The Life That I Have

Chapter 32

Second sitting of lunch was now in full swing. Marilyne had been watching anxiously from the doorway. The first sitters would be starting to drop soon, leaving about ten minutes until the second started to feel drowsy. Marilyne only prayed that Gilles and his men had cut the telephone wires and sabotaged the cars.
  Outside, Gilles himself, was in fact, doing very that; removing vital pipes from the engines of all the cars, vans and lorries he could lay his hands on. There had been someone guarding the depot, but unfortunately had tried to stop Gilles. The guard had met with a knife blade soon.
  There would be panic arising any second now. He envied Marilyne for being in the centre of the action. At that moment, Marilyne was wishing she'd stayed at home and not got entangled with this hair-brained scheme– Chef was looking distinctly uneasy on his feet.
  Marilyne went over to him.
  "Monsieur, you don't look well," she said. "Perhaps you should sit down."
  The chef's eyes had glazed over. Marilyne tried to catch him as he keeled over, but his weight was too much for her support, so they both fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
  When she looked up, all eyes were on Marilyne.
  "He's fainted! Find the prison medic immediately!" she barked.
  It was about then all hell broke loose. Nazis were running in and out of the kitchen, shouting orders to each other. The next ten minutes were form hell for Marilyne. Whistles were blown, the sounds of engines choking, but failing to go. But gradually, it began to get quieter, until soon an unearthly silence crept through the prison.
  All the staff had been ordered to remain in the kitchen, although some of them had passed out too.
  "What's going on?" someone asked shakily.
  "I don't know. I'm going to find out." A man started towards the door.
  "Keep away from that door." Marilyne drew a small pistol from her skirt pocket.
  They all stared at her, mouths open in astonishment.
  "What is this?!" someone demanded.
  "Justice. Now, everyone up against that wall." They obeyed.
  Marilyne, taking her eyes off them for a second, bent down and retrieved a set of key's from Chef's pocket.
  "Open the storeroom door," she ordered. A cleaning woman obeyed. "Now get in there."

Gilles tossed the keys in the air happily as he went over to the kitchens, where he was met by Marilyne.
  "What have you done with the staff?" he asked.
  "I locked them in the storeroom," she replied. "Did you get the keys?"
  Gilles held out the article in question.       
  It took them several minutes to find the right block of cells, but they eventually did. Walking down the narrow isle was one of the most terrible moments of Marilyne's life. Men begging to her to help them, reaching out through the barred windows in the doors, trying to grab her.
  Rudi, like everyone else was peering through the bars, watching Gilles and Marilyne coming towards his cell, like in a dream. Could this be possible? Was he really being rescued? 
  He could still not quite believe it, even when he was walking down the stony isle. His trance was shattered by Marilyne.
  "You're not going to leave them?" she indicated to the other prisoners, who were all intensely looking intensely from Marilyne to Gilles.
  "We don't have time," he replied impatiently, supporting Rudi who was barely able to walk.
  "What?" Marilyne asked in disbelief. "Fine, you go, I'll let them out. Hand me those keys."
  Gilles ignored her.
  "Gilles." He heard a small click. Gilles turned and came face to face with Marilyne's pistol.
  "Don't be a fool, Marilyne. Come on."
  Her finger tightened on the trigger.
  "Give me those keys," she repeated.
  Gilles ignored her, and started to turn away.
  The small pistol cracked and Marilyne's piercing scream rang through the corridor. What had she done? To her disgust, several of the prisoners cheered.
  "Come on, let us out!" they called.
  Marilyne shakily took the keys from Gilles' hand. There was blood on them.
  Rudi stood, in shock, watching her as she unlocked the doors, one at a time. People were whooping and running down the corridors.
  When they were alone again, Rudi crouched down and touched Gilles gently.
  "He's alive," he said quietly. "He must have hit his head when he fell. The bullet is in his arm."
  Marilyne sighed inwardly with relief, but didn't show any emotions on the outside. Rudi was trying to drag Gilles towards the exit.
  "Help me."
  Marilyne went over to them quickly and helped Rudi, who was amazed at how cool she was being. After all, she had just shot her friend!
  The three of them were soon outside, where they were aided by some of the Maquis men.
  "What happened?" asked someone.
  Marilyne opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Rudi said:
  "A guard sneaked up on us."