The War Angel

Closing the Gap pt 2

Evangeline traversed through the rubble-ridden forest, swallowing hard in hopes it would relieve the pain in her throat. She was freezing and very disoriented. She leaned up against a tree briefly to catch her breath. Non of it made sense. Last she remembered she was looking at Ron's face, now she was in the middle of nowhere, alone. Why did they leave her? Evangeline shook her head. They couldn't have left me on purpose? No they wouldn't...maybe they did temporarily and were gonna come back, but then the church got bombed.

She waited for someone's voice in her head to answer her but she heard nothing except her own heart beating in her chest.

No, no one is going to answer you, she thought. And it finally washed over her like a tsunami wave. Her father was dead and not coming back. Not even as a figment of her imagination. Suddenly her dream didn't feel like a dream anymore.

Hot tears poured from her face and warmed her slightly. She tried whistling to see if maybe Hades or Goliath would come but they didn't. She hadn't felt this alone since Poland...But she was determined to never go that crazy ever again. So she took a deep breath and starting looking for tracks. After nearly 20 minutes of searching she found something. She bent down to take a closer look but it was hard to tell. There were so many footprints that they all cancelled each other out. She couldn't tell if they were Easy's or the Germans. But it was all she had so she had to take a shot.

Evangeline followed the trail for miles. But eventually it hit a road and there was no telling which way they went. She collapsed on the ground out of breath. She would try to run for a while but then her side would start to hurt and she was forced to walk. She closed her eyes and felt her body pulse on the cold cement. She had felt something in her sock the whole time, but didn't want to stop to see what it was. Now she forced herself to sit up and check. She untied her boot and slid it off halfway. It was a folded piece of paper. She opened it up quickly.

It was a map. It drew a line from Foy to Haguenau, France. She laughed out loud. One of the boys must've slipped in her sock while she was sleeping. She held the map close to her chest and breathed a relief. At least now she knew where to go and how to get there. She looked at the map again. She was pleased to know that she was already on the right track. But by her estimations, if she walked the distance without stopping it would take her two days. But she was determined to get back to them. She picked her head up towards the sky and took a deep breath.

Chin up, charge the mountain.

She stood up and began again. Continuing for miles and miles. She grew tired and hungry but she kept going well into the night. She had only stopped briefly so far on the journey to ask pedestrians if she was going the right way. From these conversations and looking at the map, in 24 hours she had made it all the way through Luxembourg. But she was absolutely exhausted so much so that she found it harder and harder to keep going. Her vision was beginning to blur and her feet were incredibly sore.

She was so disoriented that she had to rest for just a second, she went to lean on the branch of a tree but it broke and she went tumbling down a hill. As she fell she could feel the stiches on her neck opening up and her stomach began to bleed again. When she reached the bottom of the hill her head was spinning. The sun was in her eyes but she squinted up and saw someone standing over her. But she hit her head when she came tumbling down so she only saw them briefly before she fell asleep.

She woke up in a bed laying on her side. She fluttered her eyes open not knowing where she was. When her eyes adjusted she saw a little girl standing in front of her. She had blonde hair that was fastened into low pigtails and she wore overalls that were one size too big.

"Hi." Evangeline muttered and grimaced. The little girl waved at her. "Do you speak English?" She asked. The little girl didn't respond. "Française?" She tried again but the little girl didn't respond to that either. Evangeline sat up and felt her neck, her stitches were redone and the pain in her stomach was no longer there. She took the covers off and saw that she was wearing stranger's clothes instead f her own. The little girl watched Evangeline with curious eyes. Evangeline cracked her neck before she got out of the bed. The little girl dashed out of the room quickly.