Strangers in the Night || William Schofield || 1917

Of Finding a Moment of Safety

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Emma stopped dead in her tracks as they arrived at the city centre. Surrounded by what was left of the city now burning brightly she tried catching her breath the best she could failing miserably as she tried to quietly clear her throat of the smoke.

The young woman just stood there, utterly speechless of what had become of Écoust and of the trail of destruction the Germans left. She had seen so much of their destruction before but it always hit her again and again.

William looked at Emma trying to figure out what she was thinking. His head was pounding and he was trying his best to ignore the pain. As soon as his companion felt his eyes on her and turned around he quickly averted his gaze up towards the flames in front of them. Squeezing his eyes together he saw a figure emitting from them and somehow he was frozen in his tracks. His instincts told him to do something but his body just wouldn't obey. Emma, following the soldier's clearly concentrated gaze, eventually spotted the dark figure, too. She didn't like the thought that whoever it was had clearly seen them as the shadow walked up to them slowly. Everyone remaining in this city was a potential danger, it was quite unlikely to be an ally nearing them and when William started to get out of his trance, walking closer to the figure Emma knew she had to do something. She was a hundred percent sure that the young man was nearing his enemy with open arms and great naivety.

She rushed forward, causing the dark figure to do the same, as soon as she reached Schofield she pushed him back towards the direction where they had come from, muttering a "run" and making him realise that he just walked right into a "trap". He quickly backed off seeing the other soldiers cock his gun at them. Before he could react Emma had done the same, firing a shot at the figure missing but still startling it, leaving enough time for them to run.

"Go, Schofield! Run!", Emma cried out as she sprinted towards him. His legs immediately reacted as he ran towards a random alley, jumping over the remains of a wall.

"Go left! Go!", the young woman coordinated, shots ringing behind them.

Emma had to jump to the side in order to escape bullets that were ricocheting from the walls only centimetres from where she was, her fear giving her weak body the needed energy to run. Adrenaline was rushing through their bodies as they jumped over more walls, running zigzag through the ruins in order to avoid being shot.

William was in the lead at this moment but Emma needed to show him the way to her hiding spot without having to scream directions and thus telling their enemies where they were. She quickly took a small shortcut, eventually ending up in front of Schofield. She ran into an alley to her right, the commands screamed by the Germans in the distance following them.

"Ihr unfähigen Bengel! Lauft! Kommt schon, schnappt sie euch!" (You useless brats! Run! Come on, get them!)

They neared the place she was hiding in and Emma turned around to only see whether William was still behind her. They weren't in safety by any means now. Not at all, they realised as another soldier entered the alley before from the other side of the street a second German arrived. They were cornered from both sides now.

Quickly, Schofield cocked his rifle, exchanging shots with one of the soldiers as he and his companion were shielding themselves behind the remains of a wall. Emma felt helpless and decided that although she had no experience whatsoever, she needed to do something. She, too, got her rifle ready and shot at the other soldier nearing them. Her shots weren't as calculated as Will's but in the end, she had hit her target. The soldier fell to the floor in agony. She didn't feel anything at that moment, the adrenaline rushing through her body overpowered any other feelings.

Schofield had also hit his target which gave them the opportunity to quickly leave for the hiding spot again. Emma's rifle didn't have any shots left and it was just further weight to carry around which was why she just let it fall to the ground with a thud and jumped over a small fence into another alley trying not to stumble with her long skirt, Will still following closely behind.

Soon they arrived in an area that Emma was oddly familiar with, considering it meant safety for her. She looked around as they jogged along the ruins but there seemed to be no more soldiers running after them at the moment. The young woman stopped running, quickly kicking open the shutters of the window that led to her room down in the basement, jumping in and holding it open for Schofield to follow. As soon as she was inside she shut the window turning around to face the British soldier who was only centimetres away from her. They were both panting from running through the streets just moments ago, sweat dripping from their foreheads. Schofield, noticing how close they were to each other quickly averted his eyes down to the floor, stepping back a few steps. Emma, her cheeks blushing, pushed herself away from the wall, slowly entering the room she had spent the last two years in, checking whether Will was following her.

She let her dagger and the backpack fall onto her bed before she sat down next to the items, leaning against the wall with her back, still trying to catch her breath and to calm herself down.

~*~

Hey everyone :)

Sorry for the delay in posting, but like I said I had to first concentrate on graduating and all my exams before I could continue writing. But here is the chapter :)

I hope you like it, I know it is a bit shorter but I wanted to save the conversations for as separate chapter :)

  If you did enjoy this, please leave a comment and a vote it always means so much to me to see that you like the story and it motivates me greatly. Anyway, I did go over the last chapter a bit to correct a few spelling mistakes so if you got hyped because of a new update, I am sorry but at least this chapter only follows a few hours after a false "new chapter" notification xD

Have a great day everyone and stay safe! The world is a crazy place at the moment, 2020 is quite the year already but I believe we can learn a lot from what is happening and only change the world and our way of living for the better :)

Not everything can always be taken for granted.