Chapter Eight: P.O.W.

*“Still as still as you can Serena.” Jim whispered to her from behind his tree. “If they don’t know you’re there, they won’t fire.” Serena couldn’t even nod she was so frozen with fear. Death was so near… and she had said she wasn’t scared! No, correction. She had said she wasn’t scared to die in a time warp, or even to die in her sleep of old age. But this death… this was not a death she had come to terms with. Being shot, pumped full of lead by Nazi soldiers as they came across her and two American soldiers in the middle of the woods in France during 1944. Nope, definitely never a death she had considered.

“I can’t tell what they’re saying.” She overheard Jim whisper to Kerry. But Kerry just shook his head. He didn’t understand German either.

“One said he heard voices.” Serena translated without being asked. “The other was telling the men to spread out and search.”

“You understand German?” The GI’s blinked. Serena nodded, eyes glued to the ground. “And French, Russian, Latin, Italian, and Japanese. And Greek.” She added, after thinking about her list and ticking off the languages she had mastered. Of course she knew all of those languages! Russian and German and French were important because they had been such vast superpowers throughout the majority of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Latin, Greek, and Italian because the romance languages helped in decoding many of the historical documents and artifacts that she came across in research, and Japanese because her father had been Japanese. What was wrong with that? And she wasn’t completely fluent in all of the languages—only most.

“Get down!” Kerry hissed. German soldiers were now sweeping into their territory; guns cocked and ready to be fired in a moment’s notice. Serena looked over at Jim, who had suck down into the roots of a large tree and had his gun clasped to his chest. His helmet was slightly tilted to the right, and his dirty face could not hide the fear and nerves he clearly felt about their situation.

Kerry, to her other side, did not look much better. The man was crouched up in a tree and had his gun aimed at the nearest German, but even from their distance Serena could see that his hands were shaking—in fact, even the gun was shaking he could hardly hold it steady. Was this how all men were before death? Did they fear it so greatly? Was this what made them human?

Serena had often wondered what made humans human. What had separated them from the apes? It had been their conscience, their ability to imagine and dream and create. But there had to be something more. Men often boasted that they only really felt alive after they had beaten someone else up, or after they had lived through a rough beating themselves. Did that make them human? The pain? No. Animals recognized pain. What made humans so different?

“I heard something!” She heard a German soldier whisper. By now, the Nazi was so close that she could see the terror in his eyes and the bead of sweat as it dripped down the side of his face. And all she could think about was: “Oh God, they’ve found me, oh God, I’m going to die.” A loud crack went off through the air, and Serena whimpered slightly, trying to dig herself deeper into the ground. Looking up, she tried to find Kerry and Jim, to reaffirm that they would protect her. Jim was still dug under the tree roots, gun aiming, but tears now stream down his face. Kerry… where was Kerry… she craned her neck ever so slightly, but could not find where he had hidden himself in the tree branches. When her eyes could not spot him, she frantically gazed around, until they landed and remained glued in one spot.

On the dirty, pine needle ground lay a human body. It was a man’s body, an American man judging from the army uniform he wore. His head was buzzed, and the once blonde fuzz was now covered in thick, sticky red goop as it oozed out into the forest floor. His mouth was opened, a silent scream of pain that had never been uttered lay upon his lifeless lips. Kerry…

Serena reached up with her hand to her face very gently and wiped away the hot tears that had begun to trickle down her cheeks. Why was she so sad? She had hardly known the man. Boy. Kerry had told them he had only turned twenty-one two months earlier. He was still in many ways a boy. Who was dead. And she took pity on his prone form and for some unexplainable reason, wept without understanding why.

“I hear something else!” Another German whispered. Now she could see that they were headed in Jim’s direction. But Jim wasn’t raising his weapon, Jim wasn’t moving to hide, Jim wasn’t running away. Jim was openly crying, muttering the word, the name, ‘Kerry’ over and over to himself. One more loud crack, and all was silent. And more tears dripped down over Serena’s face. And one sob escaped her lips.

“There’s another one!” The German voice called out. Where? She looked around. Where was the other… it was her! They knew she was here! But her sobs were too many, her tears too hot, her legs to slow. Never could she have even fantasized about running, not at that moment.

“It’s a woman! I can’t shoot a woman!” Another German called. In the blink of an eye she found she was surrounded by five or six Nazi officers, all in the same classic gray uniform, all wearing the same red armband with the swastika, and all glaring darkly at her.

“She’s blonde, blue eyed.” One of them remarked.

“She must be French.”

“With Americans?”

“Filthy mongrels. They mix their breeding with scum and expect us to give them mercy?” One of the Germans spat in the direction that Kerry’s body lay in. Serena had half a mind to smack him for his utter disregard of the dead, but then had another thought. She had cried for the dead. He had shown no compassion for the dead. Did that make him any less human? Because he could not appreciate pain, most especially the pain that came with death?

“Up woman! Up!” The Germans said in mixed French and German. She looked up and then back down. Slowly she breathed in, and ordered her body to stop crying. One more deep breath, and then she stood.

“I am not French, I am German.” She sputtered in their language a last ditch attempt to save her life. Then men instantly stopped.

“You are German?” One asked skeptically.

“Yes.” She nodded, trying her best to duplicate their accent as she spoke. “I was kidnapped by the two Americans and forced to go with them.”

“She is blonde, and she is blue-eyed…” One pointed out.

“She’s old.” Another frowned. “We have no use for the old. We are the Arian race, perfect in every way; the old are flawed.”

“No, I am not so old. I am seventeen. The Americans forced me to dress this way, to hide what I am.”

“To hide your perfection? Yes. Pigs would.” Their commander nodded. “Take her back to headquarters and clean her up. Do not worry my dear, you will be sent home to our country and our great leader. Thank you for your service to your country.” Serena dumbly nodded, not quite sure what had just happened. Had, had they fallen for it?

“Yes sir!” The soldiers nodded and grabbed Serena by her arms. As they dragger her off, she sent a hope that somewhere, wherever he was, Preventer Zero would find her.

From the bushes right behind Jim’s body Hiiro watched Serena as she was led away by the troops. Half a smirk played across his thin lips and stoic face. An ingenious idea. It was too bad he looked so oriental, or he might have tried it. Then again, he had the blue eyes. He knew the language. Perhaps all it would take was a uniform and a bit of an accent to convince them—and break Serena out in the process. Then a frown fell across his chiseled features.

He could not, under any circumstances, let those men get their hands on Serena and find out she was a fraud. The knowledge she carried might just possibly be enough to turn the tides of the war, and he could not allow that to occur. Even if it meant silencing her himself. But he hoped it would not come to that. As far as people went, he had almost grown to… accept her company. It would be a shame to… He was a soldier, and he would do what was necessary for survival, and that was all there was to it.

>>>)(<<<

When Serena opened her eyes next, she found she was lying on a bed in a large room. There were two other women in the room with her, both speaking quick and fluent German. When they noticed she was awake, they smiled somewhat cheerfully at her, and she drew back, not wanting them to come near her. They were too close to her in such a state of vulnerability… how did she know they wouldn’t hurt her?

“Don’t be afraid dear. My name is Greta, and this is Matilda, and we’re the personal secretaries of the two commanders here. You poor thing, being caught by those nasty Americans! Dirty pigs…”

“And forced to hide yourself like that… poor woman!”

“When the patrol returned, you had fallen asleep, and we wouldn’t let them wake you. Now that you are up, we shall cleanse you, and of course get you some new clothes. We don’t have much, but anything is better than your rags.”

“We are already running low on food, but I’ll scrounge something up for you. I’m sure you haven’t eaten in a while. But, of course, the food should go to building our men’s strength first.”

“Of course Matilda. She seems like a bright woman, she knows the men are more important. Come now, come get clean.”

Serena simply remained glued to the bed, her large eyes peering through her thick glasses, which had begun to slip down onto the tip of her nose. She did not want to go anywhere with these women, she did not trust them. She did not trust any body anymore. Preventer Zero had abandoned her in the past, the American soldiers had abandoned her in the woods, no, she would trust no one here. But she also knew that if she did not move, they would begin to suspect her for what she was—a fake. And then she would truly be in trouble. The Reich did not take well to spies.

“Come now dear, I know you must have a had a dreadful experience, but we must be strong for the men out there, or else it will dishearten them. We must be proud women and show that their work amounts to something.” Greta chided. Serena numbly nodded, and slid off of the bed. She allowed the women to lead her into a smaller room off to the side of hers, and then to help her remove her shoes. After that, she waited and watched as the two women left her alone with a bathtub full of steaming water.

Lowering herself into the tub, Serena felt refreshed and cleansed for the first time in three days. In fact, she was certain that she could see dirt practically lifting off of her skin and floating away as she lathered the soap onto her arms and legs. After she had rinsed her hair, she reached up to wash her face, and remembered the last time she had touched her face was to wipe away tears. Now no more tears came when she thought of Kerry and Jim, but memories of dead, lifeless bodies haunted the insides of her eyelids every time she so much as blinked.

“You dressed?” A deep voice called through the door. Serena looked up instantly.

“Preventer Zero?” She whispered. The door opened and in walked Hiiro. Taking care to shut the door silently behind him, he grabbed the towel that had been left for her off the sink and held it out to her.

“Let’s go.”

“You left me.” She narrowed her eyes. There was no time to be intimidated by this human, he had left her alone, and now he was going to hear it from her for it!

“I left you with Kerry and Jim, not the most reliable men. They died.”

“And you wouldn’t have?” Hiiro shrugged, and Serena got the chilling sensation that he really wouldn’t have. In fact, she had the fleeting thought that he might well be immortal and indestructible. But that fantasy was thrown away quickly, and she blushed deeply.

“Turn around.” Hiiro, whose cheeks reddened considerably as well, did as she asked and held the towel out for her without looking. He could hear her stand and the water as it ran off from her and dripped back down into the tub. The tiny room was hardly big enough for the two of them and the bathtub, but they made due easily enough. As she changed, Hiiro planned their escape route. He knew they would be looking for her once they found she was missing, so he had to be ready to have them well hidden.

Unfortunately, his thoughts kept wandering to the woman who was standing beside him. She hadn’t, for the first time since he had met her, looked frumpy and mousy when he had walked into the bathroom, she had looked… sexy. God, maybe he was just like those American soldiers who had been ready to hit on just about any woman they came across because they hadn’t seen a decent one in so long.

Trying as hard as he could to focus on his escape route, Hiiro decided the best thing would be to get her out into the forest again, and then hide somewhere low to the ground. He had spied a small field that might work well—the tall grass would hide them, and they would be able to run if needed.

“I’m dressed.” Serena finally muttered. Hiiro turned around and inwardly gasped. How could have ever thought she was… sexy? Her dirty turtleneck hid any and all curves she might have had, those jeans that were three sizes too big made her seem short and childish, and her glasses were only more prominent with her wet hair slicked back so tightly against her head. He shuddered, and then grabbed her hand.

“We run into the open field on the left and then into the woods past it. I won’t let you out of my sight. Even if you can’t see me, I will be able to see you. Just keep running. They’ll be after us.”

“Okay.” She whispered. Hiiro nodded, and just as he was about to open the bathroom door to check and see if everything was clear, he stopped. Voices could be heard in the hallway echoing towards them. *

~~~Will they make it? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just kill them off and end this. At least that would be more interesting. Much love, Vixen~~~