Three Weeks Later – Thermopylae, Lamia (Two hours away from Farsala)
Three weeks can seem like an eternity, or they can go so quickly that you don’t realize where the time went. I needed more than three weeks, but there wasn’t any more time left.
I trained with Ellie, and she taught me how I could defend myself if I were in hand to hand combat. I wasn’t all that good until she taught me to use my brain and outthink the enemy, like taking advantage of my lack of height and my agility to outmaneuver bigger opponents. I wanted to try it with Ellie, who was taller than me, but she brought in Uncle Petros. He is a giant of a man, and I discovered that if I improvised to get around him, I could beat him if I ran as fast as I could. I’m really good at running. Ellie reminded me never to run at them, but around them, or run the other way.
After Uncle Petros, I trained with Stavros, and he was more difficult because he watched me and figured out what I was going to do. I doubt the Italians are as smart as my cousin. The Italians are dumb as rocks. It’s the Germans that worry me. Those monsters are not foolish.
Two days ago, Mama and I had a long talk before I joined the rest of the soldiers. She tried not to show how worried she was, but it wasn’t possible.
“I’m proud of you, my baby girl. Papa is also proud of you.”
“Let’s hope I don’t get to hear him say that in a few days,” I joked, and I regretted it the moment I saw the tears glistening in my mama’s green eyes. I can be so stupid sometimes.
“I will pray for God to keep you safe and for you to come back to me.”
She hugged me fiercely, and I needed to feel her love. She kissed me on the cheek and told me she had put clean underwear in my pack. I laughed so much I had tears running down my cheeks. They were tears of happiness, sadness, and sheer terror.
Her last words to me were, ‘You are a Spartan soldier fighting at Thermopylae, my daughter. God is on our side.’ I wonder if the Spartans felt so much fear, and did Mama remember what happened to them at Thermopylae?
I boarded the same wagon Papa had taken that fateful night in April 1941, and I hoped the same outcome wouldn’t befall me. As we reached the top of the crossroads, I looked back and saw Mama still standing at the gate.
I wasn’t ready, and I thought I was going to let the Resistance down. I knew it and felt it all the way into the marrow of my bones. That thought kept running through my mind, and I mentally went over what I learned. Nothing prepares you for real combat. That’s what Ellie said, and she would know.
Here I was in the old battleground that my ancestors fought in—the mountains of Thermopylae. If I hadn’t been so scared and terrified of letting everyone down, I would have loved the idea of being where King Leonidas stared down the Persians. Three hundred men against the might of the Persian army... I wondered what those men thought about when they knew it was a suicide mission.
It took us three hours to travel from Farsala to Lamia. That’s where we were going to meet. I had been to Thermopylae with my brothers after I had badgered them about visiting the site of King Leonidas’ heroic deeds. They could usually ignore my pleas, but I wore them down, and they took me. I stood at what was thought to be the pass that King Leonidas defended and eventually lost, and I was the happiest ten-year-old in all of Greece.
I was thinking of useless things like a centuries-old dead king who lost at Thermopylae. I was making myself sick with worry. I took Artemis out of my bag and cleaned it. I felt a sickening churning sensation and wanted to throw up. I held it back because the others were fast asleep and the last thing they needed was to worry about a child being sick.
I moved away from the sleeping team and sat at the mouth of the cave. Dionysius was keeping guard. He smiled and went back to staring into the darkness, his rifle at the ready. At least he had something to occupy his time.
I tried looking into the darkness with him, but it was pointless. I needed to sleep and be ready. Just as I was about to move back, Ellie came and sat beside me.
“This happens to me all the time.”
“Do you think about King Leonidas as well?” I half-joked and smiled when Ellie put her arms around me and kissed me on the head.
“It’s all right to be scared. Even Dionysius is scared, isn’t that right, Dion?”
Hairy mountain man Dionysius looked back at us and nodded. He resembled a giant bear, and I doubted he feared anything. I wasn’t convinced.
“You are prepared, Zoe. We are all ready.”
“I’m not ready,” I whispered and finally admitted out loud what I had been feeling.
“It’s all right. I never think I’m ready either, but I have the Lord on my side. We are fighting against flesh and blood, and we have a myriad of angels guiding us.”
“I sure hope so.”
“I know you are having a hard time sleeping. Why don’t you sleep with me? I could use a cuddle.” Ellie pulled me towards her and said something that I couldn’t hear, but I’m sure it was a prayer to her God.
We went back inside the cave and lay down on the makeshift bed. Having Ellie’s arms around me made me feel safe. The foreboding feelings that made my heart ache were still running through my mind, but I eventually felt myself slowly falling asleep.
It was time. I dressed in black, tied my hair back, and covered my head with a black knit cap Mama had made for me. I checked and rechecked my crossbow and counted the arrows. I had made quite a few and stuck them in my quiver. I practiced taking one out followed by another and counted my time.
Ellie put her hand on my shoulder, and I looked up. Without a word, she dipped her fingers into a cup and brought the grease to my face. She reached into her pocket and took out a handgun. “Just in case you run out of arrows.”
I merely nodded.
“I have one thing to say to you.” Ellie put her hand on my shoulder. “Your job is to take out the driver and the soldier in the passenger side, and then keep firing until you can get on board and release the prisoners. Your only job after that is to take them away from the battle, and to keep running back here. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“You and Stavros must not stop for anything. We will take care of the soldiers. You run like the devil is after you with the children…”
“They are transporting children?”
“Adults and children. You and Stavros will take the children.”
“I will run like the hounds of hell are after me.”
Ellie nodded and went down on her haunches to draw in the dirt a Spartan shield with the lambda in the middle. I used to insist that the lambda stood for Lambros rather than Laconia. Ellie looked at me and smiled. “You’re a warrior now, Zoe.”
She kissed my cheek before she walked away. This was it. The time had come for me to prove worthy of being in the Resistance. There was no going back. No surrender. Victory or death at Thermopylae.