On any given weekend, one could watch many different city adult and youth soccer teams practice their skills in the Platz. It was also a popular place for families to hold barbeques or picnics. Wayne could see, overlooking the square, tall buildings that were a part of the huge Center of Aryan Studies campus. CAS offered comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs in medicine, anthropology, liberal arts, education, and political science. Every course had been approved by the Reich Commissioner of Education in Berlin and was taught with the “appropriate and true German facts.”
Wayne began to make his way towards the school. He noticed two Gestapo men walking towards him. He swiftly turned his head and pretended to be browsing in the window of a consumer electronics outlet. What he saw caught his eye.
A row of color televisions synchronously broadcast the same cartoon of a baseball team, each member dressed in a Nazi athletic uniform ready to play a ballgame. A player stepped up to the plate. But wait, he had no bat — and he could not find one! The player, drawn as a muscular, blond haired, blue-eyed type of Super Nazi, whistled to his Dog, a big German shepherd. The Super Nazi enacted a swinging motion, as if swinging a bat, with his strong arms. The loyal canine animal saluted his master and raced off. The Dog spotted what was obviously a caricature of an old Jewish man, with exaggerated Semitic features that included an oblong nose and Yiddish garb, which consisted of a yarmulke, flowing black robe, and sandals. The loyal Nazi Dog ferociously chased the man — only the Dog was running like a man on its hind legs, and the man like an animal on all fours. They passed a squirrel munching on an acorn, who held his nose as the Jewish man trotted by. They passed a truck with the words “CITY POUND” painted on it, which promptly started to follow the Dog chasing the man. The Jewish man looked behind him at the pursuer on his tail and POW! He smacked into an oak tree. The German Shepherd rambunctiously, with his sharp teeth, tore off one of the man’s legs and fled. The woman from the city pound, a young, bosomy, rosy-cheeked Aryan Specimen, tossed the robed elderly man into the back of her truck and drove off. The Dog arrived back at the baseball diamond with a human leg in his mouth and was patted on his head by his master for a task well done. Super Nazi took the leg and stepped up to the plate, swinging the limb as if it were a Louisville Slugger.
The Gestapo men uneventfully ambled by Wayne.
Wayne walked onto the campus. It was calm except for a small group of students sitting under the shade of a tree, talking amongst themselves. Wayne recognized none of the school buildings as he followed a campus path that ran along a line of mighty trees. Wayne thought about whether Dr. Hoffmann would be in her laboratory or not. He knew how much of a workaholic she was and came to the conclusion that, although it was a Reich holiday, chances were good that she would be in her lab, hard at work on some project as usual.
Wayne passed a three-story structure that had a striking gothic architecture. Below the building’s impressive pointed arch, a plaque read: REICH TEACHERS’ LEAGUE. The building housed the regional headquarters of the organization made up of teachers devoted to the ideals of National Socialism. High Nazi officials closely scrutinized the organization and it was mandatory that all teachers join it.
Coming upon a cluster of structures, Wayne had a feeling that he was nearing his destination. He looked at the name on a large building: “Engineering.” Wrong building. He walked, at a faster pace, the short distance to another cluster of buildings, and viewed the words, “Kukulstann Science Building”, on a sign at the front entrance at what appeared to be the cluster’s main building.
Wayne entered the unlocked science building. As he tiptoed through the building’s long, quiet hall, he glimpsed at the nameplates on the numerous classroom and laboratory doors. Nervous beads of sweat formed on his eyebrows as his mission neared accomplishment. He, at least once a minute, apprehensively touched the vial that sat in his pocket.
“Fuck,” he said to himself as he approached the end of the hallway. He glanced at the nameplate to his right.
“Berkerhofft.” He glanced at the nameplate to his left.
“Hoffmann.” Wayne was in ecstasy. He knocked on the wooden door. There was no answer. He pounded his fist against the door. Still nothing. He tried the knob.
It slowly turned; the door wasn’t locked. The time had come to stop dillydallying. Wayne bolted into Dr. Hoffmann’s laboratory and stopped short in his tracks, his mouth agape. Before him stood SS Captain Siegfried von Helldorf and five of his well armed Gestapo Nazis. Dr. Hoffmann was present, too. Two Gestapo men grabbed a hold of Wayne by his arms, showing no mercy in the way they handled him.
“Just as expected, my friend,” the SS Captain remarked, wearing a wide grin across his square jaw. “Ah, you underestimate the watchful eyes of the Reich Security Office, New Berlin Division,” He held up the letter that Wayne had sent to Dr. Hoffmann from Hollenburg.
“My, my, my, hero boy, were you not aware that all mail into my jurisdiction is checked for subversive and traitorous writings. Your treacherous mail stood out as a thorn in a lovely German rose garden would.” Von Helldorf slapped Wayne hard across the face.
Dr. Hoffmann spoke, “Wayne…”
“QUIET!” von Helldorf commanded her. He addressed himself to Wayne, “Or maybe you did not know that the Gestapo censors all mail. I had a strong feeling, hearing the all points bulletin at Oberkoblenz, and to where that vermin would go. Congratulations. Last night you killed some of the best trained men in the Reich.”
“That’s right — men.” Wayne boldly stressed. “They were men. Living, breathing, thinking, human beings.”
“And do not forget expendable,” the SS Captain countered. “Too bad you chose to rebel. I believe you could have had potential as one of my soldiers. It fascinates me, why, when the State provides everything for its citizens, when we have the perfect society, would some degenerates still choose to stir up trouble.”
Wayne let his thoughts be heard, “Yours is a society built on hate. You program children’s minds to hate anyone different from themselves, as you yourself were programmed. Your society is nothing but pathetic, mindless, soulless robots.”
“I will take that as a compliment,” von Helldorf said. He ordered one of his men, “Search him.”
Wayne squirmed as a Gestapo man frisked him from head to foot, praying for his precious cargo to not be found. It was, however, rapidly discovered and handed to the SS Captain. Wayne kept his gaze stuck on the vial.
Von Helldorf held up the tube of greenish compound and viewed it curiously. “Well, what do we have here? Drugs? I am not surprised that your kind is involved in such nonsense. It is perhaps these things that have warped your minds.”
Wayne’s knees began to shake, uncontrollable, as his nerves got the best of him.
On an impulse, his lips moved and he spoke, “Be careful with that. It’s not what you think.”
The SS Captain moved to within an inch of his captive and shoved the small glass bottle in Wayne’s face, “You are telling me to be careful with this? Why? Is this your next high?”
Wayne remained silent.
“I asked you something,” von Helldorf said gruffly.
Wayne timidly responded, “No.”
Captain von Helldorf dropped the vial, shattering it on the ground. The emerald glowing Gadolinium Crystals sizzled as they oozed onto the tiled floor, eating away at the tiles.
As he stood speechless, Wayne’s heart sank and a salty tear rolled down his cheek. His efforts had been in vain.