Part 18

A light mist of smoke lingered in the air from all the chaos. Shots had rung out from three different directions: Zeller's gun aimed at Maria, Rashel's gun aimed at Zeller, and lastly, Hector's gun waving loosely toward the room as he raced up the steps. Out of everyone in the room before the shoot-out, only five remained alive when the smoke settled - well six if the half moving figure by the door counted, but he was drifting in and out. The breathing of those five was heavy, and nobody dared to move from their spots in fear of being shot at again.

There was a fine coating of blood along the floor. It trickled down the bodies of the fallen and made thick pools on the floor.

Georg was the first to timidly open his eyes and raise his head - he was one of the lucky ones who remained alive. His time serving in the navy during the wars had taught him to be cautious after being involved in a deadly situation like the one he had just survived. Carefully, he ran his hands along his body, searching for any sign of injury, praying the blood around him wasn't his. After he concluded he hadn't been shot, Georg sat up and peered around the armchair where he had jumped behind after the shots rang out. His eyes searched for Maria.

As he stood up fully, his gaze met Max's who was inspecting the scene as well. Max was survivor number two.

"You all right, Georg?" He silently hissed across the room as he helped Elsa to her feet - survivor number three.

"Yes. What about you? You're bleeding from your neck!" Georg hissed back, suddenly very concerned about his friend, his thoughts drifting away from Maria momentarily.

Max slowly raised a hand to his neck and Elsa took him in her hands. As her fingers gently came in contact with his neck, Max winced in slight pain.

"Nothing to worry, seems a bullet just grazed me. A mere flesh wound." Georg breathed a sigh of relief at Max's words.

"Where the devil is Maria?" He very worriedly asked, his eyes hurriedly panning the room. They finally came to rest on a figure hiding behind he coat rack at the front door.

"Hector! What the hell are you doing here? I told Helen and Margaret not to follow me!"

Hector peered around the corner and came out of his hiding place.

"And do you think they honestly listened to a word you said? As soon as you tore off, they came and got me and we drove here like madmen. It's a good thing too, might I add or else we wouldn't have expected you back!" Hector was survivor number four.

"Have you seen Maria? Are you harmed, Hector?" Georg asked, but not really all that concerned with his well being.

"I'm fine, just shaken up a bit, but completely unscathed." Hector did a quick surveillance of the room, helping to look for Maria as well.

Max and Elsa crossed the room to Georg and the three looked around. As Max was about to move, they heard another sound come from the doorway. Elsa slowly walked over and closed the front door, revealing a slumped over figure behind it. There in the corner lay a wounded Herr Zeller. Elsa couldn't make out if he was dead or not. He had sustained two shots: one to his left thigh, and the other to his chest. It was hard to make out if he was breathing. Max took hold of Elsa's hand as he and Georg hunched down to see if Zeller was alive or not.

Georg gave his foot a sharp kick with his boot. Very slowly, Zeller's eyes rolled open. Elsa jumped back gasping, taking Max with her, but Georg wasn't scared. He knelt down so he was at eye level with the man he so despised and grabbed the pistol out of Zeller's hands.

"Well, captain," Zeller barely managed to get out. "It looks like you've been able to out last the forces of the Third Reich, but not for long. In an hour's time, my men will be swarming this town and you and that whore of a woman will be hunted and killed, leaving all seven of your children orphans." He spat a mouthful of blood.

Georg couldn't resist and delivered a harsh punch across Zeller's face, more blood gushing out of his nose that Georg had just broken with his force.

"There will never be a day where my family is taken down by the bastard forces of the Nazis. You and your men will burn in hell." Georg stood up as he towered over the fallen Herr Zeller and raised the gun in his hand, prepared to put Zeller out of his misery, and out of Georg's life forever. But before he could pull the trigger a shot rang out and Zeller slumped onto the floor. He was dead at last.

Hector stood, gun raised and poised at the fallen man in the corner and looked over at Georg. Elsa had hidden her face in Max's chest at the sound of the gunshot.

"Better that I killed him, since the wound in his chest was dealt by me anyway...didn't want any blood to be on your hands, Georg. He won't be after you and your family anymore." He gave Georg a half smile as he lowered his weapon.

"Well if you shot him in the chest, then who hit him in the leg?" Max wondered aloud as he turned, scanning the room for Roxanne, Rashel, and of course, Maria. Georg mimicked his friend's actions.

"Oh my God!" Elsa shrieked, and all three men turned in her direction. Elsa was staring straight back through the hallway to the next room, where Rashel lay face down in the carpet, the back of her head oozing blood. Max crossed the room and knelt down beside her.

"She must have hit Zeller in the leg, but not before he killed her," he said as he looked back at his friends sadly.

"All right," Elsa said, swallowing hard. "If Zeller's dead and he killed Rashel where are Roxanne and Maria?" Again the quartet searched for the final survivor. Georg knew his wife had to be in the room because she was standing at Zeller's gunpoint when the shoot-out happened. He was the one to find her and tears stung his face as he discovered her in the corner, on the far side of the couch.

"Maria...oh my darling, Maria." His cheeks were soaked as he knelt down beside her. She had been hit and all at once Max's words from before hit him. She's pregnant!

Georg rolled Maria over onto her back from her side and frantically searched for the source of the blood. He offered a quick and silent prayer as he saw her stomach was unharmed. He gently shook her, unsure if she was alive or not. By now, the others had encircled him and Elsa, too, was crying, afraid her friend was dead.

"Is she...alive?" She said, barely a whisper.

Georg solemnly looked back at his friends, then down at his beloved. She wasn't moving. He was about to throw himself over her body when he thought he saw it twitch. There it was again. She was breathing. Georg let out a quick shout as he brought both hands to his mouth. Maria's eyes fluttered open as she rolled back over onto her side, clutching her left arm. She was the fifth and final survivor.

She let out a fierce cry of pain as she bumped her wounded shoulder where Zeller had shot her.

"Georg...Georg!" She shouted not realizing he was right beside her.

"Maria, I'm here, darling. Oh my love." He scooped down and brought her to him, gathering her gently in his arms. Maria looked up at him and with her free hand, caressed his cheek as fresh tears ran down it. Georg enveloped her in a massive hug, but Maria cried out in pain.

"No, no, it's all right. I'm fine. It's just my shoulder - I knew I was hit from the moment the gunshots rang out and that's when I dove behind the couch. Are you all, all right?"

Her eyes frantically darted to Max and Elsa kneeling now beside her and to Hector who was looking past Maria.

"We're all fine, darling."

"But, Max, your neck!"

"Just grazed by a bullet, I'll manage to pull through I'm afraid." He joked as be kissed Maria on the cheek and closed his eyes as he briefly lingered, savoring the contact, glad she was alive. Maria clung to his hand, grateful for him.

"We all thought you were a goner," Elsa said as she gripped tightly on Maria's good shoulder.

"I'm fine, really," Maria replied, still in Georg's arms. Georg looked down, drying his eyes and brought Maria's face toward his.

"I had hoped our reunion would have been under better and safer circumstances, but I'll take it." He kissed away Maria's tears. Suddenly unfazed with the pain in her shoulder, Maria sat up straight and clung onto her husband, kissing him with all the passion she had. Not caring for the close proximity of his friends, Georg latched onto his wife similarly and met his lips with hers. He deepened the kiss, grateful for the contact after so much time apart. When she broke the kiss, Maria was breathless. She rested her forehead against Georg's and smiled through her tears and pain.

"I love you, so much."

"I love you too, Maria. I won't ever let anything happen to you ever again, I promise you that."

They shared a quick moment before Maria winced out in pain once more. Snapping to action, Georg stood up, bringing his wife with him and threw off his jacket. His first aid training from the navy came flooding back to him and he tore off one of the sleeves and made a makeshift sling for Maria, who was very impressed with his quick thinking. Georg ripped the second sleeve into a few smaller pieces and tied them together around Max's neck, creating a bandage to stop his bleeding.

"Those will have to do until we can properly treat the both of you when we get out of here...come on we need to leave here."

"Wait, what of the others?" Maria asked with concern, suddenly she remembered Roxanne.

"Rox! Rox! Where is she?" She cried out, scared to know the answer, but Georg held her back, trying to calm her down.

"She, she didn't make it I'm afraid, Maria," Hector said as he came toward her.

All at once again, tears cascaded down Maria's cheeks. There, slumped over the same armchair Georg has used as a cover, was poor Roxanne. The dark trench coat she had taken from Hector was covered in blood and her dress was a deep crimson color.

Maria knelt down and cried into her friend's lifeless lap. She held her hand one final time, knowing she'd never again hear her sweet voice and deep laugh. Sure, Roxanne had been a Nazi just like Maria at one point, but she had also been her greatest friend through everything. Maria didn't know how she'd be able to get on without her. Georg wanted to console his wife, but Max drew him back slightly.

"Give her a minute, Georg. She just lost her best friend." Georg sadly nodded to his friend and stood back with him and Elsa and Hector.

When she had composed herself, Maria slowly stood up and looked around the room, her, eyes resting on Rashel's limp figure in the doorway to the other room. She couldn't believe so much had been lost, and she felt as if it were all because of her.

She went to Georg and he drew her close to him.

"What about Herr Zeller? Please tell me he didn't get away!" Maria desperately looked up at her husband, needing to know the man who had put her through all this hell to begin with, had finally been done away with. Georg nodded in the direction of the front door and Maria turned. She withdrew from her husband and walked over to the man who had held her captive for so many years. She cried silent, victorious tears, but forced herself to control her emotions. She wouldn't waste any more sympathy or fear on this man. She spat on him and turned back to Georg.

"What now? Where do we go from here?"

Georg cleared his throat and went to clasp hands with Maria.

"Well, now we head back to Switzerland where we'll meet up with the children who were supposed to be with Hector, Margaret and Helen," Georg said with a mischievous spark to his eye in Hector's direction.

"They're in good hands, Georg not to worry. We left them with the innkeeper and his family. Margaret and Helen are outside waiting for us," Hector said as he waved out the window.

"The children! Please tell me they're all right? Do they know you were coming to find me?" Maria asked excitedly, causing Max and Elsa to chuckle through their tears amidst all the pain in the room.

"They will soon enough, my love," Georg said as he kissed her passionately again on the lips.

"I hate to be the voice of reason here, but if what Herr Zeller said was true, we need to leave immediately to out run the rest of his goons."

"You're right, Max. I insist you and Elsa come with us, it's the least after everything we've put you through thus far."

"Georg did you honestly think I'd be going anywhere else after all this?" Max sadly motioned to the house.

Georg nodded back at his friend.

"But what about this mess? What do we do about them?" Elsa motioned toward the three bodies lying around.

"We have to leave them, I'm afraid. No telling how much danger we're all in right now by being here," Hector commented as he walked toward the door, signaling for everyone else to follow them.

"No! We can't leave them like this - not Rox!" Maria was hysterical again.

"Maria, darling, we have to. We could risk our lives all over again by lingering here." Georg lovingly stoked her face as Maria's eyes pleaded with him for help.

"Please, Georg, we can't just leave."

Georg sighed in defeat, knowing with a good conscience Maria was right.

"All right. We can move Roxanne and Rashel's bodies to the bedroom and cover them with blankets, that's the best we can do I'm afraid, but Herr Zeller remains where he lies."

Maria grabbed his hands with her free one. "Thank you." She nodded as he, Max, and Hector moved to arrange their fallen friends in the bedroom, as Elsa wrapped her arms around her friend in comfort.

When the men were finished, all five of them quickly left the house to a waiting Margaret and Helen, and all seven of them started on their journey to Switzerland.

Authors note: Hello! I hope you liked this chapter I know I LOVED it! And think 'lovesbroadway' did a fantastic job! Anyway please please review and tell us what you think and thankyou to all of you who have reviewed and followed this story so far, please continue to! :D