Lucilla--NaNoWriMo2014

Chapter Sixteen

The Oberst looked toward a roar of airplane engines off the horizon but had little time to react.  In one of their rare airstrikes over parts of Italy they chose a target of opportunity as they were returning from a raid up the coast toward Salerno.

Mark used the Colonel's momentary distraction to shove their bicyces away from the caravan of army vehicles and to carry Lucilla on the other side of a low rock wall.

The planes came in low and began dropping bombs and staffing the beleagered German solders.  The German SS Colonel stood firing his automatic Schmeizer at the oncoming planes, only to be cut in two halves by fifty caliber bullets as they passed.

The planes circles a second time and came in low again.  The soldiers who had not been hit or had time to take cover scattered to find what shelter that they could.

After the planes second deadly attack, they formed up and returned to North Africa.  They had not planned to attack, but partisans had radioed of a lucrative military target passing through the town.  That was the way it was with the Arm Air Forces or US Navy planes.  They would go on a mission with a primary target to bomb or strafe with bullets, as they had just done.  Then on their return to their point of origin, they would consider secondary and tertiary military targets.

The choices the pilots made that day saved Mark and Lucilla from brutal torture by the sinister SS Colonel.  He would have beaten them until they confessed to anything he wanted them to.  The SS always got results, even if the results had nothing to do with criminal justice or military necessity--unless it was to satisfy the sadistic desires of Hitler's primary criminal goons.

Mark had lain on top of Lucilla to shield her from harm as the planes had passed.  He then helped her to her feet.  Dusting themselves off, they surveyed the damage and human death toll that lay in front of them.

"Lucy,"  Mark whispered in a low voice, "take the bicycles back to the hotel for safe keeping and rejoin me here."  He kissed her. "I am going to volunteer to help give first aid and care for the German wounded soldiers."

"Help out an enemy that was ready to torture us to death?"

"Lucy, only the Oberst was an SS officer.  These other soldiers are just doing their duty far from the beer halls they love so much at home.  They sing, love women, have children just like me.  For this moment they need help."

"What other reason do you have, my love?"

"If we help, it may give us an opportunity to help out on base."

Lucilla returned after a few minutes, and she helped Mark and the other German soldiers desperate to save the lives of their comrades.  Together they worked fast to take out soldiers' field dressings and with all speed tie them over the wounds of the soldiers.  They were able to stop the bleeding in most cases.

Lucilla also was startled by something that Mark did.  Some of the soldiers knew that they were dying.  The asked him to pray with them.  As if those enemy soldiers were friends of Mark, he held their hands and made the sign of the Christian Cross over them.  The soldiers then closed their eyes and passed out of life in peace.

Together Lucilla and Mark helped the Germans load the soldiers on strechers.  German emergency medical personnel soon arrived on the spot and administered blood to the seriously wounded.  Mark and Lucilla gave special attention to one soldier with severe wounds.

Because there were so many wounded and the German medical personnel were too few for so many wounded, they asked Lucilla and Mark to carry the soldier to a waiting ambulance where they rode with him to the nearby military base.

That took Lucilla and Mark to the very place they had set out to recon.  But for the dead SS Colonel, they would have been in shackles, but for the moment they were guests of the German Army.

The emergency lasted another twelve hours.  Mark and Lucilla assisted during surgeries on wounded soldiers.  Mark understood German.  Lucilla was familiar with the German spoken during the time of her father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  Nevertheless, she was able to speak it so some satisfaction after a few hours.

They worked through the night, and then were given a place to sleep for a while.  The next day they were guests in the German Officers' Kaserne Gasthaus.  There Mark and Lucilla enjoyed Schweineschnitzel mit Kloss, a type of spongy potato ball.  It was very filling.  For drinking they served them Rhein Wein, popular at home in Germany.

Unsuspecting German officers showed Mark and Lucilla around their military base.  Then they presented them with several loaves of German dark bread and cheeses.  As meat, they gave them a loaf of sausage that did not require refrigeration.

Lucilla somehow was able to understand what Mark had meant just after the attack.  These Germans were human beings, after all.  She realized that they, like the Gauls in her time, were doing what their duty in wartime.  When the time came for battle, they would do battle with the Americans and the Brits to the death.  But for the most part, they wanted to live and love at home just like anybody else.

The evil within Germany came from the Nazi party itself, not the common folks who were just joining to survive, but from the inner circles of power.

Lucilla came to hear names like Heinrich Himmler, Rudolph Hess, Julius Streicker, Field Marshall Jodl.  She heard of the Death Camps, where stories of such unspeakable atrocities took place.  If her father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius had been able to foresee what death the Nazis would bring to the world centuries later, he would have organized a life-long campaign to lead his Legions to exterminate everyone in Germany during his reign.

But who knows how history will turn out.  The very peoples who were sending unfortunate peoples to death camps, who were looting Europe of its artistic treasures, were also the very peoples who gave the world precious Christmas traditions.  The Christmas Tree, the loved song Stlle Nacht, known in English as  Silent Night.  During that devastating war, Lucilla heard tales of a German doctor by the name of Albert Schweitzer, who was providing medical care to poor Africans and bringing them the Christian Gospel.

Lucilla thought of her own times in Rome.  People were good and evil.  People did good for noble reasons.  They also did evil for what they thought were noble reasons.

Lucilla's perspective on humanity had changed somewhat as she and Mark thanked the Germans for their kind hospitality for all the help they had given them following the American Army Airforce raid.

Nevertheless, both Lucilla and Mark realized that they would have to continue with their mission, reporting information that may later cost the lives of soldiers they spent the day or so helping.

As soon as possible they found Italian members of the Resistance and reported that the Germans had a hundred tanks and an equal number of troop carriers available for use against forces invading the West Coast of Italy.

Once back at their hotel, Mark and Lucilla made use of the shower that their exclusive hotel room provided.  They stepped into the shower together to clean themselves of the grime and grit from their recent ordeal.

They made love that night over and over.