Unlikely Heroes

Chapter 6

"What's he saying?" He asked sternly.

"He-he is saying he wants Hitler to die! He is Jewish and his father was taken. He is afraid of getting caught." The teen put up his hands in defense.

The soldier looked at the teen, then at Karkat. "Do you hate Hitler?" He crouched down to get to Karkat's height.

Karkat nodded. He guessed what the soldier was saying. He turned away and tried not to cry.

"Where were all of you going when we found you? Why were you in France?" The soldier asked the teen.

"My father died, so I had to go into the army. These two were hiding out in my home. If I left they would be caught and killed. We had to leave or everyone could die." The teen explained, looking over at Karkat.

"Where were you trying to go? Was there a location you were trying to reach?"

"The rest of their family is in Switzerland."

"We'll get someone to try and escort you safely there." The soldier said, leaving the tent.

Rufioh looked over at the other two, before leaving the tent as well. He stayed close to it, but he didn't want Karkat or the other person to come over and start questioning him.

A few minutes later Karkat left the tent. Rufioh didn't know why, but he followed him. He didn't follow him too far, as Jones started asking who they were. "Not now, I'll tell you later! Okay?" Rufioh pushed his friend off and saw Karkat and the other kid talking. Karkat was crying. "Woah! Woah! What's going on here? What happened?" He noticed he was talking to two kids. He crouched down to the child. "Do you speak English?"

The child nodded. "...a little..." He responded.

"Okay, why is he crying? What happened?" Rufioh spoke slowly and articulately.

"I said...stuff. He is only..." The child held up eight fingers. "He have seen a lot of bad zings..."

"Oh...well, let's get you both back to the tent." Rufioh picked Karkat, who was still sobbing, up and took the child's hand.

Karkat hid his face in Rufioh's shoulder. "Ich will nach Hause gehen...(I want to go home)" he mumbled.

Rufioh didn't know what Karkat said, so he ignored the comment and took the kids back to where Kankri was. He set Karkat down next to Kankri and let the other child walk to where he wanted. Karkat, unusually, decided to cling to Rufioh's arm. "You want me to stay here?"

"You here..." Karkat pointed to Rufioh and to where they were sitting.

"Okay, I'll stay here with you." Rufioh sat on the ground while Karkat held him arm.

"With I..." Karkat mumbled and Rufioh chuckled.

Rufioh's commanding officer walked in a few seconds later. "Nitram." He said and Rufioh saluted awkwardly. "At ease. I need you to do something."

"Anything, sir." Rufioh nodded as Karkat glared at the other soldier.

"Seeing as you've made friends with him, I think you should escort them safely to Switzerland. That's where they're trying to get to at least. If they don't get there they could begin to be a burden on us and I don't want them to go back to Germany. Understood?"

"Yessir." Rufioh saluted again as the commander left.

"Him?" Karkat asked pointing at the soldier who left.

"I am taking you to Switzerland. To be safe." Rufioh smiled at Karkat, who got the gist of what he said.

"Switz..er..lnd.." Karkat repeated once again. He was seeming to pick up the language fast.

"Yeah! Good!" Rufioh smiled. After a few minutes, Kankri woke up again. Karkat was still sitting next to him, talking to Rufioh. "You're awake!!" Rufioh said in excitement, which made the other teen come over.

There was a small conversation between the two, before kankri tried to sit up. Rufioh didn't want him to injure his arm further, so he helped him sit up. All of them continued talking, as Rufioh sat there having no clue as to what was going on. "As soon as you're feeling up to it, we need to take a train to Switzerland." Rufioh said, letting the teen that spoke English translate.

"Sobald du dich wieder gut fühlst müssen wir mit dem Zug in die Schweiz fahren ." The teen repeated for Kankri to understand.

"Mein Arm schmerzt nur ein wenig. Ich bin bereit, wann immer sie es sind." Kankri said back.

"His arm hurts, but we can leave if you are ready." The teen said to Rufioh.

"I'll get some supplies and we can leave in an hour. Make sure you've eaten and gotten your things." Rufioh said, the teen translating for the others who didn't understand.

Everyone gathered themselves and got some food. Karkat was clinging to Kankri the whole time. His state was blank, but his grip was tight on Kankri's arm.

After an hour had passed Rufioh turned to everyone. "Everyone ready to head out?"

"Bist du bereit zu gehen?" The teen  asked again. Everyone nodded. "We are ready."

Rufioh nodded, leading everyone to the train station. He showed the ticket booth person his military card and told her that the others were with him. She let him onto the train without any further questions. The five of them sat down at one of the train carriages, Karkat sitting in Kankri's lap.

"Let me know if you need anything. It should be fine, only a few stops. One is in Germany, but it should be fine." Rufioh explained, letting the bilingual teen explain it again in German.