The Life That I Have

Chapter 9

It was nearly a week later, and Anya had settled in well with the Maquis. They were not as rough as they were always thought to be. Oh, they were ruthless with the Nazis, but most of them were just ordinary men. Anya often accompanied Adele on her SKEDs (scheduled transmission to England).

  There was a plan afoot in the camp to ambush a German tank. The British were not really involved, but they knew of it.

  That morning Anya awoke, to find the camp was strangely quiet. She quickly found Adele and asked her what was going on.

  "They've gone to ambush that Tank. Pointless killing if you ask me. Didn't Rudi tell you about it?"

  Anya shrugged. "He mentioned it."

  Rudi had mentioned it, several times in fact. But Anya, like Adele, disliked violence.

  She spent the rest of the morning helping Adele preparing sandwiches for the men, who would be hungry when they returned.

  When Adele had gone for her SKED, Anya felt herself slacking off from operation sandwich. After all, she had been making sandwiches for several hours, which was a very tedious occupation, even if it was for the war effort.

  It was then that Adele rushed in.

  "Anya, we need your help! Come quickly!" Anya discarded her half buttered slice of bread and ran after her.

  Outside the cave was like a scene from one of Anya's worst nightmares. For every one man had either  two dead or dying leaning on his shoulders. A woman in a white doctor's coat came briskly over to them.

  "Thank goodness, reinforcements. I'm Dr. Denise Rouge."

  "My God, what happened?" Anya asked, trying to stay calm.

  "Seems the plan went wrong. There was an ambush, but not for the Germans."

  Anya stood, almost in shock. Never before had she seen such scenes of horror. Adele gave her a gentle shake and dragged her over to the men.

  "Lie them on the ground and make them as comfortable as possible. We'll take as many as we can down to the church," Denise called.

  Anya threw a puzzled glance to Adele, who quickly explained.

  "The local father is in the resistance."

  Anya turned and gently relieved a staggering man of his load; a young man, barely more than a boy, who was clutching his right shoulder tightly.

  "I'm alright. Let me go. I'm alright," he muttered.

  "Rubbish," Anya said, with a small, hopeful twinkle in her eye. She gently laid him down onto the damp grass. She then rushed over to Dominique, and grabbed several of the improvised bandages that were being distributed.

  When she got back to the man, he had managed to wriggle himself out of his jacket.

  "I couldn't get my shirt off."

  Anya gave him a reassuring smile and produced her penknife. Gingerly, she ripped up his shirt sleeve until she reached the bloody wound. She then tried to stop the steady flow of blood with the bandages.

  When she had done all she could, she rolled up the jacket and propped it gently under his head.

  "Anya!" she felt Adele tap on her shoulder. "Denise wants you to help her at the church. You may as well take someone over there."

  Anya ran over to another man who was being supported by another, older man and who was desperately clutching a bloodstained handkerchief to his knee.

  The man held tightly onto Anya as they limped slowly over to the small church.

  There were no houses within miles, and it was a total mystery to Anya why anyone had built a church in such a isolated area. But it made it safe for the Maquis to use as their own private hospital.

  It was packed inside the church. There were two men lying on every pew; one on the seat and one on the wooden floor below. Most of the men were seriously wounded.

  Looking around, Anya saw Phillipe helping a staggering man to an empty pew. He came over when he saw Anya.

  "What went wrong, Phillipe?" she asked incredulously, looking around her.

  "Germans were waiting for us. The minute we showed our faces they open-fired. A lot of people didn't get away."

  Anya was still trying to control herself. Gritting her teeth, she asked:

  "How did they know?"

  Phillipe's face darkened.

  "Someone must have talked. When I find who it is I'LL KILL HIM!"

  Anya shrank away from him. The way he said that had scared her.