He put his hands into his pockets as he walked out of the hostel. Seeing Hayley for the last few hours had made him realise what he fought for. Why his entire struggle was worth it. The smile on her face and the brown shine in her eyes brought him into heaven, where he had fallen out from for a while. He’d done everything for her. Not a war between nations, countries and people. But for his fiancée. His world. There was a chill as the morning slowly began to yawn and tried to stretch across the sky. He knew he could never tell her what he’d been through, or what he’d seen. He could never tell her that he was afraid of closing his eyes, and seeing the place again. The coldness in the atmosphere, the people he met. He was afraid to wake up back there. Deep down inside, he felt defeated that he’d ended up there. That he had been naïve enough to follow the plane, how he’d felt too cocky to realise the potential danger and turn around. No, he had followed the plane across the French border, and then crashed down in the middle of the German countryside. Been caught by what he had thought was German police, and in a flash, boxed up and packed off for a camp. Alex felt a shiver move across his weak spine as the pictures flew past in his mind. He turned up his collar and kept walking. He was tired, but not tired enough to let the memories get to him. Alex just remembered the kind faces, the hands that held him when he was in pain, and the voices that taught him so much. He brought up a crooked picture from his pocket. Maybe one day he could tell Hayley about them. About how after he had managed to escape under the narrow tunnels in the ground; how he still heard the small clicking of the wheels, the barking of the dogs above and their pattering feet as he had held his breath and kept wheeling on his stomach through the darkness, which made him feel like he was going to be enclosed in the darkness, and then ushered to the border of France, before being found by a young French boy. How little had Alex known; the little French boy would be the biggest saviour of his life. He remembered as the little boy looked at him in wonder before taking his hand and taking him down a long road surrounded by trees and mist, before they came up against some German guards. He remembered how hard his heart thrashed against his chest, as the little boy talked to them. He saw the look in the Germans eyes as they moved aside to let them through. How the little boy took him to a family house and showed him inside. How the French family looked up at Alex as he stood in the doorway. He felt dizzy as all the French fluttered around him, before whom he presumed the Father of the family, stood up, smiled and shook his hand.
“I presume you speak English?” Alex whispered, remembering the words Mathieu had asked. From then he felt more at home with the French family. Mathieu and Saline were working with the French resistance, and were going to do everything in their nature to get Alex back in the British border. They gave him new clothes, before explaining to him how things were going to work. Mathieu and Saline’s eldest son, Tristen had been of Alex’s own age, had been killed by the German’s. Mathieu and Saline were giving Alex his old clothes and passports, and were going to teach him French, and pose him as their lost son. Alex remembered as their younger son and daughter, Lucien and Allette had taken to him as their own big brother. The new family had taught him French, and had slowly planned to get him back to Britain. It was a long trek, and days felt endless, but with their help, he finally got himself back to Britain. Without the help of his French family, who would’ve known what perils he, or in fact they would’ve been in. Who would’ve known the consequences of where Alex would be. He shuddered. He walked up to the R.A.F gate, as the sun was starting to poke up in the sky brighter than before. A new day he thought. He smiled, as he smelt the petrol of the planes. The gateman glanced over to him.
“Can I see some identification?”
“Would you believe me if I said that I’m kind of…dead?” He said with a smirk that made his face glow brighter for the first time in years.