Hearts of Resistance

by Soraya M. Lane

  ‘I think it’s too dangerous to watch it for too long,’ Hazel said. ‘We’re more likely to be found, and the Germans could have intercepted any of the recent messages.’

  ‘I agree,’ Sophia said. ‘But we need to be careful that we’re not caught before we lay our explosives. We need to spend a short time watching, and then when we run down, we need to put everything in place fast and get out of there quickly.’

  ‘What do you need us to do to help?’ Rose asked.

  ‘I’ll set the explosives,’ Sophia said. ‘We have two hand grenades and I need you each to have one, in case you have to throw it. We have a short delay, approximately ten minutes, so it will give us just enough time to get out of there. We don’t want any longer, though, in case it’s discovered.’

  ‘Or we’re discovered,’ Hazel muttered.

  ‘Exactly,’ Sophia said.

  ‘Let’s have something to eat and get on our way, then,’ Rose said. ‘It’ll be dark in a few hours or less.’

  They sat quietly and took the food Rose passed them, and Sophia thought how amusing it was to have a bag containing grenades and food sitting so casually beside them.

  A couple of hours later they walked confidently across the field. They’d surveyed the railway bridge, and there was no doubt it was dangerous. But night was starting to fall and if they were going to do it, they needed to act fast.

  ‘The biggest problem, aside from those bastards, is that we could end up being caught in an explosion by one of our own,’ Sophia muttered. ‘Who knows how many local fighters have mobilised?’

  They’d decided to walk as far as they could without trying to hide. That way, they could try to talk themselves out of trouble and pretend they were lost and not doing anything wrong. Sophia had suggested the plan, and even though she was the first to admit it wasn’t her best idea, it was the only one that got them close to the railway line without doing anything suspicious.

  ‘If we can’t get to the bridge, can we blow up the line on this side of it?’ Hazel asked. ‘We’re surely better to blow up something than nothing at all?’

  Sophia agreed. ‘Yes. We’ll decide once we’re there.’

  They all stayed quiet as they continued their approach, and Sophia almost jumped out of her skin when an explosion echoed out, a dark cloud rising in the far distance.

  ‘Run!’ Sophia ordered, holding tight to her bag and moving as fast as she could. Rose and Hazel kept up her pace, one on each side of her, and as they neared the train line they heard dogs barking, the noise carrying to them on the wind. Another cell must have blown up something nearby! It was the only explanation. There had been no planes droning overhead, and now they had even less time to set their plan in motion.

  ‘I don’t think we have long,’ Rose panted beside her. ‘They’re going to be everywhere soon. The patrols will be—’

  ‘Let’s just do it here,’ Sophia said, knowing that being cautious was better than being dead, even though she hated not making it all the way to the bridge. She slowed down, tried to catch her breath and glanced back at the others. Hazel was walking with one hand on her hip, clearly winded, and Sophia knew how heavy her radio equipment must be to haul around like that.

  ‘You’re certain?’ Rose asked.

  Sophia nodded and looked down the line, not seeing anyone. The bridge was too far away – they would never have made it without being seen – and here at least she had a moment to think and place her lines carefully.

  She didn’t need to ask Rose or Hazel to cover her, because they were already in place. The moment she dropped to her knees beside the line they were on either side of her, and she looked up to see Rose pass Hazel a grenade. She set to work, still hearing dogs on the wind, their just-audible yips sending shivers through her. It was her greatest fear, a dog being set on her, and she knew from what the Germans had done to Jews in Berlin that their dogs didn’t hesitate to rip a person to pieces as they screamed and begged for mercy.

  She worked quickly, instinctively knowing what to do, her mind quiet as she focused on laying the wires and preparing her explosion site. Once she was done she reached into her bag for one of the pencil detonators they had luckily received in the last drop. She crushed the end of the copper tube with the heel of her boot and checked she’d broken the glass vial, then moved on to the inspection hole to check it was unobstructed. Then she carefully inserted the end of the pencil into the explosives.

  ‘We need to go!’ Rose hissed. ‘I can hear a rumble, there’s something coming.’

  Sophia ignored her and checked her work, ran through everything in her head, closed her eyes and felt the temperature around her. It wasn’t cold, which meant the timer should be accurate for ten minutes; it usually only went off later if it was freezing.

  ‘There’s someone coming. I can hear . . .’

  ‘Move!’ Hazel ordered, her voice deeper than usual, her hand on the back of Sophia’s jacket and yanking her up. ‘We need to get out of here and fast.’

  She stood and squinted, looking down the line. There was company on its way, that was for sure. Sophia packed away her remaining equipment and grinned down at her handiwork, before following behind Hazel as she set the pace. They walked quickly, heads ducked, chins tucked down as if they were cold and trying to use their jackets’ collars for warmth.

  But the rumble was fast approaching now, the unmistakable sound of trucks or tankers or something – not a train because the noise was all wrong – and Sophia made the mistake of looking behind them.

  ‘Incoming!’ she hissed. ‘Head for the trees!’

  They started to run then, and as darkness started to fall around them Sophia prayed that time was passing more quickly than it seemed to be. How many minutes had gone by? When the bomb went off they’d at least have a head start because of the disruption it would cause.

  The yells of men told her they’d been seen, and she was smart enough to know that they were within plain sight, that with everything going on they would be seen as traitors the moment they were spotted running. But what else were they supposed to do?

  ‘We’re not going to make it,’ Hazel cried. ‘I need to break my radio up, I can’t have them taking it!’

  ‘Stop it!’ Sophia yelled at her. ‘Just keep moving!’

  ‘She’s right, we need to—’

  Boom.

  The explosion was bigger than Sophia had imagined. As she stumbled, hand shooting out to save her in case she fell, she looked over her shoulder and saw the grey clouds of smoke billow up, visible even in the fading light. Shouts erupted, bellows from Germans who had started to gain on them but were now caught in the chaos of the explosion. She grabbed Hazel’s grenade from her, fingers fumbling with it before she threw it with all her might and then started to run again.

  Terror surged through her. All these months, she’d evaded capture. She’d almost started to believe she was untouchable.

  But she’d only been fooling herself.

  ‘Run!’ Rose shouted, holding her bag close, her other arm pumping as she ran as fast as she could alongside her.

  Sophia gasped as Hazel roughly snatched her hand, pulling her along. She stifled a scream as her ankle collapsed, twisting on something that snared from the ground, but she didn’t slow down. They had to move fast.

  They were surrounded by the enemy now. If they didn’t find their way to safety, they were as good as dead.

  ‘It’ll take time for them to regroup,’ Sophia managed, panting as she whispered, a familiar wave of calm grounding her and clearing her thoughts. ‘We’ll be gone before they even start searching for us.’

  The silence from the other two women told her they weren’t so optimistic, but Sophia refused to be anything other than certain of their survival. She’d faced worse odds before, they all had, and there was a reason they were all still alive and so many others weren’t.

  ‘Hazel—’

  ‘No!’ screamed Rose, leaping in front of her and pushing her back.


  The Nazi had appeared from nowhere, pistol raised, the barrel pointed skyward now as Rose fought against him, pushing him away. Where had he even come from, and why was he alone? As Sophia staggered to her feet, the gun went off, the blast making her ears ring, making everything silent around her as she watched Hazel move behind the soldier.

  They’d talked about death, about whether they were capable of killing a man with their bare hands the way they’d been trained to do. Sophia swallowed away the bile rising in her throat as she watched Hazel’s hand tremble.

  The silver of her tiny blade shone as Hazel sliced it against his throat, blood spurting out as Rose fell backwards, released from his grip.

  Sophia caught her and pushed her back up, lunging forward to retrieve the pistol.

  Hazel was frozen. The fallen Nazi was at her feet, blood staining his otherwise immaculate uniform.

  ‘Now we really need to go,’ Sophia managed to say, taking Hazel’s knife from her and wiping it clean on the soldier’s shoulder as she took charge. She passed it back to her friend as she surveyed the trees around them, hoping they weren’t about to be ambushed, knowing their location had just been given away. They’d have dogs sent to find them, men scouring every blade of grass for them now. ‘Move!’ She grabbed Hazel’s hand and yanked her along with her.

  It was kill or be killed. And she knew without a doubt now that she could trust Rose and Hazel with her life.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  HAZEL

  Hazel’s body had started to shake so badly, she felt as if she was about to start convulsing. It was worse than the night she’d parachuted in, so much worse.

  She’d killed a man.

  Only hours earlier, she’d confessed to Sophia that she didn’t know if she could do it, if she could actually take the life of another human being. But Sophia had been right; when the decision was right in front of you, it was an easy one to make. If Hazel hadn’t killed him, if she hadn’t whipped her blade out and sliced it clean against his skin, Rose would be dead.

  ‘Just a bit longer,’ Rose panted, her run as sluggish as Hazel’s.

  They’d been on the move for hours. It was well and truly dark; night had fallen long ago and yet they still hadn’t stopped moving. But if she didn’t stop soon, she was certain she’d collapse and never get back up.

  Hazel’s stomach heaved and she tried to swallow it down, only the feeling wasn’t going away. She finally slowed, hand against a tree as she doubled forward and retched, vomiting over and over again until there was nothing left in her stomach.

  ‘We still need to keep moving,’ Sophia whispered to her, taking her hand. ‘But let’s walk for now.’

  She was relieved to hold Sophia’s hand, taking some of her strength. It also stopped the shaking.

  They were all panting heavily, all exhausted, physically and mentally fatigued as well as desperately thirsty. After some time walking, the three of them side by side as they stumbled across the grass and tripped on tree roots, thankful at least for the moon guiding them, Sophia spoke.

  ‘I know roughly where we are, and there are some farmhouses coming up. I don’t think we should avoid them.’

  Hazel gasped. ‘You want to turn up on the doorstep of some farmhouse and hope they take us in?’

  Sophia squeezed her hand, a warmth in her touch that Hazel hadn’t felt before. ‘No. I want to find a farmhouse that has a barn, and sneak in for somewhere warm to spend the rest of the night.’

  Hazel breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘It’s a good plan,’ Rose said. ‘It’s too dangerous to stay out in the open, but I think we’ve put enough distance between us for now.’

  They kept walking, silently trudging along, and when they finally came across a farmhouse in the distance, they moved more slowly, cautious of where they were and what they were doing. It was impossible to know where was safe and who they could trust.

  ‘Look, there’s a barn or something there. It’s close to the house, but if we move quietly I think we’ll be fine,’ Sophia said, using her torch to look ahead before quickly turning it off again.

  Hazel was thankful to follow Sophia’s orders. It was easier than trying to think for herself while she processed how close they’d been to dying only hours earlier.

  ‘We can hide by the cluster of trees there, then move in one by one.’

  Nothing further was said as they made their way closer. Hazel’s breath hiccupped in her throat as she tried not to make a noise. Sophia held up her hand for them to wait, and she darted across the short expanse of field from where they were hiding. The creak of the barn door sounded deafeningly loud in the dead still of night, and Hazel half expected the farmer to come running from the house or enemy fire to ring out, but nothing happened.

  Rose went next, touching her shoulder before darting off after Sophia. And a few minutes later, Hazel pushed off from the tree and ran as fast as she could. Within seconds she was in, too, pulling the door behind her and finding them in complete darkness. She rummaged for her torch and quickly turned it on, hands still quivering, at the same time as Sophia.

  ‘My torch won’t . . . ,’ Rose started, banging it against her hand, but her words fell away.

  At the same time as Hazel locked eyes with two goats, the smell of animal filled her nostrils. It wasn’t awful, but it was unfamiliar to her, and she supposed it was a mixture of their hair, the hay and the dung on the ground. She looked over her shoulder, wondering what other animals she was about to find lurking, but one of the goats butted at her arm and distracted her from her worries.

  She smiled and scratched his head, and the goat stretched his neck out as she moved her fingers under his chin.

  ‘I think he likes it,’ she whispered.

  ‘He?’ Sophia scoffed. ‘Try she! Now you hold her still and I’m going to see if we can milk her.’

  Hazel grimaced, putting her arm around the goat and cuddling her as Sophia passed her torch to Rose and got down on all fours. Within moments she had milk squirting out and the goat couldn’t seem to care less.

  ‘Do we have a bottle still, or did it get broken?’ Sophia asked.

  Rose pulled out the bottle that had contained their water and held it while Sophia milked the poor goat. If they hadn’t been so parched and desperate, it would have seemed funny.

  When she’d finished, Sophia held it up and took a sip before passing it to Rose. Then it was Hazel’s turn and she sipped the warm milk, grateful to have something liquid in her dry throat even if it wasn’t a taste she was used to.

  ‘We need to rest,’ Rose said. ‘I’ll take first watch and you two take a nap. We need to be gone before dawn.’

  Hazel nodded and bedded down in the hay. The goats seemed unsure what was going on, but finally the one they’d milked came over and lay down beside her. It started to chew on her hair and Hazel pushed it away, keeping her hand on it for a moment as she fell instantly into a deep slumber.

  ‘Wake up.’

  Hazel jumped, heart pounding as she pushed up, disorientated and sore. The night before came flooding back to her and she realised she’d been snuggled up close to the goat. It was probably the only reason she was so warm instead of frozen-to-the-bone cold.

  ‘My radio,’ Hazel croaked at Sophia. ‘I need to see if I can get it working.’

  ‘No.’ Sophia shook her head. ‘We already know it’s damaged from the fall yesterday. We don’t have time to fix it and the last thing we need is to be tracked to here when we’re so close to the chateau. Let’s go.’

  Hazel pushed her hair from her face and stood, reaching for her satchel and pulling its strap over her shoulder. The weight of the radio was familiar, almost comforting, even though it pulled her shoulder down uncomfortably with it.

  Sophia shook Rose awake, and Hazel ignored the growl of her stomach as they dusted themselves off and followed Sophia’s lead out the door. There was no farmer holding a gun waiting for them, nothing but the steamy, misty morning air as they
shut the door quietly behind them and hurried off. Soon they would be at the chateau. Soon they’d be far from the explosion, far enough to be as safe as anyone could expect to be in the middle of occupied France.

  They walked in silence for a long time, and Hazel wondered if her friends’ legs burnt as hard as hers did from their gruelling run the night before.

  ‘I’m sorry I slept through my shift,’ she said, feeling guilty about sleeping the entire time.

  ‘You deserved it,’ Sophia said firmly.

  ‘And when we get back, you’ll be the one working to fix that radio and start transmitting while we rest,’ Rose added.

  Hazel wondered if they were going easy on her because of what she’d done, but she didn’t say anything. Besides, they were right. Once they were back, she’d be frantically trying to work her radio and there wouldn’t be a moment’s rest for hours.

  When they finally made it back to the chateau, her legs almost collapsed beneath her. She walked up the steps, clutching at the door as she passed it.

  ‘Hazel?’

  A noise escaped her throat that sounded like a yelp to her ears as Harry appeared in front of her. His arms opened and she fled into them, clutching on to him and sobbing against his chest. She couldn’t believe they’d made it back. She couldn’t believe what she’d done. She couldn’t . . .

  ‘Hazel, it’s all right. Everything’s going to be fine,’ he whispered into her hair, his arms so warm and strong around her, holding her together. ‘Whatever happened, it’s over now.’

  She breathed in the scent of him, held him close, giving herself a moment to get her emotions back in check. When she finally pulled back, Harry held her in his arms and looked down at her, concern etched into his face.

  ‘It’s good to have you back,’ he said in a low voice.

  Hazel nodded, lost for words.

  ‘Where are they all?’ Sophia’s voice broke through her thoughts, and Hazel watched as Harry’s face changed. His hands fell from her arms.