The Nurse

Chapter 16: Found by the Tommies

The darkness remained around Eloise as she opened her eyes. A heavy pressure rested atop of her small body, making each breath difficult to take. Stinging pains surged throughout her body. The smell of death settled around her, violently invading into her senses. With much confusion, she began to look around in the uncomfortable darkness. Before she could think about her situation, she looked into the budging eyes of a dead soldier. It was then that she realized she was placed beneath a pile of dead bodies. She let out a gasp of air as she looked at other deceased faces that settled nearby. A nauseous feeling caused her stomach to begin spiraling like a raging ocean. With the little strength she had left in her aching body, she tried to push the bodies away from her, only to have them fall closer around her. What had happened, she did not know. Weakness had taken over her fragile body, leaving her to die beneath the pile of the dead.

She could hear the muffled sound of voices nearby. The words were foreign to her ear as they communicated amongst themselves. The sound of their laughter seemed unfitting for the atrocities that had swept over the once fair lands. On separate occasions she heard them approach the heaped pile of dead, dragging more deceased people to it. She forced her mind to settle, allowing her to think about the current situation. Beside her was a vague space of light shining into the darkness. Her hand that was closest to the light began to inch toward the small opening. The sound of the men's voices was close. After several seconds of wriggling vigorously, she managed to extract her arm from her sealed coffin of bodies. Frantically, she began patting around on the ground, feeling the muddy slop beneath her hand. A startled shriek came from one of the nearby men, who stomped onto her moving hand. Beneath the pile she cried out, hoping they would hear her final plea for life.

Faintly, she heard the men began to work diligently to remove the stack of bodies away from her. The weight from the pile began growing lighter and lighter with every passing second. Soon, the sound of the men's voice became louder and clearer. In a matter of seconds, she could feel the warmth from the sun kissing her face. The bright light pierced her eyes, causing her to squint up at the frightened men who stood nearby.

"General Herrmann." She managed to mumble out loud, looking around for the German officers. "Captain Armbruster." Her head rotated around the hazy area searching for the men who she knew of that was in command.

Her eyes began to adjust to the bright world around her she noticed that she was no longer with the familiar faces of German foot soldiers. She stared up at the men, studying the unfamiliar uniforms. Brown coats and trousers wrapped at the legs. Knee-high boots covered with mud. The round helmets that rested upon their heads let her know that she was now in possession of the Tommies.

The men immediately pointed their guns at her, cocking back the hammer. She could see no kindness in their eyes as they peered down at her. She eased her hands into the air, reaching for her hat. The only hope for survival that she had was to show them that she was a woman. The men were watching her steady movements carefully. She slowly removed her cap exposing the feminine brown curls pinned on her head. She watched as their eyes grew wide. She wasted no time in removing her bulky coat, in hopes they could see her entirely.

As the manly coat dropped to the ground, the men began conversing amongst themselves, pointing down at her and gawking. She could tell that they were examining the fair form of her breasts shaped beneath the square coat. One of the men knelt down beside her and offered her the canteen that hung around his body. Nervously she accepted the cold metal into her shaking hands and began sipping the refreshing liquid. Her eyes locked onto her hands coated with a thick layer of grime compiled of mud and dried blood. Immediately she shut her eyes tightly hoping that she was in a world that had been created by her imagination; but once she opened them the nightmare was a hellish reality...

Two men now stared at her over the canteen, looking desperately into her eyes. They spoke words directed toward her, but the words remained foreign. They exchanged glances before reaching behind her head. Flinching at their touch she realized they were releasing her hair from its tight roll, exposing the long, womanly locks. They began to converse even more amongst themselves, stroking through the mangled curls. Before she could push them away a horrendous pain coursed deep within her shoulder into the upper part of her leg.

She quickly began patting down the front of her body. Crimson red blood streaked along her gray coat. Her eyes scanned onto her shoulder where the throbbing pain existed. To her horrors a bullet wound stood out against the bland gray uniform. She slowly raised her hand to touch the wound. She let out a faint shriek of pain. She quickly looked down onto her leg where another bloody wound existed. Her eyes grew wide at the gory images that lined her body. Her hands frantically began to search for her medical bag, only to find nothing at her side. She looked back at the men with pleading eyes in hopes they would offer her some form of medical attention. To her amazement she had not bled to death yet, but she knew that if the wounds weren't healed soon they would be her demise.

The blank stares that lined the stranger's faces let her know they weren't going to help. With a slight shake to the head, she gently laid back down against the sloppy ground and leaned her head to the side. Looking back at her was the cold, dead eyes of Captain Alwin Armbruster. Something in her kept staring into the darkened orbs. She looked down at his chest where an exit wound was located at his heart. She knew then that he had taken the fatal bullet for her, sheltering her from the killing blow. He was no longer there to save her and she was at the hands of the enemy. Her death was going to be next, she could sense it in her heart. Her head rolled back and she stared up at the sky. The blueness in the air was like nothing she had seen before. The bright color made the horrific world around her seem like only a bad dream. She closed her eyes and hoped that it would end—that she could wake up and return home.

One of the men brushed back the matted hair away from her face and smiled. His mouth spoke foreign words that she incoherently nodded to. He quickly waved to someone in the distance. Much to her surprise they came to her side with a gurney in hand. The two men nodded at her and placed her upon the hard stretcher and began toting her away from no man's land.

As they stomped through the muddy land she looked upon the carnage of war. The faces of death were scattered around. Youthful young men were scattered atop of strands of barbed wire. Remnants of body parts were scattered along the mounds of mud. Men of who she had seen prior to the battle were lying dead in a far-off land. She swallowed the hard lump that formed in the back of her throat—this was reality... Her attention focused back onto the peaceful sky, watching as the clouds passed by with tranquility. It made her angry to see the cheerful glisten in the air. How could the sky be so happy when such horrors existed, she wondered?

The men loaded her up into a medical carriage. Around her were other injured men, all of which looked at her with great confusion. Distrust and horror filled their eyes. She was a German in their eyes, an enemy that should be destroyed. She stared back at them blankly, wondering what they thought of her presence with the Tommies. The resentment she felt in the wagon made her heart ache. Her eyes shut tightly. She could only hope to disappear from the carriage, for she was at the mercy of the enemy.

She was quickly startled upward when the carriage began to jar her. They were moving and Eloise knew that she was off to an unknown land, where she was the enemy...

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