To Save A Life
--Blue IV
Chapter 1
First they came for the Jews --Pastor Niemoller
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
A few pale stars were beginning to show. Another day had faded and, with it, another strand of hope. As the shadows settled over the ghetto, Natsuki Kruger watched from the attic window. Every so often, she would glance outside. The street below had been empty until she caught sight of an old woman hurrying through the dark, bent over as if a weight had been placed on her frail shoulders. Noting the position of the stars, Natsuki could tell it was almost ten o'clock. Mama would return from work soon.
She heard light footsteps pounding against the stairs before a small girl with honey-colored hair and bright blue eyes threw open the door. The young girl's face brightened when her gaze landed on the outline of her eldest sister against the backdrop of the night sky.
"You shouldn't over do it," a deep, husky voice rose from the dark. "This is your first day out of bed in a week."
"You worry too much, Suki," the young girl pouted, her round cheeks puffing out cutely.
Natsuki turned back to the view outside her window and put her hand up to the glass. It felt cool to the touch. The glass was stained and cracked, but through it she could see nearly three blocks of Otome Street which ran at an angle through the middle of the ghetto. It was a bitter evening, and the streets were iced over. Although she couldn't see him, Natsuki knew that at the end of the street a German soldier patrolled the fence that marked the boundary of the ghetto; where the entire population of two cities had been forced into a few square blocks.
"Where is Nao?" the tiny girl asked as she placed herself next to her sibling, her tiny hand reaching out and grabbing onto the hem of her shirt in the process.
"Probably out with those boys, Alyssa," Natsuki explained, frowning at the thought. She had witnessed the boys Nao—her only other sibling—liked to spend her time with. Just the other day she had seen the group of teenagers running through the midday crowd, shouting and tossing a hat back and forth. "She better be getting back soon. I'm not going to defend her like I did before when she came home too late and upset Mama."
And, with impeccable timing, the street door creaked open and loud cursing could be heard in the entry. A loud chortle escaped Alyssa as she started down the stairs. Natsuki stood up from the window ledge, rolling her shoulders in an attempt to ease the ever-present ache in her lower back. The raven-haired girl went to straighten Nao's quilts, which lay in a heap on the floor where the two slept. She shook them out and began to make an improvised bed when the house's other two occupants made themselves known.
"Damn winter," Nao grunted as she removed the sweater Mama made for her last winter, using wool from an old blanket of Papa's. Papa had died during the influenza epidemic before Alyssa was born, but sometimes Natsuki thought she could still catch a faint trace of her father's smell in the woven fabric.
The raven-haired sibling cut the weather-worn teen a sharp glance. "What'd I tell you about that mouth of yours?" she reprimanded. Her dark green eyes held no room for argument.
Nao sighed her consent, even though Natsuki knew the red-head was ready to retort. Ignoring the look her older sister continued to hold her with, Nao hugged the sweater to her chest and slumped lazily down on her make-shift bed. She ran her fingers through her wind-blown hair, trying to ease out some of the tangles. Alyssa joined her and stared up curiously at the lime green eyes that watched her get comfortable.
"How you doing Kid-O?" Nao asked the young child. "Feeling any better?"
Alyssa's frequent colds and coughs were often the cause of her worries. She'd get high fevers and shortness of breath more often than not. It was troubling. The red-head wrapped her sweater around her sister's lanky shoulders. The blonde pulled the edges of the sweater closed around her thin body and resting her head on Nao's shoulder as she babbled about her day.
Natsuki made her own self comfortable as she settled down on her own pallet across the room, faintly listening to her sister talking. Soon the loud talking of her youngest sibling died down and was replaced by soft snores.
Outside, the moon was hidden behind dark clouds, ushering the room into complete darkness. The raven-haired girl could fairly make out the shadow that was her green-eyed sister propped up against the wall, her arms crossed against her chest.
Suddenly, the silence was broken.
"Did you hear about the raid yesterday?" Nao asked, her voice soft so as not to disturb the sleeping girl beside her, but Natsuki could still hear the obvious anger that leaked out. "The German soldiers just started taking people from their homes, rounding them up and forcing them into these trucks. They were carted off. Takeda says that they took them to these labor camps the Germans have set up all around the country. And that—"
"Takeda says a lot. I can't believe you'd even listen to that idiot," Natsuki growled, efficiently cutting off Nao's speech.
Natsuki could feel the tension in the air and knew that the red-head was glaring holes into her. The silence was thick with irritation. It lasted so long that Natsuki was beginning to think that Nao had fallen asleep, but that was proved wrong when she heard a whisper reach her ears.
"The Tokiha's were taken."
The raven-haired girl's heart faltered at those words. Mai Tokiha was her best friend. They had grown up together and at school were classified as inseparable. No one could imagine bumping into one without the other.
'It's not true. Nao is just trying to get at you, that's all. There's absolutely no way that that actually happened,' a voice at the back of her head reassured her. But it still didn't ease her racing heart or trembling fingers.
Another silence engulfed the room before Nao could be heard shifting to lie down next to the still-sleeping Alyssa. It wasn't long before the red-head's breathing became even and slow, signaling that she was also slumbering soundly. But Natsuki couldn't sleep. Her mind kept pondering at the thought of what her sister had said. Not only that, but also her mother wasn't back from work yet and it was long past ten o'clock. The Nazis had assigned her Mama to a job as a local doctor—without pay, since she was a Jew—working for the German army. It wasn't the first time her mother had stayed at the hospital late into the night, but Natsuki couldn't help but worry.
A feeling of dread had begun to eat away at her insides and settled deep into her bones. It coiled its way along her throat, making it tighten with fear. 'I'm not going to get any sleep tonight.'
Despite that thought, another hour had made her eyelids droop heavily over her emerald eyes. Before she completely succumbed to the distant call of sleep, she glanced at the yellow felt star pinned to her shirt just above heart. JUDE, Jew, was printed across the star in black lettering like a scar.
The three girls were startled awake by a deafening pounding on the street door. Instantly Natsuki froze, alert to every movement and sound. She scrambled out of bed when she heard harsh yelling from below that was unmistakable German. Before she had reached her frightened sisters, a sharp crack of wood splintering could be heard. She was nearly unable to breath has fear seized her at the sound of boots thundered up the stairs. The door leading to the attic was knocked off its hinges easily by a broad man.
It all happened so fast.
There was a lot of shouting as two soldiers ran for her. Natsuki stared at them without moving, as if she had been turned to stone. They seized her roughly by the arms. Before she knew what was happening, she was being half-dragged out of the room.
She could faintly hear her sisters screaming their refusal and a lot of scuffling as they too were beginning to be dragged down the stairs.
Natsuki finally snapped out of her daze and began to struggle against the soldiers' hold. She tried in vain to pull her arms from the men's tight grasps. The butt of a rifle came down hard on her back, knocking her legs out from under her as she went flying forward. It seemed the Germans holding her had indeed let go, only for her to realize the reason before it was too late.
The momentum of the strike pushed her forward and she fell down the stairs, hitting every step on the way down. She barely had a chance to lay there at the bottom before she was roughly grabbed once again and pulled out of her home. She could feel the blood pouring down her cheek and flowing into her mouth; the iron tang of it making her nauseous.
The street outside was in chaos. German army trucks were everywhere. People backed away; mothers lifting their children into their arms, waiting. Suddenly, soldiers jumped from the trucks and began to seize everyone in sight, forcing them into the trucks at gunpoint. Pandemonium broke out at once as everyone raced toward the nearest building or alley, anywhere out of reach of the soldiers. Cries of 'Hurry!' and 'Get off the street!' were heard. Natsuki looked frantically for her sisters as men, women, and children ran past her, screaming and trampling over one another in desperation.
The soldiers shoved Natsuki into the back of a truck along with her two siblings then slammed the door, blocking their escape. Within seconds, the door was reopened and another person was thrown in. This cycle continued until Natsuki was pressed up against the wall, one arm around Nao and Alyssa pressed firmly into her side. She began to wish she could shift and remove her extra layers of clothing but there were so many people crammed tightly into the truck.
A few minutes later the truck purred to life before lurching forward.
Her skin prickled from the heat, as she listened to the cries of women and children and the fevered whisper of prayers. Alyssa was among the ones who cried. The beaten girl wanted to whisper words of comfort to her youngest sibling, but her head hurt too badly from falling down the stairs.
It seemed like days before the light of day leaked in through the windows of the truck. Her tongue already felt thick and dry and her parched throat cried out for water. She turned as much as she could to look around the car. She saw many people she knew. Her eyes finally found the face of her red-headed sister. A bruise dominated most of the right side of her face and her eye was swollen shut. Natsuki had to look away.
It grew hotter as the sun beat down on the truck and poured through the windows, which were locked and barred like windows in a prison. As the heat increased, so did the smell of urine as people began to relieve themselves. The truck stopped frequently and each time some of the Jews would beg for water, food, or fresh air but their requests went unheard.
They traveled through the night. At one of the stops a soldier brought a pail of water. As soon as he left, dozens of hands rushed out at the pail; precious water spilled on the floor as they fought each other for a drink. Finally, a voice of reason rang out. The booming voice instructed that one person got one swallow of water. The sisters were in the back of the truck, so by the time the pail got to them, the supply was scarce. Nao got the first share. She tipped the pail back, careful not to let a drop of it escape. She passed it to Natsuki and she gripped the lifeline tightly. As the first drops came in contact with her cracked and bleeding lips, the feeling was magnificent. Water filled her mouth and she swished it around lovingly. She had never tasted anything so great. Then, she swallowed and the coolness of it traveling down her throat provided a moment of great pleasure.
Greed attacked her but she pushed it back to the darkest recesses of her mind. Alyssa's baby blues looked desperate as she eyed the prize, her arms reaching eagerly for the pail. The young girl got her share then passed it on to the next person in line.
Now, in the hot, crowded truck, Natsuki prayed silently that God would keep her family safe. She leaned her aching head against the wall of the truck, trying not to think what might be awaiting them at their unknown destination.
As you can see, I basically started the entire story over. During AP Goverment class, I had an epiphany. So, I decided to change the whole thing and, don't worry, it'll be better than I originally planned. Also, I was having a little conflict with the names in this story. Sunrise's character names are so blantantly Japanese and this story obviously isn't taking place in Japan. So, my question to you, faithful readers, should I change their names up? I'm pretty sure that if I do my homework, I'll be able to find Jewish names that are relatively close to their original names. So, let me know what you think.
--BlueIV