Tulips in Her Hand

Chapter Eleven

The sunlight blinded her eyes.

She awoke to spots of light blotting her vision. Soft patches of grass rubbed against her skin, reminding her of the night's adventure. Thickets of trees surrounding them, their overpowering stance giving off the aroma of sap. Celina's head pulsed. It ached terribly; a throbbing headache refusing to disappear.

"Ah, the Pole awakes!" Wren said in his awkward Polish. Celina cringed at his American accent. Where was Mariusz?

"Where's Mariusz?" she said aloud, studying Anka's pacing figure that was a mere shadow in the bright sun.

"Anka's tending to him over there. The poor thing collapsed when you did! Oh, it's nothing to worry about, not as serious as my injury, which was nearly reopened from the strain. I think he just tripped over you. Either that or he fainted from a combination of fear and exhaustion," Wren said.

Celina groaned. His voice was much too bright for their current situation. A Nazi had caught them, or nearly did. Not only that, but they were nearly killed, and now were heading in the opposite direction of Salzburg. On top of that, a pack of soldiers and civilians were sure to be hunting for them. Celina heard Mariusz's laughing voice faintly nearby.

"Ah, he's awake! Now we can get going," Wren said.

Celina shook her head, rising from the earth. Her legs wobbled at first, the world blurring into undetectable shapes. Her head throbbed even more as she stood up. It felt as if someone had dropped a brick on it and expected her to walk right after. Groaning, she found Mariusz and Anka. The sunlight wasn't helping any.

"Here, hold onto me, Celina," Anka said. Her arm intertwined with Celina's, steadying her as they walked towards the dirt road. Celina saw remnants of bullet shells sparsely dotting the center. The Nazi had really come far to hunt for them. Celina shivered at the thought.

"Where are we?" she murmured.

"In Wels," Mariusz said, evidently sustaining no injuries from the fall, "We're approximately 108 km from Salzburg."

"And how do you propose to get there?" Celina asked, then cringed. She sounded an awful lot like Wren at that moment, and the thought made her stomach queasy.

"We'll just have to walk. Unless you want to risk walking back to the car and hope I can fix it, there's no way around it."

And so they walked. It took a great effort for Celina to put one foot in front of the other. She stumbled blindly through swaths of rocks and brush, grasping desperately onto Anka's arm. Eventually her feet began to numb, as did her mind, pulled off into the depths of a daydream. Her head pulsed violently in pain as they walked and walked and walked through the Austrian countryside, narrowly avoiding contact with people.

When the sun began to sink beneath beds of clouds and the rolling hillside, Mariusz led them to an encampment deep in the forest. Wren mumbled under his breath that his injury was drastically worsening because the Jew couldn't fix a car. Celina essentially collapsed onto the bed of dry leaves, her eyes gleaming with gratitude at Anka. Thank you, she mouthed, her throat too dry for any words to escape.

Anka's lips curved upward into a smile.

And for once, Celina felt her heart beating with content as it does when one gains a friend. 

They all gathered around a fire which Mariusz had built. Wren returned from the depths of the forest with a triumphant grin spread across his face. "Dinner is served!" he cried, dangling a lifeless squirrel in front of his face. A look of disdain spread across Anka's and Celina's faces, yet Mariusz merely broke out into laughter.