635798

Just as predicted, 635798 and I lied under the wood for three days. 635798 nearly beseeched me to stay a little longer, just in case the commotion didn’t die down completely. There was no such thing as being too safe here in Auschwitz.

During the course of these three days, very little happened. That didn’t mean what did happen wasn’t frightening. 635798 almost passed out from hunger and I had dizzy spells from the same cause. Both of us were dehydrated. After all, all we had to drink was our own saliva.

I don’t remember which day, but at some point the German Shepherd came back. 635798 and I could hear him sniffing around the wood. At one point, he stopped. It was only seconds later that it began to bark in front of where we were. Nazis began to shuffle around with the wood. I could remember perfectly 635798 burying herself against me. The chilly weather wasn’t the only reason our bodies trembled. I could feel my heart at the pit of my stomach. The Nazis were so close to finding us that a silver of light did stream in our hole. My grip on 635798 tightened and I prayed. For whatever reason, the Nazis gave up and left.

It was one of the only times God ever listened to anybody in this place.

During our hiding, 635798 grew sick. Her fever burned through the clothing I was wearing. Her sniffles told me she had a cold. That worried me. It was only a matter of time before 635798 got to the point she couldn’t breathe. What would she do? She already had a damaged lung. Surely that wouldn’t help. I had 635798 put on as many of the uniforms as she could, struggling through the tight space. In the end, she had on three dresses, four pants, five shirts, and two caps. All the clothing still wasn’t enough.

I was grateful when our time to escape came. Actually escaping was the hard part. Surely both Henryk and Siostra Katarzyna were confused as to what happened. How worried was Vater? I could always sneak 635798 and myself onto a train but I didn’t know when the next one was coming. They always came at random times. I also wasn’t sure how to get to Siostra Katarzyna’s house by myself. A simple address wasn’t going to help.

I removed the wood from on top of us and carried 635798 out. Her body was shaking as she sniffled and coughed against my chest. After playing this façade, I was going to give her my uniform too. How did she manage in the winter if she was freezing now in October?

A decision was made not to go near the tracks. Too many people would be there and all of them knew about the search for 635798. Instead, I headed in the direction of Jürgen’s mansion. It was too early in the day for him to have any guests over. Hopefully he knew where Siostra Kataryna lived and how to get there. He had to be more than happy to help us.

I bit my lip. Don’t jinx anything, Wolfgang.

I squeezed 635798 closer to me as I walked through the eerie camp. This place seemed creepier when there was no one else around. Where were the crematoriums? Where were the gas chambers? I needed those to help me guide us through this place. The pile of wood was a random find, causing me to lose my path. I took many twists and turns, hoping I wasn’t walking in circles. Everything looked the same here.

“Wolfgang?”

I looked down at 635798. “Hmm?”

“I’m cold.” 635798 didn’t open her eyes. Her nose was turning red as her eyelids bleached purple.

I held 635798 higher up so we were cheek to cheek. Hers burned harshly. “We’ll be inside soon.”

The all-too-familiar barking sounded off in the background. I froze and looked around for it. 635798’s eye opened to slits, aware of the noise. She burrowed herself into my chest and waited for my next plan of action. A plan of action I didn’t have.

“YOU!”

635798’s eyes now opened and she looked at me, frightened. I slowly turned around only to find a few SS men about twenty feet away from us. My breath hitched.

“GET TO WORK!” an SS man yelled. As he stepped closer, his eyes widened in realization. A smirk spread across his face. “Is that the six-three-five-seven-nine-eight we’ve been looking for?”

“Wolfgang…” 635798 whispered in a shaky voice.

I nudged her, telling her to keep quiet.

The SS man waved his companions closer. “I found our prisoner. Punish this one too. He must be helping her.”

As the SS men started to follow their orders, I turned on my heel and ran. The SS men shouted but I didn’t dare to look behind to see if they were running after us. 635798 wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, securing herself in my grip. Her breathing was hard, the adrenaline kicking in.

“Wolfgang, they’re – they’re follow. Following!” 635798 cried out.

I pushed my feet to run faster. Mud splattered up my legs and some even reached my face. The screaming Nazis wounded through the camp. I took a turn here. I took a turn there. I kept running, not having the slightest clue as to where I was going.

At one point, my feet slipped and I crashed down to the ground, 635798 slipping out of my arms. She screamed as she landed about a foot away from me. Both of us were smeared with mud. When I tried to stand up, someone pushed me down again. 635798’s bloodcurdling scream ran through the air. An SS man had his rifle pointed at her head and a boot on her leg to keep her down. I was suddenly in the same situation.

“You’re coming with us, you filthy piece of scum,” the SS man said. His rifle hit my head, sending me face-first in the mud. I groaned and I could hear 635798 whimper.

Someone pulled me up into a standing position. 635798 was still bound to the ground. Without thinking, I kicked the SS man in the knee. He jerked back, letting me go. I did the same to the other SS man, setting 635798 free. I picked her up and before anyone could attack, I set off at a run again.

“They keep. Keep following!” 635798 exclaimed, rubbing the spot where I was hit.

“WE’LL KILL YA BOTH!”

“Wolfgang,” 635798 whimpered, burying her face in my neck.

A gunshot sounded and I dodged the bullet in the nick of time by falling to the ground. 635798 screamed. I sprung up and forced my scorching legs to move faster. The gunshots kept going, whizzing past our ears. I made a sudden turn as one brushed against my cap. To my utter surprise, there was what seemed to be some sort of pit. It contained tar, mud, mulch, and other garbage. The smell could make anybody pass out. It was perfect.

I set 635798 down and immediately helped her out of all the uniforms. She was frightened, but my motives weren’t questioned. After she was stripped to nudity, I took everything off except my underwear. I dug a ditch, the screaming of the SS men quickening my pace. I buried some clothes and the others were thrown into the pit. 635798 climbed into my arms when instructed and I slipped into the pit.

“What-” she started.

“Shh!”

635798 squeezed me.

I walked deeper into the pit until it reached my chin. It was hot and I could feel the garbage seep into my skin. 635798 didn’t like it either. She had a disgusted look on her face and seemed appalled when I told her to hold her breath. She almost refused to. Her mind changed when the SS men came closer. We sucked in a breath at the count of three and under the garbage we went.

All I could hear was a muffled, “Hey, where did they go?” and for obvious reasons I couldn’t open my eyes. It was too thick to even move around. 635798 squeezed my hand tightly when the lack of breathing became unbearable. Despite my burning chest, I had us stay under for another twenty seconds.

After that, I stood up straight and our heads were out of the pit. 635798 began to cough as the oxygen hit her only good lung. I forced her to bury her face in my neck to muffle it out. The Nazis were nowhere in sight, but I heard their voices. 635798 and I had to go back under one more time before they left for good. I trudged out of the pit, setting 635798 down on the ground. I examined our bodies. We were covered head to toe in smelly black, well, shit.

It was sticky as I dug up the uniforms that were able to survive this misadventure. 635798 sat on a shirt and I used another one to wipe the shit off. The majority of it seeped into the material. The rest dried up and smeared across 635798’s face. It was like that for the rest of her body. Using the same shirt, I rubbed it through 635798’s hair like a towel. I squeezed what little hair she had and the shit flopped to the ground. I began the same process on me.

In the end we were still covered head to toe in shit, just without the giant globs. The smear marks on our bodies showed which direction I rubbed the shirt. 635798’s hair was nearly black and I definitely was no longer blonde. I helped 635798 into a clean uniform and then continued to put on my jeans and t-shirt. I picked her up and we were on our way again.

All was quiet as I shuffled through Auschwitz I – Birkenau. Prisoners were away at work and so were Nazis. No one blocked our path. It took me twenty minutes to get the two of us by some barbed-wire fence. A forest was on the other side so I assumed it to be the forest that led to Jürgen’s mansion. Right as I was about to uncover us from the shadows, two SS men and a German Shepherd made their way towards my destination. I cursed under my breath, hugging the sick 635798 closer to me. Her skin was scorching against mine and she heaved. We definitely couldn’t stay here.

As the German Shepherd sniffed around, I crept sideways, distancing us from the enemies. When they were tiny needles to my eyes, I walked out into the little light the sun provided. Rain clouds were rolling in faster than I would have liked. Their blockage made the camp seem gray and even gloomier than it already was. When thunder roared, 635798 shrieked. The German Shepherd looked up, and our cover was blown.

The dog barked frantically, alerting the SS men. They screamed as soon as they saw us. I broke out into a run without thinking. A bullet whizzed past the top of my head. One just missed my waist. At the barbed-wire fence, I set 635798 down but hovered over her. By now the SS men had come closer, their bullets coming faster. It took great effort to dig a ditch under the fence. Every other second I plopped flat on 635798 to save us both. 635798 helped me dig the ditch and she crawled to the other side as much as she could every second she got.

A sharp pain sprawled through my right arm. I yelled and grasped it, leaving the ditch. When I pulled my hand away, it was followed by a pool of blood. 635798, now on the other side, gasped. She reached under the fence and grabbed my hand, pulling. I began to crawl, freezing when a bullet brushed under my chin. Pain cut through my arm every time I moved it. I bit my bottom lip to keep myself from screaming. It didn’t take long for me to give up. Slowly, I turned onto my back, teeth clenched and eyes closed shut. I could feel blood drip down my arm, tickling my skin.

635798 place her hands at my armpits and pulled. “Let’s. Let’s go. Wolf. Wolfgang. Jürgen will get. Will get the bullet out.”

With the help of my feet, I pushed the rest of my body to the safe-zone. The SS men continued their shouting and shooting. Thunder roared. A rain drop fell on my arm, stinging my bullet wound. I moaned out a scream while getting 635798 back in place in my arms. She kept to my left side. She was surprisingly light enough for only one arm to support her weight. I felt her grab the collar of my shirt as I slid into the forest.

We weren’t even inside for a minute before we both heard the barking German Shepherd. I ran and used my right arm to push aside bushes and branches despite the agonizing pain it gave me. I tried running in zigzags to confuse the dog for a while. I stayed precautious. It was only a matter of time before we stopped deceiving its nose.

After ten minutes of running, tripping, falling, rolling, anything, I saw Jürgen’s mansion up ahead. The German Shepherd was still barking madly behind us. Its teeth snapped at my ankles, scaring me into an airborne. My fear was consumed with 635798’s and the dog felt it. It growled more, as if smirking at us. I outstretched my right arm, doing my best to ignore the tiny needles stabbing into it. To my amazement, Jürgen’s gate was unlocked. It swung open once it collided with my hand. I took no hesitation in closing the gate as soon as 635798 and I were inside. I held it closed with my body, too frantic to find the lock. A knife stabbed into my arm every time the German Shepherd threw itself against the gate.

Suddenly, someone was standing next to me, locking the gate. We turned to look at each other. His skin was tan from working in the sun all day. Ribs poked through his skin and his hair wasn’t stubs. Instead, they looked as if he had just gotten a haircut instead of a shave.

Shlomo nodded, greeting me. “Is… Is that Six?”

635798 buried her face deeper into my neck. Her feverish skin burned mine as I nodded.

“I thought she was dead,” Shlomo said.

635798 flinched.

I cleared my throat. “Is Jürgen home?”

Shlomo nodded.

“Alone?”

Another nod. We left the barking German Shepherd behind the gate and Shlomo brought 635798 and I inside the mansion. The silence I’ve grown unaccustomed to buzzed in my ears. Floorboards creaked from under me. Jürgen looked up from his newspaper in the dining room when the three of us walked in. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock.

“Wolfgang, sir. With Six.” Shlomo left to go back to his duties.

Jürgen ran up from his seat. Before I could say anything, he took a first-aid kit from a cabinet and forced me to sit down. He immediately went to work on my arm, worsening the pain every so often. 635798’s breathing had calmed down to its usual haggardness. She never looked up from my neck, even when Jürgen spoke. I shook her a little. We made eye contact for a split second before she fell back to sleep again.

Jürgen was in the middle of cleaning my wound. “Dein Vater told me about the plan and he was worried when Siostra Katarzyna informed him you two never arrived. Where have you been?”

“Hiding under wood,” I said through gritted teeth. I held in a yelp.

The excess blood was being dabbed with a napkin. “Why?” Jürgen asked.

I restated everything that had happened, even why we were covered in shit, as he wrapped my arm.

“How bad is the fever?” Jürgen asked.

I shrugged. “Can’t say for sure. But I think it’s getting worse. Do you know how to get here?” I took out the piece of paper with Siostra Katarzyna’s address, the one Vater gave me what felt like so long ago.

Jürgen studied it. “I could figure it out. It’s quite the drive though.”

“That’s fine.” I looked down at 635798 and kissed her cheek. “We need to get into hiding as soon as possible.”

Jürgen said, “Let me fetch some quilts.”

We carried 635798 outside, already wrapped in one of the quilts. The barking German Shepherd was gone and the SS men were nowhere in sight. Shlomo watched us from his chopping station. Jürgen wrapped 635798 in about four more quilts. He even put a hat and scarf on her but she was still shaking. I held her tightly as Jürgen made a bed out of the folded blankets in the back of his Jeep. They were put on the floor. I set 635798 on top of them. She squeaked.

“Wolfgang?” she asked quietly so Jürgen wouldn’t hear her.

“Hmm?”

“Why am I on the. The floor?” 635798 sniffled.

“To keep you hidden.” I kissed her cheek. “Sleep. I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

635798 nodded weakly.

I stepped back and Jürgen covered her completely with a black blanket. He asked 635798 if she was comfortable. Once a confirmation was received, the two of us headed to the front of the Jeep.

“Shlomo!” Jürgen yelled. “If anyone asks where I’ve gone, tell them to town!”

Shlomo nodded. The two of us made eye contact. I was the first to wave. He hesitated before waving back. He unlocked the gate for us and away we went.

“Are we going into town?” I asked.

Jürgen shook his head. “Not even close.”

I sighed. “Please tell mein Vater we’re safe when you get a chance. Make sure he doesn’t tell meine Mutter or sisters what’s happening. Try your best to make sure Lenz and Gretel don’t find out, either. Those two have a way with rumors.”

Jürgen nodded.

We drove well into the night, nothing but empty land surrounding us. It wasn’t until about three in the morning when we entered a tiny town. The population couldn’t have been more than 200 people. Everyone was asleep except Jürgen and me. 635798 hadn’t made a sound throughout the whole ride.

Jürgen pulled up in front of a tiny Catholic church that seemed to have isolated itself from the rest of this small society. There were tiny apartments behind it, probably where the nuns and priest slept. Since I was baptized as a Lutheran, my knowledge about Catholicism was very low. I had much to learn if I wanted to fit in. 635798 would have a harder time. Due to lack of Christianity, she had more to learn than me.

Jürgen pointed to which apartment was my destination. I climbed out of the Jeep and collected 635798, only bringing one of the quilts with us. She didn’t stir as I moved. Actually, she could’ve passed as a dead person if it wasn’t for her loud, unsteady breathing. I turned to Jürgen and nodded my thank you. He nodded as well.

He was gone only seconds later.

Sighing, I walked towards Siostra Katarzyna’s apartment. It was a rich red brick, the brightest thing I’ve ever seen since I arrived at Auschwitz. 635798 and I shivered together in the October air. When I reached the door, I looked up. Only the fourth floor – the top – had its shutters closed. I had a gut feeling that was our hiding spot.

I knocked on the door.