War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 49

Chapter 23

D

inner that night was a somber affair, more so than usual. Seeing zombie-like creatures dragging themselves to the kitchen for food was a thing of normalcy, but today many of the women had feverishly glittering eyes and unusually bright red cheeks.

Lotte grabbed her ration of one slice of bread and a bowl full of potato soup. She gulped down the lukewarm soup, afraid the

Aufseherin

would take it away if she dallied, and felt like a lucky winner when she found a thumb-sized piece of potato at the bottom.

After this meal that wasn’t even enough to mollify the gnawing pain in her stomach, Lotte trudged with everyone else to the assembly yard for the nightly roll call. At this time of the day, she didn’t care anymore. The bitter cold had left her body without sensation, and her only worry was that she’d drop to the ground should she fall asleep.

She knew if she plopped down, she’d never stand up again, despite the beating, shouting, and kicking by the guards. As the guards continued down the line, shouting out number after number and waiting for the answer, an unexpected halt was called to the inspection, and the doctor appeared.

Again? Hasn’t he caused enough suffering for one day

?

“All prisoners report to the medical barracks,” one of the guards yelled. “Single file. No talking.”

Cries of alarm filled the air but were quickly quieted by the guards. Lotte cringed even as Anna’s words once again flowed through her brain.

Trust me

. Did this have anything to do with the typhus vaccine she’d given her?

After hours of standing in line and having blood samples taken, the women were finally allowed into their barracks and fell into an exhausted sleep.

The next morning during roll call, Lotte’s number was called, along with many, many others. They were separated from the rest of the prisoners and herded into the overflowing quarantine barracks. Block 7. The block from where nobody ever returned.

Lotte had thought her barracks was bad, but this one couldn’t be real. The stench of disease and death stung in her nose. Most of the sick women had diarrhea and were already too weak to get up from the bunks they shared with five other women.

Rumor was that everyone infected with the dreaded disease would be left to die. The chances of recovering in these conditions were zero.

God, Anna, I do hope you have a plan.

It couldn’t be her sister’s scheme to let her perish in the quarantine barracks. Or could it? Her tired mind circled endlessly about Anna, the camp, the typhus epidemic, and her imminent death. But in one last effort, she climbed one of the top tier bunks and decided to trust her sister with her life and her future. If Anna thought this was a good idea, then Lotte wouldn’t argue with her.

Soon, Lotte fell into an exhausted sleep, haunted by nightmares. Several times she woke and blinked against the bright light streaming through the shutters on the windows.

My goodness! I’ll be late for work!

She was scrambling over bodies – asleep or dead – and down towards the exit of the barracks before remembering that she didn’t have to work today.

Throughout the day, more and more women succumbed to the disease, and the air became thick with the putrid stench of rotting flesh. Lotte choked, but her stomach had been empty for so long, not even the bile rose.

Undertaker prisoners were sent inside with the task of clearing out the corpses and dumping them into the mass grave outside the barbed wire. They worked at their vile job way into the night. Usually, the corpses were cremated, but the Nazis were fearful that the disease would spread through the ashes used as fertilizer on the fields, and buried those who died of typhus outside the prison wall.

Several kitchen aids brought buckets of water. Dinnertime. Lotte climbed down to drink the smelly liquid and then sat on the floor to wait for food. But nothing happened. At long last, she heard tired and forced footsteps.

The kitchen aids

.

Finally.

“Why should we waste this precious food on them? They’ll all be dead by tomorrow anyway,” a voice said.

“You’re right,” another voice answered, “let’s bring that food to our barracks. We need it more.”

Lotte gave a howling sound, but it went unnoticed amid the groaning and moaning of the sick women. She leaned against the wall and must have dozed off, because she woke to a shrill sound, the evening roll call alarm.

Out of habit, Lotte stumbled to her feet and hurried to take her assigned place in the assembly yard. But she found the entrance door to the barrack locked.

“Let me out, or I’ll be late,” she screamed, jolting the door until a hoarse voice reached her ears. “No more roll call for us. Not in this life.”

Lotte’s head snapped around to look into the bloodshot eyes of a bald woman with greenish-yellow skin. “What do you mean?”

“It’s over. We’re as good as dead.”

Lotte struggled to return to her bunk and closed her eyes, wondering if Anna’s plan had been such a good idea. It was only a matter of time before they found out she wasn’t really sick, and then both she and Anna would be in dire straits.