23It took three days for Maria Christina to organize a supply mission to Zervas’ camp. With seven other women packed like mules, all concerned wives and sisters of men from Metsovo, the group, together with three goats, trekked two days in the snow through the range of the Southern Alps that encircle Ioannina, sleeping in a cave overlooking the city during the day, then continuing silently again by night until they reached the periphery of Zervas’ camp just before sunrise, when they were suddenly surrounded by a group of Republican guerrillas. One of the women recognized her brother’s voice and a tearful reunion, punctuated with bursts of laughter, quickly followed, as the men relieved the women of their burdens and escorted them to the camp.
Yiannis was standing outside a small, tattered
