A/N:
Thank you BobtheFrog for the review! It always upset me that they made Lieb the one to tell the prisoners. Of all people, seriously. I'm glad you enjoyed the dream sequence, I thought of it last minute and decided to add it on a whim. I'm glad it paid off, and that's awesome how you guessed why Marie couldn't see Muck right away :)
Thank you MASHlover23 for another review! It's great to hear from you again! That was one of the most encouraging, confidence-boosting reviews I've ever received. I'm so touched by your praises that I don't know how to respond. I appreciate your response to this story so much, from the bottom of my heart! And that's awesome that a song makes you think about my story (I listened to it, too). And thank you for the condolences 3
Thank you Elliennie for the story follow, favorite, and for adding me to your alerts list!
Thank you ilove4u for the story follow, favorite, and for adding me to your alerts list!
Special thank you to icanttellthemthatsir for helping me with the German translations! You're awesome!
TW: Rape, abuse
The three women sat squished inside a jeep together, riding silently down the dirt path through a clearing of trees that would lead them to the women's camp. A few other soldiers from various companies were sent to escort them, but they were all strangers to those of Easy Company, so there was no idle chitchat between the parties. Marie could already feel queasy in dreadful anticipation of what they were going to find once the vehicle pulled up to the locked gates. Winters had warned that this camp could be in a more dire state than the last camp, but Marie's imagination couldn't conceptualize anything worse than what they saw in that sick camp. The jeep came to a quick halt, causing everyone to jerk forward, sliding in their seats. Marie reluctantly looked up to see a similar architecture of the last camp. The strangers climbed out of the jeep first, checking the perimeter and the front of the gate, their guns pointed in uneasiness. Barb climbed out behind them, tossing her cigarette on the ground and stamping the flames out with her boot. Marie couldn't will herself to move, every inch of her being screamed at her not to take a step out of the jeep.
"Sergeant Docherty, are you coming?"
Marie turned to see Abernathy waiting beside the door to the jeep, her hands pressed together in a nervous fashion. Marie was so lost in nerves she hadn't even noticed her climb out of the jeep.
Marie sighed tensely. "I guess so." She hopped out of the jeep and followed everyone with heavy footsteps, almost to the point where she was dragging her feet. She hugged herself as she approached the gate, already feeling the horrible prickling on her skin as she gazed up at the ominous gates.
"Why aren't the women gathered around the gate, too?" Barbara pondered aloud. It did seem odd that there wasn't a crowd waiting for them like at the last camp. Not seeing anyone made the anxiety rise more.
A soldier from A Company used some wire cutters to open the gate. He cut the chain off and slowly pushed the gate open. Still no women had gathered, even though the noise of the creaking gates and rattling chains were enough to alert anyone nearby. Part of Marie was hoping the camp would be vacant, but there were signs of smoke rising from pits just like the last camp, which meant more charred corpses and signs of Nazi activity. The ground was the same as the last camp, covered with the same greyish ash and dirt that seemed to coat every inch of the land. There were lines of hut-like areas, all small and built exactly the same, all in rows as the perimeter stretched further. The team ventured in at a sluggish and cautious pace, knowing what they would eventually stumble across but still afraid for the result.
"Hallo? Wir sind amerikanische Soldaten, wir sind gekommen um euch zu befreien." Abernathy called out, not able to take the quietness anymore. No response was received. Everything was so unnaturally still; not even the wind seemed to blow.
"What did you say?" Barbara asked.
"I said we're American soldiers that have come to free them." Abernathy replied.
"That sounds a little suspicious and scripted. We need to get these women to reveal themselves, if there are any here." Marie sighed. "Tell them that we've been to the other camp, and that the Nazis are gone."
Abernathy nodded nervously, clearing her throat. "Wir haben das andere Lager befreit. Die Nazis sind weg." She shouted in desperation to be heard, but still there was no response. "Bitte haben Sie keine Angst." She added on a hopeful note.
The team started to approach the huts when the door slowly began to open. A withered grey figure with a bandana tied around the head immerged, her caved in eyes searching for the source of the voices that had been carried in the wind. One by one the other women started to peek out of the huts, though they were obviously skittish and fearful of what they would find. One of the soldiers from the different company went to greet one of the women, but she slinked back in fear. She shielded her face with her bony arms as she backed up into the hut. Marie couldn't help but notice her arms were covered in bruises; they contrasted dramatically against her grey skin.
"They're afraid of the men. You guys need to stay back." Marie told the group as she started forward. "Wait back here while we scout ahead."
"What? There's no way in hell-" One of the soldiers started to argue. He was some replacement from Fox Company, who the hell was he to question Marie's logic? She complained inwardly to herself, hotly.
"I'm the only noncom around here, no? Stand back." Marie ordered, casting a glare in his direction. She had no time to argue back and forth with him. Marie stepped forward and gently gripped the woman's forearms, bringing them down from her face. She seemed to relax, but she was trembling all the same. "Barb, take the flashlight and come check out this hut with me. I need start evaluating these women. Send a runner back to the other camp to tell Sink what we've found."
"Right." Barbara told one of the men to run back as she whipped out her flashlight.
She followed Marie inside, only to see the same setup of shelves that were built from the other camp. The women whimpered at the light, scooting back from the newcomers. They huddled together on the stacked shelves and on the ground, trying to hide away from being seen. The hut smelled strongly of diaerra, body odor, menstruation, and famine. Marie could see that human waste was also pooled around the floors of the hut, only this time it was mixed with sticky blood. Marie kept the rag tied to her face, pressed firmly against her nose as Barb pinched her nostrils at the overpowering odor. Some of the women had shaved heads, some had full locks of hair, and others were also wearing bandanas around their heads. Barbara and Marie ushered some of them out, as Abernathy answered some of the questions. The women went together in clumps, afraid to be alone with any of them. Safety in numbers was smart, but it would make medical examinations difficult.
"Remember, their metabolisms can't handle too much food and water right now, so don't feed them yet." Marie reminded the group as she started checking over one of the women. She checked their lymph nodes, reflexes, and combed through their hair (for those who had hair) for lice. One of the prisoners was a young girl, with a full head of dark, curly hair. Her cheek bones protruded so far out on her starving face that it looked like they could cut somebody. The woman flinched whenever Marie went to feel the lymph nodes around her abdomen, even more so when she started going further down. Why were all these women so scared? The men in the last camp weren't as afraid of physical contact or touch. They practically ran up to the soldiers, giving them hugs and kisses. But the women were reluctant to even step forward during the liberation of their camp. Marie had a sickening hunch as to what happened to them to make them so scared.
"I need to check if these women have been sexually assaulted." Marie uttered to Barbara and Abernathy, whom were consoling some of the other prisoners nearby.
"What? How?" Abernathy questioned, looking aghast by Marie's suggestion.
"I need to get these women around the hut to give them some privacy while I look between their legs. These women might have psychological damage from abuse, and it will only get worse if more men from other companies show up and start parading around the place." She started to lead the woman behind the hut, followed by Abernathy. Marie went to undo her striped clothing but the young woman started to panic. "Can you please tell her I'm a medic? I'm not trying to hurt her." Marie urged.
"Sie ist eine Krankenschwester. Sie wird Ihnen nicht weh tun." Abernathy soothed, placing a caring hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman seemed to calm a little as Marie went on checking, but she still tensed up.
Seeing her nude skeletal figure under the striped pajamas was worse than she feared. The baggy clothing could barely cling to anything on her body; she had literally become nothing more than skin and bone. As Marie suspected, there was deep bruising on her inner thighs that climbed further upward. Marie sighed, wiping her eyes for a moment. She put on the clothes of the woman again, casting Abernathy a troubled look.
"Ask her if the Nazis did this to her, and the other girls in the camp."
Abernathy was flabbergasted by Marie's request. "I can't ask her that!"
"I know it isn't easy, or pleasant, but I need to know." Marie pressed, biting her tongue from spewing something hostile in impatience. She hated this just as much as Abernathy, but she was doing her job. They needed to collect information on everything that happened in this camp. Sink would want a report on what they found, down to the last detail.
Abernathy's lips moved wordlessly for a moment until she finally faced the young woman, whom was staring between the two soldiers in bewilderment. Abernathy swallowed thickly. "Wurden Sie vergewaltigt?"
The woman started crying and sputtering, weeping as she rasped hastily for breath. She hunched herself over as her eyes stretched into slits. She didn't even have enough fluid in her malnourished body to produce tears. Abernathy went to hug her, and the woman buried her face into Abernathy's chest in meek comfort.
"I'll take that as a yes." Marie mumbled, facing away from the sobbing prisoner and Abernathy, staring at her in pity. "Come on, Harper, there's more women that need urgent medical attention, and questions that need to be answered."
"We can't just leave her like that!" Abernathy protested, gesturing at the crumpled over figure, still weeping tearlessly into Abernathy's arms. "We just traumatized her with the reminder, and I'm sure it didn't only happen to her!"
Marie pointed to where Barbara was standing. She was kneeling down beside one of the prisoners, though something seemed to be off about their appearance. "There are more people to treat. I need you to ask some questions so we can give the Sink all the information he needs to help these people."
Marie didn't wait for her answer, she started toward Barbara; she could hear Abernathy stomping behind her; Marie had never seen Abernathy so worked up before. Barb heard them approaching, and glanced over her shoulder, a disgusted look on her face. As Marie got closer, she could see that the prisoner Barb was speaking to have severe burns all over her face. Her skin was rough, blistered, red, and had white and yellowish boils sprouting from her face. The woman's grotesque and disfigured appearance made Abernathy wince in shock as the woman's sad eyes met hers. Marie squatted beside the prisoner, and started pulling out Foille ointment and bandages to treat her burns.
"Did the Nazis do this to her?" Marie asked, indicating for Abernathy to translate.
"Die Nazis haben Ihr Gesicht verbrannt?" Abernathy stuttered.
"Nein, ich habe es verbrannt." The woman replied in a gruff voice, her firm gaze unfaltering.
"No, it was self-inflicted." Abernathy said to Marie. "Warum?"
The woman was silent, her deformed face and thin body appeared to be strangely stoic for a second as she took a deep, staggering breath as she looked down at the ashy ground. Most of the prisoners migrated around the burned woman and the soldiers, waiting to hear what she had to say, though they already knew the story. Marie started to apply to Foille ointment to her wooden applicator to put on her face, but the woman held up her weak hand, signaling for her to hold on.
"Ich hab mich selber hässlich aussehen lassen, so dass sie mich nicht länger anmachen wollten."
Abernathy's face went white with the burned prisoner's answer. Marie started applying the ointment, then, part of her ignoring the horrified look on Abernathy's face, while trying to swallow down the lump forming in her own throat. The burned woman continued to talk, retelling her tale about what happened to her, and the daily events of the camp. Marie didn't understand German, but she had an inkling as to why this woman burned herself. She had to stop the Nazis from targeting her for lustful urges once and for all, and she did it the only way she had a resource to. But Marie pushed that possibility as far out of her mind as she could.
"This camp was where the sick and overworked were sent." Abernathy translated, her voice uneven with emotion. "Most of the women had been abused by the Nazis in the previous camps, some even got pregnant. The children had either died along with their mothers at childbirth, were separated to be sent to other camps, or killed." Abernathy paused, wiping the tears that were now spilling down her eyes. "But some of them are still in the camp."
"Where?" Marie asked. "We need the children to be escorted from here immediately."
"They're in the hut closest to the end." Abernathy pointed with an unsteady finger. "She said that most of the Nazis stopped sexually abusing them in this camp because of illness, but the physical abuse didn't end. The Nazis would take clubs, their fists, or stomp on these women whenever they saw fit. This woman…" Abernathy motioned toward the burned prisoner. "The Nazis made an exception for her. She took a hot iron and burned her face so they'd stop raping her."
Marie had just finished bandaging her face when Abernathy finished. She'd heard enough, she couldn't take it any longer. Marie turned away and vomited; she wasn't sure if it was her gut again, or a mixture of the terror and sadness of this camp. She wiped her mouth, feeling her eyes grow heavy with tears. Winters had been right, this was much worse than she could've ever imagined, and now there were children involved. Everything was turning out to be an overwhelming disaster, and Marie wasn't sure if she could handle any more of it.
"What the hell is going on?" One of the male soldiers came running up, making the prisoners part away quickly.
Marie took a deep breath, her stomach and throat still clenching from throwing up. "We need another runner to go catch up with Sink."
"What? No, out of the question! We've already sent one, and there aren't enough of us to leave you ladies alone."
"You have to, there's kids here." Barbara interjected with ferocity.
"There are kids here?" The soldier repeated, stupefied by her response.
"That includes babies, too. The children need to be taken from here right now. Send someone as a runner, and go get the children. Corporal Goode can help you. Harper, I need you to explain to them that we have to take the children to get medical help. I'll stay here and keep treating as many as I can."
Abernathy hastily wiped her tears. "I don't think they're going to like that, Sergeant."
Marie scanned the sullen, grey faces around her. They gathered and watched for what the Americans were going to do next, how they were going to help. Marie stood up, her knees quaking and almost buckling beneath her. She watched Abernathy press the palms of her hands against either side of her temples, spinning around to face the crowd of battered prisoners. Marie waited for Abernathy to speak, though her quivering lips didn't look like they'd ever be able to make an articulate sentence.
"Wir müssen die Kinder wegbringen."
The crowd gasped, glancing at each other in confusion. Marie could hear some of the prisoners say warum several times as Abernathy fought to control herself and speak.
"Jetzt sofort. Wir müssen sie jetzt wegbringen, für ihre Gesundheit."
Marie braced herself for an uproar of protests, but the women considered what Abernathy had said and decided to agree. Of course there was crying in tearful reluctance, but the women wanted their children out of this camp just as much as the Americans did. The ground of grey women led the soldiers to the last two huts and gestured for the doors to be opened. Marie held her breath, fearing the condition of the babies and children that would be carried and led out of the huts. To Marie's surprise, the children were plumper than the women, but they still had some signs of starvation. Their heads were shaved, and they wore the same striped pajamas the other prisoners wore. Their tiny bodies cowered under the sun, and were hesitant to approach the armed strangers standing before them. The mothers of the children and babies struggling to pick them up and carry them into the arms of Marie and the others. Marie was handed a baby girl that had to be less than a year old, her hands awkwardly cradled the baby, whom stared up into her eyes with confused fright.
"Please tell me someone sent for the runner." Marie whispered to Barbara, as she securely held onto the baby.
Barbara nodded. "Let's just hope the trucks get here soon." She held the hand of a three-year-old boy, whom was wailing as his mother ushered him to go. "We should move them to the front of the gate."
Marie nodded and signaled for the male soldiers to take some kids and head for the entrance. The women followed in tow, all looking sullen from being separated from their children, but knowing they were headed to a better place. The baby Marie clung to start huffing, starting to make crying sounds, but was still unsure if she should. Her tiny fingers reached up and brushed against Marie's jawline so gently that it made her flinch.
Tears welled in Marie's eyes, and she was unable to blink them away. "Please don't do that." Marie said to the little baby girl, though she knew it was pointless.
"Wir werden vorne auf mehr von unseren Soldaten warten." Abernathy told the concerned prisoners and mothers following slowly behind.
Eventually the trucks full of other personnel came pulling up, followed by Sink and the battalion doctor. They made the children board the jeep, leaving the women behind. The parting between children and mothers had gotten harder. Some of the mothers became hysterical, along with their children, crying in such agony that it pierced everyone's ears and tugged forcefully at the heartstrings. Marie sat on the jeep, holding the baby and not looking back as they drove away.
The children were brought to a nearby hospital for care, and Marie, Barb, and Abernathy were taken back to where Easy Company was stationed. They'd been gone most of the day, and have missed all the commotion of the company storming Landsberg and Hurlach and forcefully taking food from the citizens to give to the prisoners, which Marie would later be thankful for. It was dusk now, and the female soldiers still didn't know the worst part of it all: the prisoners had to be locked up again. The jeep stopped in front of the building CP had claimed, and they all got out. Marie forced herself to walk to the wooden doors and open them. She was exhausted, sad, and disturbed, the last thing she wanted to do is recount everything she experienced in grave detail. Winters, Nixon, Speirs, Welsh, and Lipton were waiting behind the doors, going over paperwork and talking seriously to one another. They noticed the burdened women enter, their shoulders drooped with angst.
"Good afternoon." Winters attempted to greet, but the expressions on the women's faces made it clear that they weren't feeling any ounce of cheeriness.
"We need your reports on the camp." Speirs interjected. "You will need to type them out and turn them in tomorrow morning."
Marie swallowed, nodding at the CO's order. "It was a sick camp, like the first one we liberated." She started giving them a quick synopsis of what they encountered at the women's camp.
"Only this time it was filled with women and children." Barbara deadpanned.
"There were children there?" Winters interrupted, the horror showing clearly on his face.
"Yes, sir." Marie answered softly. "The children were evacuated and taken to a hospital. The women were starving and most showed signs of sexual abuse from the Germans. Most will need a lot of rehabilitation before they can join society again."
"We've got some more information on the camp." Nixon stepped forward, holding a stack of papers that were held together by a paperclip. "The first camp we visited was called Kaufering IV. It was one of many sub-camps that were all part of a larger camp near Munich called Dachau. There's eleven of the Kaufering sub-camps that take in the sick, and those infected with typhus." Nixon glanced through the papers.
"There are eleven of those camps?" Abernathy gasped.
"Of the Kaufering camps, yes. There's 123 sub-camps for Dachau alone."
The three women fell into a shocked and still silence. Marie could feel her skin break out into unpleasant goose bumps with the horrible news. It seemed unfathomable that more than a hundred of those camps existed, and in such a close vicinity.
"Apparently there are a lot of these camps all over the place. There's one in Russia that is said to be worse." Nixon added, his tone grave.
Marie clutched her stomach, feeling the urge to puke again. She lowered her head as a sharp pain coursed through her body like electricity. This was all too much to take. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of camps that were filled with death and torture, and now innocent children were among the victims of torture. She didn't hold back the tears, and neither did Abernathy. Barbara remained quiet, her face tight and drawn with emotion, but she didn't cry.
"This is too much, may I go lay down, sir?" Marie questioned, looking desperately into the faces of every high-ranking officer in the room.
She was excused and quickly made her exit to her room and her bunk. She didn't even want to see Malarkey right now, she just wanted to curl up into bed and sleep the pain away. But this pain was different, and it was coming back in waves, and it was getting worse. Her lower back and abdomen felt like they'd been run over by a train. Her health had been rocky lately, but this was something that really alarmed her. Abernathy entered the room, keeping her head low and wiping her puffy eyes with the back of her hand. She heard Marie moan, alerting her to her curled up figure on the bed. Eventually she'd let out a cry of pain, hugging herself tighter into a fetal position.
"Sergeant Docherty? What's wrong?" Abernathy rushed to her bedside.
"Oh my God, it hurts!" Marie replied in a sharp voice through gritted teeth.
Abernathy pulled down the sheets of her bed to get a better look, but she gasped in fright by what she saw. The sound made Marie's heard stutter in fear.
"What's wrong?" Marie demanded fearfully.
"You're bleeding everywhere!"
Marie arched her neck to see blood all over her bed, sticking to her BDU pants, her sheets, and the mattress. The amount of blood was alarming, but Marie noticed where it was coming from. Seeing the source made Marie somewhat relax, she dismissed it as a severe period, but she couldn't ignore this pain and knew she had to get medical help.
"Take me to the hospital, Harper." Marie sat up, finding a towel to cover her bloody pants with. She wrapped it around herself, wiping the sweat that heavily dripped from her face. "Let's be discrete, I don't want the company to worry."
"What's wrong?" Abernathy linked an arm with her to steady her.
"It's probably just dysmenorrhea from stress, another reason I want to keep it quiet. If some of those dignitaries find out I was hospitalized for menstruation, they would never let me live it down. Come on, I don't want anyone to know so they won't worry. Take a jeep and drive." Marie instructed as Abernathy led her out the door. The pain Marie was experiencing was still slowing them down, but they were able to find a jeep with a key ready. Abernathy put Marie in the backseat and climbed up front.
"We're going to get in so much trouble for this." Abernathy whimpered, despite her fears she started up the vehicle and shifted the gears. She drove mainly from memory, recalling where the hospital they visited earlier that day was. "Will we get in trouble for AWOL with this?"
"No, just call Winters when we get to the hospital and tell him what happened. He won't blab to those men in Battalion S3." Marie answered, her tone strained from the pain. Technically this was breaking some rules, but Marie didn't want Malarkey or the others to see how badly she was bleeding, or how much pain she was in. She had went through enough today, she just wanted to rest in peace.
Marie waited on a hospital bed, Abernathy nervously at her side. Even though it was night, busy nurses scurried around to attend to patients. Marie had filled out a chart of her symptoms and was given a Kotex napkin in the meantime, but the blood was filling it much too quickly, faster than Marie had predicted. Eventually one of the nurses stopped and gave her a morphine drip for the pain, which she was extremely thankful for. Despite slipping in and out of sleep, it felt like she was in bed for hours, sweating and nodding on and off in unbelievable exhaustion until finally a button-nosed nurse with a high bun visited her.
"You're Sergeant Docherty?" The nurse asked in a thick British accent, thumbing through the papers on a clipboard.
"Yes." Marie answered drowsily.
"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Abernathy asked quickly.
"I have a good idea." The nurse lifted Marie's hospital gown, taking a look in between her legs, while pulling down her underwear to get a better glimpse. "I've seen a few female soldiers come through with similar situations since this entire campaign began." She sighed.
"Well I'm sure, painful menstruation is a very common problem." Marie muttered. "I just need to be on the morphine for a night, then I should be okay to return to my company tomorrow morning. I will need some Kotex napkins before I leave, though. We're running low at our station."
The nurse raised an eyebrow at Marie. "It's not your period, dear."
"What? You mean it's not dysmenorrhea?" Marie sat up abruptly, ignoring the pull on her IV. Now she really started to panic. "What the hell is wrong with me then?"
The nurse sighed again, her eyes sympathetically meeting hers. "Dear… you're having a miscarriage."
Translation:
Hello? We are American soldiers, we've come to free you.
We liberated the other camp. The Nazis are gone.
Please don't be afraid.
She is a nurse, she will not hurt you.
Were you raped?
The Nazis burned your face?
No, I burned it.
Why?
I made myself look ugly so they would no longer make passes at me.
We have to take the children away.
Now. We must take them now, for their health.
We will wait for the soldiers up front.