Chapter 11: Seeds of Victory

April 1945 - Mauthausen, Austria

The doors to the train car were flung open and Rachel was momentarily blinded by the sunlight. She and the other girls who'd come from the factory in Hamburg had been cooped up in the musty cattle car for days without food or water. The Nazis harshly ushered the fragile, starving women out of the train, beating those who didn't climb out fast enough.

Another camp, another cattle car. Rachel scrambled out of the cattle car as quickly as she could, clutching Tina's bony hand. The two friends walked to the camp through the picturesque Austrian town where they'd been dropped off. The lake was a brilliant cobalt blue, the medieval town was quaint, and to top it all off, the snow-capped peaks of the Alps were in the background. "They must have taken us to the wrong place! This is far too pretty," Rachel mused out loud. A pointy-faced Slovak woman, Danica, snorted derisively. "You really think the Nazis would make a mistake? No, no, no! They're tricking you! I heard from someone that this new camp, Mauthausen, is just as bad as Auschwitz!"

All of the women gasped, terrified. Almost as bad as Auschwitz! Rachel had thought she had gone through hell and had somehow miraculously come back after Auschwitz. "Surely you're exaggerating!" she told Danica. "Nothing is as bad as Auschwitz!" "Yes," Tina chimed in. "I really doubt Mauthausen has the gas ovens like Auschwitz did!" Danica laughed mirthlessly. "No gas chambers, as if! What did you expect, a concentration camp?" Rachel wondered why that bitch had to be so downright cruel to everyone, especially to her. But maybe that was how Danica had survived this long. Maybe she figured that if she mocked and was dismissive to everyone, then she wouldn't be too soft and emotional. That maybe, just maybe, she'd survive. Not that Rachel thought that was the right way to handle the camps, but to each their own.

The camp itself was much different from the charming mountain town. It was crowded and stinking and dilapidated. The girls were directed to a barrack that was teeming with other girls with shaven heads. They gathered for supper, which was some mixture of watered-down vegetable soup served in garbage cans. Then Rachel drifted off to a fitful sleep on the moth-eaten blanket the woman in charge had given her, only to be woken up early in the morning.

It was the same old routine at every single camp Rachel had been to. The only differences between Mauthausen and the others was that food was even more scarce there, everything at Mauthausen was more chaotic, and there was no work for the girls to do to keep them occupied. Rachel and Tina spent the day milling around, scavenging for scraps of food and for people they knew.

Rachel was searching behind one of the barracks for food or jewelry that she could bribe the officers with when she heard a familiar voice call out her name. "Rachel? Rachel Berrichová?"Rachel spun around. "Jesse?" She reached out to touch him, to make sure he was real and she wasn't hallucinating since she was so thirsty.

He was real and there and he looked so different from when Rachel had last seen him at Terezin. His shaved brown hair was growing back unevenly and he had some stubble covering his normally clean-shaven face. Jesse had clearly lost some weight in the camps and his raggedy clothes hung on his frame. But his eyes, those beautiful clear blue eyes she loved so much, were still the exact same.

Rachel hugged him fiercely. "Good God, what happened to you?" she exclaimed. "Oh, I just survived a few different concentration camps. You?" Jesse said sarcastically. "What actually happened to you, Jesse?" Rachel asked.

He began to tell her how he and a lot of the other Czech men from Terezin had arrived together at Auschwitz just a little while after she had and that they'd been transferred to Mauthausen about six months ago. Hiram Berrich had been on the train with Jesse and the others. Jesse told Rachel that her father was now working as one of Mauthausen's Sonderkommando, the unlucky Jews chosen to clean the bodies out of the gas chambers and transfer them to be cremated. Rachel felt bad for her papa but was relieved that he was still alive! And better yet, he was here in Mauthausen with her! Finally, things seemed to be looking up for her. Her beloved papa was alive, she and Jesse were reunited, and there were rumors that the Americans were about to defeat the Germans.

"When can I see Papa?" Rachel asked. Jesse smiled at her. "I can bring him to you tonight at dinner. You two can catch up over the delicious bowls of garbage stew," Jesse deadpanned. Rachel laughed and kissed him. But she noticed that something felt…off. The sparks that she had once felt when she kissed him were completely gone. But Rachel shook that unease off. It's probably just because I haven't seen him in a long time, she told herself.

—

Just as Jesse had promised, Hiram and Rachel were able to reconnect at dinner. Tears sprung to Hiram's eyes when he saw his daughter again for the first time in nearly two years. She had grown up so much; though skinny, dirty, and choppy-haired, she had really become a beauty. Rachel held her papa close for a while, reminding her of when he'd tucked her into bed every night back in Prague. He was so much frailer and sicklier than he had been when she'd last seen him and his hair was now completely white.

"Rachel, there's something I have to tell you," Hiram suddenly said. "What is it, Papa?" Rachel wondered. "Well, it's kind of a secret." Hiram glanced around to see who was there with them. Tina and Jesse were the only ones around, and Rachel waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, you can trust Tina and Jesse, Papa! They wouldn't tell anyone." "That's right, Mr. Berrich. You can trust us!" Tina said. "Yes, I'm really good at keeping a secret," Jesse added.

Hiram nodded, satisfied with their answers. "Well, the other gas chamber workers and I are planning a little -" Hiram paused for a second to glance around, choosing his next words carefully. "- rebellion of sorts." Rachel gasped - her father, a member of the resistance? "We strike tomorrow evening. We are going to completely demolish at least one of the gas chambers. Are you in, men?"

Jesse was the first to speak. "I'm done with this bullshit of being pushed around by the Nazis like a bunch of pussies. Count me in, Pan Berrich."

His words were met with a chorus of "hear, hear's" and "long live the Czechs!" from Hiram's friends. Tina quickly nodded. "That makes ten of us total. Rachel?", Hiram said. Her father and their friends looked at her desperately. But Rachel was so goddamn afraid of stepping on the wrong foot in the presence of the Nazis, let alone trying to upstage them. This plan was utter insanity- the odds of their survival were one to a thousand! But she saw how happy it would make Hiram, and - besides - there had been a voice in the back of her mind for the past three years urging her to seek vengeance on that piece of scum, Karofsky, and his like.

Rachel, ever the actress, took a breath and outstretched her hands toward the sky. "Anything for you, Papa." "That's my Rachel," Hiram said proudly, ruffling her choppy brown locks.

And in that instant, come what may, Rachel knew this crazy plan was worth it. She was going to be able to make her father - and Shelby - proud.

—

As planned, Rachel met Hiram, Jesse, and the other revolutionaries early one morning behind one of the barracks. Tina was resting - she had been infected with typhoid fever. Because there was talk that the Germans were losing the war, there was more chaos than normal so no SS officers were on guard.

Hiram, the de facto leader, went over the plan: the men would go to their jobs as normal - armed with weapons they had procured via Mauthausen's black market - while Tina and Rachel would stand guard and distract the SS if necessary.

"Jesse!" Rachel tapped his shoulder once Hiram had finished. Jesse turned around. "Yes?" "I…" Rachel took a deep breath. What she was about to say had been on her conscience for a long time, and she needed to get it out in case Jesse was about to die. She couldn't be responsible for leading him on…"I think it's better if we go our own way."

Jesse looked at her with a sad smile. "Oh, Rachel…" "I'm sorry," Rachel murmured, stricken with guilt. "No, Rachel. You spared me from having to tell you the same thing." Rachel embraced him and laughed nervously. "We're too similar to work," she pointed out. Jesse kissed her cheek. "I hope I'll see you after this. Take care, Rachel."

And with that, he ventured into almost certain death.

—

Rachel anxiously paced outside the front of the gas chambers with her fingers crossed for good luck. My God, what have I gotten myself into? A few Nazis glanced in her direction, wondering what she was doing there. One guard even stopped and cruelly joked that if she didn't leave, he'd "toss her in the gas chambers to join her people." Then he and his buddy walked away, laughing hysterically.

Then Rachel saw an explosion and knew that her father's plan had worked. She uncrossed her fingers and hopped a little in relief.

Her joy lasted until suppertime, when she discovered the bodies of her father, Jesse, and their friends hanging from Mauthausen's gallows. Apparently, her father had been singled out as the ringleader and had been tortured, but he hadn't given any information up. He'd saved her. And now she was an orphan.

Rachel felt completely sick. Why shouldn't I be on the gallows with them? It was what she deserved - she had schemed and plotted with Jesse and her father and now she was getting off scot-free. She was now completely alone in the world - parentless, friendless. She noticed the electric wire of the camp and considered hurling herself into it. Then, all of her pain would be over. And she could rejoin her parents.

Rachel took the first step toward the wire. A few more and she'd finally, finally be able to sleep.

A/N: I left you on a cliffhanger (laughs evilly)! Note: there was an actual disablement of the gas chambers at Mauthausen. However, I took some creative liberties with this to better fit the plot of my story so it is not historically accurate. Finn and Rachel will actually meet in the next chapter - for real. I have already started writing it.

I'm sorry - it has been over four months since my last update. My main excuse for that is that I received a very cruel review from a guest on this site that said that my writing and my ideas are trash and that I shouldn't bother writing or posting stories on this site. It made me develop severe writer's block and I felt very sad. Writing is my passion - and it hurt for someone to criticize what I love to do. What do you think? Do you guys like my writing style? Are my ideas good enough? Let me know in the reviews.