Free My Friend the Enemy by Dan Smith

moment I tried to imagine what it would be like to fly one, but after the crash, I wasn’t so sure I’d ever want to. And that made me think about how Kim must feel, having seen what was inside the smashed-up Heinkel. I wanted to say something to her, about her brother being a pilot and about the crash, but I couldn’t think of the right thing. ‘How old are you?’ I said, changing the subject instead.
    â€˜Twelve.’
    â€˜Same as me. What month?’
    â€˜April.’
    â€˜Mine’s May.’
    â€˜You ever seen a dead body before?’ she asked.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Me neither.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I didn’t think it would be like that. It was the worst thing ever.’
    â€˜Aye.’
    And we were quiet again, so I lay back and stared at the stars, too, trying to remember some of the ones Dad had pointed out to me. He’d said that people could use them to find their way at night, and I wondered if he was doing that right now, somewhere else in the world.
    â€˜That’s Orion up there.’ I pointed. ‘See the three stars in a row?’
    Kim shuffled closer, putting her head against mine so she could follow the line of my finger. Her hair was soft and it tickled my cheek. She smelt clean.
    â€˜Those three are Orion’s Belt,’ I said. ‘And at the corners you can see the rest of him.’ I traced the tip of my finger around the stars, drawing the outline of the hunter Orion.
    â€˜Which ones?’ Kim asked, but I didn’t get the chance to tell her again, because we heard someone cough. It was unmistakeable. A quiet cough, as if someone was trying not to be heard.
    Kim grabbed my hand, pulling it down so I was no longer pointing. She put her finger on her lips, telling me to be quiet.
    â€˜Someone’s there,’ she whispered.
    The cough again.
    â€˜It’s behind us,’ I said, turning around. ‘In the woods.’
    â€˜Maybe the soldiers came after us,’ Kim said. ‘That Sergeant Wilkes.’
    â€˜Can’t be. We’d have seen them comin’.’
    â€˜Others, then,’ Kim suggested. ‘The ones who’re looking for the German.’
    â€˜We’d have heard them in the woods.’ And then a thought came to me. ‘Unless they’ve been there all along. From when we got here.’
    â€˜Maybe it’s the German.’
    â€˜I want to see.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I want to see who it is.’ I didn’t know why I said it. Perhaps it was to prove to myself that I could be brave just like Kim, but whatever it was, something made me want to see.
    I picked up the pistol and started to crawl towards the trees.
    Kim grabbed my shirt. ‘Don’t.’
    I pulled her hand away and pushed to a crouch, creeping right into the edge of the woods. Once I’d passed the first trunks of hazel and oak, I stood up and took a soft step forward. Dad had shown me how to walk quietly in the woods. He said he had to do it all the time at night, be as quiet as possible when he was hunting poachers.
    I put down my right heel and rolled onto the ball of my foot, feeling for anything that might snap and make a noise. I took extra care to remember I was wearing wellies – something I’d forgotten earlier – and, moving like that, I crept deeper into the trees, coming closer to the barbed wire fence.
    And then I saw him.
    Highlighted by a sliver of moonlight that cut through the leaves above, I saw a man, sitting back against one of the fence posts.
    I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at him.
    A stick snapped behind me, making me spin around to find Kim standing just behind me.
    â€˜Who is it?’ she asked.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ I said turning back to look at the immobile figure.
    â€˜Is he asleep? Or dead?’
    I was mesmerised by him. My whole body had gone cold with fear. My stomach tingled, my hands trembled, my muscles