Ultimatum
Chapter 3
Daniela shuddered, feeling the cold wind against her skin.
Was heaven supposed to be this cold?
She squinted through her eyelashes but no bright white light greeted her.
Was heaven supposed to be this dark?
Daniela again opened her eyes, seeing the dark outline of the forest treeline against the dark blue night sky. She wasn't in heaven--better--she was outside!
The pain in her stomach still lingered but her lungs felt better now that she was breathing fresh air instead of the stale filthy air of her jail cell.
She inhaled deeply. And then again...what was that awful smell? Daniela took in another deep breath, breathing through her nose. The smell was putrid, rotten actually.
It smelled like rotting flesh, bad salmon and old coffee grains; if there were anything in her stomach she would have emptied everything from it but instead she held her breath and lifted herself to her knees. Something crackled underneath her left shin, the sound reminded her of a paper bag.
Daniela thought back to her last moments of consciousness and remembered her shallow breathing. By the time that guard found a doctor and found her in the cell she must have hardly been breathing and had lost consciousness.
Seeing as that she ended up in the Munich base's dumping ground the guard hadn't been able to retrieve Dr. Schreiber because if he had she would be in the infirmary.
Daniela scanned the area and noticed that something small and round was catching the light of a close spot light. She crawled closer, and she saw that it was a glossy gray tint of an eye.
She scanned the face, the ghostly pale cheeks and the purple pooling of blood that appeared around the empty eyes. Daniela brought her hand to her mouth, her heart beat quickening.
Her eyes darted down to the dead women's body and noticed the pink apron wrapped around her mother's favorite dress. Tears flooded her eyes and poured down her cheeks as she grabbed her mother's body in her arms and held her close to her chest rocking back and forth.
She began whispering the lullaby her mother sang to her repeatedly as a child when she was scared of the dark or had trouble falling asleep.
Time seemed to pass slowly as she sang the lullaby, rocking her mother back and forth; Daniela opened her eyes and set her mother back on the pile of garbage and saw her father's body laying only a few feet away.
She knew she had to get out of here, and quickly before someone happened to walk past and see her moving.
Daniela knelt over her mother and closed her eyes, she looked more at peace now. She scanned her mother's body one last time and noticed her gold wedding ring. She quickly slipped it off her mother's cold fingers and placed it onto hers.
She then moved to her father's body, closing his eyes the same as she had done to her mother. Unlike her mother he had been stripped of his SS uniform and was left here in only his undergarments. She slipped his wedding ring off his finger and then saw the the beautiful handcrafted mezuzah hanging around his neck.
Despite being Catholic, her father had worn this necklace everyday after a little boy who was a member of the first family he saved gave it to him as he was escorting them into Spain.
She hurriedly unfastened the necklace from her father's neck, looped his wedding ring onto the leather cord and tied it around her neck.
Daniela heard voices in the distance and stood, ignoring the muscles moving underneath the bruised, scabbed, infected skin of her back. Adrenaline had begun to course through her veins, making her feel strong for the first time in nine days as she started run.
Her throat burned as she ran, the night air was cold and brutal in her lungs.
Her long blood-stained slacks kept catching on the low-growing nettles and thistles, tripping her up as she sprinted past. In the distance she could see the glow of a distant fire. As she got closer men's voices reached her ears; they were laughing. A sound she hadn't heard in years.
Daniela had tripped over a fallen sapling and tumbled loudly to the ground; the thistles cut into her bare torso as she landed on them.
"What was that?" a male's voice sounded.
They were speaking English. Americans?
Daniela lay on the ground, attempting to untangle herself from the prickly plants in a hurry to get farther away from these men. If they were Americans then she would be saved but if they weren't than she had to get far away from this place, and fast.
She pushed herself up but her arms refused to lift her. Daniela had used the last of her strength during her run from the base.
Her eyes grew heavy; her system was shutting down from either lack of food and water or infection; or both. The last thing she heard before her eyes closed for good was: "Hirschberg, Utivich, go see what that was."
A man with a funny accent had said this and it made her think of the funny western American films her and her brother used to watch as kids.
Was heaven supposed to be this cold?
She squinted through her eyelashes but no bright white light greeted her.
Was heaven supposed to be this dark?
Daniela again opened her eyes, seeing the dark outline of the forest treeline against the dark blue night sky. She wasn't in heaven--better--she was outside!
The pain in her stomach still lingered but her lungs felt better now that she was breathing fresh air instead of the stale filthy air of her jail cell.
She inhaled deeply. And then again...what was that awful smell? Daniela took in another deep breath, breathing through her nose. The smell was putrid, rotten actually.
It smelled like rotting flesh, bad salmon and old coffee grains; if there were anything in her stomach she would have emptied everything from it but instead she held her breath and lifted herself to her knees. Something crackled underneath her left shin, the sound reminded her of a paper bag.
Daniela thought back to her last moments of consciousness and remembered her shallow breathing. By the time that guard found a doctor and found her in the cell she must have hardly been breathing and had lost consciousness.
Seeing as that she ended up in the Munich base's dumping ground the guard hadn't been able to retrieve Dr. Schreiber because if he had she would be in the infirmary.
Daniela scanned the area and noticed that something small and round was catching the light of a close spot light. She crawled closer, and she saw that it was a glossy gray tint of an eye.
She scanned the face, the ghostly pale cheeks and the purple pooling of blood that appeared around the empty eyes. Daniela brought her hand to her mouth, her heart beat quickening.
Her eyes darted down to the dead women's body and noticed the pink apron wrapped around her mother's favorite dress. Tears flooded her eyes and poured down her cheeks as she grabbed her mother's body in her arms and held her close to her chest rocking back and forth.
She began whispering the lullaby her mother sang to her repeatedly as a child when she was scared of the dark or had trouble falling asleep.
Time seemed to pass slowly as she sang the lullaby, rocking her mother back and forth; Daniela opened her eyes and set her mother back on the pile of garbage and saw her father's body laying only a few feet away.
She knew she had to get out of here, and quickly before someone happened to walk past and see her moving.
Daniela knelt over her mother and closed her eyes, she looked more at peace now. She scanned her mother's body one last time and noticed her gold wedding ring. She quickly slipped it off her mother's cold fingers and placed it onto hers.
She then moved to her father's body, closing his eyes the same as she had done to her mother. Unlike her mother he had been stripped of his SS uniform and was left here in only his undergarments. She slipped his wedding ring off his finger and then saw the the beautiful handcrafted mezuzah hanging around his neck.
Despite being Catholic, her father had worn this necklace everyday after a little boy who was a member of the first family he saved gave it to him as he was escorting them into Spain.
She hurriedly unfastened the necklace from her father's neck, looped his wedding ring onto the leather cord and tied it around her neck.
Daniela heard voices in the distance and stood, ignoring the muscles moving underneath the bruised, scabbed, infected skin of her back. Adrenaline had begun to course through her veins, making her feel strong for the first time in nine days as she started run.
Her throat burned as she ran, the night air was cold and brutal in her lungs.
Her long blood-stained slacks kept catching on the low-growing nettles and thistles, tripping her up as she sprinted past. In the distance she could see the glow of a distant fire. As she got closer men's voices reached her ears; they were laughing. A sound she hadn't heard in years.
Daniela had tripped over a fallen sapling and tumbled loudly to the ground; the thistles cut into her bare torso as she landed on them.
"What was that?" a male's voice sounded.
They were speaking English. Americans?
Daniela lay on the ground, attempting to untangle herself from the prickly plants in a hurry to get farther away from these men. If they were Americans then she would be saved but if they weren't than she had to get far away from this place, and fast.
She pushed herself up but her arms refused to lift her. Daniela had used the last of her strength during her run from the base.
Her eyes grew heavy; her system was shutting down from either lack of food and water or infection; or both. The last thing she heard before her eyes closed for good was: "Hirschberg, Utivich, go see what that was."
A man with a funny accent had said this and it made her think of the funny western American films her and her brother used to watch as kids.