White Rose Black Forest(5)

She stood still for a few seconds. “Who are you?” she whispered.

She waited a moment, as if he was going to sit up and answer her question. But there was no sound from his lips, just the whine of the wind as it began to swirl around them once more. It had to be almost seven. There was no time to waste. She took his backpack on her shoulders and slipped him out of the parachute, its purpose served. She couldn’t leave it on him: It could catch on the ground. It was heavy. People had been executed for being caught with less. Even if the Gestapo wasn’t looking for him, someone finding a parachute up here would lead to questions that would lead to him. She could risk bringing it, because if they were caught, there would be no explaining him away, with or without the parachute. She folded it up as best as she could, getting it down to a manageable armload of nylon before placing it on top of him. She took the remaining length of rope, around twenty feet, and looped it around the sled, securing him to it, and the parachute to his chest. She pulled the rope tight but allowed the man space to breathe. Then they were ready.

She took the tie at the front of the sled and pulled. The sled moved along the smooth surface of the snow, and they set off. The first few hundred yards were relatively easy as they made their way across the snowy meadow, but the fastest way back to the house involved moving through some trees and across a frozen stream. That wasn’t going to be possible while pulling the man behind her. She was going to have to stick to the trails, and that increased her chances of meeting someone. She thought of whom she might meet, and of the deficit of trust the Nazis had created among the German people. The pistol still weighed heavy in her pocket. She had forgotten to take it out of her coat.

For every easy downhill slope, there was another uphill to negotiate, and the steep climb to the cabin at the very end of the journey awaited her. She would be at her absolute weakest then. She kept on, though her muscles were beginning to fail. She could feel the strength leaking from her. Her breaths grew deeper and more pronounced. Sweat began to freeze against her exposed skin. She knew how dangerous that was, how frostbite could follow, but she didn’t stop. There could be no stopping. She kept on as the sun peeked over the horizon. There was no joy in its coming, no comfort in the dawn. She was almost a mile from the cabin, and the cloak of night was unraveling by the second.

The sound of footsteps came from in front. It was hard at first to tell quite where from. She stood silent, her pulse racing. Her ears were attuned to the silence, and she could clearly make out the sound of approaching footsteps along the trail. She looked back at the man on the sled. It was hard to tell how much time they had, but she doubted it was more than a minute. The trail curved ahead, which meant that the person approaching would be out of sight until it was too late. She pulled the sled off the trail and down behind a line of trees. She did her best to hide him, covering him with some loose branches. The tracks they’d made along the path itself were still visible. Anyone could have noticed where they’d stopped. She pressed her hand over her mouth to stop the sound of her breathing.

A minute dragged by, the noises getting ever louder. The figure came into view. She recognized the man and almost laughed as she shook her head. It was Herr Berkel, her ex-boyfriend’s father. She knew without hesitation that he would report her. Daniel was in the Gestapo. Nothing would have given Herr Berkel more pleasure. He was about sixty feet away now, ambling along the trail, walking stick in hand. It had been years since she’d spoken to him, back when she and Daniel were together. He was a gruff man, lacking any charm or refinement. He lived close by. This was probably his morning routine.

He was a large man, well over sixty years old. Her hand went to the gun in her pocket. What was she prepared to do to protect a man she’d encountered just hours before, one whom she’d never spoken to? She probably didn’t even know his real name. Looking at Herr Berkel brought back clear images of the evils that had swallowed her country. She moved her eyes to the man on the sled and felt every bit of hope left within her. He had already saved her life, just as she had saved his.

Berkel stopped on the trail about twenty feet short of where they were hiding. He leaned back, stretching out his lower back, and retrieved a cigarette from his pocket. He placed it between his lips, struck a match, and inhaled the smoke. She could just about make out his face from where she was hiding. His eyes appeared to focus, and he began to walk again, although more slowly this time, while staring down at the trail. He looked right and then left, within a few feet of where they were hiding. He stopped, and her heart almost stopped with him. Her finger was on the trigger. She was ready. She was prepared to draw her gun on a man she’d known for most of her life to protect a man she’d found only a few hours before. Where would she hide the body? She had to make sure it didn’t come to that. Herr Berkel shook his head and resumed along the trail. He moved past where they were hiding and kept on, seemingly unaware of their presence.

She waited five minutes until she poked her head out onto the trail. Tears formed in her eyes as tension gripped her. She grasped the rope on the front of the sled and managed to coax her aching arms into dragging the man back up onto the trail. The sun was bright in the crisp blue sky, illuminating the beauty the snows the night before had created. The layer of white was undisturbed except for the trail Herr Berkel had left. She resumed pulling the man along, her thoughts returning to getting him back to the cabin alive.

There were no other walkers out that morning. She removed her hand from the pistol in her pocket and used it to pull the sled. Every thought disappeared from her mind until the only thing she could picture was getting back to the cabin. There was nothing else now. It was all that the world existed for. One painful step followed another until the last hill came into view. She hadn’t taken a rest other than the one that Herr Berkel’s presence had forced upon her, but she sat now, regaining her breath before the final test. She had come so far. There was just this one hill left, and then the house on top held the promise of food, water, painkillers, and, more importantly, sleep.