The Soul of the Unbroken

by Derrick Quick

  The Gestapo found out about Aldo and Hans working with the resistance and took them away. They must not have searched the house though because they did not find me. It was as if my whole world was just falling apart. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. My parents died, the love of my life was taken away, and now my brother was taken away too. I knew I couldn’t let them get too far with Hans because then he would disappear and never be seen again. If I was going to find him I needed to do something right away. I went down into our room, grabbed the gun that Hans hides in his bed and left the house.

  My first stop was at the home of a secret member of the resistance. He was a highly ranked German soldier, whose brother and Jewish wife were taken away to a labor camp for going against the Reich. He now hates Hitler and does everything he can to knock him from power. He is also our main source of intelligence, and he might know what happened to Hans and Aldo. When I got to his home he didn’t seem at all surprised to see me. He ushered me into his office and locked the door behind him. “I’m assuming you are here about your brother?” I just nodded. "Well lucky for you I know where he is. I got word from some friends the Gestapo rounded up the leaders of the resistance and were going to be taking them to a labor camp in Auschwitz first thing in the morning. They have already been questioned and probably beaten, and are now in a train car on the south side of town waiting to be taken to the camp.” I was saddened by the fact that Hans was probably beaten and tortured while being questioned, but at least I knew he was alive and he was still in town. I just needed to somehow rescue him before it was too late. Time was of the essence so I didn't wait for him to say anything else. I thanked him quickly and sprinted out the door to go rescue my brother.

  I zig zagged my way through town until I got to the very same train tracks we had blown up a railcar at just a couple nights prior. When I got near the train station I realized I had no idea what I was going to do, I was so worried about getting to Hans I never thought of how I was going to do it. There would be guards, the train would probably be locked, and I had no weapons or anything. I was going to have to be creative and attempt to rescue him anyway.

  I took a deep breath and decided just to see what I had to work with. I took a little survey of the area. There were two guards circling the train car, another one on the platform, and a few more in the station. The train car wasn’t as heavily guarded as I expected it to be. The soldiers must have gotten cocky, they figured they caught the leaders of the resistance so they didn’t need to worry about anything else happening. I was going to make them regret that line of thinking.

  Luckily the train tracks were right next to a forest so I was able to sneak up pretty close to the tracks. It was dark and hard to see, but I felt around on the ground until I found what I was looking for, a nice big rock. I still really didn’t know how I was going to pull this off, but at least if I got caught I would probably be thrown directly into that train car and along with Hans so I wouldn’t be alone. I waited for one of the guards circling the train cars to come around the backside of the train, that was along the forest. Then I took the rock I had found and threw it a few yards away from myself. It made a good amount of noise by shaking leaves, snapping branches, and plopping to the ground. The guard’s head snapped towards the noise. "What was that?" The other guard seemed way less concerned and was grinning at the fact that his friend got so scared by the noise. "I don't know, you had better go check it out."

  "But what if it's a wolf or something?"

  "Then shoot it, you big baby. You have a gun you know." The guard shook his head and moved towards the rock very cautiously. He walked about twenty feet into the trees, right by where I was and shined his flashlight around. I was hidden deep in some brush so he didn't see me. He was satisfied that there was nothing there and yelled to his friend that everything was fine.

  I picked up a nice sized branch, and when the guard spun around to return to his post I swung the branch as hard as I could. I felt the thump of it connecting with his face, vibrate through the branch and into my hands. He fell to the ground making a lot of noise in the process. I had to act fast before the other guard came looking to see what happened.

  I looked inside his pockets and found a set of keys I hoped would open the train car. Then I grabbed his gun as an extra precaution. The other guard realized his friend had been gone quite a long time, and called out to him. "Hey Dolf, you taking a leak in there? Or did that wolf get you after all?" When there was no response he headed towards the trees. "Dolf?"

  He pulled out his gun and pointed it into the woods. “Dolf was that you making all of that noise?” His hands were shaking and I could see he wasn't the tough guy he made himself out to be earlier. "D..D..Dolf you better not be joking with me. I will shoot you. Dolf!" Every step he took, he got a little bit shakier. When he reached the trees he stopped and shined his flashlight around. "Dolf please come out!"

  He still was not getting any response obviously, so then he shook his head, cursed to himself and stepped into the woods. He followed the path of broken branches and shrubs that his buddy made a few moments ago. Before I could come up with a better plan he came upon the body of Dolf. "What the…" I lunged forward and tackled him to the ground. We wrestled on the ground for a little bit and he got the advantage. He rolled me over onto my back and pinned me to the ground. He put both of his hands around my throat and started squeezing. I started to get light headed, and then things started to get fuzzy.

  He was panting with anger and was looking back and forth between his friend and I. "You shouldn't have come here, boy. Now you are going to die." Things were starting to go dark in my head and I really thought I was going to die. Just then I thought of my parents the last night I saw them, so happy and cheerful, and how I would never see them again. Then I thought of Eliza, and how I just knew she was my soulmate, but the Nazi jerks took her away.

  Last I thought of Hans, my brother that I thought hated me growing up, but turned out to be my best friend. Eliza was sitting in a labor camp somewhere and Hans was about to be on his way there also. They needed me and I couldn't give up.

  My arm was free so I started feeling for anything I could grab to use for a weapon. It was nothing but dirt. Just as I was starting to get a little panicked, my hand felt something miraculous. My hand curled around a nice sized rock, and I swung it right at his face. It connected with the side of the guard’s head and he crumpled to the ground completely unconscious. I took a few seconds to get some oxygen back to my brain, and slowly collected myself. I stood up and grabbed the two guns laying on the ground. I made my way back through the path Dolf and his friend created until I came to the end of the woods. I looked to the right, and then to the left, and didn’t see another human in sight. I ran to the side of the train car and did a quick peek around the corner and saw the guard on the platform muttering to himself about being out of cigarettes, and then he walked away. I finally caught a break.

  I sprinted to the train car door and started trying every key that was on the keyring to undo the lock that was keeping it closed. I was in such haste that I dropped the key ring onto the ground. Just then I also heard the puttering of footsteps walking towards the platform. I had to hurry. I quickly grabbed the keys off of the ground and started trying the keys again. I was luckier this time and found the right key on the second try. I popped it in and turned it and the big lock popped right open.

  The guard had made it back to the platform, and as he was lighting his cigarette he looked up and saw what was going on. "What the hell are you doing?" The guard started running at me and instinctively I pulled out the gun and pulled the trigger for only the second time in my life.

  The guard fell onto his face and lay unmoving. I was expecting to feel more sad like I was the first time I shot a guard, but after all of the things I had done since then I didn't have many feelings of sadness left, and I knew Hans needed me. I yanked open the door and a massive odor hit me like a wall. Inside was a mass of people, packed i
n on top of one another looking filthy and skinny. Instead of skin all I could see was dirt. Their faces were gaunt and their eyes looked lifeless.

  They all turned to me, scared of what was going to happen next. One of them glanced past me and noticed the dead guard and a big grin came across his face. “Did you do that?” I shook my head yes and then he shouted, "You saved us!" He jumped out of the train and hugged me. Soon the rest followed and started jumping out of the train one by one. Then they all took off into the night.

  I looked into the darkness of the train car and didn’t see the one person I came to rescue. Hans was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be? I heard a bit of a groan towards the back of it and thought I saw something move. As my eyes adjusted more to the dark I could tell instantly who it was. Hans! I jumped into the train and ran over to him. His face was purple and black. His mouth bloody, his eyes swollen shut. No no no, poor Hans was beaten half to death. “Hans are you okay?” He didn’t respond so I gently shook him to try and wake him up "Stay with me, Hans!” I could hear his breath wheezing slowly, and he tried to open his eyes but couldn’t. “Don’t you worry Hans, we are getting out over here" I slung him over my shoulder and went to make my escape. Hans was heavier than I thought, and each step was laborious, but I wasn't going to let Hans down. I struggled my way out of the train car and down onto the platform. I looked out and saw a group of soldiers chasing after the other prisoners that had just been freed from this train. I felt bad for them as they were sure to be caught considering how skinny and weak they already were, but they were just the distraction I needed to get away.

  I carried Hans around to the backside of the train and trudged into the woods hoping to disappear in the shadows. I was walking blindly through the woods, so I kept getting whipped in the face by branches, thorns were scraping my legs, and I almost tripped and fell a few times. Why hadn’t I taken the flashlight from the soldiers I knocked out earlier. That was awfully dumb of me. After a few hours of slowly making my way through the woods, I couldn't walk any longer so I laid Hans down as gently as I could, and then fell onto my back to relax for a moment, and drifted off into a nice sleep in a comfy pile of leaves.

  Soon I was woken by the sounds of hounds barking in the distance. Damnit! They would find us any minute. We needed to hurry and get the heck out of here! I went over to Hans and started picking him up. "W..what's going on?"

  "We are getting out of here is what's going on."

  "Eloy?"

  "Yes, I came last night and got you, now stop asking questions, we are being chased down by Nazis and I do not want to end up like you, or worse." Hans was a little more up to par this morning and ended up being able to speed walk fairly well as long as I had his arm around my shoulder so he could lean on me. We limped and hobbled along like a three-legged gorilla until we were too tired to go any further. The hounds and hollers of Nazis were still in the distance but they were getting closer. I knew we wouldn’t be able to outrun them so we needed a place to hide. Seemingly out of nowhere, I saw a small cabin hidden very discreetly in between a group of trees. Hans and hobbled up to it, then I set Hans down, and peered through the windows. There were cobwebs everywhere and it seemed as if nobody had been inside of it for many years. I tried the door and it opened. I pulled Hans inside. The cabin was very small. When you first enter there was a bed to the right and a small table at the foot of it with one chair. Straight ahead was a small fireplace, and to the left was a little shelf and some pots and pans. Lay down on the bed to test it out. “Not too bad for a pile of old straw.” I thought that this cabin may just save us. "We will stay here for a while. I will camouflage it some more and we should be fine." I went outside to further hide our new found home and leaned some branches against the cabin. Then I walked a few yards away and looked back at it to see how well it was hidden. You could hardly tell the cabin was there even when I knew it was there and was looking for it. We would be fine to stay there. I went back inside to get a better idea of what we had to work with. When I got in I checked the cupboards and there were a few jars of vegetables, and some spiders, but not much of anything else. At least we may have some food if the canned food was still good. I opened a jar and gave it to Hans who instantly slurped the contents down. I was disgusted at first. He didn’t even wait to smell it or taste test it. "You may have wanted to eat that a bit slower in case it was rotten or something."

  Hans tried to smile, but winced with pain. "It tasted okay to me. Besides the faster you eat it, the less you taste it." I just shook my head. I let Hans relax, but I couldn’t sit still so I got to work clearing all of the cobwebs from the room. Then I picked up the rug that was in the center of the floor and took it outside to shake off the dust. As I opened the door to the cabin I noticed some light getting through the floor where the rug was. I thought that there had to be something down there. If it were dirt there wouldn’t be light rays getting through like that.

  I went and examined the spot and there was a barely noticeable hatch there. I lifted the hatch and there was a ladder right there. I could not see very far down, so the only thing left to do was to go down the ladder and see what was there. When I got to the bottom I waited for my eyes to adjust, and then grabbed a kerosene lantern that was sitting at the bottom of the ladder. I had matches because there were some in the cupboards upstairs, so I used one to light the lantern. It illuminated a space the size of the cabin itself. Along two of the four walls, were shelves that had tons of canned vegetables and things all stored down there. On the other wall behind the ladder was a small bed. I didn’t know who made this cabin or why they put a bed in the little basement of it, but I was giving them high praise at that moment. This place was perfect! It had almost been designed to hide from people. I went back up and got Hans. and helped him down to the cellar, so he could see it because he is always so curious. We decided it was best he stay down there anyway because if the soldiers came, he wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to get down there and hide. This way I just had to jump down there and shut the hatch behind me. After he was nice and comfortable down there I decided to get a fire started. It was going to be dark soon so the smoke wouldn’t be easily seen, and we could block the light of the fire with brush on the outside. I went outside into the woods and rounded up as many small sticks and logs I could find. Then I went back inside and started a fire with the matches. After the fire was going for a good amount of time and it was nice and hot I heated up some food for myself, and Hans. We ate in silence, happy to have a nice warm meal in the safety of our new little cabin. Then I moved the bed that was upstairs, down to the cellar so if anyone came during the night, Hans and I would both be hidden. I put out the fire, and then Hans and I went to sleep.

  Chapter 7

  1941

  Life in the cabin is extremely boring. It is so small and cramped, Hans and I fight a lot. We have been in the cabin for months and it is now in the dead of winter, meaning we cannot travel, and we are stuck in the cabin until spring arrives, allowing us to find a new place to go. Our days in the cabin do not involve much, and we are starting to go crazy being stuck in the same place. It usually starts out at sunrise. We get up and eat some vegetables that were stored in the basement. Then we go out and gather more sticks for the fire. After we get the sticks for the fire, we go out again and try to hunt for any creature we can see.

  Hans and I have never had to hunt before, so we are very far from being experts at it. This usually means that we go without any meat to eat, so we are stuck getting full off of the canned vegetables that are dwindling more and more each day. Hans and I have each caught a rabbit so there were a couple of nights we ate good, but those were lucky breaks and I’m not sure we will get another one. When we are done hunting we go back to the cabin and sit by the fire, eat again, and then go to sleep. It's not very exciting, and I don't know how much longer I can take it. Hans said we should just stay here and wait out the war, but I don't think that is a good idea. Who knows how long the war could last. We
could run out of food and water, or just die of boredom. Also, with the amount of smoke our cabin produces, it’s a wonder we haven’t been noticed yet, and it is only a matter of time before some soldiers come marching up here to see what is going on. Besides that, I still want to help beat the Nazi jerks that took away Eliza and have been ruining my life since they took over.

  I was starting to think the real reason Hans didn’t want to leave the cabin was because he was afraid. Before he was always the first one to jump at any opportunity for action, and he was ready for any fight. Since he was caught and beaten half to death though, he has changed in a major way. He was more on edge and fearful of being caught again. He won’t even wander that far from the cabin. I think leaving the cabin for good will be really beneficial for him, and it would allow him to get his brain back to normal, and over his fears. I decided I could not wait any longer. "Hans we have to do something! We have been here for months, who knows what could have happened since we left! We haven’t heard any news about the war, for all we know it could be over!"

  He didn't even raise his head to look at me."I just think we are better off here. We are safe, we have food, we have water. There is no reason for us to go out there and get caught."

  "Who says we are going to get caught! We have done plenty of things before. I grenaded an officer's warehouse, I shot multiple guards, I broke you out of the train car. We have done too much to give up now." Hans looked up at me finally, and I saw life in them for the first time since we got to the cabin. "Yea and you almost died Eloy! Then I was caught, and beaten, and treated like scum! We can't be so risky, I will not see you die, or go through what I did!"