Chapter 6

That night after lights out, Hogan sat huddled with his men in the darkened barracks, going over the plan for the next day's reconnaissance. Hogan wanted to be sure that the men knew what they needed to be looking for.

"What we want to do is to look for things that will allow me to slip away unnoticed," Hogan whispered.

"But sir, there are always four or five guards with machine guns located all around the clearing," Newkirk protested. "You said before that it would be impossible to slip out – that's why we went for the water truck the last time."

Hogan looked over at Newkirk. He could only see his silhouette in the darkness. "I know what I said," Hogan replied evenly. Hell, I don't remember saying anything about this. I may have been right – it may be impossible. "But right now we have to look at all the options."

"We wouldn't have to if you wouldn't have botched the last attempt," Newkirk retorted bitterly.

Hogan could sense the hostility and bitterness in the Englishman's voice. The Corporal really believed that the last attempt was their only shot. Hogan was used to Newkirk pointing out the dangers and problems with his plans, but in the end, the rest of the men usually pressured Newkirk into going along with them. Now he sensed that the rest of the men shared Newkirk's sentiments.

"If you're going to give up so easily, then maybe Hochstetter is mistaken to think that you'd be useful for his operations," Hogan replied evenly. Listen to me. Here I am actually starting to believe that Hochstetter is running the Underground! "You have to be willing to take chances if you want to be involved in that kind of operation."

The room was silent as the men reflected on Hogan's words. Finally, Newkirk spoke. "I guess you're right, sir," he said. "I just hope the risks are worth it."

"If we can get rid of Klink, it will be," LeBeau commented. "I say we hear the Colonel out and see what we can come up with."

"So do I," Kinch added. "But it does sound like it will be tough to do this on our own."

"I don't plan to do this alone," Hogan replied. "I want to scout things out now so that when I talk to Hochstetter next, I can see what kind of help his organization can give us." I still have a hard time thinking that Hochstetter will be able to help me with an escape, he thought. But after seeing the changes in Klink and Schultz, I suppose it's possible that this Hochstetter will also be changed.

"So what do we look for?" Newkirk asked.

"The setup," Hogan replied. "We need to know where the guards station themselves, where the prisoners are allowed to move and just where everything is - both in and around the clearing where we will be working."

"It's the same every time," Newkirk grumbled. "Don't we already know that information?"

"Newkirk, you know it's been several weeks since we've been in the clearing," Kinch said. "The Colonel wants some fresh intelligence before we risk an attempt."

"Right, Kinch," Hogan agreed. "I want to know what we're up against so I can make the best plan possible."

Newkirk was silent for a moment before replying. "So we just look around tomorrow," he stated.

"And the next day," Hogan replied. "I want to see patterns as well – to make sure that they do the same thing each time."

Hogan could hear Newkirk sigh. "I hope this plan works," the Englishman muttered.

So do I, Hogan thought. I don't know why things are the way they are, but I know I can't tolerate being in a camp where I am always getting bested by Colonel Wilhelm Klink!

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The next morning, the men of Barracks Two were herded together and loaded into a truck for transport to the clearing in the woods. Carter had been released from the cooler and allowed to join the men on the woodcutting detail.

As he rode in the back of the German truck, Colonel Hogan began taking the mental notes he needed to help him plan his future escape. Five guards. Two trucks – the prisoners in one truck and the other truck empty, presumably for bringing back the firewood. I saw several machine guns being loaded into the empty truck as well. I guess old Klink doesn't take any chances when we're out of camp. That might make it a little dicey to escape without becoming a hunk of Swiss cheese. Hogan looked at the guards that were sitting in the back of the truck with the prisoners. Judging from the look on their faces, taking a leap from the truck as we're moving is out of the question. He looked back at the truck following them – no, taking a leap from the truck was definitely out of the question.

The clearing turned out to be about two miles from the camp, in an area that Hogan remembered as being completely wooded. The trucks pulled off the road and traveled several hundred yards down a narrow, rut filled path and then stopped at the edge of a small open area. When Hogan got out of the truck, he looked around. The clearing looked to be new – it was only about a hundred yards square. The trucks had been parked so that they blocked the path back to the road. The empty truck was turned so that it faced back the way it had come. The other truck was pulled into the open space and turned to the side.

As Hogan looked at the surrounding woods, he noticed that the underbrush was thick but not impenetrable. If he could get out into the woods a little ways, he would be able to remain unseen. But with those machine guns spraying bullets, remaining unseen might not mean anything.

Schultz kept the prisoners standing near the truck while the guards moved into place at the perimeter of the clearing. Hogan looked at the empty truck and winced to himself. The deal he had made with Klink was that they had two days to cut as much as they could. They had to fill this truck for the guards' use first, and only then could they begin to fill a second truck for themselves. So Hogan knew this would be a long day.

When the guards were in place, Schultz walked over to Hogan. "I would suggest you get to work now, Colonel Hogan," he said. "We will leave before it gets dark."

Hogan nodded and gathered his men together.

"Same assignments as usual, sir?" Newkirk asked.

Hogan nodded. He didn't know what the assignments were, but he wasn't about to admit it. He looked over at Carter. "But since Carter is new here, I think he and I will man the crosscut saw."

Newkirk nodded. "Good idea," he replied.

With that, the men grabbed their tools and started to work.

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Hogan was busy at one end of the two-man crosscut saw, cutting the giant trunks of the felled trees into two-foot long logs. He looked across the trunk at Carter, who was doing his best to keep the pace.

"Getting tired, Carter?" Hogan asked.

"A little, sir," Carter puffed in reply.

"You've been quiet," Hogan observed. "Too much effort to talk?"

"No," Carter replied. "I've just been thinking."

"Let me guess," Hogan said. "You're thinking about how things have changed."

Carter nodded quickly as the log dropped off the end of the trunk. He moved down the trunk with Hogan and began to cut another two feet off the length of the trunk. "Aren't you thinking about that?" he asked Hogan.

Hogan smiled. "Among other things," he replied. "Have you come to any conclusions?"

Carter paused. He had actually narrowed down his conclusions to two possibilities – neither of them logical. One possibility was that this was a test – God was testing them for some reason. The other reason was more absurd – that somehow they had found their way to an alternate reality – some sort of mirror image of the one that they came from.

Aware of Hogan's gaze upon him, he finally answered. "Nothing that makes any sense, sir," he replied.

Hogan let out a strained chuckle. It was hard to laugh while he was moving the saw back and forth. "I'd settle for total nonsense at this point," he said.

"Well, all of this could be a test," Carter answered. "For some reason, God wants to test us."

Hogan did not respond immediately. He continued working the saw and watched another log fall off the trunk. After repositioning the saw for another cut, he said, "I've had a similar thought – that we've died and gone to hell."

Carter hesitated to mention his other thought, but decided that he might as well say something. "The other thought I had was that somehow we managed to enter a mirror image of the world that we came from."

A big smile broke out on Hogan's face. "You mean like Alice passing through the looking glass?" he asked.

Carter grinned sheepishly and nodded. "Something like that," he replied.

Hogan laughed. "Well, I suppose that is as possible as anything," he responded. "But I hope I don't see a rabbit pull a watch out of his pocket and say that he's going to be late!"

Carter chuckled as he moved the saw back and forth. He was about to reply, but stopped as Newkirk walked up to them.

Seeing that the pair had stopped talking when he arrived, Newkirk quipped, "Don't stop talking about me just because I am here."

"We weren't talking about you, Newkirk," Carter replied breathlessly.

"Then it must have been something you didn't want me to hear," Newkirk responded suspiciously.

"We were just talking about old times," Carter replied.

"Old times?" Newkirk retorted. "I thought you said you two didn't really know each other well."

Carter opened his mouth to reply, but Hogan cut him off. "He meant that we were talking about some of the people we both knew back in England," Hogan replied.

Newkirk looked between Hogan and Carter with a skeptical look on his face. Finally he said, "I guess I'm just a little paranoid."

Hogan laughed. "No need for that," he replied. "Tomorrow you and Carter can man the crosscut and swap stories."

Newkirk gave a noncommittal shrug, as if he didn't care one way or another. "Actually, the reason I'm here is that it's about time for the men to take a small break," he said. "No need to kill ourselves from thirst trying to prevent freezing to death."

Hogan laughed again. "You have a point," he replied. "Tell the men to take ten."

"Right, sir," Newkirk replied. He turned and began yelling for the men to stop working for a bit.

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After the break, Hogan and Carter were back on the crosscut saw busily cutting the two-foot long logs that would be split into firewood.

"Colonel," Carter said. "Are you starting to believe that Hochstetter is on the level?"

Hogan thought for a second. That was a question he had been asking himself for a while – was Hochstetter for real, or was this all a trick? "I'm starting to lean that way," he replied. "You've seen how everyone has changed from what we were familiar with. The old Schultz would have been half asleep at this point. " He paused long enough to see Carter nod. "And do you think the rest of the men would treat you as if you were a stranger?"

"No, sir," Carter replied. "That's the strangest part. If this were a trick by Hochstetter, Newkirk, Kinch and LeBeau would be the last ones to go along with it." He paused as another log dropped off the tree trunk. After repositioning the saw, he continued, "Are you going to go along with the plan?"

Hogan grinned at Carter. "Maybe," he replied, pausing to rephrase his response. "Probably – but maybe not exactly the way that Hochstetter would like."

Carter spotted Newkirk walking in their direction again. Rather than rouse his suspicions further, he waited until Newkirk was standing beside them and then asked, "Have you thought of a plan for your escape?"

"I was wondering about that myself," Newkirk added. "We're doing all of this information gathering in an area that you said was impossible to escape from before."

"Situations change," Hogan said, watching yet another log drop off. Before repositioning the saw to start another cut, he turned to Newkirk. "We have to be able to react to these situations as they change, or we'll be ineffective in the Underground … or worse – we'll be dead."

"I just don't like seeing us take unnecessary chances," Newkirk argued.

"Have I ever steered us wrong before?" Hogan asked. God, I hope the answer to this question is no!

Newkirk studied Hogan before answering. "No, aside from not escaping the last time, you've been straight with us," he commented.

Hogan winced at the reference to the botched escape – the one that he had no part in planning. "This time, it will go off as planned," he said firmly. "And this time, Hochstetter will have to share some of the risk. If he is serious about wanting to get rid of Klink, then he'd better be willing to give us more help."

A large smile slowly spread across Newkirk's face. "I couldn't agree with you more, sir," he replied.

Out of the corner of his eye, Carter saw Schultz walking in their direction. "Schultz is coming," he whispered quickly.

"What is the problem here?" Schultz asked when he arrived at the tree trunk. "Are you men planning some monkey business?"

When he heard Schultz use that phrase, Carter couldn't help but laugh. He tried his best to stifle it, so it came out as a snort followed by a rash of coughing.

"What's wrong with you?" Schultz asked him. "Did I say something funny?"

Still coughing, Carter shook his head. "No," he replied between coughs. "The sawdust got to me."

Schultz looked at him skeptically. "I don't believe you," he replied. "I haven't seen you cough all day."

"Schultz," Hogan interrupted. "I mean, Sergeant Schultz. Can we get back to work now? You're keeping us from making our daily quota."

Schultz glared at Hogan. "I am keeping you from working?" he asked. "You were standing here talking when I came over."

"I was just going over a plan with Newkirk," Hogan replied smoothly.

Schultz continued to glare at Hogan. Out of the corner of his eye, Hogan saw that both Carter and Newkirk were also staring at him with a mixture of shock and amazement at this admission.

"Aha!" Schultz exclaimed. "So you were planning some monkey business!"

"Not at all, Schultz," Hogan replied. He paused, waiting to see if Schultz noticed that he had omitted his rank. He felt pleased when Schultz didn't react. "We were planning the best way to finish the cutting, stacking and loading of the wood." He pointed his finger at the guard and shook it. "You don't think these things happen on their own, do you?"

"No," Schultz replied. "I … I … I…" he stammered.

Hogan saw that Carter had a small smile on his face while watching this exchange. Newkirk, on the other hand, still had a look of shock. Hogan could tell that Newkirk would never dream of talking to the guard like this. I guess there are a lot of things he's going to have to get used to from now on, Hogan thought.

"Well then, why don't you just go back over by the truck and let us get back to work?" Hogan replied. He turned to Newkirk and asked, "Are we clear on what we need to do to fill that truck, Corporal?"

Newkirk blinked a couple times before responding. "Yes, sir!" he replied. "I'll make sure the men get right to it." The Englishman turned and walked back to his post where the logs were being split. Hogan saw him glance back once and shake his head in disbelief.

"Now, Carter," Hogan said. "If the Sergeant will let us get back to work, we can get back to sawing some logs." Hogan looked at Schultz expectantly.

Schultz had a slightly dazed look on his face that reminded Hogan of the Schultz that he had grown to know and love. There's hope yet, he thought. Schultz shook his head slightly and turned without a word to return to his post by the trucks.

As they began sawing the tree trunk, Carter whispered, "Beautiful, Colonel. Absolutely beautiful!"

Hogan gave a small shrug. "It's a start," he said as if it meant nothing. But the smile on his face betrayed his happiness with the exchange.

The rest of the workday passed without incident. Just before dusk, Schultz stopped the prisoners and loaded them into the truck for the return trip to camp. After working all day, the men had managed not only to fill the empty truck with firewood, but left a large pile for loading the next day. In the end, it turned out that having the extra wood was a blessing. When they returned to camp, Klink would not allow them to unload the truck until after roll call the next morning. That took a couple hours away from their time in the clearing.

During the second day, the men made their observations while still managing to fill the second truck. Hogan was tired after the two days of manual labor, but very happy. His men had managed to complete both objectives – the information gathering and increasing the supply of wood for the barracks.

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Hogan's happiness was short lived. The very next day, Klink decided to question Carter again and summoned both Hogan and Carter to his office. When Carter refused to provide anything except the standard name, rank and serial number, Klink had him put in the cooler again.

After leaving Klink's office, Hogan returned to the barracks determined to do whatever necessary to change the dynamics of the camp. It was almost unfathomable to him to spend the rest of the war cooped up in Stalag 13 like a normal prisoner. He used to be in charge of a nice operation that, for whatever reason, had been taken away from him. Now he was determined to get it back – and on his own terms. Hochstetter may be the vehicle he had to use, but he wanted to make sure that Hochstetter was not going to be the one calling all of the shots.

He entered the barracks to find the men lounging around in their bunks. He suspected that, like him, they were feeling the effects of the last two days of physical labor.

"Where's Carter?" Newkirk asked.

"Klink threw him in the cooler again," Hogan replied. "He's still insisting that Carter can provide him some useful information."

"Klink won't give up easily," Kinch replied from his bunk.

"Oui, and things will just get tougher for Carter," LeBeau added. "You remember how it was for you, Colonel, before Hochstetter intervened and started taking you out of camp each week."

"Right," Hogan replied. Actually, I don't know how it was, he thought. But it sure sounds like it was not a pleasant experience. I guess we'd better get rid of Klink before Carter gets to experience it. "Well, that's why we're trying to get rid of him," he said looking around at all of the men nodding their agreement. He walked over to the table in the middle of the barracks and took a seat. "So let's compare notes and sketch up a picture of the clearing. It will help with the planning."

"You're going to put that on paper, sir?" a surprised Newkirk asked. "If Sergeant Schultz comes in and catches us with that, we'll be in a bloody mess of trouble."

"Let's just make sure that doesn't happen," Hogan replied. "Carter …" he stopped himself before he added "watch the door." He was so used to having Carter look out for the guards that it had almost become a reflex. Instead, he said, "Carter will have to add his observations when he gets out of the cooler." Looking around, he added, "Johnson, watch the door. Make sure we're not surprised." Johnson nodded and headed towards the door.

When the men had assembled around the table, Hogan began drawing the clearing from his memory. The men added their observations as he drew and after a short time, he had a complete – albeit crude – drawing of the area.

"And what have we learned?" Newkirk asked. "Besides the fact that we have good memories," he added.

Hogan looked up at the Englishman. I've learned that you have a very annoying pessimistic attitude, he thought. He quickly shook that thought from his mind to concentrate on the map in front of him. "Looking at the map," he said tightly, "it looks like the best place to try to slip out is here." He pointed to a spot on the paper.

"What, just slip out in broad daylight in plain view of the guards?" Newkirk asked.

"The guards' attention will be focused elsewhere," Hogan replied. "We'll need a diversion."

"Maybe one of us can get the guards to shoot him, and when they are posing for pictures over the body, you can slip out," Newkirk replied sarcastically.

"Damn it, Newkirk," Hogan exclaimed angrily. "If you don't want to participate, then don't! I am going to do this – with your help or without it." Hogan looked around at the men gathered around him. "And that goes for all of you. If you don't want to help, then speak now. I'll find another group to help me."

The room was quiet for a moment. Finally, Kinch spoke. "We're with you, Colonel," he said softly, bringing a chorus of agreement from many of the men gathered around.

"Oui," echoed LeBeau. "It's just that this idea is so different from any of our other plans. We've never been this brash before – we're bound to antagonize the Kommandant."

"And it's about time, too," Hogan retorted. "It's time that bald Teutonic twit was knocked down to size for a change." Ignoring the snorts of laughter from some of the men, Hogan looked over at Newkirk. "That just leaves you, Newkirk. In or out?"

The two men locked eyes in a silent battle of wills. After a few moments, Newkirk looked away, relenting. "Count me in, sir," he said.

Hogan smiled. "Good," he replied. "Now to answer your question, Hochstetter will be providing the diversion."

"And what would that be, Colonel?" Kinch asked.

"I don't know yet," Hogan replied. "That's what I need to talk to him about."

"And what if he doesn't want to go along with the plan?" Newkirk asked.

Kinch gave him an elbow in the side. "I thought you said you were in?" he asked.

"Hold it down, fellows," Hogan said. "That's a perfectly valid question. And I'll tell him the same thing I just told you – I'll do this with him or without him. If he wants Stalag 13 as bad as he says, he should have no hesitation helping us with our plan."

"You're determined to get this done, aren't you?" Newkirk asked solemnly.

Hogan met his gaze. "Absolutely," he replied.

Newkirk gave a little smile. "Good," he said. "That makes two of us."