Untitled

[Brother in Arms]

Elizabeth scrawled relentlessly in her tattered notebook. A cigarette smoldered in her slender fingers like a stick of incense. Her right hand twitched as it advanced across the crumpled page. She no longer noticed the large fly which swooped about her head and intermittently landed on her shoulder.

Dear Diary
today is my thirteenth day with the fire team, but it's the first day that I have safely been able to write. My previous diary was destroyed by my captors. But I am getting ahead of myself. My name is Elizabeth Franklin, I am 31 years of age a British citizen and professional journalist. Though I have been living in Venice for quite some time. Due to sudden and violent attacks upon the city I left in a small private ship bound for Triest.

The voyage across the Adriatic was smooth enough but the large amount of sea mines concealed outside of the harbor forced us to head south. As soon as the ship was able to we put ashore somewhere in Croatia! The ship barely made landfall before the sailors started throwing off our baggage. We were forced off the ship at gun point by the crew and abandoned upon the shore. The passengers and I quickly got ourselves off the beach and headed toward what appeared to be a village at the top of a large hill.

After climbing the hill we saw that it was a actually fortified town. Surrounding the town were rather severe looking log and earth walls,something like a mott bailey.We went to the front gate were we immediately taken prisoner by a group of ruffians who were member of the local Militia. Unfortunately none of my shipmates could speak Serbo-Croatian. I was locked in a a stone cellar with all the female prisoners for several days with no food or water and I was very weak. After several days of this mistreatment the cellar was quite squalid. Early one morning the door was thrown up and we here dragged from the darkness into cold morning air. I was placed in the back of a small blue Lorry with several other female prisoners. They were all Italian and none of them dared to speak. The old and sick women were excluded and forced back inside the cellar and locked away.

We were driven to a remote location heading east from the village. After several long hours of riding I could only assume was near the front as we saw lots of derelict armor and destroyed buildings. Everything seemed to be blown apart or burned but I did not see any bodies. As the lorry lumbered across the torn landscape, we came the banks of a wide river. The rough track of a dirt road wound directly along its banks dangerously close to the edge. I looked over my shoulder and I could see the drop was perhaps fifteen feet down to the river. At that moment I decided I was not about to be raped by an entire company of soldiers at the next stop. So I mustered all my strength stood up and threw myself from the moving Lorry down the rocky treed embankment to the river below. I bounced and crashed down the slope over the rocks and through the bush until I crashed into the cold water. Instantly my feet began to kick and the sensation that I was free made me move forward with the most amazing speed.

Just then I heard the roll of automatic gunfire behind me and the water frothed and boiled around me as the bullets broke it's cold surface. I took a breath of air and dove below, paddling and kicking as fast as I could. I swam under water as for long as possible but eventually I had to surface. I swam to the surface as fast as I could and there was still the crash of gunfire. I dove under again and I swam for my life to the other side. Bullets cracked like bull whips all around me and as suddenly as it began it stopped.

I reached the far shore of the river exhausted and ready to die, gasping for life as I pulled myself between two large grey rocks. I looked back across the river to the small lorry which was several hundred yards distant. It was stopped and seemed to be abandoned. It felt like hours had passed but it had only been seconds. I breathed hard and coughed and could not imagine why I was alive. The Lorry seemed deserted both passenger and driver door hung open.

Suddenly I heard sounds from the bank behind me. I tried to drag myself further into the rocks to hide, but they already seen me. Two figures came crashing down the bank with a small slide of sand and pebbles. As they came closer, I could make out that one was a slim dark man wearing civilian clothes and carrying a rifle. The other was a large blond haired woman wearing a camouflage military uniform.

The large woman grabbed hold of me and looked at me with her jade green eyes. "Are you okay?" Are you hurt?" she inspected me while the dark man peered through the scope on his rifle as he took cover behind a boulder. She touched my face brushing away the dirt with her calloused but gentle hand. " I'm Rabbit and this is Zlato. We are here to help you." I felt very faint and was still gasping and crying. "What is your name?" the woman asked I could hardly remember it as I was in such shock. I told her my name is Liz. "We need to get out of here Liz, we are exposed and need to find better cover." She grabbed me firmly picked me up and carried me up over the bank with no difficulty. Zlato covered us with his rifle and then followed behind us.

The three of us disappeared into the nearby tree line and into the cover of the forest. They took me to a small observation post were they had been watching the river. I met another man called they called Boggs. He greeted me and explained that their post was close to a ford in the river. They were hoping to ambush enemy tanks at the crossing, not spot a truck full or women. He also told me that when my captors fired upon me, the other women in the lorry fled for their lives and used my escape as a distraction. Rabbit and Zlato had been watching from this side of the of the river and returned fire upon my captors and killing them.

I was barely awake, and struggled to believe what he had told me. Faint, starving and in shock, I began to shake. Rabbit brought me a blanket. I covered myself and immediately fell asleep.