The Beginning Of The End | Pt. 3

Sicily | 1943

9:00A.M

Like an apparition, Nadine slithered in silence through the dense crowds of Sicilian Citizens - her shoulders never coming into contact with anyone else's. The fingers of her right hand remained on the silver cross around her neck, fondling its smooth holy-coating. But the fingers on her left hand were intimately woven around the hilt of her dagger.

She was truly the bringer of death.

Moments ago, she saw Rosalie weave herself into the rowdy crowds, followed closely by Corrado, and the man who was driving the truck when her and Ulrich attacked them on the road. They were each carrying large, bulging satchels slung over their shoulders and they were oddly dressed.

Rosalie was wearing a long, flowing, traditional dress that stretched to the ground, while Corrado and the driver were both donning long, black and brown suit coats. Nadine wasn’t naive. She knew the reason for the odd choice of clothing. They were to conceal long-barrel rifles. But she kept her cool, and continued to follow the mystery driver, patiently waiting to get close enough to sink her blade deep into his spinal cord.

Nearing the end of the block, and approaching the first of three military checkpoints, another heated commotion drew the attention of everyone in the crowd.

Keeping the driver with the long coat, and bulging bag in eye and ear shot, Nadine quickly turned her head to the right.

Across the wide road, lined with abandoned shops and bombed factories, a group of angry civilians were looting one of the factories. Fifty feet from the structure’s bombed out entrance, a squadron of American troops stood with their rifles raised towards the factory. One of the soldiers was shouting cease and desist orders through a bullhorn, desperately trying to shout desperate orders for them to halt their looting.

The civilians ignored the foreigner, and his foreign orders, and continued to take what they needed to survive the occupation.

The soldier’s enhanced their formation, pushing back those who were not involved in the looting, and created a defensive perimeter around the factory. Rifle barrels remained raised in the air, and the soldier’s fingers did not waver from the triggers.

“Halt your looting, or we will be forced to open fire. Disperse now.”

The voice continued to boom through the horn, but the words fell on deaf ears.

Nadine looked back towards her prey, and noticed that the man with the bulging satchel had been pushed closer to her. Close enough for her to easily sever his vertebrae in an instant.

She reached out, but a single gunshot stowed her hand.

…

9:00A.M

Ulrich kept to the shade of the cafe awnings, keeping a close watch over the children, Nadine, the tense crowds, and the anxious allied soldiers. He studied their trajectory, and realized that they were heading north, towards the military checkpoints that led out of town.

Ulrich knew that there was no way the children, and their mystery driver, would be allowed to freely cross over the checkpoint without being stopped by the soldiers. They clearly had a plan to sneak out of the town, and Ulrich wanted to know what it was. As much as he wanted to kill the children, he admired their dedication, which sparked his curiosity.

Down the road, running bodies, and loud shouts caught his attention. He looked left, to get eyes on Nadine, and saw her locked in a trance of pursuit. Good, he thought to himself. She was still on the hunt, which meant he could momentarily stray from the plan, and investigate the commotion.

As he got closer to the scene, he could see men, women, and children running in and out of a bombed out factory. To his left, a group of American soldiers ran past him, towards the looting, and he heard one of them say, “It was an old weapons depot.”

If this were true, the chaos was about to get a thousand times worse. He fiddled with the pistol hidden in his waistband, and continued to stalk closer.

A frantic citizen, no older than forty, accompanied by a younger boy and an older woman came barreling out of the factory and ran directly towards Ulrich. As they passed by, nearly running him over in the process, Ulrich was able to glance at the items they were cradling in their arms.

…

9:00A.M

Rosalie reached the end of the road, then saw the sewer drain that Giovi highlighted for them on the topographical map. It flowed out into a leaching field adjacent to their holy destination of Grande croce Gesù redentore.

That drain was their way out. All they had to do was get there.

A light tug on the back of her robe twisted her around to meet Corrado’s embrace.

“That factory has food, and soap. Wouldn’t hurt to have some,” Corrado said, smirking.

Rosalie didn’t like the idea, nor did she enjoy the smell of her armpits. They haven’t had a proper bath in days, and they weren’t likely to have any in the days to come. But if they had soap, they could at least keep their hands, and face clean.

“No. It’s too dangerous, and we can’t spare the time. We have to get to that sewer drain, now. Those looters are causing too much commotion. The soldiers are starting to take notice.”

“I’ll be in and out, Rosie. I promise. I’m just going to grab a few bottles, then I’ll meet you both at the sewer entrance.”

Rosalie sighed, and shook her head as the looters increased in size.

“We shouldn’t split up, Corrado. The last time we went separate ways, we were both nearly killed.”

“Trust me, Rosalie.”

She looked over his shoulder and saw Garret weaving his way towards them through the thick crowd of church-goers, hungry and dirty protesters, nuns, and priests. He was almost upon them, so she knew it was now or never.

“In and out,” she said.

Corrado nodded, then took off towards the factory. She watched as he covertly snuck his body through a decently-sized hole in one of the side walls, then began counting down the seconds.

She looked back to reassess Garret’s position, and what she saw stopped her heart. Through the hundreds of shifting, squinting, and exhausted faces, one in particular face, quietly stalked Garret through the crowd.

The nun’s outfit nearly fooled Rosalie at her first glance, but those eyes were forever burned into her memory.

She was about to yell out to Garret, to inform him to run, but she was cut off by an American soldier with a bullhorn.

“Halt your looting, and disperse now!”

A different voice immediately repeated the same instructions in Italian.

She immediately refocused herself on the factory, and on Corrado. Her visual was sabotaged due to the crowds being pushed back by the soldiers.

“Disperse now!”

“Disperdetevi adesso!”

The voices continued to shout through the horn, but the looters continued to fill up their buckets with food and liquid soap.

Feeling the tension in the crowd rise, Rosalie dropped to her knees, and forcefully crawled between the legs of the huddled citizens. Receiving a few kicks, spits, and grunts along the way, she finally freed herself from the human prison.

A single gunshot suddenly ripped through the town, and her heart stopped once again...