Sunny waits for Basil to wake up inside the hospital after all his friends have left, his heart full of unresolved feelings for the boy who held his hand during his darkest moment and promised him that everything is going to be okay.
Then he receive...
warning: dark historical content in the grandma section
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Two years passed. Eliška and Natálie became famished. They were running out of food and their customers became fewer and fewer. The animals that they hunted in the mountains started disappearing. There were no more rabbits, no more deer. They were lucky to be able to find and catch a single bird.
Eliška did not receive any letters from her brothers fighting at the front.
Their third winter, out of desperation, Natálie went down into the village to scavenge for food. Eliška stayed behind, recovering from a mild flu.
Late in the evening, when Natálie did not return, Eliška became extremely worried. They had no food left. If something had happened to her...she could not survive without her best friend.
Putting on all the warm clothing that she could find, and bringing with her a backpack filled with tools and supplies, Eliška set out from her home in the direction of the village. The air outside was bitterly cold. She could only wonder what Natálie was up to, taking so long to get back. Had she been caught stealing?
...That was not a thought she liked to entertain.
The village came within sight. Its thatched rooftops were covered in snow, and a grey smoke rose out of their chimneys. Eliška felt drawn towards their warmth.
As soon as she neared the village entrance, a familiar face stopped her.
"Don't come into the village," Tereza, one of her customers, said. "The soldiers are taking people away."
"What? What for?"
"I don't know. Revenge, perhaps. Just stay out."
"Let me in," Eliška demanded.
Tereza stood in her way. "Go back to your house now and hide there for a few weeks."
"I can't," Eliška said. "I have no food left."
"You will not survive if you come into the village. Do you want to die immediately?"
Eliška grew desperate. "But Natálie might be here..."
"Give up on Natálie. She will not survive if she went here."
Eliška couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Tereza's words were drowned out by the distressing sound that flared in her ears. Eliška couldn't comprehend the idea of abandoning her best friend. She couldn't even give space to that thought.
She turned away and began running. She didn't know where she was going.
Natálie had to be alive. She had to be.
Suddenly, a sight smacked her out of her reverie and alerted her to her full attention. In the distance, a line of people were heading out of the village. They were being marched out by soldiers.
