The Last Valley Page #5

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It has been agreed long enough, Andreas?

I want to marry Inge, yes.

But not until she's ready.

When will that be?

In the spring, perhaps.

When in the spring?

Is the food ready yet?

I'll think of a lucky day.

I'm hungry.

That looks good.

There's no need to patrol now, Captain.

We're locked in for the winter.

Habits die hard.

You'll eat with me tonight,

to celebrate the birth of our Lord?

Thank you, and afterwards...

I will let you win at chess.

You'll always play to win.

And so will you, Gruber.

- Andreas, patrol ahead.

- Yes, Captain.

Your new life suits you.

Thank you.

This was always the time we liked the best,

wasn't it?

When we're all safe from outside evil.

Yes.

The snows have come, Erica.

I won't help you.

Have I asked you to help me?

Please, let there be peace in the valley.

How can there be peace?

We're a conquered people,

we live at their whim.

Don't we always live at someone's whim,

all of us?

This is the best time of the year.

Yes, it is.

But tomorrow the New Year begins...

soon the thaw will come...

and then...

Join the dance.

Welcome, Mathias. What news?

It's been a terrible winter, Master Gruber.

Worst I've ever seen.

There isn't a farm or village...

within 50 days' march

that hasn't been looted and raped.

I heard in Freiburg

many have turned cannibal.

When I came up the pass,

I wondered if you'd still be here.

Our Lady has protected us.

It's a miracle, yes.

I brought you almost 10 pounds of rock salt.

The best quality, very expensive,

very hard to get.

So is our bacon and pickled beef.

What news of the war?

Which side did you serve, Captain?

That's unimportant. The truth.

It's not often

a man wants the truth nowadays.

Very well, the truth.

The news is all bad, but nearby it's worse.

The lmperialists under General Werth...

are on the north of the Rhine, here.

The Protestants

under Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar...

are to the south, here.

We're about here.

If Bernard's got to get

the French subsidies...

as promised by Cardinal Richelieu...

he must cross the Rhine, and quickly.

His troops are starving,

and no pay all winter.

The Prince told you all this personally?

What I hear, I sift.

What I say will happen, happens.

He will cross at this bridge.

The bridge is at Rheinfelden.

I speak frankly, and Bernard is on the move.

I was at his camp.

Then history has caught up with us.

Our neutrality is over.

God and the serpent have joined hands...

and we are all kicked out of Eden.

We are hidden as we've always been.

Nothing's changed.

You will defend the village?

It has never been my policy

to defend the village.

Only myself.

We will join Prince Bernard.

Help him cross the bridge.

Why join the enemy?

You fought for the Emperor,

you fought a just war.

You dare to speak to me

of enemies and just war?

There is no just war.

You know it, everyone knows it.

The truth is your leaders are bigots...

your generals are bandits...

you employ any mercenary you can get,

and the Pope plays politics.

The truth is

your war is filth, greed, and hypocrisy.

And the other side is just as rotten.

I will tell you.

All sides are rotten,

except for people like you.

Religious fanatics who incite murder...

for the sake of a God

they have never known.

The world is, as it is, a fallen world.

Men are what they are, sinners.

And your mind is sick.

It will lead you straight to hell.

There is no hell, don't you understand?

Because there is no God.

There never was, don't you understand?

There is no God.

It's a legend!

Vogel, is it true what they say?

That there may be fighting here?

There won't be trouble here.

The valley will be safe.

Are you going with the soldiers?

I'm leaving the valley, yes.

Take me with you.

I couldn't protect you.

You'd be brutally dead within the week.

Then stay in the valley.

By the Madonna, if you'll stay,

I swear I'll stay happily forever.

You could work for my father.

I'll talk to him, I'll talk to Gruber.

Gruber will have my head

the moment the Captain's gone.

Then take me with you.

I love you.

I can't live in the valley without you.

I love you.

Please take me with you.

My poor Inge.

They tore the heart out of me

before you were born.

Marry Andreas, he's a good man.

Stay in the valley.

Please, I love you.

You must stay here.

That's all the chance you have.

You will take me with you?

It's better that you stay here.

I'm dead here.

There are tens of thousands of families

with every army.

In the camps, or on the march.

Even at battles.

Please.

The outside world is no place for you.

I'll be no trouble to you.

I'll look after you, forage for you,

I'll kill for you. Anything.

And all the time, I'll love you

as no man has ever been loved before.

This, you know I can do.

Please.

I love you, but I cannot take you with me.

I am what I am:
A killer beast.

I was born in war.

I have no country, no friends, no people.

War is all the wealth I have.

Then share a little of your wealth with me.

No.

Don't sack the village.

Will you never learn?

It is not necessary.

Very well, but you will stay

as part of the bargain.

I'll give you Pirelli, Geddes,

and some weapons...

and you will be in command until I return.

No.

Gruber would eat me up.

If you want a safe place to retreat to,

leave Graf and 10 men.

- No, I need Graf.

- Why don't you stay?

You've all the time in the world.

What's so important about one rotten battle

in an unjust war?

It exists, Vogel.

Why should I let Gruber murder me?

You cannot run away from life forever.

You cannot always

pass the responsibility of it on to others.

Refuse, and I will obliterate this village.

Gruber works to policy.

I'm no value to Gruber.

Then become one!

And watch over Erica.

Why not take her with you?

She'd be safe with you.

No one is safe with me, Vogel.

My wife wasn't, nor my child.

No one is safe with me.

Kill the priest.

Quickly, he is the real danger.

Have you no solution to anything but kill?

Is your answer better?

Run?

Papa!

- Good luck to you, Czeraki.

- Goodbye, Pirelli.

Good luck, Graf.

I have left soldiers with Vogel.

He will look after you.

Why not come back?

I have considered it.

I'll pray for you.

Gruber won't harm you.

I know him.

I leave Vogel in charge until I return.

Mount!

You're not a fool, Vogel.

You'll understand

we don't really need a judge anymore.

Yes, I understand very well.

So we don't really need you here at all.

Or any soldiers.

Food is short.

You could make this valley

safe from any soldiers if you wanted to.

How?

By becoming soldiers yourselves.

Every man in the valley.

Geddes and Pirelli could teach them.

Your brain's become addled.

You know the Captain, Graf,

the other soldiers.

You've lived in their pockets

for weeks, so you know all their tricks.

- We haven't the weapons.

- Buy them.

You create food, therefore wealth.

You're a dreamer.

Our old ways are proven,

they've kept us safe.

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