6.
~ London 1944 ~
~ Ariadne had been enjoying a quite night shift when the air raid warning had gone off. She had finally settled down at the nurses station to read "Gone with the Wind". The novel Trixie had been nagging her to read. A worn out hardback that had made the rounds with every nurse in the hospital till it's dust jacket was lost, it's spine bent and it's pages dog eared. All the girls crazy for Rhett, and even crazier for Clark Gable.
Several of the nurses going to see the film at the nickel show more then once. Large movie poster's of him hung over their beds as they debated hotly over Rhett vs. Ashley.
Personally, Ariadne didn't see what all the fuss was about. As far as she was concerned, both men didn't deserve the torment that was Scarlet O'Hara. Ariadne found her selfish, spoiled and narcissistic.
Or at least that was what she told the other nurses. Secretly, she was pleased there was someone else, however fictional, who didn't like volunteering ever free second. Who didn't like tending to the wounded sometimes. Who wanted to only look out for herself. It was wrong to think that, she knew, but she was happier to know her occasional dark thoughts were not unheard of.
The double damned air raid siren went off again.
'Not going to be much of London left to take if they keep bombing us.' She thought as the slapped the book shut and scurried downstairs to the shelter. She cast a worried look at the bed ridden men in the large recovery ward. They couldn't be moved, and if the bombs hit the hospital, they would be killed.
Men pulled from battle, brought to safety, operated on, only to die at Hitler's hands in the end.
She helped the ambulatory men to the large hospital shelter. Nurses and doctors in night clothes as the sirens wailed and the lights were turned on low or put out all together.
Not even a glimpse of light could be allowed to show from the hospital windows as they prayed the bombers wouldn't hit the building.
Ariadne sat close to a wounded man as he cried that he didn't want to live through this.
"Stop it!" She hissed at him. Her training kicking in. "Your scaring the other men."
The young man held back a sob as they waited in silence. The unmistakable sound of planes coming over head.
From far away, it came.
Boom.
It sounded like a faint crash as a bomb made contact with some poor helpless bit of Earth.
Boom.
Closer now as the people crowded together. The bombing sounding like a giant marching closer and closer.
Boom.
Ariadne was holding fast to the hand of the wounded man as another bomb hit closer still.
BOOM!
"It's going to hit! You can tell!" A nurse screamed as she tried to bolt out of the shelter. The others holding her back.
Boom.
Ariadne breathed a sigh of relief. The bomb struck past them. They had learned the timing of the bombs. Learned by the sounds that you were next or if it would pass you over. The bombing had mercifully neglected the hospital.
Boom.
The giant's footsteps marching away.
Boom.
The nurse crying and saying she wanted her mother.
~ "How did they survive years of this?" Arthur grumbled as the air raid sirens pulled him on his feet and to the shelter
The third army was staying in London until they received orders to move out to France. It was a lot of hurry up and wait until they could join the battle. For now, they were enlisted to help in anyway they could with the war effort.
Waiting in the shelters was agony for him. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be out in the open. Not trapped in a half buried little shelter that wouldn't protect him from anything. It was insufferable and he wondered how the people here had done it for so long. His first night in that hole that was called a shelter almost drove him insane.
"We have a fire!" A man called down toe Arthur and the company.
The Americans were on their feet. Without being told to help put out the fires, and without waiting for the all clear signal.
The locals grumbling that the Americans had no sense or no fear. Perhaps a little of both.
"They may not be very bright, but don't they all look handsome!" One older woman remarked as Arthur saw the last of his men out of the shelter.
The streets were as dark as pitch. The only light was the fire blazing. A large house was burning and Arthur was shouting at his men to ready the fire hoses. They had been trained to put out fires and he was pleased to see them snap to their jobs without being told to.
A cry caught his attention.
"Help!" Came a woman's scream.
"Sir, they must have been under the stairs and not a regular shelter!" A privet shouted at the Lieutenant.
Arthur didn't think. He raced to the house and threw a brick at the front window.
On nimble legs, he jumped through the broken window and into the house that was burning from the top floor down.
He could hear horrible screams coming from a little door by the stairs. A china cabinet had fallen over and blocked the door. Trapping the people who had taken shelter under the stairs from the bombings.
Arthur looked up as he heard the ceiling groan overhead. Heard his mean shouting for him to come back.
The Lieutenant wadded through the furniture in the parlor to the stairs. He pushed the china cabinet over and pried open the door.
A woman and three young children were under the stairs. Their faces frightened and their eyes wide and red with tears. They no doubt thought they were doomed to die there.
"Lets go!" Arthur shouted at them as they looked at him. Too afraid to move.
The Lieutenant grabbed the smallest child from the woman. Causing her to scream for her baby. Her mother's instincts making her move as the flames had now reached the first floor. Bringing the ceiling down.
The heat was horrible. It's deadly fingers licking at him as he finally made his way to the window.
"Tommy!" The woman screamed at a little boy who had stayed by the stairs. Too frightened to leave a place that was always safe.
"I'll get him!" Arthur shouted as he handed the youngest to one of his men out the window. The woman climbing after it.
Arthur made sure the woman was out before turning back for the boy. The child crying as the flames came closer. He made one step to the child when the ceiling collapsed.
Ok. So is acting a little odd. It sent me a message that said it took down my stories due to content, but then recanted. Not sure what is going on or if this story will be allowed to be updated. If NOT, do not worry. I will open an account at Adultfanfiction and post my stories there.