One Woman War | Inglourious Basterds/Original Story

Chapter 3

Dashing in the opposite direction of the bunker, I made sure to make as much noise as possible to draw the German soldiers away from my family and towards me. At the beginning, I wasn't sure if it was working, and for the first time in my life, I felt more anxiety at the fact that I wasn't being chased. So, I resorted to something a little simpler. Turning around, I stopped dead in my tracks and let out a scream, nothing as obvious as 'hey, I'm over here!' but something that would still definitely get their attention.

When the flashlight beam settled on my face, burning my eyes in the process, I made squinted eye contact with the soldier, looked down at the red band around his uniform sleeve, and took off running again. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do. I was simply taking things as they came and praying I wasn't shot and killed in the process.

The fear and adrenaline coursing through my veins allowed me to run even after my lungs had given out and my legs ached, and so long as I could still hear the shouting and footsteps behind me, I kept placing one foot in front of the other.

As I came into a clearer area of the woods, one I had never been to before where the trees grew farther apart from each other, the gunshots rang out again, echoing through the otherwise silent night. Dashing behind a tree, I took a moment to gulp some air and scope out the area before taking off to where the woods grew thick again. 

By then my legs, arms, and face were scratched up beyond belief, but I was numb to the feeling of the sharp branches whipping against my skin. The only feeling I had at the moment was the feeling of worry for my family. 

"Where are you, little girl?" the same voice from before called out. He was gaining on me and I could practically feel him breathing down my neck. 

That's when the thought of being shot down in the middle of the woods washed over me. It would be like I never even existed. One pull of the trigger and I'd be but a distant memory to my family, should they still be alive. Just another casualty of the war.

Getting lost in thought, I stumbled over a tree root and fell forward, my fingertips digging into the dirt to stop me from falling all the way down. "I know you're out here." the man taunted, enjoying every little bit of this cat and mouse game we were playing. 

Pushing myself up again and continuing through the trees, I began searching for a place to hide. A mouse did not outrun a cat, no, it outsmarted it by hiding somewhere the cat couldn't get it. I needed to embrace the fact that I was the mouse and start acting like one. 

Deciding to make a sharp right turn, I began in a new direction, my eyes scanning the terrain as I passed by, searching for anything to hide in. There were a few hollowed out tree trunks that animals used for shelter, but they were too small to fit in, so I continued on, all the while listening as the soldier followed and mocked me. 

Eventually, I spotted it. A small dugout that was situated behind a group of trees. It wasn't too wide, but it was deep, deep enough for me to get down to the bottom and let the shadows of the night hide me away. 

Glancing back to make sure the soldier wasn't close enough to see where I was hiding, I did a quick scan before jumping down into the dugout. Clawing at the dirt on the sides, I covered myself with as much of it as I could and laid down, as still as could be. 

My heart pounded in my ears and as I laid there, dirt covering my body and my eyes staring up at the canopy of trees above. I focused on keeping my breathing slow and quiet, but as the sound of leaves and twigs crunching under boots got louder and louder, the fear that had been pushed aside by adrenaline was taking center stage again.