Chapter Twenty-Three Chloe #2
She brushed her tears away with her knuckles and gritted her teeth as she thought about what she’d left behind. Because she was going to survive to see them again, if it was the last thing she did.
The walk to the factory each day was always brutal, but as more and more women had fallen unwell over the months and years they’d now been at the camp, it was becoming ever harder.
Until now, all three of them had been spared the worst of every passing illness.
But today, Aletta had become sick so quickly, and there was so little that anyone could do to help her or any of the other women who were struggling.
Today, too, they were to relocate to the new wooden barracks that had been built beside the Siemens factory.
They wouldn’t be coming back until Sunday to their old ones, and Chloe doubted there would be any room for them on Sunday when they returned, anyway.
‘We’re going to have to walk her between us,’ Emma said. ‘Can you help me to keep her upright?’
Chloe placed her hand against Aletta’s hip, alarmed at the bone that protruded out. She was certain hers felt the same, but still, it was a shock to see it in another woman.
‘Just keep walking,’ she said. ‘You know the way, we just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.’ She gave Emma a look over Aletta’s head to indicate that nothing would stop Chloe from keeping her upright.
Thankfully roll call had been much faster than usual, with only the women assigned to the munitions factory told to line up.
There hadn’t been time to think about the children being left behind or the women they might not see again.
Chloe knew that if they’d been forced to stand for two hours at roll call, as often happened, Aletta would have collapsed and been left behind.
‘Why don’t you tell me about your Harry while we walk,’ Chloe said, as she supported Aletta. She wasn’t as strong as she’d thought.
‘Harry?’ Aletta asked, and when she turned her head, Chloe saw how pale she was.
‘Harry was a lovely young man,’ Emma said. ‘I imagine he’s somewhere as horrid as this right now, fighting to stay alive just to see you again, Aletta. So, you’re going to have to fight, too.’
Chloe laughed, but it quickly turned into a cough. ‘You wouldn’t want to disappoint the young man, so you’d better keep walking,’ she teased once she caught her breath.
‘What about the children?’ Aletta asked. ‘I didn’t get to listen to all their poems, I—’
‘You can listen to them on Sunday,’ Chloe said, knowing she was lying, that not all those children would even be there when they returned. Typhus was passing through the camp like wildfire, and they all knew that going to the infirmary was a death sentence.
‘Did you see that girl?’ Aletta suddenly cried, turning so fast that Chloe almost lost the grip she had on her arm.
‘What girl?’ Chloe muttered, struggling to keep hold.
‘She was one of my pupils! Else, her name was Else.’
Aletta was frantically looking at the group of new arrivals, but Chloe hissed at her as one of the guards started to walk down the line towards them.
‘Stop turning and stay quiet,’ she whispered, ducking her head and looking to the ground.
Aletta did as she was told, but it was Emma who whispered next, despite the attention focused on them.
‘The little girl who disappeared from your class?’ Emma asked. ‘You’re sure?’
‘I’m certain.’ Aletta’s legs seemed to give way and it took all Chloe’s strength to haul her back up, with Emma doing the same on the other side.
‘Don’t stop, Aletta. Don’t you dare stop putting one foot in front of the other,’ Emma ordered.
‘But Else . . .’
‘If that was your Else, then we’ll find her on Sunday,’ Emma said, grunting as they half dragged Aletta. ‘But that’ll be no use if we can’t get you up this hill.’
‘Just one step after the other,’ Chloe repeated, tears filling her eyes as she thought of her own mother, heard her voice echoed in the desperation of Emma’s as they both fought their own exhaustion to keep her moving.
When they finally reached the factory, they were shown to their new sleeping quarters, and although Chloe had hoped for something better than where they’d come from, her hopes were quickly dashed at the sight of the hard wooden bunks.
‘I need to sit,’ Aletta whispered, and Chloe helped her down, even as the ?lteste barked at them.
‘You will work the day shift and sleep here,’ said the woman charged with overseeing them. ‘When you rise, the night shift will take your bunks.’
These beds are never going to have an hour of not being slept in. They’re going to work us to death.
‘Get her up,’ the ?lteste said. ‘If she’s sick, she goes.’
‘Aletta,’ Emma urged, as Chloe took hold of her arm to help her, hearing the panic in Emma’s voice. ‘You have to get up.’
‘You go to work, or you go back down there to the infirmary,’ the ?lteste stated. ‘It’s your choice.’
‘She’ll work, she’s fine,’ Chloe snapped, keeping hold of Aletta’s arm. But inside, fear rose like a hand trying to choke her around the neck, because she knew that there was no way Aletta was going to manage a ten- or twelve-hour shift any longer without collapsing in a heap.
She exchanged glances with Emma, neither of them saying a word as they half dragged her to work between them.
‘Are you sick?’ Herr Weber asked, as he came around to inspect their work.
Chloe heard him ask Aletta the question and inwardly cringed as she waited to hear her answer, although they all knew that he would be more understanding than anyone else charged with supervising them.
They’d barely been working for an hour, and it was clear that Aletta was struggling to stand upright, sweat sheening her forehead as she swayed on her feet.
‘Yes.’ Aletta’s voice was raspy. ‘I am.’
‘You don’t need to come to work if you’re unwell,’ he said. ‘You may go and lie down.’
‘Herr Weber,’ Chloe said, knowing she was taking a risk by speaking to him directly. ‘If I may?’
He turned to her, and she smiled politely.
‘My friend, Aletta, she needs extra food,’ Chloe told him. ‘If there’s anything else you have to spare . . .’
‘You can’t get extra for her at the camp shop for dinner?’
Chloe grimaced as she tried to find the words.
She wanted to tell him the truth, but she also knew how careful she had to be.
‘Herr Weber, we don’t have a camp shop. We’re fed very little, just a cup of watery soup and bread for dinner, and Aletta is becoming weak.
’ She hesitated. ‘We all are. It’s why we’re so thin. ’
She watched as he stroked his moustache, considering her and then looking at Aletta, who was shivering now, her skin appearing even paler than before, her lips cracked.
She hoped she hadn’t read the situation wrong, that he was a decent man as she suspected he might be.
Because if he wasn’t, she might have just made a decision that could cost her her life.
But at the same time, she couldn’t understand how this man could look at them all and not see how skeletal and unwell they were, how much they were all suffering.
‘I had every intention of rewarding you all with a voucher for the camp shop, for your hard work these past months,’ he said, his brows drawing close together.
‘But you’re telling me that you would have nowhere to spend it, if I were to give it to you?
Why did none of the women tell me this last month when I issued them? ’
The women around her were silent, listening, and Chloe bravely met his stare and nodded.
‘The intention is very kind, sir, but you are correct there would be nowhere to spend it. And as for the women, I would say they were too scared to tell you the truth. Our guards might have punished them if they did.’
‘There is nowhere at all for you to buy any provisions?’
She shook her head. ‘We also have no choice about coming to work. We might, well . . .’ Chloe paused, considering her words, wondering if he truly knew why they were there, if he knew that they were forced to work.
She chose to be more careful with her words.
‘We’d be in terrible trouble if we didn’t turn up for our shift.
Even when we’re unwell, we’re expected to be here, otherwise we can get in a lot of trouble. ’
‘You are prisoners though?’ he asked. ‘I don’t know what all you women have done to end up here, but this is part of your punishment for your crimes, is it not?’
Chloe glanced at Emma, who had turned a ghostly shade of white, fear written all over her face. She knew she’d said enough, that to say more could land her in more trouble than it was worth if the conversation was repeated to one of the guards, but she couldn’t not continue. Not now.
‘Yes sir, it is,’ Chloe said. She wanted to scream at him that they had done nothing wrong, that there were no crimes to be punished for, but she forced the words down.
Yelling at him would be the end of her, and although he was as much to blame as anyone, he was a factory manager, not a guard or a soldier. She needed to know when to stop.
He gave Chloe a curt nod and turned back to Aletta, and she watched as he bent closer and said something to her before he walked away. But he wasn’t gone for long and she noticed that when he returned, he pressed something into Aletta’s hand.
‘If anyone questions you, you tell them that Herr Weber told you to take the afternoon off,’ he said, before lowering his voice and turning to include Chloe in the conversation.
‘And now that I know how little you’re fed, and that there is nowhere for you to obtain extras, I’ll try to get some more for you to share between you all.
Now that I understand the situation, I will distribute food as a reward each week instead of vouchers. How does that sound?’
Chloe wanted to throw her arms around him, her fear at having disclosed too much replaced with joy, but instead she offered him a warm smile. ‘Thank you, Herr Weber. Your kindness will never be forgotten.’
‘Nor taken for granted,’ Emma whispered beside her.
Emma’s wide-eyed stare when he left told Chloe that she couldn’t believe what had just happened, that someone in this hellhole was capable of showing them any degree of kindness, and she only hoped that Aletta had the strength to make it back to the bunkroom without collapsing.
That she could enjoy whatever morsel he’d given her.
And it wasn’t lost on her that one man’s generosity with food could be the only thing that kept all of the Siemens workers alive.
After their shift ended, she and Emma hurried to look for Aletta.
It was only after finding her safe in bed and with her hand still clasped around whatever she’d been eating, that Chloe was able to relax.
Continuing to work while knowing how unwell Aletta was had been like worrying about her brothers all over again.
‘Saved this. For you both.’
When she opened her palm, Chloe watched as Emma took two small pieces of sausage from the wrapping. Despite being starving hungry herself, Aletta had kept something for them.
‘Aletta, you need to—’
‘No, I ate most of it,’ she murmured. ‘I’m already feeling a little better. I’m not eating it all without sharing. Please, take it.’
Chloe wanted to argue with her, but her stomach disobeyed and let out a long growl, giving away just how desperately hungry she was, and so she took her piece as Emma took hers and placed it in her mouth.
She held it under her tongue for a moment, savouring the flavour before slowly, very slowly, beginning to chew.
It was the best-tasting piece of food of Chloe’s life.
‘I’ve been meaning to ask, if you’d like to look at some of the papers?’ she said.
Aletta’s eyes brightened a little, and Emma smiled before she spoke.
‘I think we’d both love that, Chloe.’
Which was how she ended up sharing what she’d recorded with the two women who’d come to mean the most to her in the world, as they pored over recipes that made their mouths water and little descriptions of beautiful places and snippets of memories, all with the first name of each woman printed in the bottom right-hand corner.
Chloe didn’t often let herself re-read what she’d written, but tonight, for once, it was worth it, to relive the emotions of each woman who’d come to her. Soon they might all be gone, but maybe someone would find this, and at least it would be something.