40.
~ Ariadne was breathing hard. Something was wrong. She could feel the marrow in her bones hurt and her skin shivered from a prickle of coldness. As if some specter had floated past her, tainting her with it's grim shadow.
She had been dreaming she was a winter crow. Her wings dark and beautiful in flight. She dreamed of a forest clearing that was covered in a thick blanket of snow as her feathers contrasted sharply to the world of white and gray.
She peered closer to the clearing and saw it was dotted with red. The red coming from bodies left to rot in the stillness of winter. Curious, and unafraid, she flew closer to the red snow and peered and the bodies. The young men laying broken and lifeless as the snow fell on them, covering them.
She recognized Dax. His eyes were cloudy from death taking him away. His mouth open in shock at having his young life end so sharply. She could smell the blood on the snow as she flew closer.
Arthur, Arthur, Arthur.
She thought as she hunted for her Major. Where are you? Where are you? She flew into the forest but had her flight cut short. She gave out a loud caw as she realized there were monsters hiding in the trees.
When she woke, she was still shaking, still afraid of the shadows in her safe little room. The dream had felt so real. She could still see that lonely snow covered field. Still see Dax's face as he stared back at her through dead eyes.
"Arthur." She whispered his name as she wrapped herself back into her blankets. A heavy snow had started to fall outside her window. It make the dream seem so much closer.
Arthur, Arthur, Arthur.
She thought. Too afraid to say his name out loud again.
~ The prisoners were marched for over a day. They were given no food and not even allowed to stop and rest. Cobb was in horrible pain as Arthur and another man took turns helping the colonel to walk.
At one point, one of their captures noticed Cobb's limb and Arthur had to quickly explain that he had just twisted his ankle. The major kept his words simple and broken. He didn't want the enemy to know he could understand their language.
When they shouted to him, asking if he understood, he shrugged helplessly and talked in English.
They were given no food and not even allowed to build any fires to keep the men warm as they were forced to march onward. The menacing guns held to their backs.
To his credit, Arthur didn't lose a single man on the death march. When they finally arrived at a small compound, the major sighed with relief.
"We can finally rest." Arthur whispered to Cobb. The colonel nodding as the major helped him to sit down on the floor of a worn and smelly barrack. There were bunks used for beds here. But there was no bedding or mattresses. Nothing to provide any comfort. Not even a stove to help keep the prisoners warm.
Arthur and his men were all forced to crowd together in one barrack. The smell in this place was horrible. It smell of decaying things, waste and death. If the cold didn't kill them, the smell would.
"Let me see your leg." Arthur whispered to Cobb. The colonel nodding and trying not to flinch as he allowed the major to roll up his pant leg. The wound to the colonel had been superficial. But the day of walking had torn it. Made it worse.
"They took out med kits, sir." The skinny corporal whispered as the men stayed close together, trying to keep warm.
"Get me some snow." Arthur whispered. "We have to slow some of the bleeding. Clean it as best we can.
~ None of the prisoners or their captures saw Eames. When he wanted to, the lieutenant could stay hidden very well.
~ Eames had felt something was wrong the moment he stepped into the field. The cawing of a massive crow had made him look to the trees. An old story he had heard as a boy where a winter time crow was really death in disguise.
He had wandered a little away from the troops as he heard it's loud shrieks in the thick black trees. No one noticed he had left them. No one noticed he wasn't there. He could feel something was wrong. Something was in the trees. Watching, waiting, breathing.
The lieutenant was suddenly scared. His nerves making him ready his rifle and aim it as the monsters he couldn't see. Suddenly, a large crow took flight from the trees and swooped over him. It's talons almost scratching him. The lieutenant ducked into the snow as it cawed angrily at him and dove again. Eames was filled with fear of the attacking bird. The myth of it really being death come for him, and scurried to a bank trees. The snow giving way and almost burying him.
That was when he heard the gunfire. The shouting. The return fire. More shouting. Then a stillness. He lay there in the snow. That menacing crow swooping over him again. Flying low. Keeping him pinned into the snow and unable to move for fear it would attack him.
The crow watched him through its' sharp, beady eyes as he lay in the ground covered under the white powder. He strained his ears to listen for gun fire again. Listen for any kind of noise. He heard nothing, which scared him most of all.
With one loud caw, the crow flew away. Dusting snow off a branch with it.
Eames was on his feet. He rushed out of the forest with reckless speed. His riffle at the ready as she fell into the clearing. He was on his stomach as he saw the tank had tipped into a ditch and almost rolled over. It was completely useless now. Nothing stirred and moved in the clearing as he was tempted to call out to whoever was still there.
The quite of the field made him stop. Made his voice stick in his throat. Nothing moved or made a sound here. It was empty and deadly still.
He heard a loud cawing and looked up. The crow from the forest was flying overhead. It's dark flight easy to see in the white, cloudy sky.
The bird seemed unafraid as Eames slowly stood. He finally saw the red snow, and the bodies.
The lieutenant wandered around his fallen comrades helplessly as he searched each face. Hoping that he could find at least on alive when he found Dax. Snowflakes dusting his face. Eames was afraid to even touch him. His friend was staring out at the world thought vacant eyes. His skin already gray from death's touch.
It occurred to him that Arthur and Cobb were not among the dead. Several of his own people were missing as well. They must have been taken prisoner, and any hope of finding their tracks was slowly disappearing with the falling snow.
From the footprints, Eames was able to deduce the enemy had shot at his people from the trees. Then marched out into the clearing. He saw American bootprints and blood forming a trail into the woods.
A fear griped his belly as he was all alone in this place. He had forgotten about the crow and when it made it's horrible caw at him, he rushed into the forest after his people.
~ No one saw him. No one heard him as he followed the bootprints and blood. He tore up a red shirt and tied it's scraps to the tree limbs to find his way back again. The lieutenant was used to snow. All those winters he had spent skiing with his father not far from here. The snow did not slow him down and he knew just how to move in it. How to hide in it.
But he was not used to the horrible march the enemy made his comrades endure. Eames huddled behind trees, bushes and in ditches until his people were marched into a small camp.
The lieutenant took in everything about the camp. Twenty guards, four barracks, all of them small. No plumbing in the barracks. Only one guard house. This place was most likely a small farm before the war. Smoke coming out of the guard house chimney promised a place of warmth, but not for the prisoners.
The lieutenant circled around the camp and tried to find a weak point. Tried to find away in.
It was at the cries of that same crow that he started. Like a frightened rabbit, he jumped and looked around.
'Get away from here.' The giant bird seemed to say from it's hiding spot among the branches. 'Go for help, but get away now. If they find you, they will kill you. Get away. This place is death.'
Eames didn't have to be told twice. He believed in such things as spirits. Of unearthly beings that would tell him things no mortal could see or know. Before Dunkirk, he had a dream of rescuing a small girl who's feet had been bitten by snakes. That her feet were bleeding and she was sitting on the grass all alone and helpless. That when he saved her, she turned into a beautiful enchantress. That was how he knew he had to save Ariadne. No matter what the cost, he had to save that girl with the bleeding feet.
He ran back to the clearing. One of the jeeps had been abandoned in the clearing. The trees too thick to be taken by the enemy into the forest.
The Lieutenant wasn't a very good driver and looked worriedly at the controls. He started the jeeps and tried to avoid running over the bodies of his fallen soldiers.
He didn't hear that crow again as he fled from that field of death in search of help.
Today, my husband and I have been married 11 years!