The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 43 Who put the lights out?

Now that Pawel had eaten some food, he had calmed down and now was sitting in quiet sleepy contentment, allowing his brother to answer most of Samuel's questions. Katka, having finished her cooking duties collected the pots mess tins and cutlery to be cleaned but then thought better of washing them herself.

"You two can wash these up as payment for your food!" She commanded. Katka was determined that she wasn't there to wait on them hand and foot just because she was the only woman present. However the brothers didn't follow her orders and just sat a while together talking together. In fact none of them lifted a finger to do anything not even Samuel.

"Typical Men!" Katka said angrily and decided that now there was adequate lighting in the mine, she would see if she could find some sewing equipment. She was determined to prove that she was immune to the ghosts that had so frightened her. The added bonus was that she wouldn't have to witness just how lazy the men were. The extra company didn't help, if anything she felt more vulnerable having the brothers there than she had by being alone with Samuel when she had first met him. Samuel felt her unease but felt that it was better just to let her deal with the situation in the way that best suited her.

"If your family is starving then perhaps you could bring them here?" Samuel suggested to Pawel and Michal. "How far is the village from here?"

"I'm not sure." Michal said honestly. "We got one tiniest little bit lost on way here. We don't come from this area and we went round and round in circles for some of time when we were on run.

"Where did you start off?" Samuel asked.

"Near Gdańsk." Michal said.

"I meant possibly a bit more recently than Gdańsk." Samuel laughed.

"Oh we ran away from camp down road," Michal replied, "and our town wasn't far from that."

"And does this village have a name?" Samuel asked.

"We called it Háje." Michal said.

Samuel was hoping that the name would be something a little more unique, almost half of the villages around here were called Háje. "Would you be able to find it on a map?" Samuel asked. "Some of the nearest local towns aren't on it... they stopped printing maps years ago you know."

Samuel's idea was that perhaps they could bring anyone who would come, to the mine, it would make a good base for a small community. What little he had seen of the first level of the mine, it had plenty of room for eighty or so people and at least for the moment there would be plenty of food.

"Well it's only small place." Michal said dubiously. "Perhaps it's too small to be on map but if I had some sort of transport then I'm sure that would be able to find it."

"Eventually!" Pawel laughed. "After we visit every other town in Slavia!"

Suddenly an image flashed into Samuels head of what the village looked like. He felt that he had passed by the village recently and it was in a shabby state.

"I think that I know the place. It's only five kilometres from here!" Samuel said. "You boys can eat as much as you like. If you want more then Michal knows where to get it but please no more stunts with firearms." He looked significantly at Pawel. Pawel couldn't meet his gaze. Samuel knew that Pawel already had plans for the guns and it troubled him... but then Samuel could not detected any belligerence directed toward anyone present in the mine.

Samuel wasn't used to constant company and felt that he needed time to himself to withdraw and meditate about things. He was sure that Basil would turn up sooner or later, so he collected his staff and returned to the storerooms, using the pretext that he needed to get some more appropriate food to feed to the wolves.