In the dim forest, a military motorcycle tore through the darkness, its engine roaring and startling the ravens perched on the branches.
"Damn it! Those Germans are about to catch up!"
Stephanie gripped the motorcycle's handlebars with both hands, resisting the urge to look back. She was afraid to see the German soldiers relentlessly pursuing her.
The Allied Nations' front line was already close. Once she left this forest, a British army stronghold lay just a few kilometers ahead.
She would be safe once she got there.
"Do you have anything to eat?"
"You must have food, right?"
"Give me something to eat..."
"..."
The forest was filled with refugees.
They were all pitiful people left homeless and nowhere to go by the war.
"I don't have any food!"
Stephanie saw a ragged man blocking her path. Rather than slowing down, she twisted the throttle harder.
This was not the time for misplaced compassion. Along the way, she had seen too many refugees starving without enough to eat, until she had nearly become numb to it.
Ending the war was the best way to save them!
That was what Stephanie thought.
Bang!
The motorcycle sent the man flying, and his emaciated body slammed into a tree trunk.
"I'm sorry."
Stephanie gritted her teeth. Seeing the tide of refugees surging toward her ahead, she pulled the MP40 submachine gun from beneath her trench coat.
"Get out of the way! I can't help you! All of you, move!"
Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat!
The piercing gunfire spread through the forest, and the bullets tore apart the leaves overhead.
Driven by the instinct to survive and fear of death, the small groups of refugees gradually closing in finally scattered, opening up a path.
"What a living hell!"
Stephanie still could not stop herself from looking back.