A Novel in Development – Inspired by Actual Events

In the Ashes

Mercy was the most dangerous mission

LOGLINE:

In the final 24 hours of World War II, a squad of battle-weary American soldiers accidentally kills a Jewish prisoner while clearing a concentration camp. They launch a desperate race against time to find and save his wife before the SS can execute her, while confronting the horrors around them and the moral darkness the war has left within.

Manuscript available for review by interested publishing partners. Contact Zac Northup at: officialzacnorthup@zacnorthup.com

Sneak Peek: Chapter One

Eddie Yoho was afraid the sound of his breathing would get them killed. It echoed off the cold concrete floors and brick walls as he approached the next corner. He calmed himself and focused on what he needed to do to survive another day.

The conical lights hanging from the high ceiling were still on. A dead SS guard was on the floor next to his feet. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Wilkins and Sergeant Smet were still behind him. Smet nodded him forward. Eddie pursed his lips and pulled the butt of his rifle into his shoulder. He took three short breaths and rounded the corner.

Read Chapter One

Synopsis

The Story: While clearing buildings in a newly liberated subcamp of Flossenbürg, Eddie’s squad engages a group of SS guards in one of the camp’s administrative outbuildings. In the chaos of the firefight, they accidentally kill several prisoners — including David Levy, a Lagerschreiber (camp clerk). As Levy lies dying from wounds, he begs them to find his wife, Elise, who was taken to the nearby women’s subcamp at Zwodau.

Rising Action & Stakes: Over the course of a single, brutal day, Eddie and his squad venture deeper into the collapsing, partially liberated camp in search of Elise. They face fanatical SS holdouts, desperate and starving prisoners, and the horrific evidence of what was done in the final hours of the war. As the day wears on, the men are forced to confront not only external dangers but also the growing realization that they may have already become the kind of men they once feared. Finding Elise becomes more than a rescue mission — it becomes a desperate attempt to reclaim some part of their humanity before the war ends and they are forced to return home as changed men.

Protagonist

A small group of battle-hardened American infantrymen — serves as the collective ensemble protagonist of the story.

At the center of the group is Private Eddie Yoho, 31, a quiet, tobacco-chewing rifleman from rural West Virginia. The oldest man in the platoon, he is often called “Old Man” by the others. Like so many who have endured months of brutal combat, Eddie has been deeply changed by the war. He is a steady, reliable soldier who looks out for his friends, but he no longer recognizes the man he has become and has lost hope that he can ever return to the person he was before the war. His only remaining desire is to survive long enough to make it home to his wife and newborn daughter.

Alongside Eddie are the other members of the squad — ordinary men worn down by sustained combat since Normandy. Each carries his own exhaustion, anger, fears, and fractured sense of morality. As they move through the horrors of the concentration camp and become entangled in the search for Elise, the squad functions as a single, conflicted organism — their individual personalities, disagreements, small acts of humanity, and moments of moral compromise driving the story forward together.