A/N: Woah! I am on fire! Another chapter out before the 14th. I bet you guys are just loving this. Maybe I should slow down. Don't want you guess to get spoiled. Lol The title of this chapter comes from Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop for Death.

Lena

Chapter 7: He Kindly Stopped for Me

I gave the man a tight smile. I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear. He gestured to the seat in front of his desk. I eyed the average looking red leather armchair. I reluctantly sat down and his broadened as if he had just won a small battle with me. Which was ironic because I felt as if I had lost a battle with him. He had caught me and I was at his mercy. We both knew this fact, but while he reveled in my circumstance, I refused to acknowledge it.

"Oh, how I have waited for this moment, Mein Fräulein," he said cheerfully. "I applaud you, Lena. Three years! I must say I never expected you to last this long. After the first year, I feared we would only find your body. Never knew you were such a little nature girl at heart." I didn't say anything. I may have been defeated, but I would be damned before I showed it. I stared out the window, to my right. I wondered if my boys were looking for me. I hoped not. They can't risk their cause just because of me.

"No need to be such a spoil sport. I am only happy to see my old friend alive and lovely as ever." I almost turned to look at him and snort in disbelief. "I could always kill you know," he said with an unexpected harsh and deadly tone. I heard a click of a gun. My head wiped in his direction and I gasped.

"Ah, finally a reaction! It is amazing what fear can accomplish," he said as he placed the gun on the desk chuckling. I eyed the gun. I was still trembling. It was one thing knowing that you were going to die, it was a completely different feeling all together when facing it. "Now that I finally have your attention we can now precede with much more important matters." Landa pressed the intercome button. "Hermon, bring in the package."

"Right away, sir," came the static response. Moment later, Hermon came in with a bucket of ice with a bottle peeking out and two champagne glasses. I was well, for a lack of a better word, dumbfounded. I watched as Hermon left. His fists clasped tight. I turned back to Landa and took the offered glass of champagne. I eyed the beverage suspiciously. Landa smirked at my reservation.

"Lena, dear, if I had wanted to kill you I would have put a bullet between your eyes. It is easier and cheaper than poisoning a bottle of expensive cava," he said taking a sip from his glass. I hesitantly took one as well. We slipped into an uncomfortable silence. Just when I thought that I could not take any more before I snapped, he spoke. "However, do not think that I am not going to kill you. I can't go breaking my promises." Another silence overtook us. As Donny would say, he was playing fucking mind games. I knew what he was doing. However, there was nothing I could do about it. I glanced over at him and our eyes met. We shared a look of understanding. He knew that I knew what I was doing. It only seemed to widen his already impossibly large smile. He sat down his empty glass placed his hands on the arms of his chair and leaned back leisurely.

"I have two options for you. Option one, I can shoot you now," he drawled casually, picking up his gun. "Option two you can be worked to death in the camps. I don't much care either way. You will die either way." I closed my eyes and fought the urge to cry. I thought of my papa and what he would do. My shoulders straightened and I held my head high.

"I will take the camps," I told him icily. I knew what awaited me in those death camps. Nazi patrols would talk about them in detail. My stomach twisted painfully at the very thought but I held steadfast.

"Just like your father," he chuckled. Landa pulled out his massive pipe and lit it. He puffed it a couple times, as he watched in amusement as my eyes widened. "Yes, yes. I knew your father. You didn't think that I became a Colonel overnight, did you?" he laughed. "Everyone in the German army knew of Milo Zimmerman. He was the Fredrick Zoller of his time. He often spoke of you to us." Landa stood and gestured for me to take his arm. I reluctantly did so. He walked me towards the door. "I know you see as cruel, as well you should. However, I would not have shot you. I knew you were going to choose the camps. I do wish that there was another way, but as it stands, there is not. I am a Nazi and you are a murderer." I gaped as the Jew Hunter had the nerve to call me the murderer! "I know what you are thinking. The infamous Jew Hunter calling someone a murderer. Well, my dear, it was not I who killed a Nazi General's son at the LaPadite farm. I would let you go but he would have my head. So you must understand that I am doing this to protect myself," he said as he patted my hand.

"This is his reasoning? He is completely insane!" I thought to myself in absolute bewilderment. I did not have time to recover before I was passed onto someone else.

"Hermon, send her with the batch." I gruff voice answered Landa. I looked up to a stranger's face. Did this man call everyone below him, Hermon? And the man I met before just happened to be named Hermon. I had to resist an insane laughing fit at all the craziness.

Landa waved cheerfully as I left. He waved as if I was headed off on some holiday, instead of a death camp. It was a sick sight to witness. I managed to hold my body steady and walk with my head held high. I denied to show any one of them my terror. I will never give up on hope for a brighter tomorrow. As papa always said, 'As long as your breathing, things can get better'.

I was loaded up on the truck, with the others. My heart wrenched when I saw small children crying for their mommas that would never be able to hold them. I opened my arms to crying boy who at first eyed me warily, before leaping into my arms for comfort. 'Hermon' snorted in disgust at my act of kindness. He looked at us like we were vermin. He was one of the ones that truly believed Hitler's propaganda. It broke my heart just as much as the crying child in my arms. To see such a loss of humanity in his eyes. He slammed the trailer door shut and shouted for the driver to head out.

I watched the base get smaller as I rode in the back. I saw Dieter exit the forest. Our eyes met and he looked surprising stunned to me in one of the trucks that only headed to a painful death. He chased after me, but he couldn't keep up with the moving vehicle. I was once again stumped. First he acts if he hates me and then he chases after me. I truly hated everything about this war. I held the child closer and sang him a broken lullaby.

-o- Back at the Nazi Base -o-

Hermon sat in his chair with his head in his hands, trying to hold back a sob. He hated his cause, hated this uniform, hated this war. He was forced into this life. He would have never choose it for himself. He managed to get by because he never had to kill anybody or see the people that were killed. All he was a military secretary. However, it was all too real now. He had met Lena and he knew she was being sent to be gassed, worked to death, or worse; cooked.

A sob broke free. It just wasn't Lena that caused this breakdown of the young private. It was that Lena symbolized all the men, woman, and children that were sent to die. She was innocent and did not deserve to die. He thought back to all the trucks he saw pass through here, not to mention all the ones he didn't see. He now knew why people killed themselves.

In the office next to him, Landa leaned against the door. Landa stood there with his eyes closed. He hated sending Milo's daughter to an almost certain death. He clapped his hands together and tried to shake of the guilt. He did not have time for such feelings. He had Basterds to find.

Down the road, Dieter stood there looking down the lane even though he could no longer see the truck. The dust had even settled around him. This is not how it was supposed to go. He was going to make a deal for her life and he would take her. His heart wrenched at the knowledge of what she would face in the camp. She was a frustrating and infuriating woman but she was finally supposed to be his after years of longing. He never had the courage to get her in school and now he forever lost his chance. Dieter fumed with anger as he strode towards the base.

A/N: So how was it? I love hearing from you guys! I wish I could reply to the guest reviews. One really made me laugh. I am just going to say 'panties' you know who you are. Lol Though I know how you feel. When Christoph Waltz walks onto the screen panties fly across the room hahaha

I know things are getting pretty ansgty. I am afraid it is only going to get worse before it gets better. But what can you expect with WWII? Till next time! -Macbeth