The German Girl by Lily Graham

Author:Lily Graham [Graham, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838889333
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

As night fell, and they were greeted by the sound of an owl from one of the nearby trees, Goran switched on a flashlight, which he handed to the twins.

‘Asta, Jürgen, will you look for dried twigs and leaves, anything to start a fire?’

‘Won’t that be dangerous?’ asked Jürgen. ‘A fire, here?’

Goran nodded. ‘Yes. But the temperature is dropping substantially. We’ll need it – even if we all huddle together there’s a danger we could get hypothermia – these woods get freezing at night. It’s a calculated risk we’ll have to take.’

The twins shared anxious looks. They weren’t alone in wishing the odds were more in their favour, but dying of hypothermia while trying to escape wasn’t something they wanted to try either.

They combed their nearby surroundings looking for dry twigs and leaves, but most of it was wet and swollen from the weather. They kept searching, the flashlight’s beam casting its rays low to the ground. It was nearing midnight, and above their heads the moon was bright amongst the stars.

The cold, cloudless night displayed a blanket of stars, and with the wind whistling amongst the trees, it was beautiful. It seemed somehow unfair that the world could still contain so much beauty after all that they had been put through – all their pain and fear, all their anxiety for their future – but then, the world had stopped being a fair place for the pair of them long ago.

After twenty minutes, however, they had a change of luck, and found a stack of firewood beneath a tarpaulin alongside a metal drum.

‘Probably something the rangers use to keep warm,’ said Jürgen wisely, as they began filling their jumpers with the wood. It was good to have this moment to themselves. To talk freely, and to process all that they had gone through so far.

‘Polgo is going to be so mad when he finds out that the driver left us,’ said Asta. ‘I wish there was some way we could let him know we’re all right.’

Jürgen nodded, adding another piece of wood to his pile, ignoring his concern that they weren’t all right, not yet. ‘Come on, let’s head back.’

After a while he said, ‘I was thinking,’ looking at his twin, her face drawn in the harsh flashlight which highlighted the deep shadows beneath her eyes, ‘what are the chances of us all getting across safely?’

Asta frowned. ‘We can’t think like that, Jürgen.’

He stopped walking. Some animal skittered past in the dark, possibly a rat, thought Asta. The sound of insects increased in volume, loud and humming, alongside the howling whistle of the wind.

‘We have to, Asta. You heard what Goran said – about how much longer it will take to cross than it should. I like them too but two of them are really old – older even than our own grandparents – you saw how hard this was on Sofie. And the others aren’t exactly young either – if we have to get away fast, how quickly

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