Page 63 of Hearts of Resistance
Boom.
The explosion was bigger than Sophia had imagined. As she stumbled, hand shooting out to save her in case she fell, she looked over her shoulder and saw the grey clouds of smoke billow up, visible even in the fading light. Shouts erupted, bellows from Germans who had started to gain on them but were now caught in the chaos of the explosion. She grabbed Hazel’s grenade from her, fingers fumbling with it before she threw it with all her might and then started to run again.
Terror surged through her. All these months, she’d evaded capture. She’d almost started to believe she was untouchable.
But she’d only been fooling herself.
‘Run!’ Rose shouted, holding her bag close, her other arm pumping as she ran as fast as she could alongside her.
Sophia gasped as Hazel roughly snatched her hand, pulling her along. She stifled a scream as her ankle collapsed, twisting on something that snared from the ground, but she didn’t slow down. They had to move fast.
They were surrounded by the enemy now. If they didn’t find their way to safety, they were as good as dead.
‘It’ll take time for them to regroup,’ Sophia managed, panting as she whispered, a familiar wave of calm grounding her and clearing her thoughts. ‘We’ll be gone before they even start searching for us.’
The silence from the other two women told her they weren’t so optimistic, but Sophia refused to be anything other than certain of their survival. She’d faced worse odds before, they all had, and there was a reason they were all still alive and so many others weren’t.
‘Hazel—’
‘No!’ screamed Rose, leaping in front of her and pushing her back.
The Nazi had appeared from nowhere, pistol raised, the barrel pointed skyward now as Rose fought against him, pushing him away. Where had he even come from, and why was he alone? As Sophia staggered to her feet, the gun went off, the blast making her ears ring, making everything silent around her as she watched Hazel move behind the soldier.
They’d talked about death, about whether they were capable of killing a man with their bare hands the way they’d been trained to do. Sophia swallowed away the bile rising in her throat as she watched Hazel’s hand tremble.
The silver of her tiny blade shone as Hazel sliced it against his throat, blood spurting out as Rose fell backwards, released from his grip.
Sophia caught her and pushed her back up, lunging forward to retrieve the pistol.
Hazel was frozen. The fallen Nazi was at her feet, blood staining his otherwise immaculate uniform.
‘Now we really need to go,’ Sophia managed to say, taking Hazel’s knife from her and wiping it clean on the soldier’s shoulder as she took charge. She passed it back to her friend as she surveyed the trees around them, hoping they weren’t about to be ambushed, knowing their location had just been given away. They’d have dogs sent to find them, men scouring every blade of grass for them now. ‘Move!’ She grabbed Hazel’s hand and yanked her along with her.
It was kill or be killed. And she knew without a doubt now that she could trust Rose and Hazel with her life.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
HAZEL
Hazel’s body had started to shake so badly, she felt as if she was about to start convulsing. It was worse than the night she’d parachuted in, so much worse.
She’d killed a man.
Only hours earlier, she’d confessed to Sophia that she didn’t know if she could do it, if she could actually take the life of another human being. But Sophia had been right; when the decision was right in front of you, it was an easy one to make. If Hazel hadn’t killed him, if she hadn’t whipped her blade out and sliced it clean against his skin, Rose would be dead.
‘Just a bit longer,’ Rose panted, her run as sluggish as Hazel’s.
They’d been on the move for hours. It was well and truly dark; night had fallen long ago and yet they still hadn’t stopped moving. But if she didn’t stop soon, she was certain she’d collapse and never get back up.
Hazel’s stomach heaved and she tried to swallow it down, only the feeling wasn’t going away. She finally slowed, hand against a tree as she doubled forward and retched, vomiting over and over again until there was nothing left in her stomach.
‘We still need to keep moving,’ Sophia whispered to her, taking her hand. ‘But let’s walk for now.’
She was relieved to hold Sophia’s hand, taking some of her strength. It also stopped the shaking.
They were all panting heavily, all exhausted, physically and mentally fatigued as well as desperately thirsty. After some time walking, the three of them side by side as they stumbled across the grass and tripped on tree roots, thankful at least for the moon guiding them, Sophia spoke.
‘I know roughly where we are, and there are some farmhouses coming up. I don’t think we should avoid them.’
