Heil Freedom

A/N: Don't worry. I'm not going to kill everyone off. At least, I don't plan to…

DISCLAIMER: I own nobody. Nope. Not a one. Okay, maybe one.

Chapter 3/ Happy Birthday, Jake

November 23, 1938 - 11:45 PM

It had been two weeks since the night the Nazi guards were referring to as Kristallnacht: the Night of Broken Glass. They knew this because one innovative prisoner had started scratching a line on the brick for every day that passed. There were fourteen lines in total.

Most had given up hope of ever leaving this jail… alive. Daily, Rachel grew more worried for her sisters' safety and health as prisoners were taken away and never returned. When prisoners demanded to know where they were being taken, only "The Promised Land," was answered.

One man near the back of the cell had become severely sick. Another prisoner in the cell, a doctor, had whispered grimly, "Typhus." The afflicted man was constantly groaning in pain and shivering.

At this point, Jake nor Rachel nor Cassie had spoken much. Cassie spent most of her time sleeping away her grief; Jake and Rachel hadn't wanted to speak much for fear of frightening Jordan and Sara even more.

"What's the date today?" Jake asked under his breath.

"I believe it's the 23rd of November." the man keeping track of the date, Elisha, said.

"Happy birthday, Jake." Rachel said ironically.

"What a way to spend your birthday," Elisha commented. "So, how old are you now?"

"Eighteen," Jake answered.

Just as the sun started to peek over the bars of the cell window, a jail guard came walking in, holding a list. "Good day, untermenschen. And how are we today?"

"Splendid." Rachel muttered.

"That will be enough, Jew-girl." he snapped. Then, with about fifty more jail guards standing along the corridors, all six cells were emptied except for those too sick to get up, and the prisoners were hurried along to a large gathering area. Even before the last prisoner limped out of the cell, the sounds of gunshots and cries echoed down through the corridor.

Jake glowered as he spotted Tobias standing by the exit, his expression impassive. "Hey, look, it's the traitor," he muttered to Rachel. She turned her head slightly, and whipped it back around when he looked straight at her. Cassie looked slightly doubtful.

"Hey, Herr Dietrich, we're ready to start." The officer called.

"Then go ahead," Tobias nodded.

"That guard must be three times Tobias' age." Cassie noted.

"Yeah, but Tobias outranks him," Jake pointed out. "That's why he's being so formal."

"The following prisoners will separate themselves and go through this door here!" the guard roared. "Elisha Gerdhardt! Isaak Emmett! Theodore Rosefeld! Aron Noroc! Josef Zebulon! Sara Berenson! Eric Mendhelsson! Gerald von Fritzhaue!"

"No!" Rachel hissed, clutching desperately at Sara's sleeve. Sara, wide-eyed, twisted around to look at Rachel.

"Rachel, what's happening?" she whimpered.

"Renald Warner! Werner Reynard! Jordan Berenson! Cassandra Johansson! Guy Waldemar!"

Jordan and Cassie both looked terrified, but after clinging tightly to both Rachel and Jake for a second, disappeared into the line slowly filing through the door. Rachel clung tighter to Sara, hoping they wouldn't notice her. Cassie and Jordan could both handle themselves, they were old enough to make decisions for themselves, and knew what lay in wait beyond those doors, but there was no way that Rachel was going to send Sara unknowingly to her death.

Tobias frowned as the last man of the five hundred or so passed through the door, then stepped away from the door, leaving two armed and nasty-looking SS officers guarding the exit. He headed into the crowds, and as prisoners pushed in their haste to get away, Sara was torn from Rachel's grasp and disappeared among the remaining prisoners. Rachel caught a glimpse of Sara's blonde head as she emerged from the crowds near the door, and looked around desperately. Tobias materialized from the shadows of the badly lit room behind Sara, and while Rachel frantically shook her head, Tobias crouched down to be at Sara's eye level and said something softly to her. She answered equally softly and then he smiled and responded.

Rachel was ready to kill him. He had used the same smile the first time she had ever met him, the one that no girl in possession of her sanity could resist. Sara seemed to relax slightly and headed towards the door, then stopped and said something agitatedly to Tobias, who looked back behind him and then answered. Sara willingly disappeared behind the door and the three SS guards, including Tobias, slammed the door shut with a final-sounding bang.

"Sara! Jordan! Cassie!" Rachel screamed amidst the yells of hundreds of prisoners.

"Rach, come on." Jake said quietly, voice shaking with carefully contained anger. "Rachel, there's nothing we can do now."

Tobias sat quietly in the passenger seat of the transport truck, trying to ignore the cries and terrified pleadings of the prisoners behind him. Even after five years of training, they still pierced his heart. Especially now, knowing that one of his former friends and ex-girlfriend's two sisters were part of the group.

"Herr Dietrich, we're almost there," Louis Meyer said calmly as he tipped his hat to a group of Aryan women crossing the street.

"Very well." Tobias answered distantly. "We'll go through another selektion when we arrive at the camp." He fingered the swastika pin on the lapel of his coat and smiled coolly back at Louis as he looked askance at him.

"You're young, for an SS captain." Louis commented. "You're not even twenty-five, are you?"

"Eighteen." Tobias admitted. "It is not the age of the officer that matters, it is the ties of loyalty. Men more than three times my age have betrayed our Fatherland. And I will not betray those to whom my loyalty lies in the Fatherland."

"I am impressed, Herr Dietrich." Louis said. "You are wise in the ways of the world for your age."

"Raus! Raus!" (Out! Out!) the SS yelled as the doors of the truck flew open. Rifle butts rained down on the bodies of the prisoners as they dashed for fresh air. Jordan clung to Sara's hand and pulled her along.

Finally, they were gathered together in the courtyard of the camp.

"Achtung!" (Attention!) Tobias yelled over the murmurs of the prisoners. Then, as the crowd fell silent, he started to walk through the crowds, separating them on the right and the left. When he reached Elisha, he pushed him to the right, then the next few to the left, then one other man to the right, then more to the left. Sara was sent to the right, Jordan and Cassie to the left.

By the time the selektion was finished, there was only five on the right. Jordan stepped forward, as if to join her sister, but Tobias, with a calm hand, held her back as Emery Roland, the other SS guard, forced the tiny group to disappear into a building, where the chimney was constantly belching out thick smoke. Then, as the other guards beat the remaining prisoners towards the barracks, he strode towards the building, ignoring Cassie's broken voice saying,

"You're a monster."

December 25, 1938

Jake was getting seriously worried about Rachel. Over the past month, she had seemed to lose all desire to live. She grew thinner by the day and the sparkle had left her eyes. While Jake did grieve for Cassie and Jordan and Sara, he felt slightly comforted by the idea that they weren't suffering anymore.

It was late at night, and only Jake was awake. The door to the prison slid open and the black SS uniform became apparent by the little moonlight streaming in the window. The officer remained hidden in the shadows as the door to the cell slid open part way and a voice whispered, "Jake, Rachel, come with me. Don't wake anybody up."