A Mountain Range of Rubble

Vaccuums

Just warning you in advance that if you have thanatophobia or are sensitive to that sort of thing, you probably shouldn't read this chapter.

"Please, Rudy, Wait!" Liesel had called out to him. In the dead of night, Rudy ran as fast as he could back to his home. Or at least, what used to be his home.

When he came closer, he halted. What was it that he was looking at? Where was he standing?

Mounds of broken dreams stood before him. Among them were his house, shattered into thousands of pieces. Any joy that had ever existed there was torn apart and replaced with the bricks and glass that littered the ground. Rudy was shaking as he noticed blood seeping through beneath him, staining his shoes. He began to feel dizzy.

Where is Himmel Street?

He could do nothing but stand there. It took him a moment to process it. We were bombed, he thought. No, we weren't. That's impossible...

He began to turn around to look for Liesel, until he noticed something strange where his home would be. A few small fingers, sticking out amongst all the concrete.

Dazed, he made his way towards it. What is that? A wave of nausea passed through him as he got closer. Silently, he shoved aside a few cinder blocks to discover a girl.

His heart was beating fast, but his mouth wandered on. Rudy knelt down next to her.

Her face was a skeletal, blueish-green type of color, and her eyes seemed to be barely closed, as if they were on the verge of opening. After a closer look, realization hit him like a punch in the stomach: He knew who it was. She was only seven years old, and dust was covering her whole body. The sickening thought came to him that he may not have even recognized her had he not seen her clothes, as her face was barely identifiable. Her pink button-up pajamas were nearly torn completely apart, but through it he could see purple skin and red blood stains covering her arms.

He began to get up, but failed. The ground sucked him in and everything turned black.

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"Rudy!" Liesel rushed over to him and crouched down. She tried her best to avoid looking at the child.

She stood up and got a few of the LSE workers to place both the girl and the boy on cots. They began walking away, but Liesel, of course, followed them. "Where are you taking him?" she asked them. It was a tall man with a particularly dusty uniform that answered her question. Ash covered nearly his entire face. "The boy? He's going to be fine. We're taking him to the Krankenhaus - the hospital."

Liesel was relieved, but still... What if the man was wrong? Could she trust them? "Would you mind me going with you?"

"He is your brother?"

"Nein, he is just my friend."

He seemed a bit discontented with this information. "But where is his family?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "They died in the bombing."

After a bit of contemplating, he spoke to her. "Alright. Are your parents fine with this?"

She didn't have to think about this to know that her real parents wouldn't have minded at all. And she was sure Frau Hermann would understand if she knew about it. The circumstances demanded it. "Yes."

He knew she was lying, Liesel could tell, but he also knew that it meant a lot to her. They arrived at a large vehicle. "Okay then, come with me."