To Dream Of Shadows : A Gripping Holocaust Novel Inspired by a Heartbreaking True Story (World War II Historical Fiction Book 1) by Steve N Lee

Author:Steve N Lee [Lee, Steve N]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Zoo
Published: 2023-04-15T22:00:00+00:00

49

* * *

SEMICONSCIOUS IN A bunk, Inge caught a blurred glimpse of a large room in which sounds drawled as if someone were stretching them.

Her arm. A shape was touching her arm — a man. Wrapping it.

Nearby, a male voice. “That’s what you’re using?”

The man wrapping replied, “Paper bandages and aspirin are all we’ve got. Everything else is reserved for emergencies. Not that there’s much, so fingers crossed.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Footsteps clomped away.

The world darkened again.

The next time she woke, moaning, wheezing, and whimpering surrounded her. Where was she?

She wanted to push onto her elbows and look around, but she didn’t have the strength.

A woman’s voice said, “Hey.”

Inge peered from the corner of her eyes.

Greta hobbled over from the next bed, her knee in a brace. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been scraped off the bottom of someone’s shoe.”

“That good, huh?”

Greta sat on the edge of her bed. But Inge’s eyes widened as memories flooded back. Fear energizing her muscles, she shoved Greta. “Stay away.”

Inge pulled back, but something blocked the bed behind her. She turned — a pair of feet rested on the pillow beside her head. She was sharing the bed?

“Inge, calm down. You’re safe.”

Inge scrambled to get away from her bunkmate while shoving Greta away. She tumbled out of bed and sprawled across the floor.

Greta shouted, “Scharführer Baumann!”

Baumann rushed over. “Oh, dear Lord.”

Inge thrust her hands out. “Stay back. You need to put me in isolation.”

He frowned. “Isolation? Why?”

“I’ve got typhus.”

He laughed. “You haven’t got typhus. Food poisoning, that’s all.”

“Food poisoning?”

He grasped her hand and eased her up to sit on the edge of her bed.

Taking her pulse, he said, “Food poisoning, severe dehydration, and exhaustion, which, combined, caused you to collapse. You should consider yourself very lucky, young lady”— releasing her wrist, he put his stethoscope on her chest —“not many people get special treatment from the commandant himself.”

“The commandant? He’s the one who poisoned me.”

“Kommandant Kruse poisoned you?”

“With marmalade.”

Baumann laughed again. “It was the commandant who stopped the guards from beating you. Why would he poison you?”

She frowned. She remembered being beaten, but then everything had gone black. “He stopped the guards?”

“You’re lucky he’d rescheduled his inspection with Sturmbannführer Söllner, or you’d have suffered far more than just bruises.”

“But he gave me marmalade and then I got sick.”

Baumann scratched his head. “The commandant gave you marmalade?”

She held her hands apart. “A huge sandwich. After he saw me feeding a bird.”

“Ahhh. A bird. You stumbled upon the commandant’s soft spot. But what did you have before the marmalade?”

“Soup and bread from the kitchen.”

“And before that?”

“Nothing on the march here.”

“Did you drink?”

“From a well on the second night and a horse trough the first.”

He smiled. “A horse trough? But it’s the commandant’s marmalade that made you sick?”

“Ohhh, I suppose that makes more sense.”

“Good.” He handed her two charcoal tablets. “Chew these before swallowing and drink plenty of water.”

“Can I get up?”

“To stretch your legs, of course. By rights, you could return to work, but I’m penciling you in for barracks rest tomorrow and work the day after.

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.