Summary

In Chapter 16, when Dorothy and Irene drove into the town, they passed abandoned German vehicles and charred corpses. They hid the Rapid City in an old barn before heading into town to find dinner. In Chapter 17, they heard the screams and artillery fire. Dorothy and Irene ran, without thought, “their eyes gone feral in their panic, their animal gazes searching for any escape” (168). When they were a few blocks away, they slipped into an empty house and huddled under the table. As they crouched in terror, they heard a metallic clink and saw a German soldier “leaning in through the opening where the glass had been, his rifle pointed loosely into the room” (173). They frantically pointed at their Red Cross badges. He asked if they were nurses and when they explained that they made coffee, “his expression suggested that he had seen...