A/N: I should probably say that all errors are mine. My historical knowledge is something I'm rather ashamed of!

Enjoy the read.

Chapter Twelve
Your Design

It had been deadly quiet for a long time, nothing and nobody disturbing the peace for as much as that was possible during war.

Alice's nature slightly crashed and if anyone who really knew her noticed her silence, they would surely ask her if she was ill. Unfortunately, Alice wasn't in the company of friends who knew her well. She wasn't even in the company of a person who spoke her language.

Her eyes stayed before her. She imagined if she could ignore him, then she could pretend he wasn't even there behind her. Only occasionally did his presence become known to her, when she wasn't walking in the right direction.

That was another thing. They were walking in a certain path. But what did it matter? She could not imagine he was leading her to his camp. Why would his camp be so far away? She didn't want to admit it, but if he was walking in a specific direction, he had a very good mind. If she had to return to that spot where she had left her friends, she would most likely get lost.

She heard two beeps simultaneously, one coming from her wrist and one coming from his. The watch read 6.00 pm. No action was happening yet. She glanced back at him. Quickly, she turned back her head. His stare on her bothered her so.

There were a few more minutes of silence while all kinds of questions ran through her head. It was time, but what exactly for? She didn't see anything around her. Everything looked just the same sad grey. She hoped that they would rest at six o'clock. She wasn't hungry so very much, but she could use a sip of water as her throat had become the same as a desert. She coughed once, thinking she could get rid of that sandpaper feel with a cough. If something happened, it actually even felt worse.

Lord, she had no idea what real thirst was like.

"Wie bist du?"

Her body jumped. She didn't expect him to talk. She most certainly hadn't seen it coming when he was walking beside her instead of behind her.

Curiosity was a foul feeling. She watched him with a scowl and she raised her hand a little. It had to be a universal sign of confusion, she hoped.

"Du bist sehr still."

He spoke slowly as he pointed at her. Than his front finger touched his lips. Her lips pursed. She was almost certain that he was mentioning her silence. He noticed and he commented about it.

Anyone would be silent if they were walking in her shoes right now. Exhaustion, not only caused by a lack of sleep, but also war, would shut anyone's lips in a tight seal. She was thinking he would become angry, because she obviously knew what he meant, but wasn't responding to it. Her body almost expected a shove at any moment.

None of that ever came. They walked side by side, in total silence and with no hard feelings coming from his side. It was well past six o'clock. If that was a good sign or a bad one remained a mystery.

The Nazi did something he hadn't done before. He walked forward with purpose, walking ahead of Alice. She hadn't seen the house shaped shadow right before her eyes. It was hidden by the darkness of the night. Alice wondered if this was their hiding place.

Instead of following the Nazi, she started going backwards. She could run. She didn't have a shot at escape. But Alice owed it to her killed friends to fight back.

The Nazi glanced back.

"Komm hier."

That sounded to Alice's frightened ears a lot like come here. She felt weaker than ever for not carrying any weapons, in contrary to the Nazi. Also she felt small, literally small, as the Nazi, whom was the size of a beast, gazed at her like a hunter would glare at its prey. His eyes were daring her to go against him.

She was slowly stepping back, slowly. He would shoot anyway. Alice knew that. She could not outrun bullets or thrown knives, but by God, she wanted to be brave when he shot. She wanted to be brave for her three lost friends.

The Nazi walked to her while Alice stepped back sooner. Despite wanting to be brave, she could not hide the fact that she was scared. He pointed his thumb behind him at the house. That small gesture was a threat, to follow him along or else. Alice knew he was capable to torture her if she chose to run instead. Despite her resistance, she was too scared of physical pain.

She stepped forward with hunched shoulders, glaring at his blank face, until she was before him yet again, where he could keep a close eye on her. She stood before the door with probably a green face.

"So am I supposed to open the door and be jumped on by all of your-"

The Nazi shoved her away, to which Alice gasped in shock and repulsion. The Nazi showed no respect! She hadn't even finished talking yet.

While she was regaining balance, he was kicking the front door open with much force. He really was brutal. His gun was in his hand as he was on high alert, slowly stepping in. That gave Alice some hope that this might not be that place where the Nazi was meeting with the rest of his team. He was probably about to shoot any American he'd come across.

On the other hand she stepped inside carefully. She looked around warily for any other Nazi as she stepped inside. It was eerily quiet, not something one would expect from a room filled with the enemy. Instead it was filled with a horrible, horrible stench.

Like a martyr, she was waiting for the ambush, the five, ten, or maybe fifty Nazi men to attack her and torture her. The only thing that happened was the sound of a thud as the Nazi dropped his bag and her own being pulled of her back. She gave him a glare when he did that, but when she felt the heavy weight off her shoulders, suddenly she realized how much her muscles were aching. Now that her backpack was off, she was able to take off the offensive coat, her own American flag emblem shining in its glory. She did not care about the cold.

Now they were once again one American and one Nazi together in one single room.

She saw a big bed on the left, some pots and pans in a small kitchen on the right upper corner and an eating table with four chairs on her right hand. It looked all very old and dirty, probably because of the war. This was once somebody's home. A family or a couple lived her. But the war had driven them away, whomever they were.

A sudden feeling overwhelmed Alice. She didn't know where that had come from. If she could make a random guess, it would probably be that she was sleep deprived, abducted, almost caught by an entire group of Nazi's and had seen the deaths of her friends only yesterday.

She opened her mouth and screamed. It was unwise, but Alice wished any American's were near. She hoped by her God they'd hear her, come find her and see that she was caught by the Nazi. She was screaming and praying for help.

It was a fairy tale dream, but Alice was a young girl and still very naive. She still believed in the good. She ran, while screaming, to the second door she saw in the small room. Her instincts told her it was another exit door, right between the bed and kitchen.

Her screams faltered when she tumbled inside and smelled that horrible stench even more sharply in here. It was a filthy restroom, which meant a dead end to her sudden attempt of escape and rescue. But worst of all, it was a scene of total death.

The small area which had once been a place to shower, was now a slaughter room. Alice's eyes were rapidly moving, seeing several beheaded bodies. Their limbs were ripped out of their torso's. The heads lay cruelly next to one another two yards away from the door, all of them placed in a way so that the people who entered the restroom, would see those dead eyes in those heads first.

Five. She counted five heads. Somebody had done this out of sadism. This was the enjoyment of pain.

Not even a minute ago Alice had thought how she couldn't handle physical pain if the Nazi chose to torture her. Seeing how it was done to other people was probably more horrible.

A gurgled, painful, low, strange sound escaped Alice's mouth. She saw now with her own eyes what the Nazi did to the innocent.

She saw today for the first time such horror.

She learned the smell of death.

And it killed her.

"Bist du vollständig verrückt?" the Nazi yelled after her, when his own voice gasped.

The man behind her caused a vengeful feeling to come up inside her, especially because he had gasped. He had no right to be surprised, or anything at all. He was a Nazi, a robot and they carried no emotions. This kind of scenery was old news to him.

"Fick. Komm hier!"

He grabbed Alice harshly by the upper arm and was about to drag her out of the bathroom, when Alice's stomach turned violently. She bent over and vomited. The Nazi didn't release her when she sobbed and emptied her stomach in another violent heave.

Americans, those five people in the restroom were American soldiers. For all Alice knew, her faith would become the same as theirs. Her eyes could not leave the scene and each time she saw those horrified eyes, she heaved again. It never ended.

The Nazi dragged her with him when he saw that Alice didn't calm down. That would've possibly never happened while remaining in that restroom. Partly, she was grateful for that, because she was unable to move herself or to prevent her eyes from looking at her people.

For a moment she was disoriented. Everything around her spun and she could only think of the danger she was in. Pain, torture, that kind of sadism scared her too much. The war was too much for her. She would forever be haunted by that image.

Her head turned to the side and she saw a sign. It was shiny, black and lethal. His handgun was within reach. It was an impulsive decision to yank it out of its holster by his hip and fire it right in his face, only the trigger seemed to be jammed. The bullets weren't coming out. She thought in desperation that the gun had no ammunition in it.

Oh, of course! She'd forgotten to load it first, as she'd heard the men say so often. The gun had to be loaded before she could shoot with it.

How did she load the gun?