She tells Graeber “good luck”, and gets his cider.

Julia gets up on wobbly legs and steadies herself. Her already fair complex was made more pale by the experience. She fumbles with the containers and drops one just as Graeber reaches for his equipment. The tin can rolls all the way to the opposite end of the closet.

Graeber notices that the polish woman is uneasy from all they had done, so he steps over to the tin and lifts it up. When he turns around, he finds Julia upward with her hands behind her back. “Uh, no need to pay for that. Consider it a parting gift or something for the war effort!”

When Graeber puts on his webbing and picks up his rifle, he finds his gear lighter. He smiled to himself— Germany had to win the war now. For the people!

…

…

Lukas was beside Graeber on the train that hauled the train towards the staging positions for the operation that laid ahead of them. Names circled the troop, names like Rostov, Kuban, the Caucasus, and Stalingrad.

Graeber watched the fields stroll by the train. It was larger than Yugoslavia, Greece, and France… a lot larger. It is hard to imagine that Germany was strong enough to contain such vast lands— to tame it and its original inhabitants— the thought made him feel dizzy.

He swallowed and pressed his head against the window; his eyes drifted down as he dwindled himself to sleep; memories of his furlough came to mind, shooting him back to…