Trigger Warning: Consider this your warning for the next few chapters. There will be graphic descriptions of blood, violence, homophobic language ... well, you saw the warning back in Chapter One. It'll be a rough few chapters. Please trust me with the storytelling. That's all I ask.
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Eren and Levi were marched away from the river to a car and driven through the streets to the south of Metz, where there was a fort turned into an internment camp. The Germans called it Feste Göben, but the French called it Enfer de Queuleu, the "Hell of Queuleu."
Earlier that summer, the internment camp had been filled with prisoners of war and the French Resistance. When the Americans began to aim for Metz, the fort was evacuated, and all the prisoners were sent to concentration camps further east.
Eren thought how ironic it was. Levi had planned to infiltrate this fort to free Carly and the other Jewish brothel girls. Now, they were going to be prisoners.
His vision began to fade, and Eren felt his head dip forward. Reiner caught him and pressed him upright.
"Are you okay, Eren?"
He began to answer, but dizziness washed over him suddenly. He pressed the shirt Reiner had given him deeper into the wound on his shoulder. The fabric was already saturated, and blood covered his hand. Despite the pain, Eren tried to press in harder to slow down the bleeding.
"We should take him to the hospital," Reiner said to Kitz Woermann.
Kitz curled his lip as he glared at Eren. "That hospital is for soldiers, not faggots."
Reiner's brow tightened in disapproval, but he said nothing more.
They passed a few checkpoints, and Levi gazed at the window. He used to dream about making it past the roadblocks and out into open land. Now here he was, driving away from signs of the city, only it was not to freedom, but to prison.
They drove up a hill and to a stone wall and massive iron gate topped with spikes. Kitz shouted at the guards, and seeing his rank and the SS guards with him, they let the car through.
They drove across a wooden bridge that spanned a massive moat. On the other side was yet another stone wall and checkpoint. The SS guards let them pass, driving through a tunnel that opened up to the main fort, a massive series of buildings, some two stories tall, with roofs shielded under earth and foliage.
The car continued through the fort that was now empty of prisoners. Troops milled around, mostly older men conscripted into the military, but Eren saw many teens and children. The Hitler Youth had spent years training for war, and now here they were, believing they could defend the fort.
Eren shook his head. It was useless, yet he knew first-hand, they had been taught that dying for the Reich was more noble than surrender.
They drove up to some doors, and the car engine turned off. Kitz grabbed Levi by the scruff of his neck and hauled him out. Eren moved slowly, smearing blood on the upholstery as he slid across the car's backseat. His whole shoulder burned, and his stomach felt sick from just how much pain seared his nerves. Just as he felt like blacking out, a strong hand pressed on his back. He looked around and saw Reiner staring hard.
Eren whispered in desperation, "Please, don't let them kill him. I beg of you!"
"That is not up to me," Reiner warned softly. "You should be more concerned with your own life." He glanced at the bloody shoulder. "Keep pressure on that wound."
They entered the fort and were brought to a room plastered white with a concrete floor and an arching, tomb-like ceiling. Eren was pushed up against the wall, where his blood smeared on the plaster, while Levi walked to the wall as if he already knew the drill.
Kitz walked up to Levi, his bulging eyes wide and insane. "I know those devilish, beady eyes." He ripped the wig off and glared into the defiant face. "The Jewish translator! Jäger said he killed you, but I see he kept you around to warm his bed." He shook his head and looked at Eren in disgust. "Now I know why you were so desperate to save him. He was your lover!"
"No!" Yet Eren realized they had been caught out in the open. All of it had been seen. There was no way he could fully explain his way out of this.
Kitz sneered in contempt. "Putting your cock into that filthy Jew's mouth! You're lucky he didn't bite it off." He leaned in closer to Eren. "How long have you been training him to be your little whore? This whole time? Were you fucking him all summer, right under our noses?"
Eren's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing to defend himself. They had been seen; there was not much he could do to secure his own innocence. The most he could hope for was to take all the blame and allow Levi to live.
"You're right," Eren snapped. "I kept him alive to pleasure me. He didn't even want to at first, but I forced him. You're the one who showed us, captain; these Jews will do anything to stay alive. I thought I could save some money, use him instead of a prostitute, and so long as it was only his mouth, any hole works, right?"
Galliard scoffed. "So, you dressed him up as a woman and tried to pretend he was just some whore?"
Haughtily, Eren said, "Mouths feel the same, women or Jews. That's all it was; just his mouth."
"Are you sure?" Kitz asked, obviously not believing him.
"Of course. I mean, look! I'm married, and my wife is expecting a baby," he said, leaning into that lie they told everyone. "So as you can see, I'm not homosexual. I never once let him do something as disgusting as fucking my ass, nor did I fuck his. It was only his hands and mouth." He looked over to Reiner. "You know what I did to my friends in Napola. You were there that day! I turned on those little shits for being faggots. They were disgusting, and I punished them for it. I killed Grützmacher for being a faggot too. He wanted an ass; I don't. Mouth and hands only, because I am not a faggot."
Kitz said softly, "Are you saying you have no feelings for this Jew? Did you save his life out of pity, perhaps because he fell in love with you?"
Eren scoffed and shook his head. "Love? That's ridiculous. I had to force him into it. You used to say, we kept him around for his mouth. Well, it's the same now, except instead of translating, he made a handy hole for my dick. He was convenient, that's all."
Kitz pulled out his gun and offered it to Eren. "Prove your innocence."
Eren gulped hard at the metallic shine of the barrel in the harsh light of a naked light bulb overheard. "Wait, prove my innocence?" he cried out in surprise. He had said all that hoping to take blame off Levi.
"Yes, Jäger. If he was just a hole to put your cock in and no different from some whore, prove it. Shoot him in the head, just like you did to that other Jew the day we left that godforsaken village. He won't be set free either way, but I'd be willing to overlook your transgression if you prove this was nothing more than using a Jew for some sexual release."
"Herr Hauptmann!" Galliard shouted in protest, but Kitz had a smirk twisting on his lips.
Eren looked at the gun, then over to Levi.
Although Levi had heard all this in a language he did not know, he grasped enough. Eren had a chance to go free, but the cost was to kill him.
"Do it," he whispered. "Live, no matter the price."
Eren's lower lip began to tremble. "The price is too high," he whispered, knowing there was no way he could do it, even if the consequences meant death for them both.
"Well, Jäger?" Kitz urged, nudging the revolver closer.
Eren closed his eyes in defeat.
Kitz returned the gun to his holster, looking deeply disappointed. Then he plowed his fist into Eren's gut. He was slammed up against the cold wall again, coughing in pain as the captain's fist felt like it reached all the way back to his spine. Kitz yanked Eren up by the hair and ripped the Knight's Cross off his neck.
"To think, a Jew-loving faggot would be honored with this," he snarled, shaking the medal in Eren's face.
Eren's eyes snapped open and glowered at the captain. "Do you think you deserve it, the man who stabbed himself in the leg just to get out of a battle because he couldn't handle a single artillery strike? The lowest soldat in my platoon is a million times more brave than you. At least they stayed, fought, and died for the Reich, which is more than you will ever be able to claim."
Kitz punched Eren again, and he collapsed to the ground, coughing and spitting blood from his mouth. He still turned his head up and glared defiantly.
"You're a coward, Woermann. You will always be a coward."
Kitz's lip curled in rage. "Strip," he ordered. "You don't deserve the honor of wearing that uniform anymore."
"You never did."
Kitz's boot swung and pounded into Eren's gut. Levi began to surge forward, but Kitz's revolver whipped out before he could take more than one step. The muzzle pointed down at Eren while Kitz glaring at Levi.
"Tell the Jew, if he moves, I will shoot you first, and then him."
Eren tried to catch his breath, but his face and whole midsection ached.
"Now!" Kitz screamed. "And tell him to get out of that dress. Seeing him like that makes me want to vomit."
Eren hoped that if they both followed orders, maybe they would not be hurt as much. In English, he explained to Levi, "He wants you to get out of your clothes."
"Pervert."
"No." Eren began to move, slowly undoing his boots. "Both of us."
Levi watched as Eren moved cautiously, unable to use one arm. "Strip us naked and throw us in prison? Not the first time for me." He gladly slipped off the heels and worked on the buttons of the dress, all with a scathing glare at the three Nazis.
Eren got his boots off. Then he unclasped the uniform tunic and dropped it to the ground. He leaned back against the wall, needing a moment to overcome the pain from just that much. Maybe it was the loss of blood, but suddenly Eren began to chuckle to himself.
"You wanted me out of a Nazi uniform. Well, you got it."
Hearing that laugh, Kitz slammed his boot into Eren's shoulder, right on top of the bullet wound, and ground into it. Eren's scream yelped high at the intense burning.
Levi shouted, "Espèces de sales boches!" Filthy Kraut animals!
Kitz leaned forward and pressed his gun against the middle of Eren's forehead. "Du findest das alles lustig, oder? Sobald ich der Schwuchtel den Schwanz abgeschnitten habe, wirst du nicht mehr lachen." You find all this funny, don't you? Once I cut off that faggot's dick, you won't laugh anymore.
Kitz removed his boot, and Eren fully collapsed. For a moment, the world went black and it sounded like radio static in his ears. No! He couldn't pass out! There was no telling if Levi would survive for long without him there to explain what was going on. He was already shivering from blood loss, but he struggled to stay conscious, if only for Levi's sake.
Then again, both of them would probably be dead by tomorrow.
Quietly, Levi said to Eren, "Warn them, I have knives strapped to my thighs. I don't want to pull up this skirt and have one of them shoot me."
Eren needed a moment to clear his head, but then he warned them that Levi was still armed. Kitz pointed his gun at Levi.
"Sag der Ratte, sie soll alle versteckten Waffen entfernen. Eine falsche Bewegung, sind Sie beide tot." Tell the rat to remove all hidden weapons. One wrong move, you're both dead.
Eren relayed the warning. Slowly, Levi slid the dress down and stepped out, revealing the knives. Keeping a wary eye on Kitz, Levi unstrapped the holster and garter belts, and the weapons fell to the ground. He kept his hands raised as Reiner quickly stepped forward to grab the belts, draping them over his arm along with the black bag and woman's purse. Then Levi spared a glance down to Eren. His heart ached to see Eren being tortured like this, and although he might have been able to take on these three on his own, he refused to risk Eren's life.
"Get up," Kitz coldly ordered Eren. "Finish undressing."
Slowly, he rose to his feet so he could get his trousers.
As Levi pulled off his knickers, Galliard chuckled. "I think I believe the lieutenant, and the Jew didn't pleasure him in any way besides using his mouth. Look at that cock! With a penis that small, there's no way he could pleasure even a squirrel."
Eren glared at him, but he bit back his defense of Levi's manhood. Eren was now glad Levi did not understand German, so he had no idea how he was being insulted.
Galliard laughed at the furious glares from Eren. "Did you try to suck his cock, Jäger? There's barely anything to suck on. Maybe if I cut it off and dry it out, I could use it to floss my teeth."
Reiner sighed at the taunting. "Don't look at it for too long. You might start craving it."
"Not a chance! Although seeing it makes me hungry for a Nürnberger rostbratwurst."
Eren fumbled with his trousers, unable to use one hand. Finally, he managed to get them down to his ankles and stepped out of them. Then he leaned against the plaster wall, wedging his shoulder against it and grinding his fist in to put pressure on the wound as he felt it bleeding even more. The icy chill brought some relief to the burning pain.
"All of it, Jäger," Kitz ordered.
Eren had to dig down for strength to move. He realized his left arm was useless, half numb, just hanging there. With his bloodied right hand, he pulled the undershirt up over his head, hissing in pain as it moved past the wound. The saturated shirt fell to the ground in a wet and bloody splatter. He quickly pressed up against the wall again. For a moment, they all saw the gunshot wound on his shoulder and torso gleaming red with blood.
"I said all of it!"
Eren needed a moment. Black spots danced in his vision, and the shivering made his whole body tremble. He knew he was going into shock. Gulping down pain, Eren lowered his underwear, and as Kitz motioned to his socks as well, he lifted each foot to pull the socks off. His feet flinched to stand on the ice cold concrete floor.
"See, Jäger has a true Aryan penis. Not exactly impressive, but enough to please a few girls."
Eren gritted his teeth in shame and kept quiet. Galliard was obviously egging him to react so he could be punched again.
Kitz grabbed Eren's right hand, pulled it away from his shoulder, and yanked off the gold wedding band. He smirked as he tucked the ring into his pocket and saw Eren looking shocked and enraged. Then he walked over to Levi and did the same, pulling off the dainty pearl ring and keeping it for himself.
"I think I'll sell them and buy drinks for all the soldiers in the beer hall. Gather their clothes and burn them."
Galliard picked up Eren's uniform, but as he lifted the trousers, a handkerchief fluttered out of the pocket. He began to pick it up, but he suddenly dropped all of the clothes and leaped back.
"My God, that's semen!" He looked up at Eren in horror. "Is that the Jew's semen? You weren't just using him. You were pleasuring him!"
Reiner sneered at Levi. "Is that what the white flakes on the Jew's stomach are? Was he lying down when you stroked him off, and you tried to clean up evidence of your crime?" He stomped up to Eren. "He isn't a convenient hole at all."
Eren stood firm, shivering silently in pain as he glared into Reiner's pale blue eyes.
"Is that it, Jäger?" he screamed. "Are you two lovers? How long? All summer? Were you like this even back when we were kids? Is that why you turned on your friends? Were all three of you homosexual? That's what we all thought at first, but you turned on them so the rumors went away. Those two just got caught, and you escaped by turning on your own friends. Coward!"
Reiner punched Eren across the face, knocking him hard against the wall. Eren coughed as blood filled his mouth, and he worried if he had lost a tooth from the sheer force of Reiner's massive fist.
"You sick bastard!"
His face was hit again. Then suddenly Levi jumped in front of him.
"Arrête de le frapper, bordel." Stop fucking hitting him.
Reiner's fist swung at Levi instead, whose hand shot up, blocking the hit and holding back the powerful force. Levi sneered at the sheer strength in Reiner's fist, but he held his ground. For a moment, Reiner looked surprised, even intrigued, by Levi's ability to block him.
Just then, Galliard pulled out a baton and pummeled it over Levi's head. He fell limply to the ground, his vision black and his skull throbbing like it had been crushed.
Kitz yelled out, "That's enough!"
Galliard had his baton raised for another blow to Levi's head, but he pulled back at the order.
Reiner also stepped back but sneered, "You're better than this, Eren Jäger. At least, I thought you were."
Eren cringed, crushed that his childhood friend could look at him with so much disgust.
Kitz ordered, "Lock them both up."
Galliard grabbed Levi by the hair and yanked him up. Reiner picked up Eren's undershirt and thrust it at him.
"Don't bleed to death before the Gestapo arrive."
Eren pressed the shirt up to the exit wound. Reiner pulled part of the fabric over his shoulder and pushed his hand up against the entrance wound to get support to both sides. Then he forced Eren to slowly and unsteadily walk forward.
Naked, the two were taken through a brick tunnel and long hallways that felt so cold, meat could have been hung to keep it fresh. Eren was already shivering from blood loss, and his bare feet walking across the frigid concrete floor made him shake painfully. Beside him, Levi was still blinking out his vision, and Eren saw blood mixing in with his dark hair and dripping down his neck.
Eren was pushed into a tiny prison cell with gray walls made of concrete bricks, so small he could have reached his hands out and touched both walls. There was a narrow cot with a gray blanket that looked like it had been used to wipe asses. Considering the rusted metal bucket in the corner with dried feces stuck to the edges, that might have been the case.
The door slammed shut, leaving him in darkness.
"Take this one further down," instructed Kitz.
"He did nothing!" Eren screamed. "It was me. All of it. It wasn't him, so please..." Tears came to his eyes. "Please, don't hurt him."
Kitz walked up to the tiny window into the prison cell. "Endlösung."
Eren caught his breath. The Final Solution.
"The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Death. Death is the only solution, and the final solution. Death to Jews. Death to Mischlinge." He leaned in close, his eyes wild with hatred, and whispered, "Death to homosexuals." Then he pulled away.
"No," Eren begged. "No, please!"
"I would prefer to execute you both immediately, but it's getting late, and no one would come out to watch an execution in this rain. I don't want you to die hidden away, Jäger. No." Kitz laughed sadistically. "Tomorrow morning, we will have a sermon for the troops, a lesson about the sins of sodomy."
"I never had sex with him," Eren insisted.
Kitz shouted back, "I saw what you did with his mouth, you faggot! You both will be flogged and castrated in public, for all to see. I'll make sure you never use that dick of yours again. The last thing the world needs is more homosexuals."
Eren shook his head, trembling in pain and rage. "You're sick."
"You're the one who's disgusting!" he bellowed. Then Kitz leaned in and whispered, "After I've removed that tiny dick of his, I will take great pleasure in watching him hang from a rope. I'd rather kill you as well, but you will serve Germany better in a labor camp, a pink triangle to label you as a homosexual. I hear the Jews take turns raping the homosexuals, a hundred men every night." Kitz laughed with a sinister grin. "Maybe I should let the Jew live, send him with you, so he can watch as hundreds of his own kind rape you until all you shit is Jewish semen. But I don't trust him. A tricky rat like him would figure out how to escape his cage." He pulled back and added, "Then again, I don't promise to keep him alive until morning."
With that threat, Kitz continued on. Reiner paused only a moment to look into the cell as Eren sank back in horror.
Flogging and dismissal from the military, he had expected. Even a labor camp made sense.
Castration though!
Eren doubted it would be like what Levi went through, a surgical sterilization. Knowing Kitz, he intended to cut it right off.
Eren collapsed onto the cot and, ignoring the suspicious stains, wrapped the blanket around him, at least enough to hide his nudity. His shoulder burned, and he had lost feeling down his arm. He looked at his left hand and tried to wiggle his fingers. Two were completely numb, and the others struggled to move.
Even if he thought he could escape, he could not fight.
Levi was pushed further down the hallway to a cavernous room. Inside were tiny wooden bunk beds, so that the room could have fit forty people, and was probably packed to capacity when the internment camp was still in use.
Kitz gave Levi a hard shove, sending him falling to the ground. Immediately, a boot collided into Levi's stomach, knocking the air out of him.
"This room should be big enough," Kitz said as he glanced around. "Galliard, go tell the guards, if they're bored and want to beat the shit out of a Jew, we've got a filthy faggot to play with."
Levi rounded on them. He was now naked and unarmed, but his eyes swung back and forth, judging what weapons these men had, what he could use. With Eren out of the way, he could make his attack.
Reiner glanced down the hall again. "What about Jäger?"
At the mention of Eren's name, Levi froze. He began to recalculate what he should do, and he waited to see what their next move was.
"What about him?" Kitz sneered at Reiner.
"He'll bleed to death."
Kitz merely scoffed. "If he dies from a single bullet, then he wasn't a true Aryan to begin with."
Reiner's jaw twitched. "Spoken like a man who has never fought a battle in his life."
Galliard looked shocked at Reiner's bold insult. Kitz walked right up to him and glared into those ice-blue eyes.
"I fought in the first World War, little boy. Who are you to speak to me like that?"
Reiner stood his ground. "And I know for a fact, you were only in one battle, and you yourself were never on the front lines. You killed a single person: a British captain who had already surrendered."
Kitz's eyes went massive from rage. "How the fuck do you know that?"
"It doesn't matter. The point is, I've seen hundreds of Germans die from a single bullet wound. So don't you dare insult such brave warriors by saying they aren't true Aryan just because the bullet hit them in the wrong part of the body."
"Easy, Braun," Galliard warned. "Forgive him, Herr Hauptmann. He lost his best friend in Normandy."
Reiner went on, "Jäger is in need of medical attention. We can't let him die before he stands trial for his crimes."
"There's no need for a trial," Kitz snarled. "We all saw it, and I don't intend to wait for a trial."
Galliard looked surprised. "Sir, there are laws, protocols. He's a citizen of Germany, so he has rights."
Kitz screamed, "He is a faggot who deserves to have his dick cut off!"
Reiner grimaced. "You're not really going to castrate him, right? Surely, the Gestapo would not allow it."
"Not allow it?" Kitz barked out a sardonic laugh. "Who do you think taught me? It was one of the punishments we used when I was stationed in a Polish ghetto. It's terrifying just how easy it is to cut off a dick, but then you slice their balls open, one by one, and remove their testicles. They practically pop out! Most bleed to death or die from shock. Those who survive will never dare question German superiority again. I want Jäger to remember every day for the rest of his life: he's missing his dick because he put it into the putrid mouth of a Jewish rat."
Reiner swallowed back his stomach. This captain was insane! However, he technically outranked Reiner, despite the fact that he was an SS officer. Stiffly, he said, "If you want Jäger to survive that long, then he needs medical attention."
"Braun is right," said Galliard. "It's a miracle he didn't bleed to death in the car."
Kitz's massive eyes shot back and forth between the two SS officers.
Still on the ground, cautiously watching this, Levi tried to figure out what this standoff was about. An argument over Eren, that was clear. The brawny blond one seemed sympathetic, despite punching Eren ealier. If Levi recalled right, he was a childhood friend of Eren. Maybe he would help, but not if Levi lunged at him. Plus if he attacked and failed, Eren was as good as dead. If he attacked and succeeded in killing all three, he would still have to escape this internment camp full of Nazis, naked, with Eren wounded and unable to fight.
He realized, fighting was not an option. Not yet. Eren needed medical care first, and it sounded like that was what the blond SS officer wanted to do. Let him go help Eren; Levi could put up with a beating if it was to save the man he loved. He would look for an opportunity later.
Kitz finally bellowed angrily, "Fine!" He threw a key at Reiner. "See to his wounds. At least keep him alive long enough so he can be publicly disciplined."
Reiner's arm shot out. "Jawohl, Herr Hauptmann."
Then he turned sharply and marched out of the room. He went through hallways and asked one of the soldiers where they kept medical supplies. He was shown to a place, not quite a clinic, certainly not suitable for medical emergencies, but there were bandages, bottles of disinfectant, and a tin of sulfa powder. He took that to Eren's prison and unlocked the door.
The lieutenant was on the cot, naked, only a filthy blanket around him, pressing his shoulder up against the wall behind him while pushing the blood-soaked shirt on the front, keeping a firm pressure on both entry and exit wounds. Reiner grimaced at seeing his condition.
"Are you still conscious?"
Eren's eyes slowly opened. "Unfortunately, yes. Are you here to punch me again? If you could knock me out like you did that time back in Napola, that would be nice."
"I'm here to patch you up. Woermann wants you to survive until morning, but if you try to escape, I will shoot you."
"It might be a mercy," he muttered bitterly. Eren knew he did not have the strength to fight someone as brawny as Reiner, especially when the slightest movement of his chest hurt his shoulder.
Reiner took a seat on the cot and set down the supplies. "Sit up."
Eren barely wanted to move, but he forced himself off the wall. Just that much made him want to vomit.
"Pull away the cloth."
Eren moved the shirt away. In the harsh light of an overhead bulb, Reiner inspected Eren's wound. They sat in awkward silence, while down the hall, they heard strikes of flesh against flesh and a growl of pain from Levi.
"What were you doing with Woermann?" Eren asked softly as he tried to block the sounds of Levi suffering.
Reiner also focused on inspecting the shoulder and blocked out other noises. "I was drinking with Galliard and showing him the Smith & Wesson revolver I picked up in Normandy. It looked strange compared to other soldiers who had taken American guns as trophies. Apparently, it isn't American; it's a British model. To be honest, I barely knew which group we were fighting. American, British, Canadian, Polish: Normandy felt like the whole world had turned against us. As we began to talk about British guns, Woermann came up to us to show off his Webley." Reiner added under his breath, "He uses any excuse to show off that gun and talk about the War like he was some damn hero and not a 16-year-old recruit who only saw a single battle."
Eren smiled faintly. At least he was not the only person with a bad opinion of Kitz Woermann.
"Galliard mentioned finding a M1 Garand washed up on the shore of the Moselle, probably from the fighting further north, so we went to where he claimed to have found it. That's when we heard something, and ... well, I wish we would have stayed in the beer hall drinking."
Eren glanced over, and for a moment, he saw sympathy in those pale eyes. That surprised him.
Reiner seemed to catch himself and shook his head. "Looks like a clean shot straight through. Missed the bone and the artery. You're lucky."
"My arm's numb. It hit a nerve. I'm not that lucky."
"There weren't many medical supplies in this place. Some disinfectant, but I doubt the bandages are sterile."
Eren muttered, "There are bandages in the purse."
"Purse?"
Reiner looked down at the black backpack and woman's purse he had picked up at the riverbank and had been carrying around that whole time. He opened the purse, and sitting right on top was the Enfield revolver. Reiner glanced up sharply, but Eren's eyes were closed again.
Reiner picked up the gun and opened the top break to inspect the cartridge. There were no bullets, so he returned the gun and pushed it down to the bottom of the purse. He pulled out a roll of bandages and gauze, then closed the purse back up.
Reiner washed the wound, and Eren flinched as the disinfectant burned. Reiner then opened the container of yellow powder. He sprinkled the sulfa powder onto Eren's wound, and Eren hissed.
"A waste of medical supplies," he mumbled.
"The captain wants you to live long enough to make an example out of you."
"By castrating me." Eren slowly shook his head. "I should swallow a cyanide pill now and be done with it."
"Don't talk like that. Now, I need to pack the wound." Reiner took some of the gauze and rolled it into a cylinder. "This will hurt. A lot! Brace yourself up against the wall, and try not to pass out."
Eren steeled himself, leaned against the icy wall, and gave a nod as soon as he was prepared for the next part. Reiner used one hand to press on Eren, keeping his shoulder firmly wedged against the wall. Their eyes met, and Eren gave Reiner a silent nod.
Grimacing with determination, Reiner shoved the gauze plug directly into the gaping hole, using his finger to cram it inside. Eren howled in agony and instinctively tried to pull away, but Reiner's hand pressed harder, holding him still. Eren began to go pale as Reiner continued to pack the wound. Reiner's face was stern and focused, not bothering with being gentle. This was a necessary part of stopping the bleeding, and it was the best way to save Eren's life.
Once the wound was packed, Reiner put bandages over it. Eren breathed heavily, starting to feel woozy, although he was not sure if he could pass out yet or not.
Reiner paused to look at Eren. "Seriously, why?" he whispered, that glint of sympathy coming back. "You were so strong in Napola, always challenging me. You're a good officer, a true warrior, one of the best men I know. Why would you even want to do this?"
Eren's eyes were half closed as he turned toward Reiner. "Why do any of us fall in love?"
"You could have had any woman in Germany or France."
"I don't want a woman. Never have."
"You just haven't found the right one."
Eren's smile was weak, but his eyes shined. "I found the right person. He's everything I've ever wanted." He looked straight into Reiner's eyes. "You don't understand. It's not a choice for me. Those friends of mine in Napola, it wasn't a choice for them either. Do you think anyone would choose this, knowing the risks? I fought so hard not to die in this war. Why would I choose to risk my life by being homosexual?"
"It was your choice!"
He shook his head and sank back with his eyes closed against the dizziness. "Love doesn't let you choose. It just happens. The Bible says, God is love. Love is divine. So I can only conclude, my love for Levi is divine as well."
"Don't bring God into your sin!" Reiner sneered in a moment of disgust. Then slowly, his face grew uncertain. "Do you really love him?"
Eren smiled bittersweetly. "With all my heart and soul."
Reiner said nothing else, not sure if that was sick or endearing. Down the hall, they both heard the sounds of Levi being beaten, loud cracks from hands and deep thuds from fists, boots, and Galliard's club. Then Levi let out a shriek of agony.
A tear dripped out of Eren's closed eyes. He whispered faintly, "Can you help him?"
Reiner's lips pursed hard. "You know I can't."
Eren nodded. Helping a Jew would get Reiner in trouble as well.
He watched Eren crying, helpless to save his lover. Slowly, Reiner's fist tightened. "I'll let your men know about your arrest," he whispered. "It'll also get me out of here."
Eren cracked an eye open and sardonically asked, "Aren't you going to join in with the beating?"
"No. I may not like Jews, but it's a waste of a soldier's time and energy to beat one up. I'd rather just ship you both off to a camp and be done with it. What Woermann wants," he whispered, glaring at the door as Levi let out another scream. "It's wrong."
Eren closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, letting the frigid bricks cool off the burning in his shoulder. "Thank you."
"I think you're disgusting. Why would you thank me?"
"For bandaging my shoulder. For not beating him up. For not burning the book yet."
Reiner looked down at the black bag. "What's with this book?"
Growing drowsy, Eren muttered, "It's the most precious thing in the world to him ... and he's the most precious thing in the world to me."
They heard a bloodcurdling scream down the hall, and Eren burst out in a sob, feeling utterly helpless.
"I don't want him to die. Please, God. Don't let him die!" Eren sank down onto the bed, crying softly.
Reiner stood and backed away, hating these feelings of remorse for someone he had been told he should hate, a plague on civilization. He picked up the black bag and purse, but he paused. Slowly, he opened the purse, dug down, and pulled out the revolver. Eren looked up, momentarily worried that Reiner might shoot him.
"I can't get you a cyanide pill, but I can do the next best thing." Reiner pulled out the Smith & Wesson revolver he had just been showing to Galliard and Woermann. "You're lucky I never shot this thing. It only has three bullets left."
He pulled out one bullet, opened the cylinder of the Enfield, and slipped the bullet in. It slid down smoothly.
"Good. It's the right caliber."
He closed the cylinder with the single bullet lined up, then placed the gun back into the purse, tucking it down deep. He set the purse under the tiny cot and pushed it back, so it would be out of view. Eren looked confused and also a little scared.
Reiner looked conflicted but determined. He straightened up and looked down at Eren with his awestruck face. "Try not to die. You have the luck of the Devil, after all. If anyone could get out of this, it's you. Still, just in case, that gun can either be your cyanide pill, or a last act of revenge. Or both, considering you won't live long if you decide to shoot Woermann."
"You're giving me a chance to shoot an officer," Eren pointed out, still confused why Reiner would do this.
"He's not the sort of man Germany needs. I still think ... you are."
Eren smiled faintly.
"So try not to die, no matter how bad things get. Let that," he said, nodding to the purse, "be a last resort."
Reiner left the tiny cell and locked the thick door behind him. He felt satisfied that, at the very least, he was giving Eren a noble way out of this. Death before surrender!
He went to the barracks room, where Kitz, Galliard, and two guards were kicking Levi over and over.
"Herr Hauptmann," he called in. "I'm going to tell Jäger's platoon that he's been arrested."
Kitz gave Levi another kick. "Good, good! Bring them down here so they can beat the shit out of this faggot too."
Reiner walked away, his face tight and his steps brisk. In that cold hallway, he could hear the brutal hits and screams of pain from Levi mixing with the quiet sobs of helplessness and a prayer for mercy from Eren. Reiner slammed his eyes shut and put his hands to his ears, trying to block out everything so he could return to normal and not feel this rift between the warrior of the Nazi Party he had to be, and the friend to Eren he wanted to be.
This was wrong! It should not be handled by a sadistic man with a personal vendetta against Eren. It should be handled legally, properly.
He knew one person who might be able to help.
# # #
# #
#
Fort Queuleu, called Feste Göben (or Goeben) in German, is located on a hill in southern Metz, between the Cheneau stream and the Seille river. It was built in the 5-pointed star defense design that was common for fortresses through the late Middle Ages and up into the 19th century. All around was a moat 15 meters wide and 6 meters deep, with a single wooden bridge closest to the city of Metz as the means of crossing the moat.
Built in 1869 to be barracks for French soldiers, it fell into German hands after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The fort was renamed Feste Goeben/Göben, named after Prussian General August Karl von Goeben, a hero of the 1870 war. The Germans modernized the forts, first with latrines, later electric lighting, telephones, stronger defenses, and better artillery following the rapid advances of warfare as we moved into the 20th century.
After the First World War, Metz returned to France's control, and Fort Queuleu was used for German, Italian, and Russian POWs, managed by the French Army but with assistance from the American Army and the YMCA. ("It's fun to stay at the YMCA! Unless you are a P.O.W.-hey!")
(Prisoners of war, 1918)
When France fell in 1940, Metz again was occupied by Germans, who first used as a Stalag (POW camp) for French and Belgian prisoners, then as a Sonderlager (high-security internment camp) for Yugoslavian prisoners assigned to agricultural labor and building the Metz-Frescaty airbase (part of the fort where Eren was assigned to go). It was one of the Reich's westernmost concentration subcamps.
(Feste Göben filled with French and Belgian prisoners)
Between 1943 and August 1944, Queuleu/Göben was used as an interrogation center run by the Gestapo. Between 1,500 and 1,800 people were detained there, both men and women, mostly Resistance fighters, but also smugglers, saboteurs, hostages, those who tried to avoid the compulsory labor camps in Germany, and even some Russian prisoners. Most were held in overcrowded cells, blindfolded the entire time with their wrists and ankles tied up, not allowed to speak, move, or wash, and brutally tortured by SS guards and under the supervision of camp commandant Hauptscharführer Georg Hempen.
(blindfolded Resistance prisoners)
Thirty-six died after brutal torture. The French referred to the fort as Enfer de Queuleu, or the "Hell of Queuleu."
As American forces approached Metz, the Germans began to evacuate the fort. Almost all of the prisoners were transferred to concentration camps by mid-August. The majority of the detainees were moved to Struthof, Schirmeck, or Ravensbrück. (So in my story, the fort has been without prisoners for a few months, which is why it's so empty.)
The fort would put up a defense during the final days of the Battle of Metz, with a militia, police, forcefully-recruited people over 45, newly-minted soldiers under 18, and children from the local Hitler Youth. However, with such a force, the Americans easily overpowered Feste Göben, and the French would once again rename is Fort de Queuleu.
Here is the wooden bridge spanning the moat that surrounds the fort: from before the war, during German occupation with the name changed to Feste Goeben and SS guards standing out front, and finally today with "Fort de Queuleu" once again above the arch.
"S.S. Sonderlager Feste Göben, Fort de Queulue Casement "A" Camp de Concentration 1943-1944." A is a fortified structure from which guns are fired. During the American Civil War, they discovered that exposed masonry is highly vulnerable to artillery, but earthenware bunkers were more resilient. The French took that discovery and began to make casements of concrete buried underground or with many meters of earth on top. The dirt cushions against artillery strikes, and foliage growing on top helped in the 20th century with hiding the casements from the view of airplanes.
A lineup room, with a display of blindfolded mannequins. This is where Kitz stripped them and began to beat up Eren.
Other images used earlier are a solitary confinement cell where leaders of the French Resistance were kept, and a mass prisoner barracks. That particular picture is a room that housed female prisoners. There were 10 bunk beds, with four beds per bunk. At its worst, prisoners were forced to double up two per bed, or else sleep on the concrete floor.
Nürnberger rostbratwurst — Galliard mentions this a tiny sausage made of pork, veal, marjoram, and white pepper. So yeah, he's insulting Levi's dick, saying it's a finger-sized sausage.
Sulfa Powder — If you watched Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, when someone is shot, they put a yellow powder on the wound. This is sulfa powder (sulfanilamide) and used to prevent infections in wounds. It was carried in both powder and tablet form as part of a soldier's gear. Despite a "sulfa craze" in the 1930s and unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies trying to capitalize on the trend ending in a deadly disaster that created the FDA in America (which I wrote a blog post about) sulfa was a highly effective means of treating bacterial infections, thus tablets were good for strep throat, and the powder was sprinkled on wounds to prevent infection. Although it would later be replaced by penicillin, sulfa saved millions of lives in war and on the home front.
Treating a Wound — I pray none of you ever experience gun violence. Sadly, I have many friends who were shot, witnessed shootings, or who shot others. (Part of East LA gangsta life.) In an active shooter situation, first get yourself to safety, then call emergency services. Don't assume someone else will. Once YOU are safe, only THEN should you help others. If you or someone else has been shot, try to stop the bleeding by putting as much pressure as you can on the wound with a shirt, scarf, towel, any clothing available. Don't be weak! Use two hands, or even your knee to really press hard. It will hurt them, but it can save their life. If it's a wound to a limb, tie a tourniquet with a belt, scarf, pantyhose, rope, whatever you can use. Again, don't be wimpy. You need to tighten that until it cuts off blood. Don't fear it may cause a limb to fall off; that's only if the tourniquet is on for over two hours. Hopefully, medical services can arrive before that happens (and better to lose an arm than your life). If you must pack a wound to stop the bleeding, use gauze, a sock, handkerchief, or cotton shirt, and really cram it in there. Don't worry about infection. At this point, that's way down the list of things to worry about. Your focus now should be on slowing down the bleeding. Even after packing a wound, you still need to keep pressure on it.
To note: Many websites claim you should pack a gunshot wound with a tampon. (The Russian Army told soldiers to ask their wives and girlfriends to lend them tampons before being deployed to Ukraine.) However, this is one of the WORST things you can do. Tampons expand. You want to put pressure on the inside of the wound, not EXPAND it and do more damage! Plus there's not enough cotton in a tampon to properly pack the exit hole of the wound. Tampons only hold 9mL of blood, but you can lose up to 500mL per minute if you are shot in an artery. Using sterile gauze is ideal, a sock works in a pinch, but NEVER use a tampon. Again, I really hope none of you have to use this information, but it's sad what things Americans need to learn because gun violence has become commonplace.
The Enfield and the Victory Model — Here is a bit of fun background into my writing process and just how deep I go to make sure everything is historically accurate. When I first wrote the scene of Reiner finding Levi's gun, I had to go back a few chapters. Would Levi have reloaded the gun after emptying the chamber? Did he even have spare bullets? Or had he been carrying around this gun with what bullets remained after he took it in the attic attack?
Turns out, I had thought ahead about this at some point, because when Levi shot the Gestapo during the raid on the brothel, he only fired five shots before emptying the chamber. It's a 6-round cylinder, and Levi had already fired one shot in the attic. Which means he never replaced the missing bullet, implying that Levi does not have ammunition for his gun. So I thought, perhaps Reiner could give him a bullet.
When I told my idea to my husband (who is a firearms mega-nerd), he warned that during World War II, each country used different sizes of ammunition: the German Luger, Mauser, and Walther revolvers all used 9mm bullets (9×19mm Parabellum, to be precise); France used 7.65mm Browning bullets; Britain and its colonies (Canada, India, Australia, etc.) tended to use .38/200 caliber rounds; while American sidearms used .45 ACP cartridges.
In short, the British Enfield No. 2 chambered different bullets than a Luger. Reiner couldn't just give a 9mm bullet from his Luger to Eren. Still, I loved the idea of Reiner leaving the gun for Eren with one bullet—a "cyanide pill" or a shot at revenge.
So I looked around and discovered that the American weapons manufacturer Smith & Wesson made a revolver known as the Smith & Wesson Victory Model, specially designed to hold British .38/200 rounds. The Victory Model was part of America's Lend-Lease Act. (Besides the Pacific Islands, Alaska, and West Coast, America was relatively unscathed by war and had a massive workforce to build tanks, trucks, airplanes, weapons, cotton fields to weave uniforms, oil fields to fill up gas tanks, raw materials, and plenty of open land to grow food, which they lent or leased to their Allies.)
So if Reiner fought on one of the Normandy beaches stormed by British or Canadian forces, then it makes sense that he would grab a S&W Victory Model as a "trophy gun." It would not look exactly the same as an American model, which is why he was showing it around, trying to figure out precisely what he picked up. Since the Victory Model was designed to be compatible with British ammunition, it and the Enfield revolver used the same bullets, so Reiner can give one to Eren.
Which leads me to yet another historical essay. I know some of you LOVE these.
(President Roosevelt signing the Lend-Lease Act, 1941)
Lend-Lease Act
Under the 1941 Lend-Lease Act, America would "lend" war supplies like weapons, food, clothing, trucks, airplanes, rail engines, raw materials, and metals, as opposed to selling them, first in the name of "the defense of the United States" and later as a fellow combatant.
America's initial "cash and carry" agreement involved nations paying for the goods, America would build them, and that nation had to come pick up their order. (A bit like curbside pickup at a restaurant or store. Buy a tank, we'll make it, but you have to figure out how to get it home.)
Soon, this policy was not feasible. France fell in 1940; the London Blitz decimated England's economy, morale, and military strength as the UK stood with their Allies against Germany. (Brits who boast "England stood alone!" forget—or purposely choose to ignore—that Canada and Poland sent hundreds of thousands of troops to help them, and India provided 2.5 MILLION soldiers. That is hardly being "alone." Poor Canada, always being overlooked!)
When Prime Minister Winston Churchill told President Franklin D. Roosevelt about their money problem, Roosevelt first agreed to exchange more than 50 outdated American destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases in the Caribbean and Newfoundland, which would be used as U.S. air and naval bases. Finally, Roosevelt managed to convince the Isolationist Congress and wary American public of his idea to lend out supplies, and payment would be deferred until after the war. Roosevelt famously declared in one of his radio Fireside Chats, "We must be the great arsenal of democracy."
Between 1941-1945, the U.S. gave a total of $50 billion—$1 trillion in 2023—of materials to 30 nations, mostly the UK ($31 billion/$636 billion today), the USSR ($11 billion/$252 billion today), and France ($3 billion/$61 billion today). Of the planes America built in their factories, only 80% were flown by their own Air Force; the rest went to their Allies. 10% of the British food supply came from the USA. The USSR received 400,000 Jeeps, 14,000 airplanes, 13,000 tanks (over 50% of their total force), 2,000 locomotives, 11,000 rail-cars, 35,000 radios, 32,000 motorcycles, 15 million army boots, and 3,000,000 tons of food. 80% of their copper, 57% of their fuel, and 33% of all Soviet vehicles could have had "Made In America" stamped on them.
This allowed Britain to hold on against Germany until the United States formally entered the war later that year (after the bombing of Pearl Harbor). Canada also helped in lending aid, giving $4 billion to the Allies, which, per capita, was more than what the USA loaned. (Let's show Canada proper love, guys!) Lend-Lease helped Australia, New Zealand, and China in the battles in the Pacific, armed the Free France Forces, and gave the Soviets better mobility on the Eastern Front, allowing them to push into Germany. It is estimated that, without the Lend-Lease Act, the war would have taken an extra 14 months.
By becoming the "arsenal of democracy" during World War II, the United States secured its place in the international economic and political order once the war drew to a close. However, the Lend-Lease Act was very unpopular in America. Roosevelt struggled to convince Congress to include the USSR after they joined the Allies in 1941, civilians feared it would plunge an already broken economy into worse turmoil, and the Isolationists scoffed that other countries would never be honorable enough to repay their debt.
It turned out the people's fears were somewhat right. Few of the leased weapons and machinery were ever returned, and a small fraction of the debt was repaid. So while sites like War History Online claim "The USA Made a Lot of Money From WW2," they also essentially gave away billions.
Lend-Lease also cost America heavily in lives. Shipments across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were plagued by German U-boat attacks. Arctic convoys to Russia often suffered up to 40% casualties. When they arrived in the USSR, American sailors were not allowed to come ashore. They had to stay on their ships while all supplies were removed from American crates and placed into Soviet-marked crates, so the Russian people never knew where their food, uniforms, and weapons were coming from. Messages painted by factory workers on the sides of tanks would be erased. This was all to help the Soviets save face and not admit they benefited from "Capitalist aid."
(Factory women paint a greeting on a tank:
Greetings to our Allies in USSR
Прuвем нашим союзникам в СССР)
I've read that the ingratitude and animosity toward American sailors infuriated the U.S. Navy so greatly, some felt they should let the Communists struggle alone until they groveled for aid. However, President Roosevelt knew that pettiness would not win the war. They either stood together, or fell apart.
(first convoy of Lend-Lease equipment to USSR, 1941)
After the war was over, the USA realized that it could take countries over a century to pay them back. So many countries being in such immense debt would not help the world economy. NO ONE wanted another global Great Depression. So, instead of holding half the world indebted to them, America set up a post-war policy that countries could "repay" by "joint action directed towards the creation of a liberalized international economic order in the postwar world." In other words, countries could lower or even erase their debt to America when they joined the United Nations or NATO.
Even then, countries haggled for decades to lower what they had to pay back. America lowered the USSR's $11 billion debt to $1.3 billion in honor of the USSR joining the United Nations. The USSR insisted this was beyond their means, so America agreed to lower this to $800 million, but the USSR offered to pay only $170 million. Haggling over what the USSR owed went well into the 1970s, when the U.S. accepted an offer from the USSR to repay $722 million linked to grain shipments from the U.S., with the remainder being written off. (I mean, this was the height of the Cold War; it was probably that or resort to nukes!)
Quite infamously, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union claimed America's aid "was not significant enough to in any way exert a decisive influence over the course of the Great Patriotic War." This contradicted opinions during the war and immediately after. Stalin said, "The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war." Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said, "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war. One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war." So at least the leadership understood that the Lend-Lease Act saved them from being decimated, but average soldiers never knew where their uniforms came from, who made their Jeeps and airplanes, or how they got their food, since these supplies arrived in Soviet crates. So, they honestly did believe the propaganda that America did very little to help them. Like England, the USSR believed they "stood alone" and ignored all the countries who stood RIGHT THERE as their Allies.
To be fair, many Americans think we single-handedly SAVED EUROPE and stopped Japan with no assistance at all, and they are shocked to learn Australia, New Zealand, and Canada were even involved in the war. It seems like the larger Allied nations tend to forget that this was a combined effort by 30 nations, and none stood alone.
Lend-Lease stopped in September 1945. Still, America and Canada continued to give aid to Allies in the post-war years, just not free or discounted anymore. England had suffered massive economic collapse, so in the 1950 Anglo-American Loan, America and Canada agreed to provide $3.75 billion from the USA and $1.2 billion from Canada to help the UK rebuild. The UK finally finished repaying in 2006.
America still lends equipment to help their Allies when they want to avoid outright war. In 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act. Much like Roosevelt in 1941, this allowed the U.S. to lend or lease a wide range of military equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries in their war against Russia, all in the name of Defending Democracy.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/lend-lease-act
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/lend-lease-act-1
https://www.rferl.org/a/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6215847.stm
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=214523
https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2020/07/14/the-resurrection-of-world-war-ii-lend-lease-records-on-the-ussr-a-story-in-seven-parts
https://ru.usembassy.gov/world-war-ii-allies-u-s-lend-lease-to-the-soviet-union-1941-1945
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American_loan
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3025302/biden-signs-lend-lease-act-to-supply-more-security-assistance-to-ukraine/