Dante hugged Chiarina.
“After I killed Victor, I can"t remember much. But Germans and Fascists hunted us along the narrow ways and high places. I couldn"t look down for fear of falling. I was close to collapse.”
While Anselmo had buried the two partisan dead, Fred had sat by the stove with Chiarina wrapped in a blanket.
“I asked Fred how we"d escaped, and he told me what happened.”
* * *
Fred led the rear guard—the toughest fighters, hard men—holding back the Germans. Dogged running and fighting, lasting through late morning into the afternoon. Just before dusk, the major, alerted by gun fire at the rear of the column drawing closer, ordered an NCO to lead the van off the exposed ridge, and, once again risking death or wounds from German sharpshooters, strode toward Fred and the rear
