Wolfgang and Leah hiked and the sky finally grew gray and he put his flashlight away with relief. He wished now for a hiking stick.
They reached the tree line and stark rock faced them. They would be exposed, but hopefully far enough away that they could not be caught. They had the rifles, and Wolfgang knew that if he were chased and fired upon, he would probably fire back. He thought about it and decided he definitely would fire back. The boy’s friends had hurt him, had hurt them, and he wouldn’t allow them to hurt them anymore.
“I am a fool,” he said suddenly in German.
Leah almost laughed.
“Why?”
“I should have stayed behind with the boy. Kept him from talking. Held off the gang for a while with my rifle. I am slowing you down.”
“I don’t care. I would not have left you.”
“You are a fool, too.”
“I don’t care.” She did laugh now, and the sound of it pleased Wolfgang.
“I must take a break,” he said a few minutes later. He sat on a rock and it was comfortable. “I need to sleep.”
“We need to catch up to the soldiers,” Leah said. They couldn’t see them.
“A minute.”
Leah got water out of her pack and handed it to Wolfgang. He drank. His head pounded and he prayed for medicine. As soon as he opened his eyes, Leah held two pills.
“This will help,” she said.
He took them and swallowed them with water.
“I can’t go much longer,” he told her.
“I know. You wait here. I’ll catch up with them and tell them to wait.”
Wolfgang caught her arm before she could leave.
“Too dangerous,” he said. “I have to keep moving.”
Leah looked like she wanted to cry, but she shouldered her backpack, the two rifles, and helped Wolfgang to his feet. He took a deep breath and continued up the mountainside.
He walked with his eyes mostly closed, relying on Leah’s guidance, her firm arm on his. She’d hiked all night like him and must be running on adrenaline. They couldn’t keep this up much longer.
“Where is the other one?” she called out suddenly, startling him. She stopped and Wolfgang stopped with her. He looked and saw Lieutenant Colonel Robertson resting with his back against a large rock. The man stared out over the distance, valleys and forested hills stretching to the horizon, the sun rising into a dense pack of gray clouds.
“Where is the younger officer?” Leah repeated.
The lieutenant colonel didn’t reply.
“Maybe he went on ahead,” Wolfgang suggested.
Leah’s hand on his arm tensed.
“Where is the other one?” she asked more insistently. The American looked up at her.
“He’ll be along shortly,” he said.
“Did he go ahead?” she asked.
“He’ll be along shortly,” the man said again, as if the words were rehearsed. As if he had decided ahead of time that’s all he would say. His face looked grim. He turned away and continued to watch the sun rise.
“No,” Leah cried.
The expression on the soldier’s face didn’t change.
“No,” Leah cried more desperately. “No, no, no, no, no.” She fell to her knees next to Wolfgang, burying her face in his hand. She began sobbing uncontrollably. Wolfgang knelt slowly next to her and she held him, crying into his shoulder.
The soldier looked at Wolfgang sympathetically. “I’m sorry,” he mouthed, then turned away back to his sunrise.
Wolfgang understood. He couldn’t have done it himself, but he understood in a way that Leah didn’t. The boy had to die.
He held Leah and tried to console her.
They could see Wlazlo below them, moving quickly to catch up. Leah stood and pulled Wolfgang to his feet.
“We go now,” she said and walked resolutely forward, dragging him along with her, not waiting for the American captain.
She hiked doggedly, every muscle in Wolfgang’s body aching as he tried to keep up, until they crested a ridge.
“I know this place,” she said surprised, stopping at the top. They could see two lakes below them, one small, one large. She pointed to a distinctive peak. “That’s Pizzo del Sole. My father took me hiking here when I was younger. The village below must have been Osco.”
Wolfgang didn’t think that the name the American told him, Oscar, made sense. It just hadn’t sound Swiss. Osco did.
“Is there a trail down the other side?” Wolfgang asked.
“Most people hike from Osco or Predelp. But I think we’ll be able to get down the other side. There is a road that leads down the valley. My parents live in Ludiano.”
“How far?”
“Thirty kilometers.”
“I can hike that far,” Wolfgang said, “if I can get some rest.” He wasn’t sure if he told the truth, but he could try. Thirty kilometers, especially down the mountain, would have been nothing before a piece of shrapnel hit his forehead. He hoped he could make it.
Normally at the top of the mountain, above the tree line, it would be cool, but they would be exposed to the intense ultraviolet of the sun and would sunburn easily. But now, with the dense cloud cover, the day was colder than expected and they were not concerned about sunburn. They found a relatively comfortable spot and Wolfgang lay down. He fell asleep immediately.
He awoke briefly, hearing the murmur of voices and smelling cooking food. He went back to sleep.
He awoke again. Leah lay curled next to him. They shared a blanket. His body was stiff and sore and his head pounded. The sky was dim. He couldn’t tell if it was sunset or sunrise.
He sat up and it was a mistake. He felt the blood rushing to his head threatening to blow out every artery on its way there. He hung his head between his knees and it helped a little.
He felt a hand rub his back.
“Are you okay?”
Wolfgang realized Leah was now using the familiar form of you in German. The one he had used accidentally with her. He wasn’t sure when she had started, or if he had continued using it with her as they hiked up the mountain.
No matter. He would go with her to her parent’s house in their tiny Swiss Alpine village and see what happened next. It was okay that they were close friends. Wolfgang needed a friend. He also needed time to rest and recover from the shrapnel wound.
“No,” he answered truthfully.
“What can I do?”
“We’d prefer it if you two spoke English,” an American voice growled. It was Wlazlo.
“I’d prefer if you don’t kill children,” Leah replied in English.
“I did what I had to,” Wlazlo shot back.
“Morning? Or night?” Wolfgang asked, interrupting the argument intentionally.
“It’s morning, Wolfie. You been asleep like twenty hours. Are you going to be able to move today?”
“Follow?”
“Come again?” Wlazlo asked.
“Follow? Did they follow?” Wolfgang wished his English was better. He needed to practice.
“No one followed us,” Wlazlo answered. “That’s what me and the young lady here have been arguing about all day.”
“I can walk. I need food. And,” he couldn’t remember the word, so he used one that was close to a German word, “a toilet. Before I can walk.”
Wlazlo barked a laugh. “No toilets up here, Wolfie. We’ve just been going behind that rock over there.” He pointed it out. “Just don’t step in anything that’s already there.” He laughed at his own joke.
Leah dug protein bars and water out of his backpack for him. Most of the pack was filled with ammunition, he saw. After taking a few bites, he was overwhelmed with nausea. He wanted to throw up. He went behind the rock thinking he might, but he kept the food down.
They changed the bandage on his head. Wolfgang was surprised at how much blood soaked the old bandage. He probably needed stitches. He didn’t know the words, so he mimed sewing.
“Stitches?” Wlazlo guessed.
“Yes.”
“You probably did need stitches. You are going to have one beaut of a scar.” He swore. “A real decoration of battle, and all you was doing was riding in the back of a truck.”
“It will be a lovely scar,” Leah said. “It will make you look more handsome.”
Wlazlo shook his head and walked away, towards where the other officer sat.
“Thank you,” Wolfgang said in German.
“We must speak English now,” Leah replied, but she had a shy smile on her face.
“Okay,” he said and chuckled a little. ‘Okay’ was as German a word as it was English.
She chuckled with him and Wolfgang found himself enjoying the moment.
And immediately felt guilty because of it.
His wife hadn’t even been dead a week and here he was, flirting with a girl at least ten years younger than him. What was his wife thinking, looking down at him from heaven? His face flushed from embarrassment.
“I am ready,” he said.
Leah finished taping his new bandage in place and said, “I, too.”
She stepped back to admire her work, then smiled at Wolfgang again. He stood and used the motion to look away from her. She reached out to help him and he accepted her help. He would need her help to get down off this mountain. He was sure they would make it down, he just didn’t know what would happen next or how he would feel about it.
The American soldiers were also ready to leave and the four set off.
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