"Self-sacrifice is the miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow" Ralph Waldo Emerson

Letters To a Basterd

Chapter One: The Capture

Sergeant Donald Donowitz held the dozens of letters in his large hands tears falling from his bloodshot eyes. His Anthia was gone and all he had left of her was the unopened letters in his hands. He wanted to open them to grasp at her words, just as he grasped at the idea she was still alive, but Donny Donowitz – the Bear Jew that terrified the German army – was scared to read them.

"Son, she wrote them and gave 'em to me for just this occasion. Now I'm not sayin' I want ya to read them all at once and ball yer eyes out, but I think one every now and then might help you out," said Lt. Aldo Raine. Donny looked at him wiping the tears from his eyes then the snot from his nose. Looking at the letter on the top of the pile he carefully opened it. Her handwriting was an elegant cursive, not the chicken scratch he used to see from his mother. Tear drop stains were all over the page.

December 7th

Dearest Donny,

Well, if you are receiving these letters – for there will probably be more to come – something has happened to me. As implied by my beginning words, you have become more than a friend to me. However, I can only confess this in written words because I am afraid you may not feel the same and as they say 'Ignorance is bliss.' Its slight torture, honestly, not knowing how you feel towards me, however, I feel that this is for the best.

Do you remember when we first met? I do, it was a dismal day for me. I was on my way to a Nazi camp, after having watched some German soldier's rape and kill my mother and sisters, when the Basterds ambushed the truck I was riding in. You were not the first to reach out to me. Actually, if my memory is correct you wanted nothing more than to kill me right then and there. Wicki was the one to say I might be of some use and convinced Aldo to let me accompany you. Every time you looked at me for the next several days, you glared at me, an evil glare that should have scared me, but it didn't. I welcomed the challenge.

Then that day it happened. The Basterds were to ambush another Nazi truck it was supposed to have supplies that you were in desperate need of. Instead, it was carrying Nazi's the better half of two dozen, if memory serves. As you ambushed the truck several men jumped out and ran away, but they didn't run away did they? They circled around hoping to surprise you from behind. That was the day I proved slightly useful. When they stumbled into the camp, I was laying in the tent, with the riffle nose sticking out. Oblivious to the obvious, they walked right past me. I quietly opened the tent flap and shot the first one in the back. Then I shot the second before the third, fourth and fifth even realized what was happening. I shot the third man in the face and the fourth in the chest. That's when the sixth and seventh man pulled me from the tent. I smacked them. I scratched them. I tried to punch them a few times, but to no avail. I heard the awful crunching noise before my eyes knew what happened. As the seventh man fell next to me, his eyes devoid of life, the sixth pulled off me. It surprised me, I must admit, when I saw you were my savior. There was a look in your eyes, aside from the murderous one. Maybe I still imagine that look of distraught because of my realization that I do love care for love you. Maybe it was actually there. Perhaps someday I'll know, but as you are reading this, that outlook is dim.

Donny felt the other soldier's eyes on him as he read the letter. His tears had long ago stopped and a smile graced his lips every now and then as he remembered the exact moments she wrote of. She loved him. He had guessed as much, but always figured it was his infatuation with her. She was right; of course, when he saw those German men on top of her his blood ran cold. One was beating her, while the other was unzipping his pants. Apparently, the Kraut thought he could get a quickie in before the Basterds got there. Maybe he thought the Basterds were never coming. Donny took the Kraut away from her and beat him to a pulp with his baseball bat. Normally he hit them in the head first, but Donny had broken every bone in the man's body before turning to his skull. It only took one powerful hit to the German's head to kill him.

"Donny," said Aldo after taking a few sniffs, "I know you wanna read your girls letters to ya, but if you want to see her alive again we need to get moving. We have a truck, why don't I drive and you can keep on readin'." Donny nodded and put the letters in his jacket before walking over to the German truck. He moved to the front passenger seat and yanked out a young German soldier who had been shot in the chest. The boy fell to the ground in an awful 'thump' but Donny ignored it. The bastard probably deserved it.

"Will you be okay?" Wicki asked walking up to Donny as he pulled out the letters again.

" 'Course I'll fucken be okay," Donny snapped. Wicki watched him for a minute then set Donny's baseball bat next to him.

"You might want to keep that then," Wicki said and walked to the back of the truck. Donny stared at his bat then looked at the letters. He almost forgot his bat because he missed her, he didn't know what to do without her. This damn girl had invaded his mind just as the German's invaded Europe. Looking back at the letter, Donny sighed and continued reading.

After that day you were much more open to me, you were okay as I voiced my ideas, even saying that you should use more than one of them. I liked that. Today we ambushed another 'Kraut Patrol' as Smithson once told me all of you called the German soldiers. We found out about a German soldier who had killed thirteen SS officers. Aldo spoke with me on how we might convince him to join us. After a long discussion, I told him I would stay hidden, I know you are taken even more serious when I am not around so I figure it is the best way I can assist you. You will sneak into the prison he is transferred to for a night and I will take a riffle and sniper anyone who tries to leave through the back door whilst you enter through the front. The mission is tomorrow. I hope that there will be success.

Yours forever, if only in words,

Anthia

Donny could handle the letter. It was just revisiting things that were in the past; her words were what haunted him. Yours forever, if only in words, they repeated themselves over and over again in his mind. He folded the letter and stuck it in his breast pocket with the others. He sniffed away the tears and gripped his baseball bat. Any German they met was going to be real sorry. They unleashed a monster and they thought he was bad before. An evil grin appeared on his face. He didn't care how many men he had to pass through; he would find her and take her to the home he never promised her.


A/N:

Anthia is the only one I own.

This story is rated 'M' because lets face it, its a disgrace to the characters to make it anything less. That does not mean my character is going to cuss like a sailor, but I'm not going to take away the brutality and words the Basterds use.

Short chapter, I know. The next one will be longer.

I am writing this for fun, so while I will take into account any reviews I recieve, any disrespect to my story will earn a 'take it and shovel it' as Sandra Bullocks Character says in Demolition Man.

Hope you enjoyed, I will be back with a new one in a while.