War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 48

Chapter 22

L

otte’s chest was heaving with rage as she hurried after Anna, fists clenched and eyes cast down at her shoes...the very same plimsolls the traitorous woman in front of her had given her as a birthday gift. Suddenly, her feet itched as if they were covered in poison.

“An–” Lotte opened her mouth to blast her sister with all of the vitriol these last few months had created in her breast the moment Anna motioned for her to sit on the stretcher in the examination room. But her sister shook her head emphatically and placed a finger over her lips.

What the hell is she doing?

Lotte pursed her lips, her eyes blazing anger that needed no words.

“No talking, Lotte,” Anna whispered with a warning glare in her eyes that Lotte knew all too well. If Anna had

this

look, she meant it.

So, she did recognize me. But why is she here? And why did she choose me? Doesn’t she know that every woman in this camp would rather be dead than a Króliki?

While Anna busied herself doing something on the other side of the room, Lotte sighed and bit back her questions. Moments later, Anna approached, a loaded syringe in her hand. Lotte’s eyes widened with horror. In her former life outside the camp, she hadn’t been afraid of syringes, unlike her sister Ursula, but now she cringed away. She wasn’t sure she knew this Anna person anymore. Was she here to give her a merciful death by means of a lethal injection?

Anna grabbed her arm, swabbed it with alcohol and then injected the liquid into her muscle. A burning sensation spread through her arm.

“This is a typhus vaccine. Pretend to be sick. Do you understand?” Anna whispered.

What? Do I understand? No, I don’t. You just condemned me to death.

Lotte looked at Anna with incomprehension. Typhus was what had taken Irmhild’s life the night before, and once she started getting sick, she wouldn’t be able to work. The Nazis had no use for those unable to work.

Lotte clenched her fists, her ragged nails making indentations in her palms as she struggled to keep quiet. Anna put the syringe away and then walked towards the door, meeting Lotte’s eyes before opening it and mouthing, “Trust me.”

Trust you?

Before Lotte could think of a response, Anna commanded, “Back to work, prisoner.”

The

Aufseherin

was waiting outside to escort her to where the rest of her work colleagues were waiting. They were worried, but also understandably angry, because due to Lotte’s delay they would now all have to go without lunch and work overtime. Not that lunch was something to look forward to.

Dear God, I hope Anna is here for a good reason.

Trust me

. Those words echoed inside her head the rest of the day. She had a decision to make. Trust her sister. Or not.

It wasn’t like she had a lot to lose either way.

At work, talking was strictly forbidden, but at night in the barracks, the other women assailed her with questions.

“What happened?”

“What did he do to you?”

“Does it hurt?”

“I don’t know.” Lotte wished she could answer them truthfully, but she wasn’t even sure herself what exactly happened.

“What do you mean, you don’t know? Did they knock you out?”

Lotte shook her head. “No. They injected me with something.”

“What?”

“They didn’t say. It stung.”

It’s a typhus vaccine. Pretend to be sick

. Anna’s words came back to her. She looked at the women, allowing a very real fear to surface. “I don’t know what it was, but it makes me feel weak. Burning up from the inside.”

That much was true.