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✲꘏ ꘏ ꘏ ꘏✲
To be honest, I had no idea how much farther I would have to travel before reaching the town Tobias had mentioned—the one with the great lake beside it—where I could finally knock on the door of the house built from red timber and hope that the people living there would take me in.
I felt utterly filthy.
My hair was matted, sticking to the back of my neck and rubbing against my skin with every step. Everything itched—not only from mosquito bites but from not having washed for what felt like an eternity. The moment I stopped moving, mosquitoes and every other insect in the desert descended upon me. There were swarms of them everywhere. For all I knew, fleas or lice might already be crawling through my hair.
Suddenly, I heard a dull but persistent beeping.
After taking a few more reluctant steps, I stopped.
For several seconds, I stood in absolute silence. Not even the faintest breeze stirred the air.
Yet the beeping continued.
I slipped the backpack from my shoulders.
It was still beeping.
Crouching down, I pressed my ear against the military pack.
So...
I opened the backpack and rummaged through it until I found the object that had been relentlessly chirping behind my back for the past half hour as I made my way toward the lakeside cabin.
It was a small black square device that fit neatly into the palm of my hand, with a tiny red light blinking and beeping rhythmically.
I recognized it immediately.
It was a signal receiver.
I knew because I had seen the commanding general of the United States Army Air Forces using one.
Back when I had been flying to Tunisia with the other military medics.
The general had carried an identical device. While he spoke to us during the flight, it had beeped incessantly until, growing impatient, he pressed a small button in the upper corner. The beeping stopped at once. Immediately afterward, he picked up his radio and contacted the generals commanding the other army divisions.
I pulled the radio Tobias had given me just before I escaped the German front line from the backpack.
I switched off the signal receiver.
Then I turned on the radio.
"I'm listening," I answered hesitantly, gripping the device tightly in my hand.
"Tell me where you are," Tobias's hoarse, crackling voice came through the static.
"I don't know," I admitted. "I've lost my bearings."
