Good luck homing pigeon

Chapter six: Auschwitz

Alright, to those who may have read the Angel and the Rebel trilogy, you might recognise one of the characters in this chapter making a brief appearance. You might also notice some dates and locations not adding up. I have done my research writing this so if you want some historical accuracy, rely on this one for it. At the end of this story I'll be doing a bibliography for anybody who'll want to do some research for their own stories. Please enjoy and if you really like it, give it a vote.

P.S: The video is from the musical 'Le miserable', Anne Hathaway's version. If this doesn't make you teary-eyed at least, then I won't believe it. Good reading...

We knew that there were labour camps, prison camps, death camps in Europe, far worse than what Drancy. We knew that there were places that killed its inmates, just through matters of extreme starvation. We knew that there were places that slowly, beat down your immune system until just about anything could kill you. And worst of all, we knew that there were places that didn't hold inmates at all. There was only one purpose for a camp like that: death. What we didn't know was the most nerve-wracking part of it all; where we  were going. It was their choice, whether to keep us alive in the meantime, or to send us straight into the gas chambers. I just hoped after all this time, at least one of those Nazi's still had a small shred of humanity left.

The morning after my attack, we were woken abruptly by the Kapo in charge. Shouting and whacking at the headboards for us to wake up and move. As quick as lightening we all moved! Buttoning up our jackets, and stuffing the thin, cotton sheet we used as a blanket into one of the suitcases. Alina, who was the heaviest sleeper out of all of us, groaned as she rose from the bunk. Trying in vain, to smooth out the tangles in her dark, auburn hair. She didn't like being woken up so early, so that made living with her brother one of her biggest struggles.

"Gosh, are we moving again?" She asked, letting out a low yawn as she rubbed at her hooded eyes.

"I'm afraid so," Antonia answered her, "I told you they wouldn't be keeping us here for long. Now get yourself ready to move. Now. You too Angelo. I have a feeling this is going to be a long journey ahead of us."

How right she was. Only...if we'd have known just how long of a journey it would've been, I wouldn't have gone out last night, and gotten myself attacked. I would just gone to get Angelo, and we would've gone back to the barrack to save our strength. But then, there was no use thinking about what could've been now. For today, we were going on a march. We wouldn't like it, once we got to where we needed to go, but if we were to keep our lives, we'd have to start walking. Walk, walk, walk, and never stop, never hesitate, and never look back as if you'd dropped something.

So we were herded out of complex, and down the laneways like we were once again, neglected cattle. We did our best to hold onto each others hands, so we wouldn't get separated in the growing crowd. Mama took my hand in one, Briana's in the other, and I joined the Schneider's to our chain when Angelo took hold of my arm. Here, we knotted our fingers together tightly, as we moved within the crowd. Oddly enough, I felt like we were within a school of fish; all crammed together, swimming in the same direction. Wait-how many of us were they moving? Oh no. Surely not! How many inmates were there in this camp? Surely they couldn't have been emptying the entire place! That was just well-impossible. What could they possibly do to us?

"I knew we weren't going to be here for long," Angelo muttered, gripping my hand tight. "The question is, where do we go now?"

"I don't know." I said, "but I don't think they'll kill us yet. Hitler's got to have some use left for us, or none of his explosives would've been made."

His hold tightened, until my knuckles began to ache. Nevertheless, I squeezed back as we followed the swarm through the very last laneway. I needed him close. After what happened, how he defended me like that...I know I'd been saying how much I just wanted him to confide in me. But last night, he showed me every single thing that had been going through his mind these past two weeks-and he didn't even have to say anything. I knew now he was scared too; despite his tough front, he still feared like everyone else, that this war would make him lose everything. His spirit, his future, most of all his family. When he saw the Kapo, ready to rape me, I couldn't possibly have imagined what ran through him to make him so angry. Never, had he seen anybody touch like that before! Nobody. Besides, everyone should know by now that if you ever touched somebody Angelo cared about, there would be hell to pay. Absolute hell.