Project 43

No matter what

When the trucks stopped, the Nazies roughly pushed everyone out of the cars and handcuffed them before pushing them into a line.

"Wer ist der Anführer?" one officer asked. He was clearly higher ranking than the others and someone the prisoners hadn't seen before. Maybe he was the leader of the facility they had been taken to or just some high-ranking officer.

"Das hier," a soldier said pointing at Colonel Miller who looked confused. Elias pieced together what was going to happen and tried to figure out what he could do but couldn't find anything that wouldn't just make a bigger mess.

The officer simply nodded and two German soldiers violently grabbed Colonel Miller by both arms. After a second, he didn't fight it. Everyone on the line was shocked and didn't know what to do so they stayed quiet. Elias closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"No matter what, don't react to it," Elias whispered barely audible to Oscar who stood before him. The gorilla-sized man nodded slowly and gently, making sure that the Germans wouldn't notice.

The German soldiers dragged Colonel Miller to their officer and pushed him onto his knees. Colonel didn't take his sight off the ground even tho he knew what was going to happen. Slowly he lifted his gaze up to the sky and closed his eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the Nazi officer had drawn his gun and shot a bullet right into the back of Miller's head. the shot rang through the air as everyone in the line was taken back. They shifted nervously but didn't do anything. They knew better than that.

The soldiers started to move the line of prisoners towards some sort of facility they had arrived at. It seemed like a dark box with ominous lights surrounding it, something out of a horror film but it was going to be their reality. Elias looked to his left to see other soldiers dragging Colonel Miller's body off of the field by his legs. They didn't even care enough to lift him up. His blood stained a loose line in the gravel that the soldiers most probably wouldn't even bother to clean.

Elias was in a state of shock. He had to be. He stared blankly ahead as they walked in through large metallic doors. Images of the Colonel's brains splattering across the ground and the way Marcus' body lay so lifelessly on the moss-covered floor, blood pooling under him, filled Elias' mind replaying the events of the night over and over again, trying to find a way he could have prevented it all only to each time come to the same conclusion. He couldn't have done anything to save them.

He couldn't have done anything to save them. He couldn't have done anything to save them. He couldn't have done anything to save them. Maybe he couldn't save them but he could still do something to save his brothers who were being walked through the gray halls.

Elias started looking around while still not looking too suspicious. He noticed at least five floors connected by two elevators. There must have been at least two fire escape stairs somewhere in the building. Possibly in the middle or on the sides. There was a hole in the middle of the building surrounded on every floor with a level that connected countless doors leading to rooms filled with God knows what.

The soldiers carried two guns and a card used for opening the doors. Most probably different level officers had access to different doors but even the low-level soldiers had access to where the prisoners were kept since that was the man leading them.

There were over two dozen, heavily armed soldiers walking on the side of the line and many more going about their business in the building. There must have been multiple divisions of soldiers in the building at once which meant that whatever they were doing, was important.

There were air vents in between every three doors. that were most likely connected to each other through some sort of ventilation system.

Just as Elias was trying to figure out his options he saw something. An irregularity in the seemingly well-oiled machine that was the Nazi facility. One air vent was not attached but the cover was laid against the wall next to the vent. Elias had a choice to make. He could try to get into the vent and figure out what he could do from there in peace or go with everyone else. If he tried and failed he'd be executed just like Colonel Miller. His body would be lazily dragged away as his friends watched in pain.