Clouded Judgement by Thomas Wood

Author:Thomas Wood [Wood, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BoleynBennett Publishing
Published: 2019-04-18T22:00:00+00:00

9

“My name is Captain Arnold.”

The Captain knelt down in front of the German and spoke slowly and clearly, succeeding in patronising the young man before him, whether it was intentional or not, I did not know.

“He speaks perfect English, Sir.”

He looked to our new prisoner for confirmation.

“My name is Unteroffizer Franck Maas, Royal Bavarian, Twelfth Infantry Regiment. What do you want with me? To kill me?”

He seemed scared, which was not surprising considering the situation that he now found himself in. I was not sure that I would be reacting as calmly in his position.

“No…No…” the Captain sighed, pulling his woollen hat from his head, revealing the hair that was becoming just as greasy as the stubble on his chin. His voice trembled slightly, as if he was not even convincing himself of the fact that the German would remain safe.

Maas could detect the uncertainty in his voice.

“What are you going to do to me? Why have we stopped here?”

They were all fair questions, as one would assume that now we had a prisoner we would keep on going until we made it back to our line. The young bespectacled German would not get the answers that he was craving, only a distorted variation of an answer from the Captain.

“We are not taking you back to our lines. There will be no record of you ever being in our care. Do you understand what that means?”

The German began to look around fearfully, his eyes wide and tearful behind the thick sheets of glass.

He began to whisper something under his breath in German, which seemed to have the rhythm and feel of a prayer to it, but I could not understand a word that he was saying. It was at that moment, as a wave of cool air brushed over my skin, that I realised that we needed McKay. He was the only one of us who could actually speak any German.

I looked up briefly, at which point I caught Chester’s eye and I got the distinct impression that his gaze had been burning at the side of my cheek for a considerable amount of time. We locked eyes for two or three seconds, before he turned away again, to man his post and scour the route that we had just come down.

What had I done wrong?

Had he noticed something about me? Maybe he was harbouring the same doubts about simply sitting here and waiting for a helping of artillery, especially without the luck of the hip flask. He seemed to hate me, for whatever reason, but I could not for the life of me work out what I had done to scorn him.

None of that matters right now. The German at your feet does.

“Ja…Ja…Ich verstehe…I understand. I am here so that you can kill me if I do not do as you say.”

“You’re a fast learner.”

I caught the eye of Lawrence this time, who seemed to be staring at me in exactly the same way as Chester had been. I

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