AN: Thanks everyone for your feedback, I'm hoping you will enjoy this chapter (even if enjoying it might sound a little bit sick after you've read it… anyway), and I'm sending a special thanks to LilahClock (Lily) for naming half my characters, and Rocket7Roe (Thay) for being my World War II walking encyclopedia, thank you for the gory details. Oh, and if I got anything wrong now you know she's to blame!
Strawberry Fields
Chapter One.
"Someone's in there, I hear voices. Break through!" The male voice outside yelled. Right after the banging at the door began. The soldiers seemed to be colliding their strong sides with the door. It had five locks on the inside. But maybe, just maybe that only had drawn the attention to the dirty old shed. In search of safety for his family, Jimmy James might've forgotten that simple, yet very important detail.
While the women tried to hide themselves in a corner, the three remaining men of the family stood still. Instinctively in position to defend their wives, in-laws and children.
It must have taken around two minutes do pound the door down and break it through, but to the large family hidden inside it felt like forever and one second were just the same thing. Lydia could swear she saw her whole life pass by right in front of her eyes. And often that wasn't a good sign.
Once there were no boundaries protecting the family from the Nazis, fifteen men came inside the shed, and with much violence they struck upon Jimmy, Matthew and Gareth. Then they moved upon Lydia and her three daughters.
There had been no time for Quinn to hide the baby in the adjacent room, and her scared cries seemed to wake up all the children.
Seeing their aunt wrapped up with their cousin, the children moved from their designed cots and crawled closer to Haley. This was what their parents had been telling them about. Or not telling them about. The little ones knew that something bad could happen to their family. They didn't know what, or when – and most importantly, why -, they just knew it could happen.
Haley was grateful she didn't have to stop the children from talking. They must've been shocked beyond imaginable; usually blabbermouths, now quiet and hugging each other in hope of protection.
Opening her arms, the small woman tried to hug all of her nieces and nephew at once. But once they heard a shrieking scream of Taylor's, Jennifer moved from Haley's grasp and ran towards the bigger room.
"Mommy!" the young girl cried upon seeing a large blond man pulling her mother out the door. Fear flashed in Taylor's eye. Jenny shouldn't have moved, she should've stood put with the other kids.
"Jenny, no!" The mother tried to reach for her daughter, only to have her face heavily slapped by the soldier. Seeing her mother hurt, Jenny started crying, and ran to hug Taylor's leg. In a swift move of the soldier, she was on the floor whimpering. The man had kicked her right on the stomach, and she fell down.
"Get this shit over with, Scott." The man barked, and the Scott guy picked Jennifer from the floor and passed her on to someone else. He knew he had lost two of the kids, counting the baby with one of the ladies, but he was also sure there were more of them hidden, and he was trying to spare them.
During that month, the small army that patrolled the neighborhood in search of hidden Jews to take to the concentration camps, but once he saw through the gap a large amount of children playing happily with their dolls made of cloth and cars made of wood. And he stood there thinking, with all the war going on, children were still able to be gleeful. That was the main reason why the two times the army had come closer to the shed, he was able to distract them, saying there was something else the other way. The captain was often mad, since both times there was nothing where Scott had pointed. Basically, that's the reason why he wasn't so trustworthy anymore.
"I'll look here." He warned the captain heading to the small door that served as passage to the tiny room.
"Oh, you will not. You always come up with nothing! Schögl, cover the area and make sure no one stays behind!" Captain Pruess warned in a loud voice, taking Jimmy out of the shed and towards the truck that would transport them to the train station.
While Oliver Schögl sent Scott a dirty look, the made his way through the small door.
"I have four more here!" He warned and more men came in to help the move. Haley let go of the children and stood up, in vain, but trying to protect the smaller ones. She kept Indra's hand clapped tightly with hers at all times.
One of the soldiers grabbed Nathaniel by the arms; the little boy screamed and kicked the man's shin. Unfortunately for the young one, it wasn't the wisest of the ideas.
"No! Let me go! Let me go!" he yelled and kicked his little legs, trying to hit the man who was now holding him out at arms length, like a bag of trash.
"I'm dropping this little rat, take the rest of them. I counted Scott, don't you fucking think I didn't. I will remember their faces and they must all be inside those damn trucks in fifteen minutes, or else!" His voice sent shrills down Haley's spine. If those dirty hands came anywhere near her, she would bite them until it drew blood.
As if taking his aunt's idea right out of her brain, Nathaniel bit the soldiers hand and was dropped on the floor. He tried to stand up but his legs were faulting, and giving in. Soon a very big foot collided with his butt, and sent him flying four feet, crashing his head on the wall.
"Nate!" Haley yelled, holding the two youngsters behind her, so they couldn't see what was happening to their older cousin. "Let him go! Take me instead."
"We will take you regardless, now move before I make your little head collide with the wall." He barked, and Soldier Scott moved to take them. He grabbed her arm rather gently, and the look in his eyes told her he didn't want to be doing that. But regardless of that fact, he was still doing it. He was helping to destroy her family, and she hated him for it. She hated him more than she had ever hated anyone else in her entire life.
While he pushed Haley and Indra outside, another strong man came in to take Amelia. Haley turned her head to look at the frightened child, she was so skinny from the lack of food, her clothes were dirty, and her only pink ribbon left was loosely dropping from her dark hair.
The flashlight made her wince, and turn her head towards front. She never knew that, that was going to be the last time she saw her little niece. Once outside, she was greeted by the dark black night. There were only two trucks left; she saw Nathaniel and her father looking back from the first truck that took off. The man holding Amelia carelessly threw her in the second truck, and climbed in. They took off as well. And it left her with Indra. She was more than scared, but she couldn't let it trespass to the little girl. She had to make sure Indie thought what was happening to them wasn't bad.
The soldier she now knew as Scott pushed her softly towards the truck, indicating she should climb in. He was silently hoping she wouldn't make things difficult for him, and he didn't want to hurt them.
She first placed a very confused little girl on the truck before turning back and making eye contact with the army man before her. With help of the street light she could see his eyes: blue and full of shame. And then it struck her, that was the reason they were doing this to them. Eyes like that didn't belong in her family. She shook her head disappointedly at him and asked softly, "Why are you doing this?"
The man with the baby blues swallowed hard. It felt like he had just pushed a frog down his throat, and the damned amphibian was just jumping right back up.
"Get her inside the damn truck already! We have four more places to hit!" The man in the driver's seat made sure to shout from inside the window.
He looked at her pointedly, and gently pushed her into the vehicle, his large hand coming in contact with her skinny back. He could feel her ribcage and that bothered him. It bothered him that all those children were mostly going to be killed upon arrival at the camp. It bothered him that all those women in that truck would probably work themselves to death. And it bothered him the most that he felt the need to give an explanation to the young woman he had just shoved into that stupid truck.
Haley sat on one of the benches on the side of the vehicle, and cuddled Indra. She looked up, taking in her surroundings; none of these girls were known to her; her mother and sisters must have been in the truck where the man had cruelly thrown Amelia to. She looked around and was frightened to realize that all the excruciating pain and fear that she could see on the other women's eyes mirrored her own. They started moving and shaking upon the pebble stoned streets.
"Where are we going auntie Haley?" Indra's small voice asked, and the little girl next to her perked up. She too wanted to know where they were going.
"We are going to a camp, Indie." She told her with a small smile.
"Like we did for the summer? On grampa's farm with the fields?" She asked back with glee.
"Yeah, one just like that. But this one is special. You have to close your eyes really hard to see all the goodness in it, because that is like your secret password to get it. If you only look at what's there, you won't be able to see the fields." Haley whispered softly, and smiled to the little girl next to her niece, as she told them both the story.
"Will we see mommy?" Indra asked with such innocence that it made her heart ache. She didn't know all the details about what went on, on concentration camps. She did know it wasn't good. And she did know you would most likely die in it.
"If we stay there long enough, we will see your mommy." Haley kissed the girl's blonde head and sighed. "Close your eyes now, little one. And imagine it, and I promise you everything will be fine."
Biting her bottom lip, she refused to shed one single tear. She had done nothing wrong. She had no faults for her family's religion. She wasn't to blame for her dark brown eyes.
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