Chapter Fourteen Chloe
Chapter Fourteen
Chloe
Chloe forced her chin up, determined to hold her head high as she stepped out of the wagon on to the platform.
Dogs barked, and as she blinked and looked around her, she saw the vicious-looking canines were being held on short leather leashes by guards – male and female guards – who were yelling at those who’d exited their wagons ahead of her.
The dogs wore the same military-grey coats as the guards holding them, complete with SS pin badges, and although she’d never been afraid of dogs before, the sight of the Alsatians sent a shiver of fear through her.
She surveyed the area beyond the platform – in the distance there were tall walls made of concrete, higher than anything she’d ever seen before. As she swallowed, her throat so dry it made her cough, she realised that the wall was to stop anyone from leaving.
Chloe had no concept of how long it had been since she’d left her apartment.
Hours, days, possibly a week? She didn’t know.
The cattle wagon she’d been transported in had been dark and airless; a dank place of death and misery, with people jammed against one another, huddled together against the biting wind.
But she was certain it had been days, at least four if she were to guess.
But she had an inkling where she was now, and nothing could be worse than here. This was one of the Nazi camps, the places of death and misery that she’d heard whispers about, the SS men up ahead hitting the new arrivals with sticks.
Other women shuffled along beside her as they were instructed to keep moving, and she wondered at the oddity, that there were no men in their transport group or among any of the other new arrivals she could see.
Her mind drifted to Claude, finding it impossible not to see the gun pointed at his head, knowing he had been only seconds away from being executed in front of her, and wondering how she’d managed not to be killed herself.
She could only imagine it might have been because she was a woman, but she couldn’t be sure.
Claude. Her eyes prickled with tears. Her brave, fearless brother, who’d unintentionally done the one thing she’d begged of him not to do.
And Adrian; her darling Adrian. She only hoped that her father would wake from his stupor and care for him in the way the boy needed to be parented now that she was gone, or that Claude would step up and nurture the little brother that they both so adored.
But it wasn’t just her brothers she mourned as she slowly moved, marched forward by the guards and their dogs; it was the memory of her mother, and the sister she’d buried alongside her. It was grief for the life she’d once had, the life that had been so suddenly stolen from her.
She focused on putting one foot in front of the other as they walked from the train through the entrance, past even more guards who leered at them and laughed, down a main street of sorts, past a large house.
Their destination appeared to be a tent, and as she looked down, she couldn’t help but wonder what was beneath her feet, because it seemed to be a thick layer of ash.
A dog barked, frightening a young woman in front of her. The guard holding it laughed, letting it lunge and intimidate her, not stopping even when the girl tripped and fell to the ground, the dog’s teeth snapping close to her face and eliciting even more laughter as other guards turned to watch.
Chloe wanted to scream at them to stop, but her cry died, as she knew that the dog would only be turned on her if she dared to say a word.
And that was why she’d given her life in exchange for Claude’s.
Because she hadn’t been able to save her sister or her mother, but she would be damned if she wouldn’t do everything in her power to save her remaining siblings and keep them from harm.
She could be angry with him later, and she knew she would be, but for now all she could think about was that she’d kept them safe, and she’d led the enemy away from the people she loved.
Who were safe in their apartment because of her.
I will survive this, she told herself, murmuring as she continued moving. I will survive this, and no one will stop me from returning to my family. There is nothing here that will break me, I won’t let it.
I can’t.
A shout made some of the women ahead of her cower, and Chloe quickly averted her gaze, looking down as more shouts echoed out and someone was hit with a baton, the woman’s legs buckling as she fell into the line.
Other guards brandished whips, cracking them in the air before slicing them against the bare skin of one of the trembling, terrified women.
Surviving meant being smart, figuring out how to stay out of trouble, and if that involved keeping her head down, then so be it.
Chloe balled her hands into fists and forced her breath in and out, focused on every shuffle forward of her feet, trying not to shiver despite the harsh lash of cold in the air that sank into her bones and threatened to steal the very breath she was focusing on.
She couldn’t imagine what it would be like in the middle of winter, when snow brushed the ground.
When she looked up, she did so cautiously, realising that there were no SS men patrolling around them anymore.
The men who’d been in charge of their transportation had disappeared, replaced only by women in uniform who walked up and down the slow-moving line of prisoners.
But the smirks on their faces, the cruelty that seemed to hover over their expressions, told her that just because they were women didn’t mean they would be any kinder.
‘Schnell, schnell! Heraus, heraus!’ the guards shouted.
Quick, quick. Chloe knew the meaning of the first word, and even if she hadn’t, the intent was clear.
The women were to keep moving as quickly as possible and go where they were directed, and she heard someone mutter about being checked for lice and having to take their clothes off, as other women emerged outside the tent, wearing strange grey striped dresses, some with their hair shaved off to make them look like men.
‘Where are we?’ one of the women behind Chloe asked.
‘Ravensbrück,’ barked a female guard.
But it was the next words, said in a thick German accent, that Chloe knew she’d never forget. The snicker was so evil, it made her want to wrap her arms around herself and pray for home.
‘The last place any of you will ever see.’