by Pliss, Todd
Wayne looked at the sun rising and determined that they were headed north. All he was able to see through the sparkling steel bars on the back doors of the transport vehicle was the lonely two-lane road that they drove on and an occasional tree. Wayne wedged his way next to Linda, who was chained to a different group than he was. The prisoners had been told to remain silent, but Wayne nevertheless whispered in Linda’s ear, “I’m glad you’re here. Will you help me?”
Linda nodded, “I don’t want to miss out on whatever it is that you’re up to.”
“Believe me,” Wayne said. “I’m only doing what I have to. You may be putting yourself in danger. I have to get a hold of something and nothing’s going to stop me.”
“I don’t care.”
A prisoner, a sickly looking bald man who was part of Wayne’s chained together group, put his skinny finger to his lips and made a shush sound.
“Go to hell,” Wayne retorted. The wings of the butterflies in his gut fluttered more persistently as the trip wore on. In his mind, he let fifty different scenarios play out about how he would get to his prized crystals and what would happen when he did. All too often, they ended with a bullet being pumped into his body.
The Oberkoblenz Military Installation had been built in 1953 as a site to train and house army personnel. It had been one of many new bases built post-war in the newly acquired territories. Though Germany had won the War, it was still deemed necessary, by the Reich Department of Defense, that the German people have a massive military force behind them at all times.
Located amid the lush gentle rolling hills of what had been upstate New York, Oberkoblenz was a small city unto itself. Lofty steel reinforced fences proudly encircled the massive community of soldiers’ barracks, airplane hangers, defense research facilities, and training fields. Catwalks, evenly spaced out every two hundred yards, lined the enclosure of the compound. On them, machine-gunned armed Nazis prowled like wild cats, always keeping a watchful eye out for prey. At the main entrance gate, a small sign read: TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
The jeep towing its cargo of human guinea pigs halted at the base entrance. The guard stepped out of the checkpoint booth and reviewed the driver’s pass.
“Should I wait around?” the driver asked.
“No need to.” The guard entered a four-digit code into the computer in his booth, causing the main gate to slowly open.
“Good,” the driver stated.
As the jeep accelerated down the main camp road, Wayne could tell from his limited frame of view that he was indeed on a military base. He had once, as a young boy, visited an uncle who was a doctor stationed on an army base in North Carolina, and the sterile surroundings had looked almost identical to what he was able to see through the rear of the transport vehicle.
“This is it. This is really it,” Wayne mumbled to no one in particular. Wayne and the other prisoners were violently jerked forward when the transport van stopped short at its destination.
Less than a minute later, the back doors of the transport vehicle were unlocked and swung open by armed Nazi military guards. “Out,” one of them barked at the prisoners.
The prisoners debarked the vehicle and were unlocked from their shackles by the driver.
Wayne inquisitively surveyed his new surroundings. He was impressed by the magnitude of the building that lay before him. It appeared to be even more massive than the munitions plant he had been working in. It stood at least twenty stories high, towering above any of the other base dwellings in its vicinity and appeared large enough that it would be able to hold five football fields laying side by side, with room to spare. Wayne had a strong hunch that the building that stood before him was the main research and development center at Oberkoblenz and that the Gadolinium crystals were to be found somewhere inside. Under escort of two armed guards, the small group of prisoners was led into the huge structure.
Wayne gazed around the interior of the building and saw that it consisted of a vast open area in the center of it with the many floor hallways above circling the never-ending building floor, as if it was designed to be a fancy hotel giving the guests a birds-eye view of the lobby. Only instead it was one of the numerous locations where the Reich perfected their weapons of destruction. Weapons that would better maim and kill human beings. Wayne noticed what appeared to be, perched on the ground in the spacious center of the bottom floor, what seemed to be a stupendous weapon of some sort. Maybe a bomb, he thought. It looked to him as if it was in the process of being loaded onto a bomber aircraft, which took up a large amount of space next to it. Wayne was able to clearly make out the red swastika emblem on the airplane’s fuselage. A small army of men worked around the bomber and plane.
The prisoners were, at a hasty pace, led up a stairway. A prisoner, the same bald man who had signaled Wayne to stop talking during the uncomfortable ride, stumbled.
“Get the fuck up,” one of the Nazi escorts demanded and pulled the man up by his shirt.
Wayne and the other research prisoners were walked up four flights of steps and then through a door that led out to a long corridor.
As the six male and six female inmates were led down the passageway, Wayne turned his head to the right to get an expansive look at the great deal of activity taking place below him on the floor of the building. The barrel of a pistol was quickly staring him in the face. “Did I give you permission to put your eyes anywhere else except on the swine in front of you?” one of the Nazi escorts coldly asked him. Wayne, without hesitation, fixed his gaze directly in front of him.
Coming to a door with ominous words on the glass pane that read: “BENZIN PRUFUNG” (gas testing), the prisoners were shoved through the entrance into a room.
Wayne, out of the corner of his eye, glanced around at his new environment. He stood in a small room containing only a cage, table, and nothing else.
Two middle-aged scientists entered from the testing area. Their security passes shone brightly against their white coats as the man flipped through his clipboard.
The woman adjusted her glasses as she said sternly, “Hm. They sent twelve this time.” She gestured to the first six she saw, “These six.”
One of the Nazi escorts opened the cage door and ordered, “Those not chosen, get in here.”
Wayne and Linda breathed a sigh of relief as they were shoved into the cage and the door locked behind them.
“Rest of you swine, through that door,” he ordered the chosen subjects, pointing his gun, as if it was an extension of his hand, at the side doorway.
“I’m heading back to my post,” the second Nazi escort informed his colleague and exited by the front entrance.
The six chosen prisoners, four women and two men, including the thin bald man, followed the scientists through the side doorway to the testing area.
Inside of the main testing area, a viewing glass-partition separated the large research room into two distinct parts. One half accommodated the researchers’ control table. It was scattered with scientific journals and half empty Styrofoam cups of coffee on it, as well as a large assortment of knobs and dials - tools that helped the researchers carry out their unique, gruesome experiments for the Reich War Ministry. The second half, located behind the partition, was a control room that sported air ducts that had been especially built into the ceiling. In the control room, six white chairs, matching the color of the painted walls and floor, had been arranged in a circle.
The male scientist picked up a cup and sipped some lukewarm coffee. “Have them go into the control room,” he told the Nazi guard.
The Nazi guard stood at the entrance to the cleanroom and yelled, “Get in, you rats.”
The research subjects hurried into the white room.
“Sit down!” Once the prisoners rapidly complied, the guard exited the room, slamming and bolting shut the heavy door behind him.
The scientists sat comfortably in their well-cushioned chairs behind the control board.
“Since we
are using human subjects this time instead of animals,” the scientist said, “set the dose at a liquid concentration of thirty-five percent.” He grabbed the stopwatch from the table in front of him.
The other scientist turned a small control knob. She optimistically said, “Keep your fingers crossed.”
Yellow gas begun to stream out of the air ducts above the prisoners.
The male scientist peeked at his ticking stopwatch and stolidly said, “Ten seconds.”
The gas became thicker, meticulously probing every square inch of the sealed room. Three of the subjects, heavily inhaling the toxic fumes, coughed frantically and then collapsed, unconscious. The thin, bald man tried to hold his breath. He could not hold it for very long and quickly passed out. Two women screamed silently in the soundproof room as the gas took over completely. The Nazi guard grinned as he watched them fall to the ground, lifeless.
“Twenty seconds,” the female scientist methodically wrote down a note in her journal.
“All movement has ceased,” the male scientist said without emotion. He clicked the button on the timepiece he held, discontinuing its monotonous ticking. “Twenty-eight seconds.”
The female researcher scientifically recorded the time.
The male researcher pushed a button on the control table and said, “Degassing.”
The scientists got up from their throne. They each slipped on a pair of latex gloves. The female scientist unlocked the control room door. The Nazi guard peeked at the results of the experiment.
The skin on the dead corpses of the control subjects was badly burned, like the skin of whole chickens that had been roasting too long over a scorching barbecue. The tiny amount of unburned epidermis had an odd, greyish tint to it. Three bodies were sprawled out on the floor while the other three sat in the white chairs with their heads slumped over. Their eyes had melted away.
“Splendid,” the female scientist said gladly. “The effects of an atomic weapon achieved with gas. Not only are the subjects blinded, but in a burned and decomposed state as well.”
“Think what this means, Gilda. Since it would be logistically not practical and inefficient to bomb each small village and town of our enemy,” the male scientist said, working himself into a tizzy, “this gas can be used as an alternative with virtually the same wonderful results. Gilda, this could mean the Iron Cross for us. Our research has been a success!”
“Yes,” Gilda nodded her head in agreement. “I think the Reich War Ministry and Defense Department will be pleased with our work.”
“Let’s do one more test before we announce our findings - this time with a forty-percent concentration. That should considerably speed up the procedure.”
She turned to the guard, “Get a clean up crew in here.”
In the holding cell, Wayne paced back and forth, while everyone else sat on the floor. An hour had passed since he and the five prisoners in his control group had been locked away. Beads of sweat ran down his chest as his intuition forewarned him of an impending danger. He thought about what he should do or should have done. He kicked himself for not taking advantage of the opportunity he had had when his group of prisoners was being placed in the waiting cell. Why didn’t he just overpower the two guards? He could have locked them up, and gone searching for the crystals. He could rely on Linda, but could he count on the others to go along with him? Highly doubtful. He sighed heavily.
The Nazi guard, gripping his gun tightly, approached the cell. He unlocked the cell door and ordered, “Out.”
Wayne again felt the urge to take action bubble up inside of him. He recollected, for a split second, having the same apprehensive, paralysis the first time he had tried, as a kid, to jump off of the high diving board at the local community park pool. He had stood on the springy platform and looked down at the bluish chlorinated water below him. It had seemed to be such a huge distance away. Wayne remembered how all of the other kids in the park had laughed at him and ridiculed him when he had turned and climbed down the ladder from the high dive stand. He had been on the verge of taking that great leap on that long ago, hot summer day, but fear had kept him from going through with it, and he had regretted his inability to act every day for the rest of that summer. Faced with an imperative decision - a life of death decision - Wayne again felt the paralysis of fear.
The guard directed the research subjects to seat themselves on the white chairs, which had once more been arranged into a neat circle. The thick entrance door was shut and locked.
Linda sat in the chair beside Wayne. “What’s going to happen to us?” she nervously asked.
“I don’t know,” Wayne returned, “but I think I know how a lab rat feels now.”
The scientists, sitting at their throne in front of the viewing glass, prepared for the test. The male researcher took a swig of freshly brewed coffee and said, “Set the concentration for forty percent.”
Gilda turned a knob on the control table.
“Begin the procedure,” he said.
She pushed a green button on the control board, “Here we go.”
Holding the stopwatch in his hand, the male scientist clicked it on.
In the human populated control space, yellow gas crept out from between the cracks of the two ventilation ducts, quickly filling up the diminutive room.
The male scientist peeked at the ticking stopwatch. “Five seconds.”
The subjects in the control room began coughing and gasping for oxygen.
“Ten seconds,” the male researcher announced.
Gilda scribbled in her journal. “The process is moving along more expeditiously at the forty percent concentration,” she noted.
Amused, the guard stood at the rear of the testing area, carefully watching the experiment proceed.
The moans inside of the locked control area grew louder. The gasps for air more strained. Wayne’s eyes burned and blisters developed on his skin.
“What the fuck?” he let out, his New York accent more pronounced than ever.
“Fifteen seconds,” the male scientist informed his partner in scientific research for the Reich War Ministry.
Choking, Wayne realized what was happening. He had enough knowledge to know that he would be dead shortly if he continued breathing in the chemical gas. He had to do something – fast. He had to take the dive.
Wayne scanned the site, his eyes burning. Three people had already lost consciousness. There was only one option for him to take. His adrenalin pumping, he seized a hold of the chair he had been sitting on, screamed, and smashed the chair through the one-way mirror. Glass shattered and flew in all directions. Yellow gas escaped from the confinement of the control site and slithered into the scientists’ testing area, smoking up the room. The researchers and the Nazi guard immediately began coughing; their eyes teared up. Wayne jumped through the destroyed partition.
The male researcher placed a handkerchief over his nostrils and mouth as the gas became denser. “Kill them,” he yelled at the Nazi guard.
Aiming his pistol at Wayne, the Nazi guard, his vision blurred by the poisonous vapor, fired and missed. He cocked his gun again. “You will die,” he said and stepped closer.
Wayne snatched one of the researcher’s snug chairs and held it in front of his body like a shield. He was twice again fired upon. One bullet hit the chair and another the wall behind him. Wayne, the gas causing him to still breathe heavily, threw the weighty chair at the armed Nazi. His opponent fell to the floor, dropping his gun.
The female scientist picked up a phone.
“Stop her,” Wayne screamed to Linda as she crawled out of the gas-filled room.
Linda sprung at the woman in the white lab coat and knocked the phone out of her hand and stomped on it.
The guard tried to reach for his gun, but Wayne was faster. He launched the chair at the guard’s head. There was a loud thunk, but Wayne needed to be sure. He picked up the chair again and brought it down even harder cracking the guard’s skull. Wayne grabbed the gun a
nd aimed it at the scientists. The mustard colored gas was dissipating.
“Are you alright?” Wayne asked Linda.
Breathing hard, Linda answered, “I’ll make it.”
“We are doing important work that will greatly benefit the Reich,” the female scientist said proudly.
The male researcher added, with stoicism, “What happens to your kind does not interest us in the least. The important thing is that the Reich...”
“Your Reich can rot in hell!” Linda angrily cut him off.
“Quick, off with your clothes,” Wayne ordered the two researchers.
The scientists stayed motionless, as if not hearing the command.
Linda said, harshly, “Now. Strip. Maybe we won’t shoot you.”
“No need to worry, Gilda,” the male scientist bravely said, “They won’t kill us.”
“Oh, believe me, you sadistic jerk-off, I am very capable of pulling this trigger and blowing your well-educated brains all over this fuckin’ dump.” Wayne said agitatedly. He put the gun’s cylinder up to the male scientist’s temple. The scientists tugged their clothing off quickly and handed it over.
Wayne kept a lookout as Linda got dressed and she did the same for him.
“C’mon, move it.” Wayne said. He led the nearly naked researchers into the room with the cage. “In the cell. Hurry up.”
The scientists reluctantly obeyed.
Wayne handed the firearm to Linda and said, “Keep an eye on them. Be back in a sec.” He trotted off into the testing area.
“I should kill you two for what you did,” Linda informed the scientists.
Dragging the passed out Nazi guard by his feet, Wayne re-entered the holding cell and deposited the limp body inside of the cell next to the researchers. Wayne bent down and lifted the cell key, which he had previously seen the guard put in his pocket. Wayne locked the cell door.