Chapter 67 Section sixty-seven

We walked from our dark hiding place into the cold winter light, shivering in sub-zero temperatures.I hugged Nicholas and Ilo tightly, making up my mind that even if our lives were about to end, we would die in each other's arms. However, there was only silence to greet us.An eerie, indifferent silence that neither gave hope nor terror. There was no sign of a sentinel at the gate leading to another courtyard. We walked over cautiously, fearing that a gun would be pointed at us at any time, a military dog's saliva fangs would be directed at us, or , was a bullet in the back. But nothing happened.

We stopped in front of the door, peered in, prepared to beg the guards for mercy, but there was no one inside, not a soul.I hesitated. I was terrified and confused. I felt Nikolay tugging weakly at my hand, reminding me that we had to find food quickly, or we'd all be dead anyway.I understand that we must continue to take risks. I slowly opened the door, mentally preparing myself for the inevitable conflict, but still no one appeared.There were no guards rushing up to intimidate us, no barrage of bullets to stop our "invasion".I instinctively looked towards the observation deck, but I also didn't see a single figure.But I dismissed the fact that it was too far away and what I saw was inaccurate.

But the current success still made us brave enough to cross the square carefully and walk towards the factory.We were so weak that we no longer had the strength to protect ourselves, and I knew the only option was to turn ourselves in, beg for mercy, and hope for a happy ending. However, the factory was quietly enveloped in an atmosphere of abandonment. I wasn't surprised, though relieved, when I pushed open the door to find only abandoned machinery inside.I yelled out, asking if anyone was still there, and the only answer I got was my own echo. "Anka? Where did everyone go? What happened?"

I turned to Yiluo and hugged her close to me: "I don't know, Yiluo. Let's look elsewhere." We left the factory and ventured across the square, hoping to be spotted, but still we were greeted by silence. The solitary and true silence accompanies our every step. We wandered through the empty battalion rooms, past abandoned buildings and open gates, never meeting a single guard until about an hour later we finally spotted a figure sitting against a distant wall. Under the wall. I yelled out, but got no answer.We walked quickly towards the figure, hoping to find out everything.But when we came in front of him, I stopped in shock and hurriedly blocked the sight of the two children.No matter how much devastation I've witnessed, I can't turn a blind eye to death, and the emaciated body in front of me makes me feel intensely uncomfortable.But I couldn't help staring at him.

A layer of crystal clear frost covered his appearance, but there was no obvious trauma on his body. I couldn't help but think, was it cold or hunger that took his life?I took the children from there and hurried through the deserted camp, looking for the living in this desolate place of death. We came to a cafeteria by accident, so we looked for leftovers in the discarded pots and jars. Fortunately, we found a few cans of meat and ate them voraciously. In the future, until they are all eaten. We regained our strength and continued our search. After encountering a few more corpses, I panicked, fearing that we were the only survivors of this wicked place.However, when we turned a corner and came to another courtyard, we were pleasantly surprised to find hundreds of people walking in front of us.

We yelled at the same time, but no one turned back, they were indifferent to our presence.My joy turned to horror as we got closer to the crowd and found these men and women, men and women, all skinny and lifeless.These people are like walking corpses, the desire to survive has been forcefully sucked out of their souls. We joined the crowd and found that many people were dying. Right in front of our eyes, some died, some were dying, and one after another fell on the frosty ground. I plunged into the crowd and kept asking, trying to find the answer, but people just stared at me blankly and didn't respond.Maybe they didn't understand me, but more likely, they were just indifferent.We started running back and forth among the crowd, looking for someone who was not so weak and could answer our questions, but all we got was indifference, even resentment, blaming us for disturbing their last days in this way.

We wandered back and forth, and I desperately scanned the emaciated figures, hoping to find my mother among the survivors. We finally came to the edge of the camp, and I'm sure now that the watchtowers were abandoned.But those daunting, impenetrable barbed wires still separate us from the outside world. We turned around, back again among the dying survivors, stepping over the fallen bodies, the three of us snaking across the courtyard, holding hands.Just then, I heard a faint voice. "Anka? Anka? It's really you!" My heart skipped a beat, hoping that poor voice was my mom.I looked back at the thin figure who called me, and saw that she was lying weakly on the ground, raising her head with difficulty, and I saw clearly that it was just a child about my age.

"Anka! It's really you!" I identified it carefully again, carefully looked at the sunken eyes, and tried to find the familiar shadow on the frost-stricken face with the hair plucked out. Then, turbulent emotions blocked my throat for a moment, and I choked up: "Raisa!"