Retake Our Home

Chapter 8

Plagg slowed his breathing as he heard men step closer to him. How could this have happened? He laid completely still covered by hay and watched. German Soldiers placed his men against the barn they had been hiding in. They were out numbered three to one, so all he could do was hide.

France had surrendered to Germany three months ago and had ordered all troops to stand down. Only Plagg and his men had disobeyed that order. They had been using  guerrilla warfare to fight the well armed Germans in the countryside. But now his men had been captured.

The only reason he wasn't among them was because he went on a food run. A near by Farmer had been giving them milk and cheese as thanks for their service. The man was a Jew who was going to leave the country tonight. When Plagg had returned to the old barn they used as a base the Germans were already rounding up his boys. He quickly hid to avoid capture by throwing himself into a pile of hay.

"So," A German Officer smiled. "Where is your commanding Officer? I know he's not here."

"Go kill yourself." One of the French soldiers spat. "You won't capture the Sergeant."

"Capture?" The Nazi Officer questioned with a cold, dark smile. "My orders weren't to capture you."

The man then pulled out his sidearm and shot the Soldier he had been talking to. All the German's began shooting the unarmed men as Plagg watched horrified. Soon an eerie silence settled in as the bullets stopped. Plagg held back his sickness and tears still trying to remain hidden.

"Search all surrounding homes!" The Officer called to his lackeys. "Find this last rat, and end him!"

Plagg waited until he was sure they were gone before moving. He slowly emerged from hiding and approached his dead friends. Desperately he searched for survivors, but found none. How could he have let this happen? He was responsible for them, he convinced them to keep fighting, and now they were dead... because of him. 

The broken Soldier moved from body to body preforming his duty as a commanding Officer. Each Soldier carried a set of Dog Tags to identify them. One stayed with the body, the other with the commanding Officer until it was recorded and the dead men were labeled KIA, or Killed In Action. Once he had their tags Plagg thought about what to do next. The sounds of coming foot steps came quickly behind him and he forced himself to hide among his dead friends.

"Why do we have to stay with the bodies?" Plagg translated from what little German he knew. 

"I case their Sergeant comes back." The other German replied.

Plagg saw two Germans standing not to far way from where he laid. Both were armed  with MP-40 sub-machine guns. All Plagg had was his Ruby pistol and the element of surprise. He could probably take them both, but risked alerting the other near by Germans. The only way he could do this without making noise was separating the guards. However luck seemed to be on Plagg's side for once.

"I gotta go take a leak." One of the guards said.

"Fine," The other man said a bit annoyed. "Just go will ya? I'm going to have a look  around."

They separated from one another and Plagg readied for the kill. He pulled out his knife quietly and waited for the unsuspecting German. When the guard began to do his business he would approach from behind and kill him. However the German came closer to the dead French Soldiers until he towered over them. Plagg laid behind him and heard the man begin to undo his pants.

"Hope you don't mind if I do my business here." The man said with a cruel laugh.

Plagg felt his anger explode inside himself and jumped to his feet. He quickly grabbed the man by the mouth preventing any call for help. With one swift move of his hand Plagg cut across the man's throat then added a few violent, unneeded stabs to the man's gut. The man screamed for help but Plagg's hand remained secure and muffled all attempts.