THE JOURNEY 

By Tessa Harvey

    Alice felt she had been stumbling through the darkness for hours when the boy stopped so suddenly she fell against him.
    Holding her with one arm, she made out he was trying to signal silence with the other.
    Slowly she made out some shielded lights to her left and heard quiet voices, one voice rising louder than the rest. It was a man's voice, but broken, harsh, then almost incoherently mumbling.
    Alice and her guide crept closer and joined four others - three men and a woman. They were variously trying to drip water down his throat and holding wet cloths against the young man's forehead. Alice could see he was young but his face was badly bruised and swollen. He was wearing an airman's uniform, British she thought, but it was ripped and she saw burn marks and other painful-looking injuries.
    It was obvious he had been very badly beaten, but had somehow escaped. She wondered how.
    She whispered a question to one of the men and the injured boy, for he was very young suddenly stilled. "Alice," he cried, "is that you?" Before, he had been reciting his army information in German - but now he spoke perfect English.
    Alice froze, then answered, sobbing "Yes, I am here." It was her brother. "Please can we get him help?" she asked the others.

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