Fort

Chapter One

Elise shifted uncomfortably in her chair, she was anxious. Her teacher tapped the end of her pen when checking roll call, she eyed Elise and called her to her desk. Elise held her breath, she hoped her teacher didn't know about her being a Jew. "Nicht güte." she shakily stood up and slowly walked towards the predator behind the desk.
"Outside..." the teacher managed to leer towards the door out to the hallway. Elise gulped, and stumbled towards the door, she cursed under her breath as she saw a sliver of a shadow underneath the small space of the door. She opened it, a tall young man, about her age, standing at the doorway. His broad shoulders blocked the only way out. "Elise Ebstein," He uttered, his voice was deep, with a small amount of bait. She slowly nodded as she noticed the red band on his left arm holding a swatzicka. He shoved her to walk down the hallway to the nearest exit. "Marsch!" He commanded, Elise had silent tears, she knew what was happening.

She shakily took steps towards the exit, until, "Halt!" The man demanded, and she followed through. As she took a glance back, she saw a few other kids she knew at the synagogue. "Turn around! Eyes in front!" The man forcefully twisted her head back facing front, almost like a yank. She felt a pain ring and felt like she had a crick in her neck, she was sure to keep her body facing the front.

Unknown to Elise, the man was not a Nazi, he was in fact in part of the resistance. He bent down to whisper, "We'll get you out of this, don't worry." A young man about the same height, except with blonde hair walked up to be beside him, nodding. Elise connected the dots. These two were spies! The other guards seemed pretty serious though, were they sure about this? How old were they in the first place?! Elise uncomfortably fidgeted with her hand, she was getting nervous as the Nazi guards, including the infiltrators, were speaking, saying something about whether or not they should send the children to a camp. Elise held her breath, she knew only rumors about them.

Suddenly all the guards started barking out orders, "OLDER JEWS IN FRONT! YOUNGER IN THE BACK! MAKE A STRAIGHT FORMATION!!" Luckily, Elise was already in front, being the oldest, but all the other children shifted and quickly with fear, started running to where they almost bumped into each other. "Dumm Jew," a man said under his breath. His comrades laughed at the comment. When everything was somewhat organized, one Nazi shoved to be in front of Elise, it was the spy that "escorted" her. He didn't turn around, but she could hear him whisper, "When they say "get against the wall", don't. Duck and cover." Elise was so unsure, the young man opened the door and ordered, "OUT!" Elise took shaky steps. He shoved her, but she could tell it was for the act. "I SAID OUT!!" as she looked back, Elise noticed the rifles in all the men's hands, spies to Nazis, it was only 2 to 6, she gulped as the last few kids marched out.

"AGAINST THE WALL!!!" another man shouted, "Here goes nothing,"  Elise ducked.

A few shots went off, she glanced behind her and saw some of the other kids doing the same, thankfully. Everyone knew that all kids are all 'monkey see, monkey do' . She was glad that was the case. Yelling could be heard, "Intruders! Kill them!"

Bullets flew, Elise could practically hear them piercing through the Nazis' skin, their shouts in agony and half-begging frustration. Her stomach flopped as silence came, all she could hear were some of the younger students' sniffling. A few minutes seemed to leer by, until Elise felt a hand on her shoulder, "Kliene frau, es ist okay."
Elise let her joints relax, lying back on the dry dead grass. Taking deep breaths, she glanced up to see the young man offering a hand, she took it.
"Thanks, for following the orders, I mean." The young man got interested in his hand all of a sudden.
"Well, its not hard to do when you're terrified for your life," Elise chuckled nervously. The young man chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, "Yeah, sorry about that, Miss Ebstein."

Elise raised her hand to deny his apology, "Nah it's fine, you just wanted them to believe that you were one of them! Please call me Elise!"
Pink dusted her cheeks as she realized how weak she sounded. The young man tilted his head, hearing his name, "Roderich! This boy lost consciousness. He's fine he just needs to be carried to the van! When you are done, help me gather the others." The other man shouted.