Out of the woods
Prologue
Normandy, France, 6th June 1944
This is it. This is how I'm going to die. I look down the barrel of two German rifles and pray to god that they kill me instead of dragging me back to Germany to suffer punishment for being a traitor. I didn't want to go back and I especially didn't want to face my Uncle. I take a deep breath as my mind buzzes with all the scenarios I'm building in my head of what is to come.
"This is the girl we have been looking for." One of the German Soldiers said with glee and an ugly leer.
The other soldier looked back and forth between the photo in his hand and my face before a giant smirk appeared on his face upon the realisation that the first soldier was right.
"Yes it is, you're a pretty little thing aren't you?" The smirking soldier asked in a husky voice.
The look in his eyes sent a shiver run down my spine of what they could do to me before reporting me to their superiors.
"If you even think about touching me, my uncle will have your heads." I squared my shoulders and replied with as much courage as I could muster while still having a rifle trained on my form.
"No, my dear, I'm afraid your Uncle will have your head for being a disgusting traitor to the fatherland!" The smirking soldier replied with a scowl on his defined face, and to bring his point home, he spat on the floor by my feet where I consequently flinched, unintentionally.
The other soldier was just about to open his mouth to say something else when a nearby anti-aircraft gun opened up, setting the sky on fire with its flak. The German soldiers shrugged it off as a bombing raid and one of them grabbed my arm to pull me to what I recognised as an air raid shelter, to most likely wait out the raid before reporting me in. However what surprised us both- myself and the two soldiers- was dark shadows falling from the aircraft that was definitely not bombs. It was people. Paratroopers.
I glanced at the two soldiers on my left side and saw them distracted, looking up at the sky in surprise and astonishment, that the Allies could breach Hitler's 'impenetrable' Atlantic wall. I knew that this was my chance. The only chance I would get to run away, and maybe if I'm lucky find the Allie soldiers- I quickly dismissed that thought as they would not help me if they ever found out my surname, they might as well shoot me for my name. Acting on instinct I quickly glance at the two dumbstruck German soldiers before darting in darkness towards the French woodland where the trees could give me some cover. I pray the soldiers don't shoot me in the back as I just reached the edge of the woodland area.
Sudden shouts in German are heard behind me not long after I reached the cover of the trees, and the sounds of footsteps and gunfire in the distance is all I can hear over the loud sound of my heart hammering against my chest in a uneven beat. I start to really panic for the first time since I left Germany- I felt like walls were closing in on me from all sides. I have no one to go to. Nowhere to go to. I'm all alone in this world. No family- that won't kill me as soon as I've been captured. No friends- that won't turn me in and betray our country like I have. My brother killed two years earlier in a Soviet POW camp.
My legs start to slow down in exhaustion despite me willing them to go on- time seems to have slowed down as realisation comes to me that I'm going to die- there is no way out for me anymore. I was lucky being able to get out of Germany in 1942 but it looks to me like my luck is about to run out.
The German voices behind me seem to be catching up and as I turn around to check if I could see them behind me, I trip on a branch and I land face down on the floor- It felt good to lie there and do nothing but there's a voice inside my head shouting and yelling at me to get up, that there is still hope on my survival. I just shake my head, still with my face in the dirt and dismiss the voice in my head as naive to think that I could possibly get out of this situation. However unknown to me are deep brown eyes watching from a nearby bush.
Rough Hands on each shoulder suddenly grab me from behind and turn me over on the ground so I am looking up at the not-so-much-smirking German soldier and the other now non-leering German soldier, they both wore deep scowls on their faces as they attempt to re-catch their breath after running after me.
"Stupid Bitch!" The first soldier said in an aggravating tone before repeating his earlier action of spitting on the ground by my head and I felt some of the splatter of saliva on my cheek.
I glare at them in disgust, which seems to anger them even more as one of them draws their luger, I see determination in the young Germans eyes and I say to myself in my head that this is it. The end of Emelie Klara Hitler. I look at both soldiers defiantly in the eye as I realise the end is near- there will be no more hurt or suffering and I will unite with my beloved brother again despite our differences. I continue to look at the soldier with the luger in his hand as I wish for him to look me in the eye before taking the shot.
What I didn't expect was for me to see his eyes open in shock before I even heard the continuous shots go of that took both of the German soldiers lives. In astonishment I look at the two dead bodies on either side of me and I don't look up, with my blood smattered face, until I hear footsteps coming towards me from my left.
I look to my left and my ice blue eyes meet chocolate brown ones.
The title of this story is based on Taylor Swifts song "Out of the woods" as I thought it fitted the prologue of the story and the lyrics really match up to what's happening in the beginning of the story. I don't have an exact date or time for me to update on but hopefully it will be quite regular and you all will have to bear with me.
Emelie is a fictional character that I have made up and does not resemble a real life person however all the family mentioned in later chapters are real.
Disclaimer: I do not have ownership of any recognizable characters. This is a historical fiction meant to honor the men portrayed.
Most of my information related to Easy company is coming from the HBO series and the book by Stephen Ambrose, I haven't got round to reading any of the memoirs yet. Information to do with the Hitler family comes from Wikipedia and several documentaries I've seen.
I hope you have enjoyed reading the start of this story :)
