HUNTED

Wolff was growing stronger every second, and his voice was louder as he called after us.

‘Get back here!’

Stefan was first to reach the door at the top of the stairs. He barged into it with his shoulder, bursting it open into the corridor.

‘Stop!’ Wolff ordered.

The door smashed back against the wall, then we were hurrying past the other rooms, heading for the front of the building.

The first shot Wolff fired from his gun boomed in the confined space of the cellar and the sound bounced from wall to wall behind us.

The bullet slammed into the door frame beside me, splintering the wood into tiny pieces that burst into the air at head height and prickled at my cheek as I escaped.

My ears rang and my skin burned and my legs were injected with a fresh boost of energy. I would never have known I had the strength to keep going, but somehow I managed to take it in my stride. I ignored the sting of the splinters and reached out to slam the door shut behind me as I left the stairwell.

A second shot cracked behind us, the bullet punching straight through the wood panelling. It struck the ceiling above, raining plaster dust over us as I sprinted along the corridor, right on Lisa’s heels.

‘Keep running!’ Stefan reached the front door and yanked it open.

We burst out into the night without thinking. All that was in our minds was escape. Nothing else. Just run run run.

There was no more shooting, but we knew Wolff was coming. Like a raging demon, he would be behind us, climbing those stairs as fast as he could, throwing open the doors, storming along the corridor with his blood boiling.

We darted along the path and came out of the garden without slowing, Stefan leading us across to the other side of the road, then we turned right and sprinted along the street.

‘He’s coming!’ Stefan said, but I didn’t dare look back. I didn’t dare see the face of the man who wanted to kill me. I imagined him not as Wolff any more, but as a monster, slavering and growling.

Our feet pounded the pavement as we ran.

My chest heaved with exhaustion.

I could hardly feel my legs, they were pumped so full of adrenaline. My vision began to blur and sparks burst in my head as fatigue tried to overcome me. My lungs felt as if someone were squeezing them tight, stopping enough air getting into them, and I knew I couldn’t keep running like this for much longer. I was using all my effort, giving every last drop of energy, and soon I would collapse.

And then Wolff will have me.

In front of me, Lisa was beginning to tire too. The beat of her footsteps on the pavement was slowing.

‘Keep going,’ Stefan said. ‘Come on. Don’t slow down.’

I wanted to shout at him, to tell him we couldn’t run much further, but I didn’t have the breath. Instead, I looked across at the river, desperate for a place to hide, knowing we were too exposed. Wolff would see us cross the road and—

The sound of a car engine started up and I was certain we were finished.

We’ll never outrun his car.

‘Down here!’ Stefan shouted and he disappeared from view as he turned left.

A few more paces and Lisa and I were following him into an alley, our footsteps echoing.

Here, the wall rose on either side of us like a tunnel, and any moment now, Wolff would turn down the alley and chase us with his car. With no chance of outrunning it and nowhere to escape to on either side, he would mow us down or stop and shoot us in the back.

I felt my pace slow despite the fear and adrenaline. I couldn’t keep running for ever. I could hardly run for another ten seconds.

‘The cemetery,’ Lisa said between breaths.

‘What?’ Stefan asked, looking back.

‘The cemetery,’ she said again, and I knew she was right. There were a million dark places in there. Gravestones and shrubs and trees and shadows that had hidden me once and could hide me again.

Knowing there was somewhere to go, somewhere to rest, gave me a small burst of energy and I pushed harder.

I can make it to the cemetery. I can make it that far. Then we can hide and rest.

As if to shatter that hope, however, the alley was suddenly flooded with the sound of Wolff’s car. A deep growling that grew louder and louder.

He was coming.

‘We’re almost there!’ Stefan called back and I sensed that even he was growing tired now – and if strong, brave Stefan was tiring, what hope was there for Lisa and me?

‘Keep … going …’ he panted as we reached the end of the alley.

I stayed right behind Lisa as we ran out into the street.

Wolff’s car was gaining on us, picking up speed.

‘There!’ Lisa managed to shout and she held out a finger to point.

Not far away, to the right and on the other side of the street, the iron railings that surrounded the cemetery stood uniform along the side of the road. A little further, and we would be at the entrance.

In the near distance, the silhouette of the church was visible, the vague orange glow of the dying fires from Feldstrasse shimmering about it.

‘Hurry!’ Stefan shouted and led the way, feet pounding across the road to the pavement on the other side and then on towards the cemetery entrance.

Behind us, Wolff’s car growled like a beast, the engine gunning hard as he reached the mouth of the alley. He came out into the street with a fresh burst of speed and hurtled along the road, just as we made it to the cemetery gates and were swallowed by the darkness within.

We veered away from the road as soon as we could, and ran across the grass, where Wolff would not be able to follow us in his car.

I could hardly see Stefan ahead of me as we darted among the trees and the gravestones, moving deeper into the darkness, heading towards the far edge of the church grounds.

Lisa ran alongside me, the sound of her heavy breathing threading with mine, so it seemed as if we were taking the same breaths.

‘Get down,’ Stefan said as he led us behind a low rectangular, tomb.

I took Lisa’s hand and, together, we ducked down beside Stefan, taking cover behind the stone memorial.

I sucked air into my lungs, desperate to feel normal again. My chest was on fire, and my legs trembled beneath me.

On the road, Wolff’s tyres squealed as he turned into the entrance of the cemetery and came to a standstill, the idling engine chugging in the night.

He must have known we were gone now. His anger would be rising higher and higher.

‘We’ll go further back.’ Stefan turned and began working his way deeper into the cemetery, moving from one gravestone to the next.

Lisa and I followed him, using the same cover, making our way even further away from the road until we came to a stone outbuilding close to the rear of the church. We made our way round to the back and squatted in a line with our backs against the wall.

More than a hundred metres away, Wolff gunned his engine once more.

‘He’s leaving,’ Lisa said.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Stefan replied. ‘He knows who we are and where we live. He doesn’t need to look for us; he just has to go to Escherstrasse.’

‘Mama.’ A cold shiver ran through me when I imagined what Wolff might do to her. ‘Oma and Opa.’

‘This is such a mess,’ Stefan said. ‘What were you two thinking?’

‘What are we going to do?’

There was fear in Lisa’s voice and I wanted to comfort her, but there was nothing we could do.

There was no way out of this.

‘I just wanted to be like you,’ I said to Stefan. ‘They killed Papa and I wanted to be an Edelweiss Pirate like you, to show them what I think. But now they’re going to arrest Mama and Oma and Opa and it’s all my fault.’

On the road, Wolff’s car accelerated through the cemetery and I knew he was heading to Escherstrasse. Everything was lost. There was no hope.

Then, from somewhere down on the road, came the hollow sound of metal hitting metal.

A dull clank that had no echo.

With that sound came an image that flashed into my mind like a bolt of lightning. The silhouette of an object half buried in the ground.

Before that image could fully form though, the unexploded bomb in the road became an exploded bomb. It detonated a fraction of a second after Wolff’s car struck it, and the world was filled with noise.