Blood in the Water~Dunkirk|Book One|

Chapter Seventeen

•••

One by one the soldiers on the yacht clambered off of the boat. It was pitch black out as the sun had gone down hours ago.

The soldiers walked across the dock fo the harbor, finding travel chits being handed out by a corporal and hot tea being handed out by an elderly man.

Rayna took both without question, trying to warm up by holding the tea in her shaking fingers.

Tommy, Rayna, and Alex walker side by side. There was an English soldier every few meters, directing the soldiers form Dunkirk where to go.

They made it to the train tracks near the harbor. The line of soldiers walked past an old man that looked at the cobblestone ground.

"Well done, lads," the elderly man spoke. "Well done."

Alex breathed out. "All we did was survive."

"That's enough," the elderly man responded. "Well done. Well done."

Tommy used the pay phone at the station to call his father and tell him that he was coming home. Rayna could hear the emotion in his voice even from where she was standing a couple yards away.

Rayna couldn't exactly remember how or when, but she found herself along with he two boys boarding a train. Where it was going, she didn't care. She didn't know really anything of England, besides the fact that her aunt is somewhere in London. But London was an large city and Rayna had come to terms with the fact that she may never find her aunt. That is, if her aunt is still alive.

They sat down in a small square area made up of two benches with a table in the middle. A large window sat on the wall, showing nothing but the dark night.

Tommy slid onto one of the benches first, his back resting against the wall. Rayna sat on the same bench as him, her small frame fitting perfectly and comfortably in between his legs. She rest her back on his stomach and chest with her head on the left side in between his neck and shoulder. Tommy wrapped his arms around her waist, clasping both of their hands together over top of Rayna's stomach.

Alex sat across from them, creating a makeshift pillow out of his jacket and propping it between the wall and his neck.

Soon enough, everyone on the train was asleep. Tommy kissed the top of Rayna's head and hugged her tighter before both of them dozed off too.

•••

The train coming to a screeching halt is what awoke Rayna. Rayna opened her eyes to see many soldiers in their train car were awake as there was soft chattering and men moving about in between compartments.

Rayna sat up, up, unclasping her hands from Tommy's. At the sudden change of position and the loss of feeling Rayna against him, Tommy woke up too.

Rayna turned in her seat to look at Tommy. He had remnants of oil and dirt that smothered his face and he looked exhausted, but his eyes shone bright. Rayna had never thought him more handsome.

"How do I look?" Tommy raised an eyebrow with an amused smile, noticing that Rayna was staring.

Rayna let out a light laugh, which sounded like music to Tommy's ears. She then leaned forward an placed a soft and quick kiss on his lips before pulling away only an inch away.

"Like a new man," she whispered and then pulled away completely.

Alex's eyes opened as he too woke up, looking out the window at the bright sunlight. Two young boys stood on the train tracks across from the train they were on.

Alex stood up and opened the train window, shouting out to the boys. "Hey! Where are we?"

One of the boys look up at them. "Siding," he yelled back at Alex. "You'll put in in a minute."

"What station?" Alex asked.

The boy looked surprised. "Woking."

"Grab me one of them papers," Alex demanded, motioning to the stacks of newspapers that sat by the boys. The boy hesitated. "Go on!"

The dark haired boy gave in and grabbed a newspaper from off of the stack, running up to the window and climbing up the side of the train to hand it to Alex. Alex sat back down, the newspaper in hand. The train started to pull away again.

"I can't bare it," Alex spoke, staring at an article on the Dunkirk evacuation. "You read it," Alex slid the paper across the table.

"Can't bare it?" Tommy questioned as Rayna picked up the paper.

"They'll be spitting on us in the streets," Alex spoke. "If they're not licked up waiting for the invasion." Rayna swallowed as she scanned her eyes over the paper.

A sudden fear was pitted in her stomach. If the Germans invade England, she has no where else to go. If they find out that she was a French medic that escaped France, they would kill her no question.

"Wars are not won by evacuations," Rayna began to read the paper out loud. Alex shook his head at this, looking down at his hands as the train began to pull into the station. The platform was crowded with civilians. Alex hung his head in shame.

An Englishman Banger his fist in the glass. "I can't bare it," Alex spoke, avoiding eye contact with the man.

"But there was a victory inside of this deliverance that should be noted," Rayna continued. The Englishman outside of the window held three bottles up in his hands, motioning for Alex to take them. The crowd of civilians began to cheer at the sight of the soldiers.

Alex stood up in his seat, reaching out of the window and grabbing the bottles from the man with a smile.

"Our thankfulness at the escape of our army must not blind us to the fact that what happened in France is a colossal military disaster," Rayna spoke, reading from the paper. Alex waved out of the window at the cheering civilians. "And we must expect another blow to be struck immediately. We shall go on and we shall fight in France. She shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight within the air and we shall defend our island and welcome those who defend it with us. We shall defend it, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight in the fields and streets until-" Rayna took in a breath, looking from Alex then to Tommy. Alex stared outside of the window while Tommy looked only at her. She glanced back down at the paper, finishing the article. "Until our soldiers come home."