It was a regular night in Stalag 13, the lights were out in the prisoner's barrack and the only one who was awake were the guards. Well all of them except for Sergeant Shultz who had once again fallen asleep on duty. But strangely enough, all prisoners were where they were supposed to be, asleep in their bunks. None were out blowing bridges, masquerading as officers, or meeting underground agents. Everything was calm, until it wasn't.
Screams tore through the night, loud in the previous silence, startling everyone out of their beds. Colonel Hogan was quickly out of the Barracks ahead of most of his men as he followed the guards that ran straight for the Kommandant's personal quarters. As another scream tore through the air, it was obvious that that was where the screams originated from.
Hogan was one of the first inside the door and instead of seeing something murdering Klink the guards were surprised to see Klink in his bed still screaming. Not just screaming though, these screams were bloodcurdling. The guards and Hogan just stood there shocked, none knew what to do.
Until a figure pushed its way through the bodies, "Back, back, back" came the voice of Sergeant Shultz. The normally laid back Sergeant had a hard edge to his voice that was shocking to many on duty, never had they heard such a tone and many shivered and did what they were told. The only one who dared to stay was Hogan as he watched the Sergeant approach the bed calmly and sit on the edge as the Colonel screams decreased from murderous screams to tiny whimpers. Shultz had barely touched Klink's shoulders before the man sat straight up and grabbed the large Sergeant of the Guard.
"Shultz," whimpered the Colonel clinging tight to the guard. For a moment he did not sound like a middle age man, instead like a lost child and it shook Hogan to the core.
"Shh, it's alright Colonel" whispered Shultz, moving to wrap his arms around the trembling man. "You are here"
The other guards and prisoners that had followed them stared in shock as the Colonel clung to the Sergeant weeping.
"The Somme, Verdon, Hans. All of them dead, everyone dead" he whispered as he clutched hard at Shultz.
"I know Wilhelm, I know" answered Shultz, memories of the same battles flashing through his mind.
For a while it was just two old soldiers comforting each other as the old horrors of the First World War plagued their minds once again. Neither noticed when it was Hogan that motioned everyone out of the room and with a final glance left the two alone. It took a while but finally Klink managed to calm down enough to let Shultz go.
"Thank-you Shultz" whispered Klink as he wiped his eyes.
"Everybody has rough nights Colonel" said Shultz gently patting Klink on back. The Great War might have been over for a long time but for many of their generation was still haunted by the atrocities of what happened.
"I thought I put my bad nights behind me" whispered Klink rubbing his forehead.
Shultz only knew too well what Klink meant. "Try to get some more sleep Wilhelm." Though Hans knew that it was useless, he had spent similar nights just like Wilhelm. Except he had a loving wife to help him through those long nights, and Wilhelm had nothing. And Shultz knew the other man long enough to know that the other man wouldn't want him to stick around.
"Thank-you Hans" Klink said.
The old Sargent just nodded before leaving the Colonel alone in the room. As soon as the other man had left, Klink swung his legs out of bed and headed towards his liquor cabinet. He bypassed his 'good' stuff and grabbed the bottle of his 'cheap' stuff. Such a simple trick to switch the whiskey in each bottle for the other, he could always count on having his 'good' bottles emptied and his 'cheap' ones never touched. For being so smart, the POW's never caught onto the fact of what Klink was doing.
Klink spent the rest of the night and into the wee hours of the morning drinking, trying to forget.
*0*0*0*0*
"What do you think that was about Colonel?" asked LeBeau as soon as Hogan returned back to the barracks.
"I don't know LeBeau, I don't know" said Hogan looking out the door to Klink's quarters where Shultz was walking down the steps, looking older than he had ever seen him. "But I intend to find out" promised Hogan.
