Chapter Fourteen
Rescue My Heart

One of them had climbed on top of her. His rough fingers took hold of her crotch. She was wearing her underwear, but despite that, she whimpered and brought her knee up. He dodged it easily. He held her face and a pair of dark eyes stared at her in lust. Her body ached all over, but nothing compared to the terror one felt when realizing a man was about to commit the crime of rape. Each movement hurt her tied wrists and arms and it even ran up all the way to her shoulders and back. His fingers were digging against here private parts; a place not even Jacob had touched.

That's when Alice prayed for her God to pass her out. She didn't want to see and feel what was about to happen. She prayed she would go in shock. That was another way of not seeing your surroundings. She prayed for anything, really, to escape this reality.

Two loud gunshots filled the air, to Alice's confusion. The head above her exploded and she almost vomited in her mouth at the gruesome sight. The dead man's blood and pieces of flesh had splattered over her face and clothes.

The head snapped to the side, right before his body collapsed on hers. She was kicking, trying to get the dead weight off her tied body. It felt like a demon was crushing her poor, weakened body.

The second one was also dead, but luckily Alice hadn't seen how that had happened. She only noticed that he had fallen on the ground by the side of the bed in an awkward position and that he wasn't moving.

When she felt the heavy weight leave her body, she raised her eyes up to see how that could happen. It was the Adam Nazi. He wasn't dead.

She saw how he dropped the body on the floor with no respect. He reached for Alice. The first thing he did, was pull the piece of rope down to her neck and pull out whatever piece of cloth he'd jammed in her mouth hours ago. Or perhaps it was only minutes ago, though it felt nothing like that. Alice gasped air through her mouth as her nose was still radiating with pain.

He was still fully clothed, Alice noticed, which was not consistent with her previous thought. When she heard the shower run, she imagined he'd gone to take a shower. But that wasn't important now. His gun by his hip was her main focus. Alice knew what she had to do. This time she wouldn't fail.

It was probably her imagination, but he seemed gentler as he cut the rope from her wrist. Alice moved her arms when she regained her freedom and reached for the gun in an angry scream. He pushed her away, so she grabbed the nearest thing she could find and threw it at him. It was a lamppost, which he dodged. She threw several books, a dirty plate, a knife, a fork and when she was out of ammunition, she started a fist fight.

"Filthy Nazi!" she screamed, punching the place where she knew was his injury.

He hissed and she tried to do it again. He blocked the punch. She went for the gun, but he pulled it out himself. Instead of being frightened, she was angry so she jumped up to him, put her hand on his so now they both had some possession of the gun. She found the trigger with her front finger and pulled it back. A bullet fired and she did it again. The third time, the Nazi took hold of her waist. She dragged her elbow deep into his side.

"Fick!" he hissed, holding her tighter. "Halt! Stopp!"

"I'll stop when your kind is dead, you monster! I will kill you! You belong in Hell!"

She reached back with her hand and held his side, squeezing as tight as she could and hoping it was his wound she was hurting. He pushed her away from him roughly and she stumbled over the dead body beneath her feet. For a moment, she stared at the dead body horrified, seeing half his face was gone from the shot. Each time Alice thought she'd seen the cruelest of death, she saw something worse.

There was another gun, she saw. The dead Nazi's gun, within her reach. Without giving it another thought, she leaned down and took the gun. It felt heavy and very foreign. Holding that gun represented her captivity by a Nazi whom now had proven to Alice to kill Americans and Nazi's repeatedly. She didn't know who this Adam was and what his purpose in this war was.

"Nein!" the Nazi said, holding his gun in both hands and ready to shoot as well.

It wasn't the Nazi whom Alice aimed for. She could try and shoot him dead, but she was done with her unrealistic decisions. All of them had failed by now. She tried to fight the Nazi so many times, but each time she was the one who lost the battle.

She placed the gun against her temple and took a trembled breath. She saw he looked at her with wide eyes and tight lips. His face showed a mixture of surprise and frustration.

"I'm not trained for combat. You are. Whoever you are. I hope God'll forgive me for my weakness and that this war will end soon for all the people who are strong enough to endure the uncertainty of it all."

There was a reluctance where Alice waited. Killing oneself wasn't something Alice had ever given any thought. As a nurse, she chose life, never death.

The Nazi bent down, slowly, his gun no longer aimed at Alice. He dropped the gun when his hand was an inch away from the ground. It made a thud when it hit the ground. All the time, Alice stared at him in shock at his strange surrender. Her gun was not aimed at him. Still he chose to drop his own.

He slowly walked to her with his palms slightly up.

"Stay where you are!" she said brokenly, pressing the gun against her head.

However, pressing the cold tip against her skull did not make her pull that trigger.

Taking away a life, even her own, was one of the most difficult things to do.

"I will shoot!" she snapped.

He was stepping very slowly toward her. It was as if she was seeing the scene before her in slow-motion. She was very aware of her bare legs and how her own coat didn't reach very low, but his eyes remained on hers at all times.

Alice needed to think quick, because he would reach her after a few more steps.