Chapter 251: We are not forgotten.

Words : 1244 Updated : Sep 29th, 2025

Chapter 251: We are not forgotten.The camp had no name. It didn’t need one. It sat hidden in a ravine above the Ebro, nestled between forgotten goat trails and ruined olive terraces. To some it was a refugee outpost, to others a resistance node. But to those who lived there children, widows, ex-soldiers, ex-teachers, ex-husbands it was simply "el lugar," the place. They’d survived nearly eight months since Moreau had vanished into the Pyrenees. In that time, they buried five of their own, delivered two children, and dismantled twelve Fascist patrols that dared skirt the hills. And every Sunday, in the crumbling chapel, they lit the lantern. Not for God. For him. Carmen still remembered the night he’d arrived shirt torn, ribs broken, half-carried by two farmers who whispered only, "El francés." His hands had been bloodied from clutching another man’s body. They’d saved him, barely. And in the weeks that followed, he’d saved them. Not by gunfire or speeches. But by presence. By planning. By listening. He gave them codebooks. Gave the boys training. Gave the old men dignity. He gave Carmen the confidence to become more than a widow. Then, as suddenly as he arrived, he left. No one dared stop him. No one questioned why. But they remembered. Now it was May, and the air grew hotter by day, colder by night. Rations were tight. The Catalan front had collapsed westward. Refugees were no longer just broken families they were ghosts who couldn’t speak. The camp adjusted. Carmen, now its de facto leader, rationed food like a general. Elias, once a baker, became a scout master. Salvador ran security, and young Tomas barely eight ran the communications shack. A salvaged French field radio Moreau had fixed himself. Each day, Tomas flicked it on, scanned frequencies, and waited. He had instructions. If he heard the code "Ardilla canta," the squirrel sings, he was to run to Carmen. He never had to. Not yet. But he waited. On this particular night, the wind was strong enough to rattle the tin roof of the chapel. Carmen stood in the doorway, holding a notebook that bore no name, just a pressed flower. Inside were Moreau’s notes. Sketched trenches. Antenna diagrams. A child’s drawing of a lion with a French flag in its paw. She closed it. Tomas came running. "I heard it." "What?" He held up the headset. Carmen pressed it to her ears. "...la ardilla canta en el bosque..." Her eyes widened. "Get Elias. Now." They met in the chapel. The others gathered in silence. The message repeated. "La ardilla canta. Día diez. Norte de la cruz." The squirrel sings. Day ten. North of the cross. Coordinates. A signal. A return. No one spoke for a long time. Then Salvador whispered, "He’s coming back." They all knew who he was. No name needed. The next morning, the village moved with a new energy. Carmen oversaw breakfast distribution, and Elias set the scouts moving out early. The children played near the stream where Tomas’s lantern had gone. They played a game called "guard the ridge," where one child pretended to be Moreau coming to liberate them. They still didn’t say the name. Later that day, a commotion near the southern ridge brought people running. It was one of the goats shot. Salvador and Isidro found tracks. Heavy boots, two men, rifles not Spanish. Carmen and Elias examined the bullet lodged in the rock. 7.92mm. German Mauser. Condor Legion. "Are they hunting us now?" Salvador hissed. "No," Elias said. "They’re confirming rumors." Ana clutched Carmen’s skirt. "Will they come back?" "We don’t wait to find out," Carmen said. "Hide the firewood. Bury the dry grain. No tracks outside the perimeter." Tomas asked, "Will Moreau stop them?" Carmen kneeled to his level. "He doesn’t stop storms. He makes us ready to stand in them." In the camp, Carmen counted food stores. They had enough for twelve days, rationed. Salt was running low. Medicine almost gone. That evening, a coded message came by radio again. One word: "Preparar." Prepare. Elias deciphered the rest. A grid coordinate. North ridge. Two nights from now. They doubled watch rotations. In the chapel, Carmen laid out the wooden box again. This time, she opened the second compartment. Inside, a strip of cloth. Torn, faded, once part of a French uniform. The word "Espoir" stitched at the edge. Hope. It had been torn from Moreau’s sleeve the day he was nearly killed. A child had kept it. Now she held it like a relic. That night, the storm finally came. Wind howled through the pines. Tents flapped. The fire died out. They stayed awake. And when morning broke, so did the fear. Because on the ridge, there were new tracks cart wheels. Fresh. Near the chapel, a bundle wrapped in cloth had been left. Inside, gauze, iodine, a bolt of bread, and a folded map. A French military grid. With three marked routes. One arrow pointed to Perpignan. One to Pau. The third directly to the camp. Carmen held the map against her chest. "We are not forgotten." From that moment, they began to prepare not for flight, but for arrival. They cleaned the chapel. Repaired the tents. Set up the long-unused water barrels. Every stone was realigned. Every path swept. Not to impress. But to say. We are ready. And in France, Moreau stood over a different map. One with a lion drawn just north of the ridge. Over the next two days. Carmen, usually composed, found herself lingering by the edge of the chapel longer than necessary. She began rehearsing what she might say when she saw him again not as a commander, not as a legend, but as the man who once lay bleeding under her hands, asking if the goats would forgive him for knocking over their trough. She remembered the way he’d ruffle Tomas’s hair, his silence when asked about the battles he’d won, and the one time he cried just once when he thought no one saw, clutching a photograph half-torn and water-stained. Elias shaved, though he had no mirror. Salvador re-oiled the rifle that had not fired since Alborán. The children wove flowers into a banner and tied it above the chapel. A lion, drawn in charcoal, crowned with olive branches. They didn’t know if he would come with soldiers, or alone. They didn’t know if he would still wear that same jacket or something else. They only knew the day was near. On the ninth night, they lit the lantern in the chapel again. No one asked whose turn it was. Just before midnight, a low noise came through the hills. Not thunder. Not tanks. Engines. French. Heavy wheels. But they stopped beyond the outer ridge. Then, footsteps. Two men emerged from the trees. One carried a small box with a radio transmitter. The other held up a folded map. Both wore simple clothes, no insignia. One of them looked at Carmen and asked, "Is this where the lion healed?" She nodded. He handed her an envelope. Inside were typed orders French military, Ministry of Reconstruction. It authorized the full establishment of a humanitarian logistics station on the premises, "operational for relief coordination and civil defense preparedness." He had not come yet. But he had opened the door. When Carmen turned, she saw the chapel lantern burning brighter than it had in months. Across Spain, the lion’s paw had touched soil again.

Chapter 251: We are not forgotten.

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