A Partisan's Fight - COMPLETED!

Chapter Twenty-Five

The terrain hadn't gotten much better, but the trio had stumbled their way through. Surviving by the pure strength of stubbornness and the willpower to make a difference. Food had been scarce and it showed on their protruding wrists and more pronounced facial features. Nobody had said it'd be easy, but it was harder to get home then any of them could have ever imagined.

"So, this is home?" Markus eyed up the torn up town. Clearly, something had happened while they were gone. Buildings had been blown up and torn down. People were scarce. Businesses no longer existed.

"Mina? Are you okay?" Aldrik pulled his full focus on the woman. She'd went from some excitement to sheet white. Her home had been demolished. Torn away from her like most other things.

Markus followed Aldrik's gaze to the young woman. He walked in front of her, blocking her vision of the rubble that revealed a destroyed city. "Mina? Mina, look at me." He demanded of her. She had no reason to listen to him, but he'd had some experience of devastation similar to this. He'd seen soldiers shell shocked. He'd seen people so consumed by shock that they couldn't make sense of anything around them. He could help her.

"What are you doing?" Aldrik stared at him, ready to intervene if necessary. The protective nature was popping through as Markus knew it would.

"She's in shock. I've seen others that have had this happen from seeing things so traumatic that their brain can't process the information. It freezes them." He placed his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to pull herself out of the trance.

She just looked at him. Her eyes wide. They weren't scared though. There was something else going on in her expression. Something that seemed all too readable to Markus. She felt like she lost everything. He'd felt that too. There was nothing more real than seeing your home taken from beneath you. Seeing your family go away. It was the worst way to experience shock. The worst fucking way.

"Mina, listen to my voice, okay? You're going to be all right. I've lost my home too. I've lost my family. I didn't think I had anymore left to fulfill me. I clung to hatred. Hatred for a country that I thought destroyed my life. You need to cling to something. Anything. It doesn't have to be hate. Or, maybe it does. Hate me more if it helps you, but we have a mission to accomplish and you can't shut down. We need you here with us. Nod your head if you understand, okay?" The words came all too easily for him. Perhaps it was because he meant them, or perhaps it was because he'd lived in her shoes to a degree. He could understand her. Relate to her.

Slowly, her head bobbed up and down. "I will not let us down." Her voice was weak, but her words strong. She was trembling, maybe from the cold, maybe from the shock, or maybe from lack of nutrition. Markus wasn't sure, but he could see the fire still burning deep within her dulled eyes. Another piece had been chipped away from her shell, but it didn't weaken her. In fact, it gave her more to fight for.

"I am sorry, Mina, about your parents home." Aldrik's words were genuine. He looked as though he'd been just as affected by the random act of terror. It was all just a part of war. A horrible part that nobody could deny.

Shaking her head, she looked up at her friend. "That is not what breaks my heart, Aldrik."

"I do not understand." He shook his head, clearly confused. Markus could agree with him there. It was the reason he thought she was devastated as well.

Swallowing hard, her brows creased upward. "Your business... your work. It is gone too."

A slow, sad smile spread across her friend's face. "Mina, that is the least of my worries. My work can be rebuilt. Honestly, if what you're planning is going to happen, I am no longer going to need that business. You are alive. That is all that matters to me."

"Aldrik!" A voice shouted across the rubble. A young man worked his way around barriers to the trio.

"Jyrgen?" Aldrik stepped away from Markus and Mina. He focused on the figure getting closer to them. Markus could see the recognition spreading across Aldrik's face — along with relief. As soon as the young man got within reaching distance, Aldrik wrapped a hand around the back of the boy's neck and pulled him into a tight hug. "It is a relief that you are safe, my friend."

Jyrgen returned the embrace. "I did not know if you would make it back."

Aldrik pulled away. He grabbed the young man's chin and swayed his head from side to side, making sure he was all right.

Pulling out of Aldrik's grip, he smiled. "I am fine, Aldrik. I am safe."

Mina stepped forward. The color in her face had returned. "What happened, Jyrgen? What happened to our home?"

"Air raid." He said as if it were obvious. "Then the Gestapo came marching through looking for more Jews and pretty much anyone that seemed out of place."

Markus couldn't help but notice the disgust on the woman's face. She shook her head, staring at the damage done. He was amazed at how quickly she seemed to snap back from the shock. The word she spoke was equally surprising to him. "Animals."

"Hey, that is still part of the Fatherland we are talking about." The boy interjected just as quickly as the word had slipped from her mouth.

Mina straightened and pinned him with a look of complete defiance. "And you believe that they are for us? Helping us?"

Jyrgen tilted his head to the side, studying her.

"She is just tired. Frustrated." Aldrik pinned her with a warning look.

"No, I want to know where he stands, Aldrik. I am just as glad as you are to see him alive, but where does he stand?" She barely looked at her companion with anything but a frustrated anger.

"They could do horrible things to you for speaking out of term, Mina." Jyrgen watched her carefully. His words were on the verge of defiance.

"And you would be all right with that?" She tested him. Her words slithered through her mouth like a snake sniffing out its prey.

"No! No, of course not! I am not all right with anything they do, but I will not test them either. I do not want to end up in a camp for being defiant. And I surely do not want to end up dead because of it either." He stood his ground. The truth radiating from his gaze.

Mina nodded. She glanced at both Markus and Aldrik. "That is all I wanted to know. Will we be staying at your place, Aldrik?"

He looked over at Jyrgen. The boy nodded. "It is still standing. They didn't touch the area where you live."

Aldrik nodded, pulling his gaze back over to Mina. "You both are welcome to stay in my home. I have extra rooms for privacy. It will have to work for the time being."