Chapter 6:
It was a week since Klink left for Berlin, and to say Stalag 13 had become a living hell would be the biggest understatement of the year. Prisoners rarely, if ever jabbed jokes at the guards or Krump; guards were given excruciating duties such as walking a post with a full field pack or working double shifts without a decent break in between; and Kalina had to sneak around Krump to see Hogan and her friends after being banned from socializing with the prisoners entirely. The minute after roll calls ended and Krump did not require her for any assistance in the office, she used her secret tunnel entrance inside her closet to go to barracks two under the wire.
Hogan was still at a stand still as to how to get rid of the rabid major, and he was now under pressure since the Gestapo was coming the day after tomorrow to pick up the three Allied officers. Not only did he have to get his fellow comrades out of Germany, he had to get rid of the dictator that commanded Stalag 13 and bring Klink back somehow. But try as he may, the more he thought of a plan, the deeper he fell into a black hole of nothing. Every idea he had mustered up had a drawback somehow, and he was beginning to drive himself up a wall trying to come up with a plan.
It was some time around the afternoon when Krump left the kommandant's office and began patrolling around the camp, berating any lazy guards for sloppy or incompetent work and any prisoner not following strict regulations enforced by the major. Like he had scrapped the Geneva Convention entirely and created his own version of it.
Hogan, his boys, and Kalina all watched Krump in action from behind the safety of their barracks door, Kalina holding on tight to the colonel in case Krump were to take notice of them for any reason.
"How long has it been since Kommandant Mad Man arrived here?" Newkirk asked no one in particular.
"Over a week now," Kinch answered, his arms crossed over his chest.
"C'est terrible," LeBeau said, shaking his head in disgust. "I never thought I would see the day where I would say I miss Klink."
"Sergeant Schultz!" Krump bellowed, marching over to the fluffy sergeant, who was keeping guard outside the kommandant's office. He held up a chocolate covered cookie. "What the hell do you call this?"
Schultz took the cookie and had a bite. He moaned in delight. "Thin Mints, my favorite," he said, then took another bite while Krump stared at him with a homicidal glare. "If you want some more, you can find an entire box in barracks nine." He went back to marching his post, leaving the major to himself and his thoughts. He then looked up again into the far distance.
"Langenscheidt!" He hollered.
"Jawohl, Mein Fuhrer. I mean Herr Kommandant," he replied, sprinting towards Krump as fast as he could and stopping at full attention.
Krump analyzed the corporal's appearance briefly and spotted a green and blue gem broach in the shape of a flower at the bottom left corner of Langenscheidt's color. He pointed at it as if it were some diseased animal of some sort. "What is that non-regulation junk doing on your Luftwaffe uniform?" He demanded.
Langenscheidt swallowed a growing lump in his throat, shivering under the kommandant's cold stare. "It...It was my Mama's broach. She gave it to me three days ago before dying of bone cancer," he said, the painful grief still evident in his gentle eyes.
Krump seemed to soften for a very short moment. "How thoughtful," he said, then his hardened gaze returned. "Take it off!" He hollered, and stormed off to another guard violating rules as Langenscheidt looked down mournfully at his mother's broach. He unlatched the pin, gave it a gentle kiss, then stuffed it into his pocket as he glared back in Krump's direction, doing all he could to keep his mouth from voicing his strong opinion.
"Boy, is he a real witch," Carter said, shaking his head.
"Warlock, Andrew," Kinch corrected friendly.
"Makes no difference to me; he's still got flying monkeys hidden around here somewhere. I'm convinced of it."
Kalina made a long frown and looked down at the ground with sad puppy dog eyes. "I miss Papa," she whimpered.
"I think I might miss him just as much as you do, hon," Hogan answered, then sighed. He closed the door and walked over to his spot at the table. "I just wish I had an idea of how to get him back."
"We could call him," Carter suggested.
"And do what; get down on our hands and knees and beg him to come back to this lil' old camp?" Newkirk remarked. "Klink would never give up his promotion to general for a bunch of prisoners."
"I could fake a serious illness," Kalina said, standing off to Hogan's right. "Papa would for sure come back if he knew I was severely sick."
"No hon, Krump would see right through you," Hogan answered somberly. "He'd call in some big shot doctor from Berlin to examine you, and the whole plan would be exposed right then and there." He ran his hands down his face, his eyes worn and tired. His facial expression clearly displayed just how tired he was from thinking all night long. The lack of sleep was finally catching up to him and felt like he would collapse if he did not find a solution and soon.
"Colonel, if you keep beating yourself up like this, you're gonna collapse from exhaustion," Kinch warned. "Go lie down for a while and rest; the five of us can bounce some ideas off of each other until then."
Hogan shook his head. "No, I can't sleep. I don't dare leave you guys alone when that monster's walking the campgrounds. You need me, and I need Klink...but how the hell do we discredit Krump enough to get him back is what I can't figure out."
LeBeau opened his mouth to say something, when the door to the barracks slammed to the side, and Krump walked into the main area, his eyes glowing like a hunting dog sniffing for its next kill.
Kalina briefly froze in her spot before darting for Hogan, who was rising to his feet and stepping to her side. The little teenager wrapped her arms around the colonel and buried her face into his belly, while Hogan held her close and stared down their newest enemy with the same predatory look he gave all six of them.
Krump stopped his gaze on Kalina, frowned, and slowly lurked in her direction. "I thought I told you to stay away from this filthy animal," he hissed, pointing in Hogan's direction. "You know what mutts like this do to little German girls; they brainwash them. Torture them. Use you for whatever information they're trying to drag out of you, then finish off by murdering their victim so they don't go squealing to the Gestapo. Is that what you want to happen?"
"He's not a mutt, nor a murderer. He's my friend." Kalina remarked, her eyes stinging from the angry tears threatening to spill over.
"See, he's already begun his little game," Krump said. He turned his eyes back to Hogan, who was grinding his jaw to keep himself from losing his growing temper. "Perhaps I should do what I should have done when I first lay eyes on you." He pulled out his issued pistol from its holster, cocked it, then held it up directly at Hogan's chest. "Put you into extinction."
As little Kalina squeezed her colonel as tight as she could, Hogan's men stepped forward and circled around their leader, making it so the major would have to go through all of them before getting to Hogan.
"Six against one, Kommandant," Newkirk said, with a low growl.
"I would like to see you try getting to Colonel Hogan when you have to go through us first." LeBeau hissed.
Krump gawked at them in complete silence for almost a full minute. The barracks fell so quiet that one could hear a pin drop to the ground. The tension between both sides was so intense it could be cut with a butcher knife. Krump stared down his opponents, while Hogan and his team refused to back down. They returned the same icy stare while using all their self control to not lunge for the kommandant.
After what felt like a whole hour, Krump finally lowered his weapon and slid it back into its rightful spot, his eyes never leaving sight of Hogan. He let out a steamy breath of air through his nose. "Very well," he said. "Keep your filthy mutt. But hear me when I say this; once this Major Hochstetter comes to pick up your 'friends' in the cooler, you can kiss your precious Colonel Hogan 'goodbye'." He made a few strides closer to Hogan, the boys and Kalina tightening their circle around him. "I'm determined to get rid of you one way or another, and I'll find a way if it's the last thing I ever do." He spit in Hogan's eye, making the colonel flinch and turn his head to the side, then stormed out of the barracks and slammed the door behind him with a loud 'bang'!
Certain that he was gone, Newkirk pulled out a pocket knife from his pocket and threw it at the door like a dart. He watched as it crashed into the wood and became stuck in its place. "Bloody bastard, I'll kill him the next time I see him." He gnarled.
"You alright, Colonel?" Kinch asked, ignoring the Englishman altogether.
"Yeah," Hogan said, wiping the loogie from his eye. "Just frickin' fantastic...I'm in my quarters if anyone dare need me." He turned on the heels of his shoes, stormed towards his room, then threw the door closed with a 'wham', making Hogan's men and Kalina shudder at the loud noise. They all turned to one another with concerned looks to their faces once certain Hogan was out of ear range.
Kinch shook his head and let out a somber sigh. "Boy, are we in a real pickle now."
"What do we do, Kinch?" Carter asked. "If we don't get rid of Krump and fast, we won't only lose Klink, we'll also lose Colonel."
"Then one of you better start thinking of an idea," Newkirk remarked, crossing his arms. "'Cause if the Gov'nor can't think of anything, then we're really done for."
Nighttime soon fell, and as soon as evening roll call ended, it came time for Kalina's favorite part of the night: her daily phone call with her papa. She stood beside the landline in the kommandant's private quarters and giggled as her father told her about his day.
"Sounds like you're getting the hang of the whole general life pretty quick, aren't yah, Papa," she told him, a proud grin spread across her face. Klink said something on the other end that made her giggle again. "Hey there, alter Mann. Don't overdo it there, or General Burkhalter will be after you for sure." As her father continued talking, Kalina began to frown, tears eventually falling down her face. "Oh Papa...you don't know how much I miss you. I wish you were here with me...I miss your hugs, Papa...I know, I know...Papa? I know I'm almost 16, but...can you sing me my lullaby like you did when I was little?"
A small smile began to creep its way onto Kalina's face as her father started softly singing to her in German. She closed her eyes and gently swayed side to side, using all of her imagination to make her feel like she was being rocked in Klink's arms instead of being hundreds and hundreds of miles away from him. He was finishing the final lines of the song, when Krump entered the living area to check on the little teenager. He turned to his right, spotted her on the phone, and narrowed his dark eyes at her.
"Hey," he barked, causing Kalina to snap out of her trance and stare up at the major with frantic blue eyes. "The hell you think you're doing? You know how much you're costing me with the telephone bill from all these nightly phone calls?"
"But, but Papa said I could call him before I go to bed every night," Kalina stuttered, putting the receiver against her shoulder.
"May I remind you that your father is not the kommandant here anymore? Now hang up that phone, and get your little self to bed." Krump threw a thumb over his shoulder for emphasis.
"I will," Kalina promised. "Just as soon as I tell Papa 'goodnigh…" She never got a chance to finish her sentence. Krump yanked the phone out of her hand, placed it back onto the cradle, then unplugged it and put it underneath his arm. "Hey! You can't deny me nightly phone calls with my Papa when he said I could."
"Visiting hours are over, young lady. Now get to your room before I decide to lock you up in there. End of conversation." Krump swiftly turned on his boots and marched out of the kommandant's quarters with the phone in hand, leaving a devastated Kalina all to her lonesomeness. Tears resumed falling down her face as she sniffled a few times, then buried her face into her arms as she leaned against the table and began to cry. Her last connection to her papa. Her best friend. He was gone altogether now.