AN: I've been getting reviews of people wondering why I haven't gotten much of a feedback to this story. I said it's because it's strong in content, and not in a way people are used to. I've been getting a lot of hits (here and on other sites) but not many responses and I understand. I also encourage you to stop reading now if you don't have the stomach to endure it. I am and will always be a little girl in love with fairy tales, but I want to put realistic points into this story. Someone also said people will be more responsive of it once Naley hits the romance bit. I seriously hope so, and I ensure you that they will be romantically involved, even though I don't plan on leaving much of reality out of it. With that said, enjoy your reading. And if you really do enjoy your reading, please spend a couple of extras seconds to let me know, so I can prepare a better chapter to follow.

Thanks Thay (rocket7roe) for the details, once again. And for the soundtrack to help my many moods become one: a writing mood. And for being my history beta, and making sure I had gotten everything correctly.

Strawberry Fields
Chapter three.

"Hulz, Penny. Hulz, Heidi. Iönsl, Hannah." An officer shouted names from a list, which lay in his hands. As the women identified themselves, they were taken to one of the wagons. It was a fuss, too many people for Haley's liking. She wasn't the shiest girl of all, but she had come now to realize she wasn't a people person. At least not in this particular situation.

She looked around, in search for her family. How many other train stations had been taken down by the Nazis for their full command? How many other trains had left since that faithful hour the day before where she was taken away from the place she had called home for the past two years? She bowed her head; of course she wasn't going to find anyone.

She just kept walking, trying to prolong the little bit of freedom she still had left, when right in front of her an officer shot a little girl, just a couple of year older than Indra. The little one had tried to run away, in vain.

Haley turned around, blocking her niece's view, and then she bent down,

"Hey, Indra? How about we play a game?" She smiled making the proposition, and the girl's eyes lit up.

"What kind of game?" Indra bit her bottom lip, just like Haley used to do when she was thinking too hard.

"Uh, I'm going to put these on your eyes," she started explaining, pulling a black band that kept her hair from falling on the face, "and we'll play a little game. You trust me, don't you?"

"Yeah." She waited for that answer before fastening the band around her head to cover her eyes.

"Can you see anything?"

"No."

"Good. Now here's the game. You have to trust me, and I'll be your eyes. Remember when I said you have to close your eyes to see the field?" The little one nodded, so Haley continued her explanation on the game she had just made up. "This band will help you, so you can be in the fields at all times. But you won't have any problems walking, because I'll be here to tell you where to go."

"Okay."

"James, Haley. James, Indra. Jenkins, Natasha." The harsh voice shouted. Haley closed her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Auntie, they called our names. Do we have to go?" Indie asked, her head was still in the same position, even though Haley had just got up. The aunt took that as a sign that the young child couldn't, truly, see a thing.

Taking her niece's small hand in her own, Haley stepped forward, and didn't fight back when she was harshly pushed in the wagon's direction.

"Come on, Innie. Climb up." Lifting the child's arms, she helped the little one climb on the train, and followed suit, before any measures were taken for slowness.

The wagon was dark, and it smelled of people. Suddenly, the smell of people wasn't very good. Specially due to the lack of cleaning. It was shaped as a rectangle, and was an open space, no place to sit but the floor. And the floor was consumed by cockroaches, and rats, alive and dead. Haley moved to sit on a corner near the door that connected this wagon to the one in front of it, and almost threw up when she saw a kid, in a desperate act of hunger, stuff her mouth with the dead insects.

Her face scrunched up, not only in disgust but in pain. How could life change like that? Her family wasn't exactly wealthy, but they did have their fare share of savings in the bank, unfortunately those bank accounts were closed to them, and now were probably being used by the Nazis. In a certain way, it was like the Jews financed their once death.

"Auntie Haley?"

"Yes?" Haley placed both her arms around the youngster, and sat Indra on her lap.

"I didn't ask. What kind of field is it?" She, too, hadn't thought of that, and sighed.

"What kind of field do you want it to be?" Plenty of curiosity in her question.

"I dunno. One with fruits, maybe. I miss them." Indra patted her grumbling stomach, but she also knew it would be too hard for her aunt if she asked for food.

"I miss them too, buddy." Resting her chin on the little girl's head, she sighed once again.

With time, more and more women and children were thrown towards that wagon, until air was almost scarce, and seriously fogging, space for moving their arms was actually only an illusion.

Haley had unconsciously counted in which wagon they were, and it now came to mind that they were only on the third one for workers. And that meant this still had a little time left to bake in the human heat before moving.

She sighed deeply, leaning her head on the wooden walls. That was when she heard it. The most weird and somewhat painful sort of cough. She looked to her right side, noticing the sound came from there, and there she saw her, and her heart sunk. God, she must have been so beautiful when not going through all this horribleness. The girl right beside her, a brunette, with long and once upon a time silky hair; she had the most terrified green eyes Haley had ever seen, and when she forced her mouth shut, her dimples would resolve on her cheeks. Haley could bet they would be even deeper when the girl smiled, but she somewhat knew that might not ever happen again.

"Are you okay?" the question was asked in a rushed whisper. Although knowing there was an obvious answer to that question – such as 'no' -, she still asked, maybe, just maybe she could do something to help.

"As I'll ever be…" she stopped middle phrase to cough, covering her mouth with her shirt. "… until this is over."

Now the question that haunted them was: will it ever be over?

--

The night fell slowly, and with it came coldness. The air was incredibly dry, making every passenger even thirstier. Some had fallen asleep due to boredom and fear. Some were quiet, mostly the ones that were once chit chatting, with throats that dry, it hurt to even try and swallow some saliva, and even those were slowly falling asleep.

Haley held a sleepy Indra tightly, trying to warm the little one.

"She's beautiful." Said a raspy voice in a cold, trembling whisper.

"Thanks." Smiling softly, she stroked the youngster's silky hair.

"Is she your's?"

"Niece." She whispered in a rush, and nodded. The girl seemed to have understood, as she, too, nodded. "Are you better? You know, from the cough." Haley wondered aloud, showing genuine concern towards the woman next to her.

"Yeah. Must have been the dust." She lied.

"Oh, that's good, then." The silence they fell into was uncomfortable. The only noise they would hear were one or other person snoring, and the clipping noises of rat's paws clicking on the wooden floor.

"Ever wondered where they're taking us?" Her voice was nonchalant, but her eyes were curious.

"I'm not sure, but I do have a feeling we aren't going to like it."

"I guess we share those."

"Unfortunately."

The door near them peeked open, and Haley's first thought were 'not him again!' when she saw his sad blues. He looked around to make sure no one else was awake, and silently kneeled in front of Haley, Indra and their new friends.

"Here, drink these." He whispered softly, giving each of them a bottle on mineral water.

"Why? What did you put in them?" Haley questioned, while the brunette opened the bottle and downed it at light speed.

"Nothing. They haven't been opened. They're mine. Drink it. I don't know when I'll be able to give more to you." He quietly pleaded, could she just drink the damn thing already.

One of her eye brows perked up in doubt. Nathan took the bottle from her hands and opened, taking a gulp to prove her he had done nothing.

"Why are you doing this to us? Why not someone else? Go give it to someone else."

"Damn it, will you just drink it!" His voice was harsher then when she had ever heard it, not that she had heard it lots of times. But to her, this would probably be the tune of when he took her out of her house, not of when he pleaded her to drink some water.

Biting her bottom lip, she finally took long sips on the liquid, feeling relieve as soon as it touched her waiting lips. She stopped, though, right in the middle of the bottled, closing it and placing it beside her.

"Saving for later." She explained, he shook his head.

"No. They will take it from you. We'll give them water later, not like this, but they will be given water. Her." He nodded his head towards Indra. "She must be thirsty too." He once again, took the bottle from her side and opened it, while Haley opened the girl's mouth. Nathan poured some of the content inside it, and Indra woke up, instinctively chugging on the bottle, and grasping it with both her hands. Once she was done, she sat up, her back against her aunt's chest, and in rapid move, the took the black band away from her eyes, leaving it to fall loosely around her neck.

"Thanks." The brunette dimpled girl girl's voice was still raspy, but now, it was naturally.

"Auntie Haley, aren't you gonna thank the nice man?" Indra's large brown eyes glistened, as she look up to her aunt.

"Thank you." Haley murmured truthfully, holding her little girl closer as Indra tried to put the lid back on the bottle.

"You're welcome, Haley. And?" He gently took the other girl's bottle from her, and smiled with Indra held hers out for him.

"Brooke." The brunette told him when he was looking pointedly at her. Haley suddenly felt silly for not asking before.

"I'm Indra." The little one offered, with a toothy grin.

"That's a beautiful name." The little one nodded.

"Means water, right Auntie? Auntie Haley's the sun light, and I'm water. Everything grandpa needed for his fruit field!" she announced, repeating the exact words Jimmy had said the previous summer, in their small, and last, escape to the old fields; just to say goodbye.

Haley felt a tug in her heart, hearing her father's happy words. For the first time in these last horrid couple of days, she felt her cheeks dampening quickly.

Nathan wiped her creamy cheeks with his thumb, and made her a silent promise. She would be okay. No matter what, he would protect her with his life.