My heart was beating so fast I was sure my quarry could hear it. I gripped my crossbow and prepared to fire. I stepped away from the oil lamp and headed into the darkened area of the cave. I should have waited for them to come to me just as my papa taught me, but whoever it was in that cave was not armed—if they were, they would have taken a shot at me. I stopped when I saw the dark shape move and raised my crossbow.
I fired.
A child’s high-pitched scream echoed in the cave sending me to my knees in shock. I had killed a child! Damnation! I’m going to hell.
I sat on the ground, bowed my head and tried to calm my heart, which was about to gallop out of my chest and into the cave with the dead child.
“Don’t shoot.”
I looked up to find a dirty looking face looking at me. I sighed in relief that the child was still alive. The little girl was no more than five years old, but then with the famine ravaging the country, she could have been older and stick thin. We were all stick thin except for the Italians and Germans.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Mama told me to run.”
“You ran into a scary cave?” I got up slowly because I didn’t want to scare the child. “Where’s Mama?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sarah Michalidis.”
I didn’t know any families in Farsala called Michalidis. Where was this child from? I didn’t ever recall seeing her. I beckoned her to come to me, and she was reluctant. I couldn’t blame her since I had just shot an arrow at her.
She eyed me for a long time and then must have decided that I wasn’t going to shoot again, because she came into the light. I gasped on seeing the tiny body covered with scratches. She wasn’t wearing shoes, and her feet were battered. I opened my arms, and she walked into my embrace. She weighed nothing as I picked her up.
I took her to the ledge and placed her on it while I removed my shoes. They were going to be too big for her, but at least she was going to have something to protect her feet. I had another pair of shoes at home.
“They’re big.” Sarah giggled when I put the shoes on her.
“You’ll be able to show Mama, and you can flip-flop to her.”
Instead of making the child laugh, I made her cry. What had I said? “Sarah, big girls don’t cry.”
“I’m not a big girl.”
Out of the mouths of babes.
“Where are you from?”
“Piraeus.”
What? No. Surely that was wrong. Sarah was wrong. How could she be from Athens and be hiding in a cave in Larissa? That wasn’t possible. I was about to question her again when I heard voices and someone approaching.
“Dear God, that is not the sound of a child’s footsteps.” I quickly picked up Sarah and hid her behind the boulder she had been sitting on. “Shh,” I said and got behind the boulder myself. I was going to shoot whoever was coming, and I prayed that my aim was straight because it wasn’t just my life at stake.
Just as the person was about to come around the corner, I stood up, took aim and fired. To my utter disgust, the arrow hit the rock wall and bounced off.
“Dear God, Zoe, you’re about to turn my hair white!”
I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life. Ellie held her hands up in the air and slumped against the cave wall.
“Why were you running?”
“The question should be why are you in here and not where your mother told you to be!” Ellie came over and put her arm around my shoulders. “Why?”
“WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” I yelled losing my patience at the obvious subterfuge that was being carried out. I then realized I had sworn in front of a child and slapped my hand over my mouth. “Sarah, come out, koukla.”
“Ah, there you are!” Ellie had let go of me and walked over to Sarah. Just as she was doing that, I heard more sounds of running and I saw Stelios come to a stop. At least I didn’t shoot at him, because if I had, I would have been dead. Stelios served with my father and my uncle Petros at Skra and was the best marksman in all of Thessaly.
More running and a few more of the Resistance showed up. I looked around and saw familiar faces and some I didn’t recognize. While I was busy trying to guess who was coming towards us, Ellie had taken off Sarah’s shoes and wrapped her feet in torn cloth shreds. Someone I didn’t know approached Ellie, and the child was taken away. Ellie gave me my shoes back.
“Can someone tell me what is going on?”
“I will, but you have to be patient,” Ellie said to me before she turned to Stelios and the two of them walked away from me. They talked briefly, and Ellie patted Stelios on the shoulder before he and the rest of the team left.
“This has turned into a strange day.”
“Strange day for you, life ending for some,” Ellie said cryptically and pulled me towards her. “I think it’s time we had a chat.”
That was all she said as we made our way out of the cave. To my surprise, two Italian soldiers were lying dead at the mouth of the cave. They were being stripped of their guns and uniforms as we left.
“Can I ask about them?”
“You can, but I won’t tell you until we get to the cabin.”
We hadn’t taken a few steps towards the cabin when a loud explosion was heard from the direction of the roadway followed by gunfire. I could see black smoke billowing in the wind.
“It’s not your fight, for now, Zoe. Let’s get out of here quickly.”
Ellie drew her gun and broke out into a run. I followed her and away from the gunfire and screams.