We slowly moderated our way through the fairly sized cattle car filled with a few familiar faces. People huddled in the corners and others bunched together. The cattle car had the horrid stench of drowning tears and blood. The deep red stains practically glowed on the wooden walls of this vehicle had shown that where we are going may not be good. The shifting of the car ripped me from my thoughts. The scenery slowly passed until gradually speeding up.
After what felt like an hour after hour of being crammed in a standing position in this humid space, the car had finally stopped moving. We all hopped off of the platform of the cattle car so our feet hit the ground.
A whole crowd of us gathered around the outside of the trains. We saw our mother at the end of the crowd. Adele and I ventured through the crowds, pushing and dodging with sorry and excuse me's. She grabbed us as soon as we were in here and pulled us to her in a bone-crushing hug. My eye caught onto the blue tattoo on her underarm.
132256
"Mother? What's this? What's going on?" I question
Before she could answer, a man in uniform came up to us and directed each of us in a long line that split into opposite directions when you reached the man at a podium. Those who went right had devastating terror laced into their features. The people that went to the left headed over to a large gate with big letters;
Arbeit Macht Frei
Hours of waiting, it was finally our turn. My mother went up first. The man with bright blonde hair and brown eyes looked at her with hatred and pointed with his thumb to the right. Adele and I were next so we walked up, hand in hand. The man gave us the same look as our mother but used his thumb to point to the left. We hugged our mother goodbye.
"I'll see you both soon, stay safe," My mother said pulling away from the hug.
Adele and I walked down the long dirt path to the entrance of this site. Barbed wire surrounded this place like a snake wrapping around someone's neck. Some of the men directed us to a woman dressed in scrubs. She gestured for us to follow her and we walked along another path to a small brick building. She had us stand in the middle of the room while she went into the back and soon came out with metal stamps in her hand and 4 syringes.
"I need both of you to place your left ours our" We did as she said.
She pierced a vein in the bending part of our arms with 2 of the syringes each. She placed a small white patch on the meager blood dot. She grabbed the stamp from the table next to her and told me to hold out my right arm to which I did.
"This is gonna hurt" She warns gently.
She pressed the stamp to my arm, at first, I didn't feel anything but that quickly changed when I felt multiple little needles embed into my arm. A sheik of pain rips through my scratchy throat. Soon enough, the stamper was pulled away from my arm and put onto my sister as she went through the same process. She doctor placed the tool back onto the table and looked back at us, guilt flashing swiftly through her eyes. I looked down at the mark on my arm.
98288 was printed onto my arm in blue while 98289 was on Adele's arm.
"Can I ask you something?" I murmur
"Shoot" She responds
"Where is our mother?" I ask
"Was she the woman that went right?" I question and I nod my head. Her face drops.
"Y-you may see her when you look into the sky soon," She says
"What do you mean?" I ask
"It's time to get you two back outside with the others" She pushes us toward the doorway before saying good luck and shutting the door behind us. A man in another uniform grabbed our arms and dragged us along a dirt path for almost 10 minutes before stopping in front of a brick building with an old wooden door. The wooden door was open, showing us the inside filled with other children of different age groups. There were flimsy bunk beds against the walls. We walked into the builder and sat down on the bed, which may I tell you, consisted of very lumpy and uncomfortable mattresses if you could call it that.
The sun was setting over a small hill outside one of the higher located windows. The guard turned to us, telling us to sleep and that they would be back in the morning, and with that, he slammed the door shut down. Adele slept on the bunk bed above me while I laid on the bottom. I shut my eyes, remember the events that had happened today, and slowly drifting off into the darkness.
_______
We woke up abruptly to the ear-bleeding yelling of one of the guards.
"Wach auf und stell dich an!" He yelled in german
(Wake up and get in line!)
We stood from our bed, some of us not understanding what he said. He gestures for us to stand against the wall. We stood against the wall next to each other, our bodies trembling together. Our minds were wide awake with panic and questions.
"Sie sind bereit, sie können Jetzt hereinkommen" He looked over to the door where three soft knocks rang.
(Their ready, you can come in now)
2 men in scrubs walked into the room, nodding to the guard. As soon as he walked out, the doctor walked up to us like he was inspecting us and the other pushed in a cart filled with different medical equipment and tools. The man in scrubs stepped in front of us one by one, looking us up in down. The cogwheels in his head turning with his ideas and thoughts as he stared at us like little mice trapped in a cage.
"You understand me, ja?" His thick German accent adds to the mans' words. (Yes?)
We nodded our heads cautiously to him. A grin made its way to his face as he made his plans. He reached over and grabbed a moist white patch and he pressed it to everyone's arm without changing it. He grabbed a syringe off the table and the other man also grabbed a syringe on the cart and walked over to us.
"This shall hurt, bleib still" He spoke. (stay still)
They pressed the same needle into our arms, only leaving when the syringe needed a refill of the small container brimming with strange colored liquid. Once they were down, they placed the syringes back on the rolling cart. The doctor walked up to Adele and me, his expression lighting up like he had won a prize of a million dollars.
"Tell me, are you both twins?" His thick accent spoke.
We deliberated nodded our heads and looked at each other in disarray. The doctor's grin was like a wolf that hadn't eaten in days and had finally found his next victim. He looked us up and down with vicious eyes then back at the rest.
"Are there any other twins" He snickers
A hand raised all the way to the other end of the room. The doctor's face grew with excitement. He motioned for them to step up to us, to which they did. The doctor examined them as they did us.
"Bring sie zu mir medizinisch Zimmer, Ich habe eine idee" He spoke in his native tongue.
(Bring them to my room, I have an idea)
Two guards walk up and grab either brother by their arm, dragging them out of the dirty brick building and out of our sight. The doctor that was in front of us left as well, leaving behind the doctor that pushed the cart in. He grinned like the other doctor. His eyes filled with wicked mischief that was ready to unleash.
"Ich werde dich bereuen Lassen was hast du gemacht" He muttered, and with that, he left.
(I'll make you regret what you've done)
Every now and then, people would come in to check on us and run some tests. It was dark outside but there were no stars in the black sky, instead, dark grey clouds were filling the sky from the ashes and smoke of whatever they were burning, even covering the moon. The lumpy bunk bed made my back slightly hurt, plus not having a pillow gives me a headache. Those 2 twins haven't come back yet but when some guards were walking by, I heard them say they were put together by needle and thread, which I don't understand what they mean. Everyone in the building was asleep except me. I shut my eyes, letting the darkness consume my body.
A few kids were strapped to the chairs in the corner with these big mechanical hammers over their heads, hitting them now and then. Others were injected with some clear liquid that left them throwing up, shivering, sweating, and a headache.
Me, Adele, and a few other kids were taken out of the building and over to another smaller, emptier one. We huddled against each other on the wall. The man in the room had a gas mask on and a hazmat suit.
"Veil Gluck" He chuckled darkly before walking out of the building, slamming the wooden door behind him.
"Good luck"
Soon, a low noise rumbled from the ceiling. An almost see-through yellow gas was escaping what looks to be air ducts in the ceiling. It spread across the room like fog before reaching us. My legs burned as the gas touched them, the pain spreading up my torso to my arms and fingertips. My body felt like a fire was setting it. Everything burned so much that it was hard to explain. My eyes were scrunched shut, my fists clenched and soon, my mind felt numb before going black.