The Witch of Stalingrad by Justine Saracen

Author:Justine Saracen [Saracen, Justine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Lesbian, Romance, Historical
ISBN: 9781626393745
Amazon: B00TOYJU2W
Goodreads: 25215553
Publisher: Smashwords Edition
Published: 2015-03-15T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Alex woke up to the touch of someone taking her hand, then recognized Lilya sitting on an ammunition crate at her bedside. She managed a weak smile. “I wondered where you were.”

“I was on duty when you arrived. After I landed, they told me you were with the medics on the west bank, and I worried about you all night long. Then today, they brought you in unconscious and I was terrified of losing you. The doctors said it was loss of blood and they gave you a transfusion, so it looks like you’re going to be all right.” Her voice was strangely raw, her eyes swollen and red.

Alex glanced around. “I’m in a hospital?”

“Soviet military field hospital number 833. Do you remember what happened?”

“I was flying back with Katia when a Me-109 got us. Katia! Is she all right?”

Lilya pressed her lips together to stop their trembling. “She came to, in the hospital. This hospital. And we told her you’d flown the plane in. She said to thank you for bringing her home.”

“Then she’s all right?”

“No. She died right after that.” Alex understood the swollen eyes now. “But she knew she was home, with us,” Lilya added, and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “We buried her next to the airfield.”

“Dear God,” Alex whispered, choking up. “Katia gone. And it’s my fault. She flew in to take me out of Stalingrad.”

“Don’t say that. She flew into the cauldron every day. We all did. That was just the day they finally got her. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Yes, but—”

The voice of a doctor, a harried-looking gray-haired woman, interrupted her. The filthy smock she wore fit her badly, like the white camouflage the ground troops wore. Her red, half-closed eyes suggested she hadn’t slept for a long time. Alex looked up quizzically.

“I asked how you felt,” the doctor repeated.

“I’ll live,” Alex said.

“Good, because you have to leave. We need your bed for worse cases. Lucky for you, a GAZ-55 bus is outside the hospital about to return to Akhtuba. And since we have men here dying of typhoid, you’ll be better off at your base.”

“Typhoid.” Lilya echoed the terrifying word. “Thank you for telling us, Doctor. Would you call someone to help me carry the litter?” She reached for Alex’s parka at the foot of her bed.

She turned to Alex. “Can you sit up?”

“Umm, yes, I think so.” She lifted her head while Lilya pulled her up. “Oh, dizzy, but give me a minute.” She sat swaying for a moment, then, with difficulty and a groan of pain, she slid her injured arm into the sleeve of the parka. Her hand brushed the dried blood inside.

A moment later, a young medic arrived with a folded canvas stretcher. She laid it crosswise over the bed and opened it, revealing an ominous patchwork of dark stains.

“Don’t try to stand up. Just slide over onto this,” the medic ordered her, and Alex obeyed, lying down on her good side with a muffled moan.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.