The kids were asleep, at least the younger ones were, Louie was sure that some of the older ones were just faking. Louise sat next to the area on top of a crate. As she leaned against the wall Aldo walked over to her and leaned against the wall next to her. After a moment of silence she looked up at him and studied his face. "Are you pissed?" she asked and he looked down at her.
"Not at you." he said and she sighed.
"Who-" she stopped speaking and he nodded. "Aldo don't beat yourself up." she sighed as she stood up and rested her head on his shoulder. "We all thought it would turn out differently."
"What if we had misfired, what if we had hit one of those kids?" he asked and she shook her head.
"But we didn't Aldo." she said sternly. "And when we get those kids out of here we'll be gone too, just like you said. Ruth is going to drive them into Orleans and we're going to head North. It'll all be over and done with."
"You aren't going to kill us?" a small voice asked and Louise almost jumped out of her skin before looking at the small girl who stared up at them with surprise in her eyes.
"You speak English?" Louise asked and she nodded.
"My mama taught me." she said with a heavy german accent. "My daddy speaks about you. He says you kill all Germans."
"No." Louise said softly. "Just the bad ones. What's your name?"
"Hannah." she said and Louise nodded softly.
"Well, Hannah, I promise no harm will come to you while I'm here, okay?" Hannah nodded and then looked down as tears started to roll down her young face.
"I want my mama." she said and Louise wrapped her arms around the young girl. It felt weird to Louise to embrace this child who was caught in the middle of the war, but Louise knew it was all she could do. Poor Hannah was caught in the middle of a war, on her parents side they were slaughtering innocent people and she was being raised to hate, and yet she was so young she didn't have the resources or even chance to make her own decisions.
By the time the basterds had arranged for Ruth to meet them with the children Hannah had fallen asleep again. Getting the children up was no easy task, and it only got a lot harder when they realized who they were with (and that the origional driver had been bound and gagged). Hannah quickly told them they would not be harmed while Louise was around making them all group around the bitch among basterds, much to the annoyance of Louise, but she bit her tounge and accepted it. As they made their way to the meeting point little Hannah translated what she could for Louise to the children until they had to be quiet. As they waited for the truck to come to the end of the alleyway they were in Louise took an oppertunity to kneel down in front of the kids who had (mostly) taken to her.
"Translate for me Hannah." she said and Hannah nodded happily as the children (and the Basterds) watched on curiously. "You children are growing up in the middle of a war. Innocent people are dying around you and you're going to grow up like it's normal. I want you kids to think about this, every time someone calls one of us evil for what we do, think about what they do." she said and Hannah translated. "Some of you older kids are old enough to read a newspaper. Try it sometime." Hannah quickly translated as the truck pulled up to the end of the alley. After shoving the bound driver into the front seat with Ruth they loaded the children into the back, as they put the children in the back each of them were required to take their arm bands off and hand them over to Utivitch. Hannah paused before turning back to Louise and throwing her arms around the hesitant woman's waist. "Your mama wants you home Hannah." Louise said softly and Hannah nodded before letting go and getting into the truck. Donny tied down the canvas cover and then hit the back of the truck and Ruth started to drive forward. Aldo walked over to Louise and laid a hand on her shoulder as they drove away before Louise pulled away from his touch. "We should leave." she said as she picked up her backpack. "There'll be nazis swarming this fuckin place by morning." all of the boys looked to Aldo who nodded and sighed as he picked up his own pack.
"Let's go boys." he said as he slung it over his shoulder and looked at the woman walking towards Wicki and Hugo, she started to talk to them in broken German and they answered before Aldo cleared his throat. "Alright boys, to the truck." he said as they walked to the truck. By dawn they had found a good place to camp in the french countryside.
