Albanian Escape: The True Story of U.S. Army Nurses Behind Enemy Lines

6. The Enemy Closes In

6 The Enemy Closes In 20 November t943, Saturday-01tO: En route to Derzhezha. Jens awakened early and was happy to walk to the stream to brush her teeth and wash her face. It was a luxury after weeks on the trail with no facilities for personal sanitation. When she returned, the Americans were saying goodbye to Johnny and thanking him for his help. He was taking a different trail than they would. Jens felt sorry to see Johnny go. She believed that he had genuinely wanted to help them and had no hidden agendas. At 1000 hours they grabbed their gear and followed Steffa at a leisurely pace. Whenever they met people along the trail, Steffa would have long conversations with them. The party could always tell when he informed the people that his charges were Americans. Usually there were audible gasps, followed by the exclamation "Americano!" Whatever else he told them was anyone's guess, but he always picked up word about the movements of the Germans and Ballista. How much of that information was fact and how much rumor, neither Steffa nor the Americans had any way of knowing for sure. There was considerably more serenity in being with someone who could ask the questions they constantly had and who could tell them what information he had received. Once againJens was certain that Steffa was a staunch partisan, yet she couldn't mesh that fact with his leaving his wife and five children at the mercy of the Germans. Was it 80 Albanian Escape because his family was at no risk from an army that he cooperated with whenever possible? Perhaps he thought the Germans would not harm his family as long as he wasn't present. Then again, maybe he was just looking after his own hide. During a rest period, while the group sat on rocks enjoying the sunshine, Steffa suggested that since they had no particular destination for the day, they might head for one of the villages at a higher elevation which the people along the road had told him about. Perhaps they could rest there for a day or two, depending on the shelter and food available. Everyone in the party quickly agreed and started off again after fifteen minutes of rest. The trail they were following was no more than a narrow shelf, chopped out of the mountainside, which switched back and forth as it ascended at a very steep angle. The air was clear, brisk, and slightly thinner as they gained altitude. It took two exhausting hours ofclimbing to reach the top. Jens had expected a spectacular view; instead, she saw other high mountains pressing against the peak they had just climbed, and the tortuous trail that led down the other side of the crest. The descent was just as challenging as the climb. Jens longed for a handrail or at least a few bushes along the edge to help her negotiate the steep incline. At the bottom ran ribbonlike along the floor of the valley a stream that hugged its way through a gorge and fell from a mountain cliff far above them. The group decided the stream was well filtered and free from typhoid, so they bent to drink their fill of the cold, clean water, then filled their canteens. The trail was narrow, however, and they were forced to climb again. By 1400 the sun was hidden behind the massive mountains. The sky overhead was clear and dark. The party followed Steffa and the newly acquired village guides single file up the steep flank of the mountain, reminding Jens of a flock of baby ducks following their mother. They walked without conversation because the demands of the climb took all the breath they had and turned the already painful act of walking into a real battle. They stopped every fifteen minutes to force air into their oxygen-starved lungs, and in the silent majesty of the mountains the only noise they heard was the sound of their own labored breathing. The Enemy Closes In 81 "Steffa was sure right about this place," Sergeant Allen said between gasps. "I'd be willing to bet that God alone knows for sure that it exists, and it's for damn sure the Germans won't be traveling up here in any kind of force. In fact, I doubt any of them would want to make this climb." It...