The Day It Fell

Annamarie jolted awake in a cold sweat. She shuddered as vivid images of her nightmare came back to her. She recalled her parents being dragged from their embrace off to a labour camp, after stealing vegetables out of an act of desperation. She remembered screaming their names as a tall man dragged her into the back of his truck, compensation for her parents actions.
"Anna? Oh good you're awake, I didn't want to have to splash cold water on your face for the third morning in a row" Heidi laughed. When Anna didn't respond, Heidi chucked Anna's shoes at her and told her to get a move on. "We need to be in the kitchen Anna, seriously do you not want breakfast?" Heidi asked, putting on a jacket. "I know, I know I'm coming" Anna complained, looking at her watch. "It's just so early. Actually, why are we up this early?"
"Adolf's going out to Auchwitz today, we need to prepare food for the trip." Heidi explained, leaning against the doorway. Anna tugged on her jacket and followed Heidi to the kitchen, treading lightly so she wouldn't wake anybody else up.
After they finished eating they prepared an array of food for Adolf's trip. For the rest of the morning they cleaned and tidied up the rest of the house, and made sure everything else was prepared for Adolf's trip.
"Can you remember much?" Anna asked suddenly, restacking the last of the books. "Of what?" Heidi responded, confused as to what she was talking about. "Your family, do you want to see them again?" Anna asked again, standing up. "Yes, of course. I miss them terribly. I am so close to being able to see them again, just two more years." Heidi replied, following Anna out of the room, to where one of Adolf's advisors had called them.
"Is the food prepared?" He asked, not bothering to look up from where he was reading. "Yes sir" both girls replied, standing perfectly still. He finally looked up and replied, "Well what are you doing standing there go get it" he barked, returning to his book. Heidi and Anna packed the food neatly in a basket and brought it back to the advisor. "Good, you can have the day off, you know the rules. You are dismissed."
Heidi and Anna returned to their room and fell onto their beds. "The day off huh" Anna remarked, "Yeah, I know. It's the first one we've had in ages" Heidi replied, taking off her shoes, "What do you want to do?"
"I dunno, plan our escape?" Anna said sarcastically, laughing at the mere thought of it. "Why not" Heidi pondered, "let's make it as crazy as we can". They laughed as they thought up a long and complicated plan, which involved cannons, a fleet of planes and a perfectly timed jump from the top of a train into a lagoon.
Suddenly, shouting could be heard as the whistling of a bomb began to resonate thoughout the house, "Get down, get down!" someone shouted. They both shrieked as Anna squashed herself into the back corner of their room as they had been taught, Heidi following right behind her. The world slowed to a stop as the bomb hit, shredding the house to rubble around them. Heidi screamed and fell, as the shrapnel pelted into her back. Her blood began to pool around her as she lay lifeless on the floor. Anna started to sob as she collapsed next to Heidi, desperately trying to stop the flow of blood.
"Heidi" Anna screamed, her hands covered in Heidi's blood. "Wake up, wake up. Come on Heidi please" she sobbed, brining Heidi into one final embrace. She sat like that for awhile, holding Heidi against her and sobbing, not letting herself believe that Heidi was dead. Minutes past as she thought of Heidi's family, and how Heidi was so desperate to see them. She thought of all the happy memories she shared with Heidi. No, not shared, had shared. Heidi was dead, she reminded herself, finally allowing herself to gently lay Heidi back down, and stand up. She walked through the rubble, looking for any other signs of life. She came across shards of a mirror, and picked one up.
She was a mess, with dirt and blood strewn all over her. Whether the blood was hers or Heidi's, she did not know. She had not properly assessed her own wounds, but she knew she had a large gash over her stomach. Anna crouched down to put back the shard and bit back a cry as her muscles pulled. Wet warmth trickled from her abdomen. As more blood started to run from her open wound Anna began to feel light headed. She managed two steps before blacking out, and collapsing onto the rubble.
Anna squinted as she slowly opened her eyes to a blinding light, trying to take in her surroundings. She heard the scuttling of feet and trolley wheels and the chirp of bright female voices as they talked to others in the building. So this was a hospital. A nurse leaned over Anna and said, "Hello, my name is Nurse Jackson, and I'll be attending you until someone comes to collect you, would you like anything?" Anna slowly began to sit up and winced and she put her hand to her stomach, feeling the bumps of stitches across it's length. "How long have I been unconscious for?" She asked the nurse, still trying to sit up. "About a week" the nurse replied as she helped Anna sit up fully. Anna and Nurse Jackson talked for a few minutes before they walked down to the reception, where someone had come to collect Anna. She said a brief goodbye to Nurse Jackson before she followed the man out to his truck, he was no doubt one of Adolf's new associates. He drove her to their new house and they were immediately ushered inside, afraid of prying eyes. As she stepped into the new house, Anna new this chapter of her story would be very, very different.