Katrina was confused. All hell had broken loose, and no one had bothered to tell her what was going on. She just followed the others. She knew if she didn't she would die. She also knew that she would probably die anyway but she would rather die trying. As she ran through the camp, her unruly chesnut brown hair falling out of its long braid, she headed toward the gates covered in barbed razor wire which other desperate prisoners had knocked down in their escape attempt, then she saw him. Issac was lying on the ground, in a pool of bloody mud. Stumbling she stopped to stare down at his face, remembering the first time she had seen him. He had been the prisoner who helped her off the train from Chelm. Issac had saved her from the gas.
"When they ask you if you can sew just raise your hand" the prisoner who was helping her with her bags, had whispered as she stepped down from the train at Sobibor. "Don't ask me why. Just do it." With that he handed her a receipt and stated loudly, so that the guards watching could hear. "Don't lose your ticket, lady," and he walked away. That had been five long months ago, and now Issac, her savior, was dead.
So now she ran. Ran past the flimsy shacks the SS men forced them to work and sleep in, past the square, which was right in the middle of the camp where they had roll call every day precisely at 5 P.M., past the watch towers now devoid of guards, tripping over dead prisoners who had not made it out of the camp, and finally out the gate covered in razor wire, which now had the blood of her fellow Jews all over it.
Looking over her shoulder she saw the smoke. All that smoke, even in the middle of all the pandemonium, it never stopped. Katrina could smell the stench of bodies burning in the air, coming from the smoke, from the crematorium. Issac had saved her from that before, She knew he would want her to escape, it was the least she could do. She refused to let her tears fall as she ran.
All around her cacophony reigned, people screaming, children crying, guns firing, explosions from the mine field that surrounded Sobibor, her home for the past 5 months, she ran across the green grass stained scarlet red with the blood of the prisoners that gave their lives trying to find freedom. They had been her brothers and sisters in this Hell together. While running she tripped over the body of one of the nameless guards, killed by stepping on one of the mines the Germans planted to prevent any of their prisoners escaping. She fell to her knees, staining them brown with dirt. With a look of hatred, she spit in the dead mans face, delighting in the fact that her saliva landed squarely in one dead, unseeing eye, that stared straight up into the sky. Whispering to herself, as much as to the dead guard she said, "that's as close to heaven that you will ever see you murderer. I hope you burn in hell." She struggled to her feet, already exhausted, due to months of malnutrition, and abuse.
Abruptly strong arms grabbed her, dragging her along.
"Come Katrina, you have to run, they are close behind and they will kill you." shouted Sasha. With a gasp Katrina couldn't hold back her tears anymore. Sasha is alive her heart screamed out at her. Her vision clouded by her tears of relief, and Katrina had difficulty seeing where Sasha was pulling her. Katrina heard the gunshots getting closer...And she ran...Suddenly, she felt a sharp, burning pain in her shoulder...felt the wetness of the blood spreading down her arm as one of the guards shot her. The blood was staining her faded blue cotton blouse red, she could see it dripping off her fingertips onto the vibrant green of the grass, staining it that unnatural looking scarlet color. Sasha was pulling her along with her good arm and yelling something but she didn't know what, she couldn't hear anymore. She could, but she just wasn't comprehending him. All she could see was that green grass. That bloody green grass. It would never be the same to her. To Katrina green grass would mean death. Smoke would mean death. Everything meant death. Death was all around her, in the sky, on the ground, it was chasing her and she didn't think she could escape. As they ran for the trees, Katrina tried to pull her hand from sasha's but he wouldn't let her.
All Katrina could think about was Sasha. Sasha was so strong, such a big, strong former Russian soldier who had happened to get captured by the Germans. He was so beautiful, he looked like an angel to Katrina. Blond hair that shone in this sunshine, right before the sun started to set, right when it was the brightest. Abruptly her thoughts of Sasha were intruded upon when he pulled her into the trees bordering Sobibor. Where the sky had previously been bright, with the sun about to set, it became dark, the trees blocking out the sunlight. Sasha pulled her through the trees, with no apparent destination in mind, until they were safe. At least for the time being.
"They won't come in after us now, we cut the phone lines and killed most of the SS. They can't get any help until morning, and they can't search at night" said Sasha, as he ripped the sleeve off his shirt and prepared to wrap Katrina's shoulder, in an effort to staunch the bleeding from her gunshot wound. "It will give us a big head start"
"Where will we go Sasha" she whispered, "they are everywhere they will kill both of us. They kill everything. The Nazi's are death, they are nothing but death."Tears crept slowly down her dirty cheek, leaving a path of clean skin as they fell off her chin, and landed wetly on her knee.
"They will be expecting the prisoners to head for the Bug river, if we start now, we can get a head start on them and go straight into the Parczew forest. It will be harder for them to find us Katrina" he said looking into her tear filled chocolate brown eyes. "You can do it, you are a good strong woman Katrina, you and I together can escape from these monsters"
"I don't feel like I can do it Sasha." Said Katrina "I'm so tired, I need to rest, just leave me here and go without me, I'm just going to bring you down, I will be the death of you."
Sasha grabbed Katrina's good arm. " I would NEVER leave you behind" he said. "If you don't go I don't go either, and we will just sit here and wait for the Nazi's to find us and kill us. However I would rather not die, and I don't think you want to either."
Without a word Katrina struggled to her feet and gave Sasha a look that in it self showed him that she wasn't ready to die. Not now, and definitely not by any Nazi.
She would live to tell her story. She wanted to be a survivor. She didn't know that she already was.
The sun went down quickly, leaving Sasha and Katrina in the dark. The trees looked like giant monsters looming over them. Tripping over an exposed tree root, Katrina fell to her knees, and let out an anguished cry, more in frustration than in pain. Sasha turned to see if Katrina was all right and saw her tears. He scooped her up and held her close. It was obvious the stress was taking its toll on her and he held her thin, shivering body close to his. After a few minutes he got to his feet, and pulled her up with him. Softly he kissed her cheek and wiped away the last tears. "Come dear, we must keep going." He said.
Several hours had now passed. Katrina couldn't decide if she was more hungry, or more tired, however she did know that she and Sasha needed to rest for a while. Thankfully, Sasha agreed, and they sat under a huge oak tree to rest before continuing on their journey to freedom. Within a matter of minutes, Katrina was deep asleep, the toll of everything that had happened to her in the past 12 hours, catching up with her.
Katrina dreamed about the first time she ever met Sasha. She had been sewing with the other female prisoners when he walked in the shop delivering some of the SS's uniforms to the seamstress's shop, so they could repair them. Just then, the most cruel SS officer of all, Wagner, flung the door open and walked in. It was a startling noise, and many of the women gasped in surprise. That was when Wagner heard it. It was the cry of a baby, a newborn infant, and Katrina knew what was going to happen. She knew, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. The Nazi, slammed one of the woman against the wall and then grabbed the screaming infant.
"You know the rules you Jewess bitch." He said. "If I wasn't in such a good mood, I would kill you, along with the baby. There's nothing worse than a Jewish Bastard." With a look of derision he slapped the infant.
Screaming, the woman grabbed the baby, and held him close to her. With tears streaming down her face, she looked at Wagner, and then spit on him.
"Kill me you heartless monster." She said. "If you kill my baby, you kill me too."
Without another word, Wagner pulled out his gun and shot her in the head. She fell to the floor, her eyes staring into nothing, her baby was still alive, still screaming.
"Shut up you little bastard." Said Wagner, and he kicked the infant. Kicked again, and again. After just a moment Katrina knew the child was dead. There was an unearthly silence in the room, and Wagner looked around at all the other seamstresses.
"Don't just stand there you lazy wenches. Clean this mess up. And get me a rag so I can clean this Jewish filth off my boots." He grabbed a worn towel and walked out the door.
Katrina glanced at Sasha and saw a look of rage on his face. She could tell he wanted to help, but he knew there was nothing he could do. Without a word, he picked up a blanket and covered the now quiet baby, and his mother.
With a start Katrinas eyes flew open. Immediately she realized that Sasha too, had fallen alseep even though he hadn't planned to. From the looks of it, they had slept for several hours, as the sky was just barely starting to turn pink. Dawn was coming, and with it, the Nazis. With urgency she woke up Sasha, who was still deeply asleep.
"Wake up dear, we have to get moving if we plan to stay ahead of the Nazis." She said.
As they walked, Sasha told Katrina about how the escape from Sobibor had come about.
"We had it planned well in advance." He said. "The tailors tricked the SS men to come in to their shack to get measured for a coat, or new gloves. They were so easy to trick, their greed overcame their caution. That's when we got them. I killed four of them myself, and managed to get Wagner's gun." He pulled the gun out from the waistband of his pants, and showed it to her. "I only wish I had gotten more ammunition." Katrina just stared, recalling all the times she had seen Wagner kill someone with it.
"Once we killed the SS men, we cut the phone lines, and broke down the gates. I think probably about 300 of us escaped." Sasha said as they continued to walk.
She wasn't quite sure how long they had been walking through the forest when they heard the first dog barking. It had been several hours, and she was sure it was at least noon. She and Sasha hadnt stopped to rest, drink or eat since they left that morning, and she knew that she was close to colapse. They had been walking along a stream for some time, hoping that the water would ruin their trail, and the Nazi dogs wouldn't be able to track them.
Stopping for a moment at the stream, Katrina, and Sasha got a drink of water and rested for a few minutes. He took the time to warn her that they would have to pick up speed, because the Nazis were on the hunt, and would kill them upon sight, with no questions asked.
"They don't want the prisoners back Katrina, they just want us all dead." Sasha said.
Katrina barely heard him. Her head was spinning, and everything ached, she couldn't begin to identify what hurt the most, since her shoulder was now numb. Her mind kept echoing the same thing over and over
"You're going to die, You're going to die."
She didn't try to fight it anymore. The redundancy of her mind kept her going. Each step was a word. One Step "You're"
The next step "Going to"
The next step "Die"
It was like a hideous child's rhyme in her head. She couldn't help it. She couldn't stop it. You're going to die, You're going to die. On and on and on it went. As her steps grew faster, so did the chant.
The Nazi's weren't far behind. They could hear the dogs barking, knew that if they didn't find a place to hide, and soon, they would quickly be surrounded, then killed. There was no doubt of that. Pulling Katrina along with him faster, almost at a run, he stopped abruptly when he saw the Nazi's up ahead of him. He had no idea how they managed to get ahead of them, or if they were different Nazis but he didn't have time to debate it. He would have to act now, without delay. He jumped behind a large tree, pulling Katrina, who was nearly in a trance, along with him.
"Shh!!" said Sasha, "Don't make a sound, just stay here and I will come back for you."
Sasha could only hope that the Nazis hadn't seen them, he didn't think so, there had been no cries of alarm, or shots fired. He inched his way around the tree and they were almost right in front of him. He counted four Nazis, and they were all carrying a gun. Swallowing hard, Sasha took aim at them. Since he didn't think he and Katrina had been seen, he waited for them to pass his tree and then almost silently jumped out behind them, wanting to take them by surprise, and giving himself a better chance to get all four.
It happened so fast Katrina didn't even realize what was happening until it was over. She heard gunshots, several of them. She had no idea what was going on, except that Sasha had told her to wait for him. She knew he was dead though. With all those gunshots he had to be. She closed her eyes and cried. Katrina hoped that the Nazis would just hurry and kill her too. She couldn't make it without Sasha, she didn't know where she was going, and didn't have the survivor skills that he had learned, being a soldier. Please just let it be over she prayed. That's when the hands grabbed her.
"Katrina, open your eyes!" said a familiar voice. "I told you I would come get you now look at me."
Slowly she opened her eyes. Sasha stood in front of her, holding two large guns. He pulled her to her feet and handed her one.
"Take this dear, you may need it." He said. "There are others nearby, and the shots are most likely to have given our hiding place away. We have to hurry."
He started walking, and Katrina noticed he was walking rather slowly, as if in pain. She grabbed his arm. "Sasha, whats wrong?" She asked.
"Its nothing, just a small wound, I'll be fine." He said and continued walking.
She could see it now, the blood seeping through the back of his shirt. She knew he was injured, and probably badly.
"How much further until we're out of the forest Sasha?" She asked
"We should be out of it soon my dear, it cant be much further. There is a rumor I heard in Sobibor of an old woman who was sympathetic to the Jews. If we are lucky we can find her home. It has been said she lives just outside the forest" He replied
Stumbling, Sasha almost fell to the ground. With a cry, Katrina grabbed him, and supported him with her good arm. "Walk Sasha, you can make it" She whispered. "You have to make it."
She saw a clearing up ahead and headed straight for it. After they got there she realized that it wasn't just a clearing but an actual field. In the distance she could see a small farmhouse. "Sasha!" Said Katrina "We're out of the forest, darling we made it out of the forest!" She was pulling him to the farmhouse. There was the old lady's home. That woman would help her, and Sasha. She was sure of it.
Sasha was walking slower and slower. The blood was dripping down his side, staining that emerald green grass the scarlet color that Katrina hated so much. She tried to cover the wound with her hand, but it wasn't doing any good at all. Finally they reached the farmhouse. She knocked on the door. "Please someone help us!" she said "We're injured, we need some help!"
Finally after a few minutes, the door opened slowly, and there stood an elderly woman wearing a thin, age bleached calico dress and a white linen apron. Her snowy hair was worn in a slightly messy bun, and she looked as if she was terrified. Katrina didn't wait for an invitation into her home, she just pushed her way past the woman and pulled Sasha in with her.
"Ma'am you have to help us." She said, large tears falling silently down her cheeks. "My friend, he's hurt badly. We need somewhere we can hide. Can't you please help us?"
Nodding her head, the older woman said in a thick german accent, "Follow me then young lady." She headed toward a closed door. When she opened it, Katrina was rather unpleasantly surprised to find it was only a pantry, with a few cans of food on the shelves.
"You want us to go in here?" Katrina said looking around.
"Yes my child, but this is more than a food closet." The woman said, as she pushed one side of the far wall. It opened, much to Katrina's surprise, revealing a small room with a single bed, a wash basin, some candles and a mirror hanging on the wall.
"You will be safe here for now." Said the woman. "Your friend is very bad off, I will bring you what I have to help, I am afraid it wont be much though." She led Katrina and Sasha through the doorway then turned to go.
Katrina led Sasha to the bed and pulled off his blood soaked shirt. Laying him down, she used it to try and wipe away some of the blood. Not that it did much good. The blood was flowing rapidly, staining the formerly pristine white sheets red. Katrina pushed the shirt down into the wound. She had to stop the bleeding if Sasha was to have a chance.
Sasha looked up at Katrina. She looked like an angel, standing over him. He grabbed her hand and motioned for her to bend down so he could talk to her. She leaned down in order to hear what he had to say. "Katrina, I want you to know that I love you." He said, just barely above a whisper. "I am going to die but you are going to live." Katrina shook her head, mouthing the word no, as if she couldn't say it. Unshed tears welled up in her eyes and she continued to shake her head.
"No Sasha, you cant die." She whispered. "I love you too, I always have. I can't lose you ." She got down on her knees and kissed him sofly. "Please, don't leave me now" She said, the tears falling freely.
"You are a survivor my love." He said, his breath coming in short gasps now. "You will always have me in your heart, and you will always be in mine. Our love is eternal, and it will never die." He looked at her one last time, and then closed his eyes.
Katrina's tears flowed freely, as she kissed him one final time. Then, with a look of determination, she stood up and whispered to herself, "I am a survivor, and I will live to tell my story."
And she did.