‘They say there is, no one’s ever come out alive’ said Samuel as he inched forward, the tension knotting his stomach, fear and adrenalin engulfing him.

Nathan thought about that, ‘maybe they didn’t die, maybe they just walked out the other side,’

That seemed a good possibility to Samuel,

‘yea maybe and if we did I could come back for my mum and sister,’ the idea was appealing to him, it was all so easy, they had been told not to go into the woods to frighten them, there was nothing in there really, just the road to freedom, was there?, they were stood a metre from the edge now, infringing on the forbidden area.

‘I can’t see anything’ said Nathan,

‘It’s too dark’ said Samuel,

They took another step forward, that’s when they heard the voice, it startled them both as they jumped.

‘You two boy’s get the fuck from there’ June Murphy shouted, she let go of Sue’s arms, she was the fitter of the two sisters and she trotted to where the boys stood, just inside the woods,

The boys froze at the sound and the sight of June Murphy coming towards them, they thought for one minute it might have been one of the three bosses, June was close to them now, she clipped both boys across the ear’ panting through her excursions,

‘Don’t you know you’re not supposed to go in there?’

Both boy’s rubbed their ears, started to stutter an apology and was just about to apologise when June went to grab at the boys to pull them back away from the woods edge, when she slipped and fell just into the woods, the effects of the alcohol not completely gone as her shoes got stuck in the mud.

It had been watching the two boy’s in the quiet of the night, silent and ready to pounce, they had been so close to coming into the woods, coming into its domain, where those who dare would never return, the creature knew another step and it would pounce, but something had stopped them coming, and that particular meal was gone, it dare not venture outside of the woods, so it had turned away to return to its lair, there will be other opportunities, but then it had heard a noise, and as the wild animal looked around, it could see another meal had fallen into the woods, into its lair, not as tasty looking as the two boys, but fresh nevertheless, it could taste the blood, the flesh, feel the crunching of the bones.

June froze as she lay belly down in the mud, her face staring at the thing before her eyes, the monster that was just about to take her, tonight had been the night for her after all, if she could have moved she wouldn’t have been able to as she was frozen in fear, it was no animal she could describe as she looked into its eyes and saw the teeth pouncing towards her, she closed her eyes. Ready to die.

Then it felt as if she had been grabbed by both feet and was being dragged along the ground, for one moment she thought the monster had come for her from behind and it was dragging her deeper into the woods, and as she opened her eyes, expecting her life to flash before her, she could not see the monster no more, she could see the moon, and stood beside her was Sue her sister, fear etched on her face, stood beside her was Nathan and Samuel who had grabbed her feet and pulled her out, the both boys could see she was okay and run off home, swearing never to go into the woods again.

June staggered to her feet, she was shaking, Sue helped her as much as she could but her feeble body was not much help, eventually with both girls covered in mud they linked arms and walked towards home, June’s eyes were still wide, her body still shook.

‘Hope you got more than one fucking bottle’ she said.

Chapter 10

1946

The war had been over for just a few months, the euphoria still running around Britain, but since June 1944 the camp had remained open and in use, a re-education of it’s prisoners before returning to the new Defeated Germany, for some it would take another three years before that process was over, for those at the Underwood prison of war camp, it would take less than a year, unfortunately some never returned home at all.

The terms of the Geneva Convention stipulated that prisoner’s should not be subjected to work whilst in captivity, however given the choice many German prisoners chose to work rather than sit around the camps doing nothing, those that chose to work in Underwood, worked the many fields, either harvesting, digging ditches or repairing fences, the fenced off area was vast and allowed for produce to be grown.

There were also other activities in the Underwood camp, such as lectures, concerts, English lessons and football during the imprisonment, life was not easy by any means, they were prisoners of war and were treated as such, after the war the Germans were assessed as to their loyalty to the Nazi ideals, and those that still remained loyal to those ideals were kept in captivity.

In April 1946, 7 German prisoners of war remained at the camp which had become popular as a training resort for the British soldiers due to the immense amount of fields and woods that surrounded the camp, the camp remained intact, with the prisoners barracks, the officers’ quarters, activity rooms, toilets and the large water tower, all surrounded by chain linked, barbed fencing.

The fencing was patrolled by 4 soldiers, in 20 foot high towers, one either side, 3 soldiers looking into the woods, and one looking into the vast fields ahead, where one day Underwood estate, and the world’s biggest Steelworks would be built, the mood was calm, the war had been over for 4 months and still everyday seemed like a new day, and not one day of the last five years forgotten, today had been spent moving the fencing which had been ferried away into an army truck.

Captain Allan Herapath, sat in his office quarters, a proud soldier, he had served the army for 27 years, more than half his life, he had seen action during the war whilst leading his regiment, now he was overseeing the final acts of the Underwood prison of war camp, Sargent Philip Lenan sat with him, he had fought alongside the captain and there was a great mutual respect between the two soldiers, they were sat with the camp parson Andy Thomas, who had been at the camp for two years, they were discussing the final removal of the seven German soldiers that had remained at the camp, they were to be sent to a camp in the Scottish highlands in the morning for further re-education, along with other German prisoners of war from various parts of the country, they hadn’t quite got the German ideals out of their head, Allan wondered if they ever would.

Allan sat with what he called a celebratory whisky in his hand.

‘In some way I will kind of miss it’ he told his companions, he was referring to the camp that had become his home.

‘How do you make that out sir?’ said Philip Lenan who just couldn’t wait to get from there and continue his career,

‘It’s Allan today Philip, call me Allan, he pondered for a moment, ‘not all Germans brought to this camp Phillip were idealist, most were just caught up in a bloody war, anyway, it’s time to rejoice, it’s been a tough war nevertheless,’

Phillip took a drop of his whisky, ‘what do you think will become of this place’

Allan thought for a moment, besides the camp there was just fields and tree’s, no roads to speak of, just the odd dirt track created by the heavy army vehicles, ‘I expect this fine land will carry on being farmed, I’m sure the farmers around here could use some of these buildings, they will probably be glad to get their land back,’

‘That they could’ said the vicar Andy Thomas who was on his third whisky, Allan grabbed the bottle putting it out of Andy’s reach, there was nothing worse than a drunken man of god, and Andy had been drunk to often for his liking.

Allan lit up a cigar and offered them around, soon the office was filled with a hazy mist as they puffed away’