Through My Wandering Eyes

Chapter 6: Jail And A Birthday

The days drew on, my injury healing bit by bit. Digging became a little easier and it hurt less. Blood still stained my pyjamas, even after all my asking the soldiers refused to give me a new pair. Christmas came and went. Still the hard work never stopped, we had very little food and water and hardly any sleep. Sent to bed at ten and up again at dawn sometimes it was hard to keep up with the work schedule. Many of us collapsed with exhaustion. The ground began to thaw and the weather cleared and the sun presented us with its presence. By March the ground was soft enough for us to ditch the picks and use the spades. As the weeks turned to Months and harsh weather softened the amount of death decreased dramatically, it went from about fifteen people a day to about five people a week, occasionally six or seven due to exhaustion and over working. By July the sun's heat had got so immense that some of us died with heat stroke. Sweat poured from us constantly, we were dehydrated all the time and very fatigued. I kept track of the days by scratching in a tally chart on the wall of my group's hut. Life never got any easier for me or the people around me but even though people were falling here and there from the sun's heat and lack of water our spirits were high. Don't ask me why we felt like that because I don't know.

Mid afternoon on Saturday 14th July I dug out my 822nd pile of mud when a blood curdling scream cried out from behind me. I spun around and saw a small frail-looking girl (about the age of eight) being beaten to death by the looks of things. And the way the Nazi's facial expression was, it seemed he was enjoying it. The image of Katie showed up inside my exhausted brain and the same burning sensation of anger bubbled up inside me. I chucked my spade aside, I didn't care about anyone else except that poor girl and I charged...

Ripping at the brute's uniform, I dragged him away from the girl. His huge arms grabbed hold of me, a fist hit my face and I fell to the floor. The soldier kicked me and punched me. Blood filled my vision and the familiar metallic taste flooded my mouth, I coughed and spluttered, blood flew from my lips the beating continued. I struggled, trying to get away. He pushed me back and punched me over and over again. The brute grabbed my hair pulling my chin up, and he punched me square in the face. All of my facial features were now replaced by warm thick blood. I managed to get an arm free, I punched up randomly at his ugly face; one blow hit him in the nose with such force I heard it snap. His meaty fist that was clamped around my hair left it with a jolt as he clutched at his broken sniffer. A pool of my blood encased me the scarlet colour turning slowly to black. I tried to make my escape but once again a hand clamped itself around a scruffy clump of hair pulling my messed up face to look at him I closed my eyes tightly. Suddenly a gun barrel was forced under my chin, I heard a click of the safety buffer, my eyes relaxed and I waited for the shot that would end my life.

"Wait!" shouted a voice from, I think, behind me. The gun happy soldier looked up and the pistol was removed from the underside of my jaw. A small man in the same uniform as the other soldiers there staggered up to us, "Don't waste a bullet on her!" He yelled "I'll take her to the jail cells she can rot there!" I breathed a sigh of relief Jail was one hundred times better than death and I was glad that one of the guards here had a well educated vocabulary. The gun barrel was back under my chin, the fist pulled my head back, a nasty voice in a not so low whisper said "Consider yourself lucky... (that word again)... not many of you lot get the luxury of a cell." Then he let go of me and grabbed the small girl "You!" he spat at her "Be very grateful I don't kill you today..." Then he grabbed his moaning friend (whom I punched) and marched away. The small soldier pulled me up onto my feet and we staggered as fast as we could go. My head hurt and I was dizzy. I threw up a couple of times just to be sure the Nazi knew I was in no state to run.

As we entered the cells, the man pulled me to the wall and placed his lips to my ear "Listen," he grunted "There's a train taking children like you and your buddy who is here as well will be leaving in a couple of days from the forest. It will go into Switzerland and will hopefully drop you off somewhere in its country side, but you have to stay very quiet and talk to no-one except each other and myself. Don't even think about trying to speak about the train because if you do I will be killed, your buddy Asa will be killed and you will be killed, got it?!" I nodded furiously. "Good." Then he shoved me inside the darkest cell and marched away. A door clanged and all was silent.

"Freeda... Is that you?" A muffled whimpering voice echoed around me and bounced of the damp and slimy walls. "Asa!" I exclaimed as the similar skeletal figure of a boy came into view. Asa's face had sunken in and a look of starvation was printed clearly on it. His eyes had turned an unnatural shade of dark grey; he limped as he took closer steps to me. He had no joy left in him, he was a drained soul a damaged child, knocking on deaths door. I held him in my arms as we cried with the overwhelming joy of being together again "How long have you been here?" I managed to stutter once the waterworks had eased a little. Asa gradually stood up on his feet, the pure look of illness spread across his once healthy cheeks "A month," He said. Suddenly Asa coughed and spluttered and his balance gave out.

A bucket of water was pushed between the metal bars, tiny splashes of water spilling from the bucket and onto the damp concrete ground. As the sun's light dimmed slowly rats scurried out of their hiding places searching desperately for food. The water was ice cold. I took a long drink from the metal bucket, my parched throat was soothed from its pain and dryness, I splashed a bit onto Asa's face, then I poured some of the water into his mouth as he came to.

The sun had disappeared on the second night of our time in jail. Asa's head lay on my lap our feet tucked in to stop the black, fat and horrible rats from nibbling at them. I watched as the orange sun disappeared from the bared window. Once the sun had gone completely and we were encased in darkness and silence (well apart from the sound of scurrying rat feet) I almost felt calm, sometimes the darkness can do that to you. After a few hours, as I stared out at the silvery sky a sudden realisation lingered in my mind. I gasped. Awaking Asa with a start. "What, What!?" He cried out,

"I've just realised something," I said. Asa relaxed a little bit

"Oh and here was me thinking it was something bad," he chuckled "So what is it then?"

"Tomorrow is July 16th... It's my birthday tomorrow, I forgot all about it." I said my voice was unnaturally quiet.

"You... What!" Asa exclaimed! He sat up so quickly that he head butted me in the jaw.

"Ouch!" I exhaled. The pain caused my mouth to go all fuzzy and it felt really weird.

"Oops... Sorry. So how old will you be?" Asa said, once he had positioned himself into an upright position.

"I will be... thirteen," I grunted, rubbing my verysore jaw "How old are you?" I asked realising that I had no idea how old Asawas, all I knew was his name and that he was a Jew. "Oh," he said, "I turnedthirteen weeks ago; in fact I was thirteen before I came here." I turned toface him. What I could see of his blue/greyish eyes bore into my mismatchedbrown pools of concussed mess. 

I opened my mouth to speak (an unknown feelingtickled my heart, scaring me in a good way) but I was interrupted by a smash of a heavy metal door, pounding feet and panting breath. The guard who rescued me from a bullet and who's name I didn't know came into view. His hands were shaking uncontrollably as he unlocked the iron door that separated us from him. "Come on, Come on!" He urged at us. The man grabbed our pyjama collars and pulled us outside, the sudden light from the lamp lights hurting my eyes. We stopped short as a loud bell somewhere rang out, the guard cursed lightly under his breath. Soldiers half dressed poured out from every hut in all directions most of them half asleep and sluggish, but not all of them...

One with a very large stick- that from my view looked like a bat- rubbed hiseyes, blinked a couple of times and spotted us. He pointed the stick (with redcrusty stuff on the end, I guessed it was blood) yelled something in angryGerman, and the mob charged...