Lost in Insantiy

Chapter 11: The Gas Chamber

The sun soon began to rise and I was standing awake looking out the window, also I knew that today was going to be doomsday for me and my fellow Jewish people. I waited for the doctor to get up so I can figure out what I was going to do today. I watched as the sun rose for the last time my eyes start to water as a I soon remember when I was little as a kid watching this with my mom and dad. I’d get up really early in the morning thought it would be six o’clock in the morning, then I would go wake mom and dad I would sit in their lap by the window and watch it rise slowly.  Then while we watched it my brother Jason would come in and sit by us then we’d all watch it together as a family. Mom would get up and go make us some breakfast in the kitchen as we watched. The smell of bacon, biscuits, and eggs filled the rooms of the house. I would smother my eggs with cheese and the biscuit with butter until that’s all I was able to taste. When we’d finish breakfast would all travel to town to search for the perfect things for that night because we always gathered something good for family nights. As I got older I kept having the feeling that something bad was going to happen I wasn’t for sure what it was. Now I finally know what it is because I’m living all of our worst nightmares, but the only thing we can do is just follow what they tell us. I can hear the doctor getting up in the room next to mine and he sounded like he had a bad dream throughout the night.

“Boy where are you I’ve got to get you prepared for today, because you are going on a special journey.” He said really tiredly. I just nodded at him and just went and sat down so he could do whatever he needed to do.

“Come on boy you’re coming with me, because we got to get you squared away that way you can just get there and go.” He took my out back behind the small shack where he shaved my head bald. I felt like a naked jay bird because then he took my clothes off and threw them away in a little trash can.

“Why did you shave me bald and why did you take clothes away?” I asked politely. He laughed at me with an evil laugh and just pointed in the direction of a building that was kind of far away towards the forest.

“You are going to the gas chambers like everyone else in this rat hole. You are no better than anyone else, as a matter of fact you are lower than anybody else because you were my toy to play with. You deserve to die for not following anything that I had to say, besides you ran away for a couple days even tried to get out of doing anything.” I didn’t know what to say so I just nodded and headed for the building that seemed far away when it wasn’t. When I was in the clear the guards had their guns pointed at me because they knew I had escaped they just didn’t want me doing it again. I felt so embarrassed walking down the line to the building naked as a jay bird, but I guess that was the code they went by. I just kept walking up to the long line from which people were in a long line for. Up ahead was an officer with a clipboard I guess to check off who walks through and who hasn’t. There were people in front of me who were really scared about going inside the place because as people went into the chamber no one came out. I could hear the guard calling out random numbers that everyone had on their arms. I can hear him all the way from back here and he’s calling out numbers for the people that’s going into the chamber.

“Number 13290 please come forward it’s you’re next to go in.” the officer said. That was not my number but I was slowly getting closer to the front of the line when I saw guards moving a group of bodies to the back of the building. This scared me severely because this tells me that I might die today or even in the next few minutes, also it means I will be going to heaven with my mom and dad. As I got closer the more and more I thought it was going to be over soon, but then the line stopped moving because somebody was not on the list. They took the person aside and gave him a new number and put it on the list which this stopped the line momentarily.

“Number 135467 please step up it’s time for you to go into the chamber.” I stepped up to him and I took a bow to let him know that I was going.

“You want me to do anything before you go in?” I thought for a minute

“Yea tell my brother I love him!” I said quickly. He nodded towards me then I took a step inside the gas chamber. The room I was in was so small so small that we were shoulder to shoulder so close together. I could hear the noise from where they were putting cans of the gas in the ventilation system, and then when they went to go start it something make a pinging noise inside the vent. The pinging noise stopped the vent from pumping the gas into the chamber, then I could hear the soldiers talking outside they were talking about the vent, and they were tinkering with it to see what the problem was.

“Check the pump inside the vent, then check the motor that allows it to pump the gas.” I heard them from the other side of the wall and the wall was concrete. I heard clicks and bangs on every side of the wall because they were apparently trying to fix what the problem was that would soon kill us. I stand there and I’m thinking “while I’m waiting I should just look around because this is the last thing I will see before I die.” I see concrete walls, floor, a small window, and something that looked like a rag. I guess the soldiers didn’t clean this place very well at all so I grabbed it and kept it with me. The people around me were cussing because they wanted out, and some were trying to claw their way out because one by one their finger nails popped off. There was scratch marks on the wall around us mostly because people were scared and did not want to die so they tried to claw but it did not work. After about five minutes after that I heard the machine kick on that started pumping gas into the room. The gas was a green cloud that hurled towards you, but I freaked out so I put the rag over my face so I could breath. I lied down on the cold floor and started breaking through the rag, also I closed my eyes because I did not know if it would hurt my eyes. As I lied there waiting for it all to be over I heard people screaming and trying to get out but then all of a sudden I heard thump thump thump. It was bodies hitting the floor real hard which they must have died by now. I wasn’t worried about them I was worried about me because I did not want to die in this horrible place. For thirty minutes they let the gas flow through the chamber, and then I heard the door open and footsteps were coming towards me. I felt somebody grab my legs and started dragging me outside, so then I just remained still for the time being until I knew that they were gone and I was outside. I was dragged through mud and dirty then I just suddenly stopped and I heard the footsteps slowly drift away from me. I lifted my head up to see if they were gone and indeed they were gone so I got up and hid from everyone. I ran back towards the doc’s office to see if I could get my robes back, then I see a path leading to behind the shack. I followed the path and it lead to the can he put it in, so then I looked in the can and found my old robes I grabbed them and put it on. I was wondering if my brother was going to go through the same thing so I decided to go look for him, and he was in the line I was once in. I wait for the guards to walk away with their heads turned the other way before I started to make my way over to him. I quickly ran to him real quietly so I could give him the rag so he could survive as well.

“What are you doing Josh I thought you were dead??” he said

“No I found a rag in the room and I wanted to give it to you so you could use it. Just lay down the floor cover your eyes and breath into the rag and you will be fine that’s what I did.” I said quickly. I took off  running back to the doctor’s shack so I could hide for the time being. I hid in the can that my robe was once in and I just sat there with lid over my head. I heard the doc come outside and started talking to himself. He starts talking about me there for a minute.

“Come on out I know you escaped because I saw you talking to another boy and you gave him something.” He said. I freaked out and I hopped out the can and stood near him, then he grabbed my hair and started dragging me back into the shack.

“I’m going to punish you for escaping the chamber and I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to forcefully make you breath in the gas so you sit here.” I thought for sure now I was going to die now that he’s going to make me breath it in. All I could now was just hope it’s not as much as I think it’s going to be.