by Manny Aujla
Ralf aims a rifle carefully towards the ground. He squeezes the trigger. The gunshot startles Miles and he races towards cover. He notices an open doorway to a hut with faint candle-light flickering on the walls. He scrambles inside. This is no dream, he thinks.
Ralf smiles and strikes a match. He ignites the cigarette in his mouth. A man runs towards the watchtower. It’s his older brother, Erich.
“What happened?” he yells up at Ralf.
“Just saw a rabbit. Almost got it,” he replies. Erich shakes his head, disappointingly.
“Don’t waste bullets. You’re going to need them,” he scolds. Even though they are only a couple years apart, Erich feels like he has to babysit his little brother. Ralf exhales smoke to the sky. Across from the watchtower, an industrial chimney spews out thick black smoke to the same sky.
There wasn’t a rabbit. Ralf didn’t feel like telling his brother the truth. He doesn’t believe in ghosts but thinks he might have seen one appear and disappear as soon as he fired his gun. He stares at the only hut with light coming from inside. I need more sleep, Ralf thinks to himself.
Miles stands in silence. The hut is occupied by no less than a dozen ragged men sleeping on an uncomfortable platform. One man sits on the floor against the wall. He quietly writes notes on scraps of paper. His name is Radek. He is in his early forties but looks much older. A man on the bed stirs awake. His name is Jan. He just turned a quarter century old, but his birthday wasn’t a pleasant one. Any day spent in this place is anything but pleasant.
Miles is glad that no one notices him standing there. He crouches down and sits against the wall. Radek continues to write, unaware. Jan walks over to the window.
“Do you ever sleep?” Jan asks while he gazes out the window. Radek pauses briefly. He ignores Jan and continues to write.
Miles thinks that they are homeless people in a shelter. But that thought is erased because there’s an armed guard in a watchtower outside. He believes this is a prison. And he is stuck here just like these men. But Miles doesn’t know how or why. He is afraid to communicate with them.
“You should get some sleep. You need to be well rested for the day ahead,” warns Jan. Radek stops writing.
“I have to write down what I can remember,” Radek replies sternly.
“You are not a scientist anymore. You’re one of us. And if you don’t start getting rest, you’ll be one of them,” says Jan as he points to the direction of the chimney.
I’ll always be a scientist, Radek tells himself. They have had this conversation before. Radek has been growing weaker and Jan noticed. He looks up to Radek like a father. They have stuck together for months now trying to survive this place. Jan feels that Radek is foolish to hang onto his past life. But that life is the only thing that keeps Radek going.
Miles wants to talk to the scientist. He feels that he can trust him and can get some answers, even though no answer will be of any comfort. Miles just wants one thing. He wants to go back home and back to Lily. But since Miles doesn’t know how he got here, he has no idea how to return.
A man starts to mumble in his sleep. He snaps awake from a nightmare and screams. He realizes where he is and it is a much worse place than in his dream. He stampedes past Miles and through the doorway.
Miles peers outside and sees the hysterical man bolt towards fence. The fence silences the man. It’s an electric fence. Miles shakes his head in disbelief. I don’t want to know where I am, Miles fearfully thinks.
CHAPTER 4
The sound of a gunshot awakens Miles from his seated position on the floor, against the wall. He looks outside from his spot. The sun is hidden above the grey blanket in the sky.
Miles realizes it is morning and he is still not back at the lab. He would rather be anywhere but wherever here is. A group of prisoners walk by the hut. They look malnourished and frail. They all hang their heads as they march along except for one man. This man holds his head high and his chest puffed out. He isn’t the tallest of the group, but walks the tallest.
“Do not hang your heads,” he expresses to the group. “It does you no good. Be brave.” The men listen to him and raise their heads, slightly.
Jan awakens from the bed. He scrambles to exit the hut and joins the group outside. He doesn’t acknowledge Miles.
A large beefy man in a uniform, Sven, notices the tardy prisoner. His hand moves towards his pistol holster at his hip. A gold chain around Jan’s neck distracts Sven from his anger.
Sven points to the chain. “Hand it over and I will forget your foolish error,” insists Sven.
Jan clutches his chain. He refuses to hand it over. It is all he has in the world. It is very important to him.
Sven tries to ask nicely this time and offers an extra ration of soup to Jan. But it’s to no avail. Jan will not part with the chain.
Sven angrily snatches the chain and Jan grasps it tightly with both hands. Sven gets violent and knocks Jan down with a horsewhip. He strips him of the gold chain and pockets it. It dangles loose from his pocket. He swears at Jan and kicks him. The chain falls from his pocket to the muddy ground as Sven storms off.
Jan is face down in the mud, in tears. He looks up and sees hope. He crawls forward and conceals the chain in his balled fist. He stumbles towards the group. Radek is there. They say nothing to each another and continue their march.
Miles watches the group leave from the hut. He glances around and sees no one in the area. The coast is clear and Miles darts from the hut. It occurs to him that his assistant, Jai, must be responsible for what happened to him. The last thing he remembers is turning on his iPod. The same iPod that was in Jai’s hands earlier.
Miles sprints across the grounds as fast as he can and leaps behind a crate. He awaits the sound of gunshots and fears that he was seen. He peeks out from behind the crate. There’s a line of four people outside the door of an old building. The building is dark and thick black smoke spews from its chimney.
Miles inspects the people. The line consists of two elderly men, a middle-aged lady, and a small girl in a dirty red coat. A man dressed like a guard pushes the three adults inside. The girl stands alone and looks towards the crate. Miles stares back at her. She smiles slightly and walks towards Miles. She stops after a few steps and bends down to pick up a flower. It has a new home in her pocket.
The door opens and Miles ducks his head. The guard returns and grabs the girl and thrusts her inside the building. The guard glances towards the crate where Miles hides behind.
The guard turns and walks away from the building. Miles peeks out from behind the crate and sees a rifle on the right arm of the guard and something red on the left arm. Miles understands where he is now. He knows who the guard is and what he represents. He also knows the little girl is in danger.
Miles looks up at the smoke in the sky. He explodes from behind the crate and races inside the building.
The small girl stands quietly. She takes the flower out of her pocket and smells it. Another guard grabs her arm and the flower falls from her tiny hand. She turns her head towards the open door, the light from the outside world. Miles appears from the light and races towards her.
He drops to his knees and slides towards the little girl. He reaches out to grab her. She stands there and does not flinch. Miles slides right through her. He spins around and stares back at her in shock. The guard takes her towards the furnace.
Miles can’t breathe. He looks at his hands. There is no bandage or any sign of trauma from punching a mirror. The guard walks past Miles and the flower crushes under his boot. Miles tries to pick up the flower but he cannot. His hand goes right through the flower. Miles buries his head in his hands and sobs uncontrollably. The guard closes the door and leaves the ghost in the darkness.
CHAPTER 5
Miles sits alone on the grass. He is in the middle of a huge field. The camp is a hundred yards behind him. He looks depressed. He is unable to forget what he just witnessed. He silently wishes he h
ad access to a bottle of whiskey.
Sitting here will make me go crazy, he thinks. He decides to return to the camp. He gets up and makes his way to the gate. He stops in front of the large rusty metal gate that keeps the prisoners from their freedom. There is a sign. It reads: “Labor Brings Liberty.” Miles passes through the metal bars and back inside. The sign is no longer in English. It reads “Arbeit Macht Frei.”
A group of prisoners labor in silence. They lay new train tracks. One prisoner carries a large boulder in his ravaged hands. Sledgehammers rain down on steel bolts. Radek and Jan work side by side. Miles watches them with curiosity. He remembers them from the hut.
Sweat beads from the brow of an elderly prisoner. This type of work is not for the old. He takes a seat on a rock. Sven overlooks the laborers and doesn’t like what he sees. He walks towards the resting old man.
He reaches for his pistol. Miles looks away in disappointment. The idea of being unable to help the helpless is unbearable to Miles. Then he remembers the hobo in front of the coffee shop who resembles the elderly man in front of him. He recalls how he treated him. He is not happy about what he did.
Sven stretches out his arm behind the old man. A devious grin spreads across his face. The barrel is inches from the back of the unsuspecting old man’s head. Sven squeezes the trigger. Nothing happens. The grin disappears from Sven’s face. The gun is jammed.
The old man struggles to his feet and returns to the group. He hauls a sledgehammer and returns to work; completely unaware of what had just transpired.
Sven inspects his gun and then returns it to his holster. He spots a young guard a few feet away. Sven marches towards him and snatches the young guard’s gun. Sven turns and stomps towards the old man.
Miles blocks Sven’s path in an attempt to stop him. Sven marches cleanly through him. Miles hangs his head and covers his ears. The gunshot echoes through the worksite. An innocent old man’s body collapses to the ground with a thud. The workers stop and stare. Sven looks pleased. Miles is gone.
The sun goes down at the end of a difficult day. Miles watches the sunset from a spot under a tree. The pinkish clouds are familiar and comforting.
He desperately wants to go home. He remembers Jai mentioning something called mind travelling using sound frequencies. That must have been the strange audio file on the iPod. Miles wishes he had paid more attention to Jai. He wouldn’t be in this mess if he had. At the lab, his body is paralyzed and without food or water. Miles knows that the longer he stays here, the less chance he has of surviving.
Darkness falls over the camp. A train screeches to a halt. It is filled with women and children. They are newcomers to hell on Earth. Guards yell out orders and hurry them out of the boxcars and towards a building. Miles doesn’t require any sleep and is curious about what happens to these people.
He notices that there isn’t any smoke coming from the chimney in the distance, which is a good sign. Miles decides to follow the women and children. A young boy walks quickly alongside a guard. He sticks his tongue out at the guard when the guard isn’t looking. The guard turns towards the boy and he sticks his tongue back in, just in time. Miles sticks his tongue out at the guard, too.
Miles looks ahead towards the building and is stricken with terror. He bolts to the front of the group, careful to not pass through any bodies. The doorway to the square building has a sign the reads: “Bath.”
Miles slowly twists around and stares at all the scared faces, young and old. Miles is scared, too. He regrets following the group. The women and children walk through him and inside the gas chamber.
Across the camp, nine men rest in the hut where Miles hid the first night. They shiver without pillows and blankets to keep them warm. They sleep close to each other for heat. They become wearier every day. They think about the train that just arrived and wonder if their family members were on it.
Radek sits against the wall and writes in his scraps of paper. Jan gets up from the bed and joins Radek.
“I can’t sleep, Radek,” Jan says as he sits down next to him. Radek stops writing and turns to Jan. He knows he can’t get any work done whenever Jan has trouble sleeping.
“Just close your eyes,” Radek tells him.
“Every time I close my eyes, I see her face. I keep thinking about her, if she’s…”
“Of course she is, Jan,” Radek interrupts.
“…Dead,” Jan finishes. Radek sets his pencil and paper on the floor next to him. “She’s is fine. Just think positive thoughts.”
Jan looks into his hand. His palm is reddened from clutching the chain all day.
“She gave this to me. It’s all I have of her. Of us,” Jan whimpers.
Radek speaks with a stern voice.
“It was foolish to hide that as it is now. It could have cost you your life. I let them take everything I had, all of my work. They can take it, but they can’t take what’s in here,” Radek says and points to his head. “Or what’s in here,” he finishes and points to Jan’s heart.
Jan looks through his tears at the gold chain. It has a pendant of a silver star.
The two guards, Ralf and Erich, stand next to each other and observe the women and children walk towards the gas chamber. Something shimmers in the moonlight around the neck of a young, angelic, woman. It’s a gold chain with a silver star pendant. Her name is Rosa.
“Her. I could marry that girl,” says Ralf as he points to Rosa.
“Forget her. They’re going into the gas chamber. I’ll be right back. Keep watch while I’m gone,” Erich tells him. He leaves Ralf by himself.
What a waste, thinks Ralf.
Inside the crowded gas chamber, Miles kneels down to the little boy. It seems like the boy is alone. He was separated from his family. Miles thinks about Lily. She must be very worried about him.
Panic spreads through the crowd. Their lives are about to come to an end. The boy starts to sob. Miles tries to caress his tiny shoulder even though it’s impossible. The boy seems to calm down, strangely. Miles notices that the boy is missing a finger.
The door to the chamber slams shut and the lights go out. Miles feels this must be the scariest moment that anyone can bear.
Women grow hysterical. Children scream. Miles can’t stand it any longer and sprints towards the wall. He notices Rosa as she clutches onto her chain. He stares at her with wonder and vanishes through the wall.
Miles appears outside the gas chamber. He continues to run without looking back. He runs right towards Ralf. They make eye contact with each other. And in that moment, Miles disappears.
Ralf falls forward. He throws up. He staggers to his feet and wipes his mouth. He has an idea and races towards the back of the gas chamber.
Erich returns to the spot where he left Ralf. He is furious that Ralf isn’t there. I can’t leave him alone for a second, thinks Erich.
Sven knocks on the door to Erich’s room. Erich opens the door. His shirt is unbuttoned. He is getting ready for bed.
“Where is your brother?” Sven asks.
“I thought he was in his room,” replies Erich. Sven grows impatient.
“He isn’t there,” Sven grunts.
“Is everything okay?” asks Erich. Sven scrutinizes Erich. “So, you don’t know? The gas chamber malfunctioned,” informs Sven. He storms off down the hall.
Erich slowly shuts the door and shakes his head. He wonders about what his brother has done but believes he knows the answer.
The barracks are dark. Gas lamps illuminate the bodies on the floor. They are the women and children from the gas chamber. The boy opens his eyes and sticks his tongue out. Ralf walks over to him. The boy sits up in alarm.
“Quiet,” Ralf tells the boy.
“It’s okay. Don’t be scared,” Ralf whispers. “Are you hungry?”
The boy nods. Ralf gives him a piece of bread from his pocket. The boy scarfs it down. Ralf takes out another piece of bread and scans around the room.
A sh
immering chain in the corner catches his eye. Ralf stares at her and smiles. She stares back and clutches the pendant.
Ralf carefully makes his way over to her. He grabs her hand and takes her with him. She looks into Ralf’s warm eyes and trusts him. They make their way to the exit but she stops him. She lets go of Ralf’s hand and walks towards the boy.
She grabs his hand and they join Ralf. There is a jeep parked outside. Ralf hides them in the back seat and drives off into the night.
CHAPTER 6
The sun rises in silence. The sound of birds chirping is missing from this place. The air is heavy with pain and sorrow. But Jan has hope. He looks out of the cracked window of the hut. He sees his chain shine around his neck as the sunlight strikes it. He carefully removes it and hides it in his pocket.
In the distance, the chimney churns black smoke to the sky. Ralf gazes outside the window of his room and sees the smoke. He buttons up his shirt. His hair is neatly combed. He places the chain with a silver star pendant around his neck. He exits his room and heads down the hall.
The dining room is lively with plenty of food on the long table surrounded by SS officers. Sven is there and so is Erich. They are seated at opposite ends of the table. Ralf sits down at an empty seat and quickly wolfs down his breakfast. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone and secretly conceals some food in a handkerchief.
He excuses himself from the table and leaves room. Sven seems annoyed with Ralf’s strange behavior recently. Erich noticed his brother’s strange behavior as well. Erich and Sven lock eyes briefly and then return to their plates.
A compact wooden shack rests among trees, away from the road. It is not very inviting. There is a hole in the roof and extensive termite damage. But it is a palace compared to the camp where Rosa and the boy escaped from.
A jeep pulls up in front of the house. A pair of black boots head towards the door. The door bursts open. The shack is vacant except for some art on the wall, an old couch, and coffee table.
