The prisoners were, at a hasty pace, led up a stairway. A prisoner, the same bald man who had signaled Wayne to stop talking during the uncomfortable ride, stumbled.
“Get the fuck up,” one of the Nazi escorts demanded and pulled the man up by his shirt.
Wayne and the other research prisoners were walked up four flights of steps and then through a door that led out to a long corridor.
As the six male and six female inmates were led down the passageway, Wayne turned his head to the right to get an expansive look at the great deal of activity taking place below him on the floor of the building. The barrel of a pistol was quickly staring him in the face. “Did I give you permission to put your eyes anywhere else except on the swine in front of you?” one of the Nazi escorts coldly asked him. Wayne, without hesitation, fixed his gaze directly in front of him.
Coming to a door with ominous words on the glass pane that read: “BENZIN PRÜFUNG” (gas testing), the prisoners were shoved through the entrance into a room.
Wayne, out of the corner of his eye, glanced around at his new environment. He stood in a small room containing only a cage, table, and nothing else.
Two middle-aged scientists entered from the testing area. Their security passes shone brightly against their white coats as the man flipped through his clipboard.
The woman adjusted her glasses as she said sternly, “Hm. They sent twelve this time.” She gestured to the first six she saw, “These six.”
One of the Nazi escorts opened the cage door and ordered, “Those not chosen, get in here.”
Wayne and Linda breathed a sigh of relief as they were shoved into the cage and the door locked behind them.
“Rest of you swine, through that door,” he ordered the chosen subjects, pointing his gun, as if it was an extension of his hand, at the side doorway.
“I’m heading back to my post,” the second Nazi escort informed his colleague and exited by the front entrance.
The six chosen prisoners, four women and two men, including the thin bald man, followed the scientists through the side doorway to the testing area.
Inside of the main testing area, a viewing glass-partition separated the large research room into two distinct parts. One half accommodated the researchers’ control table. It was scattered with scientific journals and half empty Styrofoam cups of coffee on it, as well as a large assortment of knobs and dials — tools that helped the researchers carry out their unique, gruesome experiments for the Reich War Ministry. The second half, located behind the partition, was a control room that sported air ducts that had been especially built into the ceiling. In the control room, six white chairs, matching the color of the painted walls and floor, had been arranged in a circle.
The male scientist picked up a cup and sipped some lukewarm coffee. “Have them go into the control room,” he told the Nazi guard.
The Nazi guard stood at the entrance to the cleanroom and yelled, “Get in, you rats.”
The research subjects hurried into the white room.
“Sit down!” Once the prisoners rapidly complied, the guard exited the room, slamming and bolting shut the heavy door behind him.
The scientists sat comfortably in their well-cushioned chairs behind the control board.
“Since we are using human subjects this time instead of animals,” the scientist said, “set the dose at a liquid concentration of thirty-five percent.” He grabbed the stopwatch from the table in front of him.
The other scientist turned a small control knob. She optimistically said, “Keep your fingers crossed.”
Yellow gas begun to stream out of the air ducts above the prisoners.
The male scientist peeked at his ticking stopwatch and stolidly said, “Ten seconds.”
The gas became thicker, meticulously probing every square inch of the sealed room. Three of the subjects, heavily inhaling the toxic fumes, coughed frantically and then collapsed, unconscious. The thin, bald man tried to hold his breath. He could not hold it for very long and quickly passed out. Two women screamed silently in the soundproof room as the gas took over completely. The Nazi guard grinned as he watched them fall to the ground, lifeless.
“Twenty seconds,” the female scientist methodically wrote down a note in her journal.
“All movement has ceased,” the male scientist said without emotion. He clicked the button on the timepiece he held, discontinuing its monotonous ticking. “Twenty-eight seconds.”
The female researcher scientifically recorded the time.
The male researcher pushed a button on the control table and said, “Degassing.”
The scientists got up from their throne. They each slipped on a pair of latex gloves. The female scientist unlocked the control room door. The Nazi guard peeked at the results of the experiment.
The skin on the dead corpses of the control subjects was badly burned, like the skin of whole chickens that had been roasting too long over a scorching barbecue. The tiny amount of unburned epidermis had an odd, greyish tint to it. Three bodies were sprawled out on the floor while the other three sat in the white chairs with their heads slumped over. Their eyes had melted away.
“Splendid,” the female scientist said gladly. “The effects of an atomic weapon achieved with gas. Not only are the subjects blinded, but in a burned and decomposed state as well.”
“Think what this means, Gilda. Since it would be logistically not practical and inefficient to bomb each small village and town of our enemy,” the male scientist said, working himself into a tizzy, “this gas can be used as an alternative with virtually the same wonderful results. Gilda, this could mean the Iron Cross for us. Our research has been a success!”
“Yes,” Gilda nodded her head in agreement. “I think the Reich War Ministry and Defense Department will be pleased with our work.”
“Let’s do one more test before we announce our findings — this time with a forty-percent concentration. That should considerably speed up the procedure.”
She turned to the guard, “Get a clean up crew in here.”
In the holding cell, Wayne paced back and forth, while everyone else sat on the floor. An hour had passed since he and the five prisoners in his control group had been locked away. Beads of sweat ran down his chest as his intuition forewarned him of an impending danger. He thought about what he should do or should have done. He kicked himself for not taking advantage of the opportunity he had had when his group of prisoners was being placed in the waiting cell. Why didn’t he just overpower the two guards? He could have locked them up, and gone searching for the crystals. He could rely on Linda, but could he count on the others to go along with him? Highly doubtful. He sighed heavily.
The Nazi guard, gripping his gun tightly, approached the cell. He unlocked the cell door and ordered, “Out.”
Wayne again felt the urge to take action bubble up inside of him. He recollected, for a split second, having the same apprehensive, paralysis the first time he had tried, as a kid, to jump off of the high diving board at the local community park pool. He had stood on the springy platform and looked down at the bluish chlorinated water below him. It had seemed to be such a huge distance away. Wayne remembered how all of the other kids in the park had laughed at him and ridiculed him when he had turned and climbed down the ladder from the high dive stand. He had been on the verge of taking that great leap on that long ago, hot summer day, but fear had kept him from going through with it, and he had regretted his inability to act every day for the rest of that summer. Faced with an imperative decision — a life of death decision — Wayne again felt the paralysis of fear.
The guard directed the research subjects to seat themselves on the white chairs, which had once more been arranged into a neat circle. The thick entrance door was shut and locked.