Until the Sun Comes Up

Lola sat with her legs sticking up in the tub. Donny’s head peaked in through the busted frame and looked around the once white bathroom.

“Jesus Christ, what did you do?” He glanced around at the blood on the floor, sink and now, the tub.

“Vat did I do?! I just pulled a bullet out of my fucking arm, zats vat I did!” She screamed out at him as she tried to maneuver her way out of the deep tub. She muttered curse words in her native tongue as Donny stepped over the broken shards of wood and walked over to the tub. Lola growled as she kept slipping back down with her attempts. She looked up at him expectedly. Donny stood in front of her, between her open legs and grabbed her left arm with his right hand. As she moved up, his left arm wrapped around her small waist, her bare waist, and he hoisted her up and onto her feet. She couldn’t help but let a shiver slide up and down her spine as his rough, calloused hand gripped her skin lightly. As her feet were set firmly on the ground, she looked up at him, taking in his appearance for the first time. Her left hand rested on his arm, yet he didn’t let go of her waist.

The first thing Lola noticed about him were those dark, mysterious eyes that seemed to hold the world. Pronounced, thick eyebrows shaped above them. His thick, dark head of hair was the next thing she noticed. Even though it was messed up from the day’s earlier events, it still looked perfectly shaped as it was parted on one side and combed over, making the front hairs curl over to the side. She had the urge to run her fingers through it, but she didn’t act on her impulse because quite frankly, that would be a very dumb thing to do. The stubble on his face made him all the more handsome and those lips; they were perfectly shaped and behind them held perfectly straight, white teeth.

His body was thick, she could tell, under his coat. The hardness of his chest as he pulled her up and into him from the tub was felt against her as they stood. By the touch of her hand, his arm was large, very large. No doubt he was made of muscle. His scent is what drew her in. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but it made her realize that this man before her was exactly that; a man, not just some soldier, not just some killer. He was a person, as they all were, but he seemed to have his humanity intact.

It seemed like no matter what feature was pointed out on Donny, everything about him was masculine. Not one of his features made him any less intimidating and that scared her, but something inside of her told her that he would never lay a hand on her.

Donny looked down at her. Her chocolate colored hair was a mess in the bun it was held in, her pale face was blotchy from the tears that were shed and the cold wind that whipped at her face when they were outside. Her full bottom lip was trembling and her legs were shaking. Her perfectly arched eyebrows raised as his eyes traveled down. The realization that she didn’t have a shirt on hit them both like a brick wall and she pulled away from him.

“Vat are you doing here?” She pushed past him and went back to the sink where some medical thread had been attached to a needle that she had prepared before she dug the bullet out. She wiped as much wet blood off of her arm as she could before she put herself back in front of the mirror. Donny just stood at his spot by the tub and watched her. The way she maneuvered her arm to see it in the mirror made her twist her slender, bare waist. He couldn’t help but watch her move. He was a man after all.

Before she started stitching herself up, she grabbed the hand towel that she had dropped and shoved it back in her mouth, clamping her teeth around it. She brought her arm back in front of the mirror and picked up the needle. She took a deep breath and inserted it into her skin, pushing it through and out on the other side of the wound, then pulled the thread through. She let out a shaky breath as that first incision was done, but she still had a ways to go.

Donny watched on in awe. He had never seen a woman act this way in his life. Standing in front of a man she didn’t know in her bra and stitching herself back together. It was just something that he couldn’t wrap his head around. Aldo’s words rang through his head as he finally pulled himself together. “Just remember, as soon as we find a safe place, she’s gone.” He couldn’t help but sigh.

“Give me it,” He stepped up to her. She looked at him with a bewildered look on her face. He almost wanted to laugh at not only that, but the towel hanging out of her mouth. “We gotta hurry this up,
Aldo’s gonna have my head on a silvah plattah,” He grabbed the needle from her shaking hand and went back to sewing her wound shut. About five minutes later, he was done with both wounds and he was wiping off her arm. “Pack lightly, we gotta go.”

“Vat do you mean ‘ve’?”

“I mean we. Now get your pretty little ass movin!” The Sergeant in him came out. She jumped, surprised at the raise in his voice and scurried down the hall to her room. She pulled out an old duffle bag that he used when she was in her teens and started throwing trousers, blouses, under garments and an extra coat into it knowing that dresses would be useless. She pulled a blouse on her bare torso with haste. “We don’t have all day!” Donny yelled from the living room.

Lola snapped her bag shut and ran out of her bedroom and into the living room where Donny was standing, waiting. She looked over to what was once her forest green front door. It now laid smashed to pieces on the floor, a slender strip of wood still on the hinges.

“It vas unlocked!” She scolded him as she threw her coat on.

“We don’t have time for this!” He stepped over the planks and to the stairwell, taking the steps in twos or threes, while she lagged behind taking them one at a time. The front door was wide open, letting the winter draft in as snow continued falling to the ground. As they made it down the stoop, Lola looked back at the building and gave it a silent farewell, knowing that this would probably be the last time she saw her home.

The snow crunched under their footsteps as they made their way down the street with Donny’s rifle in hand while Lola carried her bag. Donny gave a loud whistle. Aldo’s head peaked out of a side alley, lip jutting out and all.

“It’s about damn time,”

The Basterds shuffled out of the alley, all mumbling things as they continued down the street. As they walked in near silence, Lola looked to the side buildings. Some had blood stains running down the stone walls that were turning a rusted orange color. They would probably never come off. It disgusted her, what the Nazis were doing. She was ashamed to call herself German. How could anyone have so much hate towards another person, enough hate to kill them just for being who they are; something that they never asked for and can never change? It just didn’t process in her mind. People like that, like Dieter, were sick and twisted. While she knew it was wrong, she felt a sense of happiness now that Dieter would never be there to creep out of the shadows, to slither his way into her life. He was gone forever and there wasn’t any way she could thank these men, Donny mostly, since Hirshberg seemed to screw it up by shooting her and barely wounding him.

Lola stayed silent as the men started chatting. Lola’s apartment was close to the outskirts of Berlin, giving them an easy escape from the city and into the woods. Questions were turning in her head, like why did they go back for her? Why did she even comply with Donny? As she thought more and more about it, she realized that if she didn’t, she probably wouldn’t make it that much longer in the city. She would’ve either been shot when they found Dieter’s body near her home or she would’ve starved to death. Death was the only thing left for her in Berlin, that was the reason she agreed to come.

Every so often the men in front of her, namely Hirschberg, would turn their heads around and give her a look that she assumed was their way of showing her they were interested and in his case, wiggle his eyebrows. Maybe she should’ve just stayed home.

“Well, yeh don’t have teh come with us, Buttercup. But I must warn yeh, it’s only a matter o’time before the Americans blow up yer little slice of paradise, so I’d make a cautious decision if I was you.” That smirk was held on Aldo’s lips as he walked to the left of her while Donny was on her right. His blue eyes were playful, but they meant business. It seemed like no matter what the situation was, he always had a smart ass comment coming out of his mouth. She chose to keep her mouth shut for the time being and let herself adjust to the new direction her life was heading.