her out of the hut.

“The main entrance is lit up and guarded,” she whispered at her friend. “But we can climb across the wall in the back.”

Gerlinde did not utter a word. She followed Lotte like a puppet on a string to a place near the wall around the compound where a dog kennel stood.

“I’m not going anywhere near the dogs,” Gerlinde said in a frightened whisper.

“No need to worry. I checked earlier. It’s empty. Now come.” Lotte had to bite back a giggle at the disgusted face of her friend. She couldn’t fathom how a country girl could be so afraid of dogs. Lotte herself had never owned one, but she found them cute and friendly.

Lotte gave Gerlinde a leg-up onto the roof of the kennel and then Gerlinde extended her hand to help Lotte up. Up there she eyed the wall. It wasn’t that big and she managed to put her hands on top.

“Ouch,” Lotte hissed as a sharp pain stung her hand. “Careful, there’s glass shards.” She handed the kitbag to her friend and struggled to heave herself up. Just when she was about to fling her leg over, the uniform skirt prevented the maneuver. She had to let go, because her hands wouldn’t support her body weight much longer.

Damn skirt

. It might look graceful but was damned impractical. Not only didn’t it protect much against the damp chills in winter, but it also hindered free movement.

I should have been born a boy. I swear, I should

. A boy didn’t have to wear skirts at all times. Could climb all the walls or trees he wanted. Wasn’t a less worthy person in a world of men. And he certainly didn’t have to endure what had happened earlier this evening.

Since there was no way to change that mishap of her birth, she pushed up her skirt all the way to her hips, exposing her torn undergarment.

“Alex!” Gerlinde’s eyes clouded over with embarrassment as she saw the white material flashing against the dark night.

“There’s no one to see us, so hurry up.”

And what’s there to see anyway since they already took what they wanted?

Lotte heaved herself up again, carefully feeling for the glass shards, and then swung her leg freely across the wall. Sitting astride, she took the kitbag from Gerlinde’s hand and let it drop on the other side. Then she helped her friend up and they jumped down into the grass next to the kitbag.

Freedom!

Lotte wanted to shout from the top of her lungs.

“Wow, that was all too easy,” Gerlinde said, when they had put enough distance between themselves and the garrison and dared to speak again. “I think God is watching over us.”

“Too bad He wasn’t watching over us when those bastards forced themselves on us,” Lotte retorted angrily. Regret plagued her the moment she spoke. What happened wasn’t her friend’s fault. “We must find a place to hide before the sun rises,” she said in a conciliatory tone.

“Can’t we walk by day?”

“Not really. We’re still wearing our Wehrmacht uniform, and how long do you think it’d be until we’d be captured again?”

Even in the darkness Lotte could see the whiteness of her friend’s face becoming more pronounced. She took her hand, assuring her, “That won’t happen, though, as we’ll be careful. Resting during the day and traveling by night.” Right now her decision to escape didn’t seem like such a bright idea anymore. But it was too late... returning inside was only possible through the main gate.

She gave a hysterical giggle as she imagined the situation.

Hello, guard. We took a stroll around the compound; would you be so kind to let us back in and lock us up?

Gerlinde, though, seemed to wake up from her apathy and turned at Lotte. “We have to turn ourselves in. This is a suicide mission.”

“I’m not.” Lotte’s entire body heated up with ire and an ache like no other shot through her core, reminding her of the violation. “I’m not going back. I prefer to be shot for escaping than…”

Gerlinde’s face lost its striking paleness and Lotte felt the heat emanating from her friend’s cheeks. “I’ll turn myself in.”

“Please don’t.” Lotte begged, “I can’t do this on my own. Please. We won’t get caught; I promise.”

“How can you even promise such a thing?”

“Because… I won’t ever allow a man to have his pleasure at our expense again.” Lotte took out the butcher’s knife from the kitbag. “Next time, I’m prepared.”

“Good gracious, Alexandra. Put that thing away.”

“Only if you come with me. Please, will you? Together we are invincible.” Lotte begged and pleaded until her friend finally relented.

“Alright.” Gerlinde hugged her. “Do we even know where we’re going?”

“Not exactly. But I figured Denmark is such a small country and from Gram it’s just walking south until we reach the border.”

Gerlinde giggled, as they continued walking down the only road. “Says the woman who mastered Morse code as if it were her native language but is still lost when she has to locate a place on the map.”

“See why I need you?” Lotte squeezed the hand of her friend.

“I’m starving,” Gerlinde complained after a while.

“Oh, with all the excitement I totally forgot.” Lotte reached into the kitbag and produced a chunk of bread.

“Oh, my sweet Lord! Where did you get this?” Gerlinde shoved the bread into her mouth.

“From the kitchen at the base,” Lotte answered.

“You stole this from the kitchen?”

“Yes, I stole from the kitchen!” Lotte was furious. “Consider it payment for what those bastards stole from me. I’d say it’s just fair, don’t you think?”

“I’m sorry. I’m as hurt as you are, but rash and vengeful action won’t help us.”

“You’re right.” Lotte fell into silence, mulling over Gerlinde’s words. She’d sworn never to act rash and irresponsible again. That she’d never again endanger her friends with her impulsiveness. Was history about to repeat itself?