THE STADTBAHN

Bruno brought up his collar, both in an effort to conceal his face and to keep the cold and rain out. It had been raining in Cologne non-stop for the past couple of days and the cover produced by the heavy, angry clouds was really the only reason he could escape from that hellhole they called a training camp. Bruno wasn’t a fan of Nazi ideals and the time he had spent in the training camp, listening to their bullcrap propaganda had just reaffirmed his hate for them. It made him sick that people could actually believe what that idtiotic hypocrite said as he murdered thousands of their own for ‘treason’.

He was now heading towards a concrete cigar, a shelter to protect people from Die Alliierten air raids, the security in them was lax and as long as he acted younger than he really was he should be fine.

It was as he was taking the corner that the alarms rang, the regular beats of the sirens made Bruno's ears vibrate to their tempo. Change of plans, the concrete cigar was too far away, he would have to go to the underground lines, if he remembered correctly the Cologne Stadtbahn was near here, it looked like he was going to spend the night there.

It didn't take long for Bruno to find the entrance to the stadtbahn, the wrought iron gates were open, inviting, hinting at the protection they gave. Every minute of his short journey there was punctuated with heart wrenching anxiety, the entrance’s visage was a welcome sight. There was no one there which concerned him.

He entered in a hurry and took the steps two at a time. They were slippery with rain water and it was dark. He managed to get to the bottom with all his limbs intact however. There were a few people in the tunnel proper and some kerosene lambs. A man with an officer's uniform walked up to him.

The officer was extremely thin, his face gaunt and pale, but still his voice was deep and carried across the tunnel. “Are there more behind you?”

Bruno’s voice in contrast came out cracking, he must have been more scared than he realised, “no, not any I could see.”

The officer nodded as if that was what he expected, "I'll go close the gates now, if there isn't anyone here after all this time, they must have have found another shelter, or…” he didn't finish his sentence, just sighing and quickly going up the stairs that Bruno just came down from, a moment later the screeching of the metal gate scratching the stone floor could be heard.

Bruno turned around to observe the people already with him in the tunnel. There was a distinct lack of young men here, they were all gone to fight in the war. All that remained were the women and some of the older men.

One of them caught Bruno’s stare at him, he nodded at him, Bruno returned the gesture and looked away, the old man's eyes were intense, they looked like they could read Bruno's soul like a book.

He sat down trying to forget the sight. The hard bench under him was uncomfortable, but he was glad it was there at all. Most of the metal in the city had been harvested, melted down, and used to create machines of war. He shook the dark thought off his head, he should go to sleep, it was going to be a long night.

It wasn't even an hour that he spent there on that uncomfortable metal chair before something happened, a bomb was dropped nearby, he could hear the explosion even through the thick walls, it was a deep reverberating boom that vibrated Bruno's insides, another incendiary device was dropped, closer this time, the explosion more violent.

He could see anxiety on their faces, some of the younger children even started crying, the older children who understood what was going on were too scared to cry. This was usually the worst moment of an air raid.

The explosions were getting nearer, they were rocking the walls of the tunnel now, Bruno could barely hear the officer shouting above the din, “get to the middle of the tunnel, away from the walls”

Some heeded his command, others not hearing stayed put, Bruno got up to huddle with the group in the middle, this did nothing as far as Bruno was aware other than to give the group a sense of security they’d get by being in…

An ear shattering explosion, the biggest one yet interrupted his thoughts, the bomb had detonated right above their heads, the explosion caved in a part of tunnel closest to the door, bricks and masonry tumbling down and bringing up a storm of dust, the stones and dust had yet to settle until another bomb detonated, this time to their left, the bricks on the walls and ceiling practically exploded, some shrapnel was thrown far enough to hit some of the group, their painful screams only reminding him of the danger he was in.

Bruno cowered in fear for what felt like ages before it became easier to breathe and the screaming had ebbed down into painful sobs.

He slowly unfurled himself from the fetal position he had unconsciously taken and looked around at the totally unfamiliar environ .

The Stadtbahn had collapsed on either side of them, ironically creating a little pocket of safety where they had survived. This would be their coffin.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Somehow the only lamp hadn't gone out in the confusion and he could see the dim silhouettes of what looked like people on the floor, some not moving, others writhing in agony.

The officer’s voice rang out, stopped for a second to have a very concerning cough, and then started again, “is everyone alright?”

A small woman, her brown hair plastered to her face with sweat went to the officer, from their stage whispers Bruno could tell that the woman was a doctor of some kind, she pronounced two of the older men dead and there were more injured that would die without some healthcare, otherwise all of them had miraculous survived.

Bruno, didn't know what to do, they were trapped here and would presumably stay here until the Feuerschutzpolizei got to them in the morning to dig them out. If the firemen took their time then those injured would die, Bruno didn't particularly care about their lives, but it still made him sick knowing he was in the same room as people on death's door, they were worse than the cadavers next to them.

“There's water here!” a woman shouted out, pointing at a spot on the newly created wall to their right, upon a closer look Bruno could see that she was right, there was indeed a fine trickle of water steadily streaming into their small enclave, as Bruno stared at it the water volume seemed to increase.

“It's been raining for the past few days, the underground rivers must have flooded, the Feuerschutzpolizei won't be getting to us in this condition, they'd have to assume we'd all drowned or have been killed by the bombs themselves!” shouted an elderly man.

“Everyone calm down!” The officer’s voice seemed to have lost some of his composure, though Bruno assumed that would happen to anyone on the brink of death, his own heart rate was accelerating, he could hear the thumping in his ears now and the sick feeling in his stomach made him want to puke.

His eyes combed the walls looking for anything, anything at all that they could use to get out of here, the thought of drowning finally getting him out of his reactionary habits.

“We have to escape here by ourselves then!” said the lady that had found the leakage.

The officer rounded at her clearly angry, he seemed to realise his aggressiveness though because he calmed down a bit before replying, “but how? If we dig out of here the water will get to us faster.”

One the older gentlemen stood, he cleared his throat to get the others attention, “I am karl, I used to be a structural engineer before I retired, I don't know if you can see but above our heads that rectangle of receding wall space, that used be a vent, it was walled in to prevent the allies from gassing us to death, it probably leads to a grill on the side of the street.”

“Brilliant.” the officer’s voice was full of sarcasm, “but how are we going to open it up?”

“By digging it out with the metal benches’ legs.” It took a sec for Bruno to realise that it was he that spoke out loud, when everyone turned to look at him his face burned with heat.

“Great idea.” said Karl, he turned around to look at the officer, expecting confirmation.

The officer looked troubled, but he went with the flow, “those of you capable, come with me, we’ll rip the bench legs and shape them, they can be shaped right?”

Karl spoke up again, “we should be able to, their made of aluminium, a relatively soft metal, though do remember, because of their softness they will get bent out of shape as we dig, so we are going to need many”

The officer nodded before marching towards the nearest bench, Bruno and some of the others mimicked him, also going to various other benches and examining them for ways of disassembly, to Bruno’s immense relief he could see that the legs were screwed on the wall and the seat with bolts big enough to loosen with his fingers, he looked up at the others and saw them already disassembling the legs, he hurried to do the same.

It didn't take long until there were enough legs on the floor.

The officer looked up at them, “we have done good work people, we will take turns diggin into the wall, obviously there's going to be a lot of dust so please wear a rag over your face when doing it yourself, I’ll we be going first.”

With that the officer stood up on the last bench with its legs intact and started hammering the vent opening, the plaster started to chip and before long they could see the poured in mortar behind it, he kept koing, his laboured breathing being obstructed by the rag on his face.

He stopped and stepped down from the bench, before long there was another man on it and chipping away.

An hour later, it was Bruno’s turn, the vent covering had receded several feet in and Karl had been saying it shouldn't be any longer now, he chipped at the wall like the others had and got out when he tired. It kept going in this cycle for three hours before the hole got too deep in, it was small enough that phew of them could fit in and the workload was redistributed among fewer people, they tried chipping at the walls around the mortar but that was made out of granite, they couldn't dent it with their crude tools.

Four hours later, it was Bruno’s turn yet again, he went in and started hammering, it wasn't even 5 minutes into his shift however when he heard a metallic sound, he stopped, for a second, hesisting, then hammer at the space again, he could hear the metallic lang again, he shouted for joy ad with renewed energy frantically dug at the spot, he stopped for a another second when he heard the officer voice,

“Lad, have you found the grail?”

“Yes, I have, I'm digging it out now, give me a minute” Bruno shouted back.

He could the hollers of joy, matching his in tone come down the short passageway they had carved out in the past seven hours. He dug even more fervently at hearing the cheers and before long the small Iron grail Karl had talked about was revealed, Bruno tugged at them but they didn't budge, he started digging at the brick they were attached to and after a few hair razing minutels where he thought that it wouldn't work finally got them free.

He crawled out of the opening into open air an stuck his head into the tunnel,

“I'm out, we’re free! Come on up” Bruno hollered down the small tunnel he had just dug up

He wasn't even finished when he could hear the laboured breathing of the first person to come out.

He stood up in what felt like ages, cracking his neck and neck, he looked up towards the sky expecting to take in a deep breath of the freshest air he had ever had. It wasn't. The air was heavy with smoke and a strong odor he couldn't quite place.

The sight that greeted him was even worse, whole buildings had been reduced to rubble and there were bonfires everywhere releasing toxic black smoke into the air which was heavy smog and fine ashy particles that were raining down, in contrast to the rain that was torrential in its downfall just 12 hours ago.

Bruno tried taking a step but his knees buckled, the smell got even worse and things started to get dark.

Bruno's mind went blank as he slipped into the velvety embrace of darkness.