Dangerous Territory

Dignity Lost

Fight!

Yet he knew, if he fought he very well might be killed, simply shot dead. Then again, he might take one of them with him.

No, fighting was stupid. He needed to survive. He had promised Petra...

Levi calmed himself, and as repugnant as it was, he raised his hands in surrender. The two men charged, and immediately his arms were yanked behind him. He expected that much. Then came the punch to the gut. Also expected; he would have done no differently. Other hits, he figured were warranted. He had resisted and faced off for a moment, after all.

It all hurt, but Levi had known worse. What annoyed him was how far they had wrenched back his arm. The strain on his shoulder was beginning to burn, and one thing he could not afford was to have a torn tendon. Those healed too slowly. Broken bones healed quicker.

Finally, they seemed to be satisfied with their punishment, and Levi was shoved forward. Thankfully, only one held him, and merely by the collar of his shirt. The other had his gun pointed into Levi's back as they forced him to march.

He kept his head high as he was paraded down one of the town's main streets and into a square. Kitz was barking orders again, and Levi tried to keep calm. If they wanted him dead, he would already be so. Soldiers were calling out orders all around, and he saw that they were being gathered, all of them, the entire company. He heard the German words alle Soldaten, which meant the call was for all the soldiers.

This was going to be a public display.

Levi cursed to himself. This had to be about the liberation of Paris. The captain likely wanted to show Germany's superiority over France. Picking one of the villagers could cause a rebellion, which was precisely what they were ordered to prevent.

So they picked a Jew as the victim, enough to spur on the soldiers disparaged by the loss, but without too much fear from the populace.

After all, how many of these villagers cared about a Jew, even one who was also French?

* * *

Eren opened the door to a frantic knock and was shocked to see one of the local girls.

"Krista!" he exclaimed, remembering the French girl who spoke German, and who had given him some of her bread after he warned her not to make her bilingual knowledge known.

"Sie müssen mit mir kommen!" You must come with me!

He quickly hushed her. If anyone knew that a French villager spoke German, Levi lost his usefulness as a translator.

She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Die jüdischen Gefangenen liegen Ihnen am Herzen, oder?" The Jewish prisoners are special to you, right?

Eren felt a clench in his chest. Why would she care about the prisoners, unless... "What's happening?" He felt his pulse already racing with dread.

She shook her head. "I only heard a little. Two Jews, the town square, they are trying to gather all the German soldiers, a display ... I'm sorry, I did not catch much. I just know it's bad. The soldiers, they said ... get you, get Jäger, so you can tell that Jewish translator to warn the women and children to stay away."

"Stay away?"

"Whatever this is about, it will be that bad. Bad enough so that your captain does not want women to see."

Eren felt sick to his stomach. "Where's Levi? The bilingual one? Did you see him?"

"In the square already under guard. I saw them bringing another up along the street. They said two would get punished."