Then came the sound—boots crunching gravel, slow and unhurried. Not the crisp cadence of German guards, not the bark of an officer. Something else. The women stiffened. One girl, hardly twenty, bit her lip until it bled. Another closed her eyes as if bracing for a rifle shot.
Then came the sound—boots crunching gravel, slow and unhurried. Not the crisp cadence of German guards, not the bark of an officer. Something else. The women stiffened. One girl, hardly twenty, bit her lip until it bled. Another closed her eyes as if bracing for a rifle shot.

