Then Mikis stood up, took aim, and pulled his rifle's trigger. Cries of pain echoed from the high rocky mountain above. The three stayed nailed to the ground for a long time, until they heard no movement.
"Wait here, I'll go and investigate," whispered Mikis and asked Irene to cover him.
He reached the low cemetery wall and climbed over the whitewashed adobe, but this time it was his own painful cry that was heard. Irene and Anna rushed toward Mikis, who lay on the ground bleeding profusely from a chest wound. Anna wrapped her headscarf tightly around his chest in an effort to stop the bleeding and then wiped the blood off his lips. She quickly took her coat off to cover Mikis. Irene brought water to his mouth, but he rejected the canteen, feebly pushing it away. He summoned the women to come close.
"We have an important task." With difficulty, he shifted his weight onto his elbows, raising his body a little while clenching his teeth not to scream from the pain. "You must take these papers and maps to the airfield in Heraklion. This must be done at all costs." Mikis handed Anna a well-sealed envelope. "You have to accomplish what I cannot." He reached out to Anna, who took his hand in hers. "To the end ... Fight until our country is free." He then extended his other hand to Irene, who took tight hold of it as Mikis tried to raise himself up further. He attempted to talk but blood filled his mouth and he collapsed.
Irene closed his eyes. The horse that had run away after the grenade blast returned neighing mournfully and scratching the wet ground. Anna took Mikis' rifle and looked at Irene. Both women knew what they had to do. They charged with fury toward the white marble grave where the fatal shots had come from. Jumping over raised grave markers, their bullets ricocheted off the tall crosses.
"Don't move!" shouted Irene to two men on the ground. "You just killed my friend, you bastards!"
The boy, no more than eighteen, tried to pick up his gun. Irene kicked it away.
"You killed my friend! Why?" she shouted.
The boy held his mutilated belly, blood running through his fingers. With his other hand, he pointed to the dead man face down on the ground.
"He did it, because this town, this area, belongs to us and we will defend it in the name of the revolution. Mikis was a counterrevolutionary, working against us, bringing spies like you, so he had to die."
Angrily, Irene shot a bullet in the dead man's body.