Long before they could see them, the Apollantean refugees that were hiding near the Flemish border could hear them. The halftracks that the Seax Guard used to hunt them down, even in the most remote parts of the kingdom with their roaring Diesel engines.
"Mom, what is that noise I'm hearing?", a daughter asked her mother. The mother pulled her daughter by the arm and pushed her into the undergrowth of the forest. "Stay still, make no sound until the Saxons are gone!" The daughter did as her mother had told her, as she had heard the stories of Saxons capturing complete villages and selling the inhabitants as slaves to the Batavians. Unfortunately her efforts were of no avail.
Captain Radboud von Appeler rode with his troops into the village. Like with so many raids before, the Apollanteans were hiding in the forest. The undergrowth was thick and there was no way they could find all the Apollanteans before nightfall. "Soak the forest with petrol!" he ordered to his soldiers, then he grabbed a megaphone:
"Submit now and we will spare your lives, or submit later, to the flames!" he shouted. Hundreds of Apollanteans emerged from the bushes and were pushed into trucks that were waiting to transport them to the west, where they would be put on the trains to Batavia.
The young daughter asked her mother: "What will the Batavians do with us mom?" but her mother said nothing. She didn't know, had only heard rumors that she did not wish to share with her daughter.