Tension fills the plane, oppressive and stifling. It's like a flying tomb, carrying them straight to their deaths. This is it. Possibly the most insane thing I've done. Lina can't help her gaze from flitting around the plane. It's eerily quiet. Nobody knows what to say. Everything has been leading up to this night. This jump. "Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth?"
Luz glances over at her, confusion playing across his expression. "Uh, no. Can't say that I have. I'm assuming you have?" Lina's expression falters at his words.
"I do. All the time." It weighs heavy on her mind. Life and Death. The job of a medic. To heal instead of destroy.
War brings a lot of questions. Never answers, though. That's the one thing Lina knows with certainty. Being a medic doesn't make it easier. War doesn't solve anything. It never has. It never will. "You don't know where I'm from, do you?" Luz shakes his head.
"Right. Well, it's called Vilna. Pretty quiet there most of the time until the war came." Death followed quickly. "People were deported at first. Anyone the NKVD even thought was anti-communism." She still remembers their screams. Watching the police yank people from their lives, from their homes. One second they were there. The next, they were gone. Like a ghost. Like me.
Only the memories are left. That's all anyone leaves behind. Memories of better times. "NKVD?" Confusion plays across Luz's face.
Lina sighs and shakes her head. "Soviet secret police. They deported my father. Just as ruthless as the Germans."
"Where to?" Even before he's finished speaking, Luz realizes his mistake.
Lina's hand curls into a fist. Her nails dig into her palm. "I don't know, George. Okay? One day he didn't come home." That day still haunts her. "A neighbor told us what happened." Lina drops her gaze to the floor. It doesn't hurt as much as it did in the beginning.
Pain never truly goes away, though. "Shit. I'm sorry." Lina shakes her head and sighs. He doesn't get it. None of them do. Not until they actually experience War for themselves will they understand. Sighing, Lina pulls the pendant tucked beneath her shirt.
A simple six-pointed gold star hangs on the pendant. Recognition dawns on Luz's face. "Now do you understand? I can't go back. If I go back, I'm dead. The Germans will make sure of it." My life is worth nothing to them.
"Then why the hell did you join the Airborne? We're going to fight the Germans."
"I don't have a choice." Not when my fate is tied to War. Not when her people, her family, are being treated as the enemy. "And I'm not fighting." Lina motions to the armband on her uniform. The bright red cross stands out even in the darkness of the plane. "I'll never hurt anyone. Not on purpose."
The worth of a life. It's hard for someone to grasp. Lina understands, though. She's been carrying this burden around her whole life. A healer's hands. To heal instead of destroy. She's seen what War does. War doesn't value life.