Chapter 12: Free at Last

A/N: Here it is - the long-awaited Finchel meeting! Quick fans - your chapter is coming soon! Just a note: the things italicized in this chapter are either Finn's thoughts or German dialogue. The English translation of the German is provided in the sentences around it.

April 1945 - Mauthausen, Austria

Rachel decided not to end her life on the electric fence after all.

Something told her to turn back at the last minute, to stop running toward death. But it wasn't because she wanted to keep living. She wanted nothing more than to die - but truth be told, she was afraid. Afraid of the pain that would come with the crackling wires or a bullet from a Nazi on the lookout for prisoners trying to escape. And with each night that she miraculously managed to wake up from, Rachel could feel her body weakening as the food supplies dwindled further and further. She knew it would only be a matter of time before she would be affected with the lethal typhoid fever.

Rachel wondered whether this vivid six-year long nightmare would end in freedom by the Allies or freedom via death.

—

May 1945 - Mauthausen, Austria

"Where are we going, Captain Schuester?" Finn saluted his commanding officer. The unit was supposed to trek through the Third Reich in search of the enemy, but instead they were headed in the complete opposite direction.

"I heard we're freeing some prisoners-of-war, Finn," Schuester replied. In the last months, the former schoolteacher had become almost like Finn's father. The two had bonded over their love of music and Finn had found in the captain a close confidante and kind, open-minded role model. He would miss him after the war ended.

Puck jabbed Finn's shoulder. "I wonder if any of the prisoners are our boys," he muttered. Finn thought of all of his friends who were reported "missing" after a battle - a fate apparently worse than death. "God, I hope not," Finn replied. "The Germans are supposed to be pretty harsh."

"Hold it right there," Puck teasingly protested. "I'm German!" "Eh, you're not that bad for a German," Finn joked. Puck grew serious suddenly. "What you said is partly right though, Hudson. The Germans I knew treated me like horse shit — all because of my religion."

Finn didn't have a chance to think too much about this because suddenly, his Ohio unit followed all of the other American units through some kind of a barbed fence. Like a cattle fence, Finn thought. He had spent enough time helping out his Aunt Dorothy on her farm that he knew what that looked like. Maybe the prisoners-of-war had to tend cattle to sustain the Naiver army…

But when the unit entered the camp, what they saw was anything but cattle.

"My god," Captain Schuester muttered.

There were living corpses scattered everywhere, mostly lying around the ground, too listless to even register the Americans' arrival. Some looked feverish and all looked like the bony skeletons of children. There was garbage everywhere, and the scent was rancid — like vegetables mixed with death.

But what shocked Finn the most was that among the emaciated faces of the Nazis' captives, there were an abundance of women and teenagers. This made him realize that these people were not prisoners of war — no, they were clearly here for another reason.

The Nazis seemed to be mostly gone, having fled for their lives. Clearly they hadn't wanted their dirty little secret to leak and land them in jail for life. The bastards. They deserved to hang for this.

"Men…I don't know what to say," Captain Schuester said shakily, running his hands through his curly hair. "Uh, just try to help some of these people. Figure out why they're here." Finn saluted the captain and nodded at Puck. "Come with me. I don't think I can stomach this alone, Puck." "You know I give the orders to you now, Finn. I was the one promoted to First Sergeant." Finn still felt lucky that Puck had saved his life and he knew that Puck deserved that promotion, but still…a part of him felt just a twinge jealous of his friend's achievements. All Finn had wanted to do was to make his father proud… "However…I hate to admit this…but I don't think I could do it alone either," Puck sighed.

Finn cautiously approached a prisoner, unsure of what to say. "Hello there, what is your name?" he asked. But the bald inmate's face was blank and he looked confused. "Finn, you fool, we're in the middle of Central Europe! Obviously this man isn't going to speak English!"

"How was I supposed to know that? I don't speak any other languages!" Finn protested defensively. But then he realized what an idiot he was, talking to a man in Austria in English and expecting him to understand. "Why don't you do the talking then, Puckerman?" "Gladly," Puck replied. He turned toward the man.

"Hallo Herr. Wie heißen Sie?" he asked in perfectly accented German. "Hello sir. What is your name?" The man looked frightened, disbelieving them and thinking that they were Nazis trying to trick him for their own amusement. "Tell him that we're Americans. We come in peace," Finn whispered urgently. "Wir sind Amerikaner. Mach dir keine Sorgen, wir kommen in Frieden," Puck said kindly.

A tiny flicker of hope came into the prisoner's eyes. "Amerikaner? Mein Gott! Mein Name ist Thomas.", he said in a hoarse voice. "Thomas…do you know anyone who speaks English here?", Puck asked politely in German. "Thomas ... kennst du jemanden der hier englisch spricht?"

Thomas nodded, looking more excited. "Ja. Rachel Berrich, eine verrückte Sängerin." "What did he say?" Finn asked, feeling utterly useless and confused next to his multilingual friend. "It's all Greek to me!" "He said a crazy singer named Rachel speaks English," Puck translated.

Color him stunned. "Geez, Puck, how many languages do you speak?" "Just three," Puck said. "English, German, and Yiddish, a European Jewish language." "Incredible," Finn muttered. "Ask him where we can find this Rachel."

"Wo können wir Rachel finden?" Thomas answered Puck's question by pointing toward a hut close by with a few women lying in a cluster on the ground for warmth. Puck and Finn headed in that direction, eager to find Rachel. "Warten! Haben Sie etwas zu Essen?" Thomas called after them. "He's wondering if we have any food," Puck translated. "Here, I'll give him my C-rations, Finn." Finn watched as his friend handed his rations to the starving inmate. "From this day on, you are a free man, Thomas," Puck stated firmly in German. "Don't ever forget that."

Finn thought he saw tears form in Thomas's eyes as Puck grasped his bony hand.

—

"I wonder why this Rachel is so insane," Finn mused. "Maybe she's an elderly psychic or something." "Or maybe she went insane because of everything she went through here, Finn," Puck replied. "I want to talk to her because I want to speak with someone who understands both of us perfectly — that way we can find out what the hell women are doing at a prisoner-of-war camp."

The two Americans reached the cluster of women. "I'll take the lead for now," Puck muttered to Finn. Puck waved his arms to get the attention of the fatigued women. "Guten Morgen die Damen. Gibt es hier jemanden mit dem Namen Rachel?" "Good morning, ladies. Is there someone here by the name of Rachel?"

One woman stepped up, weakly but with an air of confidence. "Das würde ich sein." "That would be me." Puck switched to English. "Hello Rachel. I am First Sergeant Noah Puckerman of the United States Army and this is Corporal Finn Hudson." Rachel crossed her thin arms over her chest and swept an appraising glance over Finn. God, the girl was pretentious for a woman who had been imprisoned just a few hours ago. I understand you speak English. We need a translator to help us." "What will you give me for my services?" Rachel demanded, her perfect English heavily accented with some brand of Eastern-European accent.

Finn looked down at Rachel and noticed that she couldn't have been much more than twenty years old. She was quite pretty, an exotic beauty with her tanned skin, her deep-set chocolate brown eyes, and her rich dark hair that was chin-length. Finn realized that all of the women here had their heads shaved, and he wondered why. Everything at this camp, Mauthausen, was so strange.

"I'll give you some food," Finn offered before he could stop himself. "And some warm clothes. You must be starving, Rachel — not to mention freezing." Rachel sounded pleasantly surprised. "Why yes, yes I am. Thank you for paying attention to my needs, Corporal Hudson. What a gentleman you are, unlike your friend." She directed a cold stare at Puck, and the seasoned sergeant backed away a bit, clearly unnerved by the confident young woman in front of him. Finn felt himself start to blush at her compliments, and he shook that kind of thought away. But she'd called him a gentleman…

Finn and Puck led Rachel to a parlor one of the Nazi's old homes, which the American military leadership had taken over as their headquarters. "Sit here," Puck ordered. "I need to go get Captain Schuester." "Bring her some soup, Puck," Finn called as Puck left the room.

"It's all right, Rachel," Finn soothed. "Puck can be a little gruff at times, but he's a good person. There's no need to be nervous." "I just feel like the Nazis are going to…oh, never mind." Rachel's normally confident voice became weak and trailed off. Finn raised his eyebrows. "The Nazis are going to what?" "I said 'never mind!'" Rachel asserted firmly. Her voice softened again. "Thank you for your kindness, Corporal Hudson. I just can't believe we're truly free, that's all."

Finn felt his insides warming up again even in the chilly house. "Oh, never mind official titles. Call me Finn," he told her. There was something enigmatic about Rachel made him feel as if he'd known her his entire life rather than an hour. Rachel gave a slight smile. She had such a pretty smile. Such white, even teeth. "All right, I'll call you Finn," she decided.

Puck returned with Captain Schuester, who introduced himself to Rachel and began to take notes on their "interrogation" of her in case it turned out to be useful for the Allied cause. She was from a wealthy Czechoslovakian family that lived in a beautiful flat in Prague, apparently, and was a trained singer. She'd lost her home and had been transferred from Prague by train to another death camp, Auschwitz —one that Finn had heard of but that he didn't know much about — to a factory in Germany to this place. She was starved on the rough train car journey and was fed next to nothing at the Nazi prison camps. Apparently, the Nazis killed the people in gas ovens at their death camps. But why? Her parents were dead, she had no siblings to speak of, and her only remaining friend was deathly ill with typhoid fever. Suddenly Finn understood why Rachel was so sensitive. By the age of twenty, she had experienced more than most people would ever have to undergo in their entire lives.

Captain Schuester finally asked the question that Finn was itching to ask. "Why, Rachel? Why did they do this to you if you are innocent as you claim?"

"Because I'm Jewish," Rachel sighed, and the three soldiers let out a collective gasp. "It's the reason we're all here — we didn't fit the Nazi standards for a perfect German society."

—

Dear Quinn,

You'll never guess what happened today, so I'll just tell you.

We liberated a Nazi prison camp today, Quinn. They were murdering and torturing people based off of their Jewish faith. My God, the stinking mess might have been worse than D-day.

They murdered innocents: men, women, and children. I knew they were jackasses, but I didn't know the Nazis were that bad. Captain Schuester said he'd heard about something like that at a camp like this one in Poland, but he never actually thought it would be true.

We're going to be staying here in Austria for the next few days? Weeks? We will be restoring order to the camp and helping the freed prisoners.

Quinn — I hope to be home with you soon. The war is almost over, and I'm ready to finally meet my daughter.

Love,

Your shocked husband, Finn

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review, follow, or favorite if interested! Let me know what you thought!

Chapter 13: Finn and Rachel grow closer as the war ends. Finn feels obligated to return to Lima and to his family...how will that impact their relationship?