Between Shades of Gray 41-140

Lina, Jonas, their mother, and all of the people on the train cars continued to move from station to station until finally the train stopped.The train had stopped for a few days and one night Lina snuck out to go find her father. She searched from car to car yelling his name until finally she came to an all male car. She peered inside and saw her father among many other men. Her father then worked his way through the crowded car to talk to Lina. He told her that she needed to stay with her brother and mother and that he couldn't come with them, but would see them soon. Joyful but saddened Lina made her way back to her car. Her friend Andrius then went out to find his father, but could not find him. They both then climbed back inside the car and waited until morning. Once the sun arose, the cars started to move again. The cars continued to move for days only stopping every once in awhile to supply sloppy buckets of food to the passengers. Then finally, one time the train stopped it had stopped for good. The NKVD officers opened the car doors and began pulling all of the people out of them. Then they started to group them up along the side of the train tracks. A man then walked from group to group deciding on which groups he wanted for his farm. The group Lina and her family were in mostly consisted of women and a few older men, so they weren't picked. After the man left, they were the last group remaining beside the train. The NKVD officers loaded the group into the back of two trucks and began to move again. When the trucks stopped the officers began to yell at the group to get off and go into the bathhouse. The fact that everybody was going to get a bath lifted everyone's spirits. After they all bathed they were loaded back into the trucks and took off yet again. Once the trucks stopped again, it was at a beet and potato farm. The NKVD officers told everyone to get off of the trucks and ordered them to go into houses where they would stay. Luckily Lina, Jonas, and their mother could stay together and were all sent to the same house. When they arrived to their hut, their was another woman in there that told them they had to work for food and the harder they worked the more food they would get. The next morning, Lina and the mother were sent out to a field to dig a big hole while Jonas was sent to make shoes in a factory. When they returned to the hut everybody was worn out and had very little to eat. After they ate they went to bed but were woken only a few hours later. They, along with everybody from the other hunts, were sent to the commander's office to sing papers saying they wanted to work, were criminals, and would serve 25 years of hard labor before they were set free. Everybody began to burst out crying and started to panic, but a lawyer was there and said that they should refuse to sign it. He said that the commander and the officers wouldn't kill them until winter because their help was too valuable. He told everybody to refuse to sign, but say they would sign it later so they could possibly sign before winter hit if they had to in order to stay alive. Disheartened and saddened, everybody refused to sign.