Night Voices

[Madeline Dunsberg]

It is impressive how the time of three days can be so fluid and flexible. If Maddy hadn't been so tired and preoccupied with other things, it would have been something to ponder over. As a little girl, the three days before school started in the Autumn always seemed to speed by, the first day of school coming in a blink of the eye. Three days, seventy two hours, it was more stretchy than people knew.

These past three days, did not fly by. Three days easily felt like three years had been spent from Maddy. Every night having nowhere but an overcrowded bunkhouse to go to. Half the night, Maddy didn't even sleep. Though, that was her own doing. She had learned the rotations of the guards within the first day of being there. And even a few of their bad habits. The guard that switched off at midnight always had an uneasy step, slightly drunk, or overtired, Maddy figured. The pair of guards at three in the afternoon like to 'play' with the inmates. There was usually at least two more people dead before they switched their posts.

She hadn't seen the officer from the train station, or the spy. But the rise of inmates had been steady so they must have been able to keep themselves busy. Maddy's sides hadn't stopped aching, and there were more than just a few bruises. The one just beneath her eye was dark and the cut had begun to slowly heal.

It was nearly midnight now and the guard was late. Everyone else in the barrack was sleeping, the steady sounds of heavy breath muffling Maddy's steps as she headed from her bunk to the door. Right now, the cold night air, Maddy could see the guard shack easily. The old guard had gotten fed up and headed onto his next post. Those two never seemed to get along, from what Maddy had seen. There had to be a radio in the shack, she thought. She had to get word back to British Intelligence. Let them know that she was still alive and a viable agent. A source of information that got entrenched deeply in enemy territory.

The way was clear and Maddy wasn't going to get another shot. Avoiding the spots of light from the posts, Maddy made it over to the guard shack and pulled the door open. She ducked inside and hastily pulled the door closed behind her. Maddy bit in her lip as she looked around. Every sound was ten times louder than it should have been.

Radio, radio, radio, Maddy thought as she looked through the small room. Cot, extra coat, some food. Maddy quickly grabbed that up and munched it down as she continued her search. And her search ended quickly. The radio sat in the corner by the window. With a careful look over her shoulder, it still sounded like the guard wasn't here yet. Flipping on the radio, she jumped the dial up several stations, one hand holding a ear phone to her ear, the other running the dial through static channels.

It seemed like a dead end, nothing but internal channels and dead air. Then she found it. Weak signal, but it was there and dropping the ear phone, Maddie grabbed the mic and tried to transmit. She cut through the static just as the handle of the door began to turn. Maddy cursed sharply as she had to kill the connection and slipped behind the opening door.

The guard moved into the room slowly. He didn't seem drunk, just very tired and worn. It seemed that this place had a way of draining everyone. Not just the inmates. The guard trudged over to the cot and collapsed instantly and Maddy was able to slip out. She hadn't checked before to see if the coast was still clear, but it seemed that luck was on her side at the moment.

Moving fast, back over to her barrack, Maddy was nearly back to the door when she got spotted.

"Out past curfew?" One guard asked, that was part of a set. Maddy felt her stomach drop when she heard the voice and then it dropped even further when she felt a hand grip her shoulder like vice.

"Sneaking around. Probably after the storehouse," The other said as his friend turned Maddy around. "Hey, this is that rat from the train a few days ago. The one that thought she could fight," He said, laughing.

"Doesn't look like she learns too quickly," The first one said. His hand remained fused to her shoulder, using it to pin her against the wall of the barracks.

"Nah, they probably just have trouble understanding simple directions," his friend said, touching a finger to his temple with a grin.

"We should remedy that," The first one replied, looking over to his friend and without warning or even looking away from his friend, kicked the side of Maddy's knee, knocking her to the ground. Wincing, Maddy crashed hard onto the dirt and quickly pulled her knees up to her chest and covered the exposed side of her face with one hand.

The kicks followed quickly after. Some hit the bruises from earlier, but Maddy bit her lip and managed to keep from shouting out. One boot kicked a little high, her hand getting flipped away from protecting her face. Trying to deflect the kicks long enough to get another hand up, Maddy rolled onto her other side, but didn't get the hand up in time and the boot made contact with the side of her face that already had been cut. She knew the cut must have reopened. She got her arm up by now.

One of the guards pulled a pistol. "We could teach her a lesson permanently," He said, taking aim.

[Major Faxon Jurgen]

"Rather, why don't you explain to me what you two are doing out here with a prisoner."
The sharp but awfully pleasant voice broke from behind them, causing the guards to jump. They both turned around as one, gun dropping out of sight from the one while the other guard pulled Maddy close to him. His grip dug into her arm, holding her like a vice ad standing her at equal attention.

Faxon himself had not changed much over the three days. In face, it would be difficult to prove any time at all had passed since last seeing the prisoner. Though standing everyday was starting to wear on his muscles, he stood with dominant pride, shoulders back and legs locked. Used to standing, anyway. This had been going on for months now. His eyes, dry and red from the late night inspections, mounds of paper work, and daytime torment watched calmly, like two burning chips of hazel.
His temper hasn't improved, sadly.

"Major! This was caught after curfew, we found her here. The penalty for wande- he was cut off by a sharp interjection.
"How is it she escaped?"

There was a dreadful pause, with neither of the guards exchanging the frightful looks that instinct demanded of them.

"Gave us the slip, Major."

Amusing.
"Did she now? His tone was light, almost humorous. "A Jewish prisoner gave two of my well-trained Aryan guards the slip. You forget that I don't like jokes this late." Faxon adjusted his weight, putting his hands behind his back and moving closer to his men. Both were held, ridged in place. The grip on Maddy's arm tightened.

"Really now, quickly. I might be getting the wrong idea. I know you aren't so unaware to let her get passed you. And I know you aren't so stupid as to be helping her contact allies…" This last bit contained only one meaning for the two, who knew nothing of the radio transmission.

"Major, never!" One bawled, turning white.
Look, he might just be sick! Heheh!

"Why were you not at your posts?"Faxon didn't have to bellow to get his anger across.

"Major! The other guard left his post! We were only-"

"Late." Faxon completed, his tone icy once more. "And punctuality is one of the most important things in my camp."
The guards said nothing, only quivered.

"I want the two of you to go to your posts. If one more thing goes wrong, if I even hear a a child crying in there…" He didn't finish, letting their imaginations fill in the blanks. "Report to me tomorrow afternoon. Skip your lunch, and bring the other guard with you. The one who left his post before you had shown up.

Punishment would come, and it would be a public display the whole camp would remember, but first their task must be finished. After all, who was watching the camp now?

The guards clicked their heels, both raising their hands is unison, and began to drag Maddy away.
"Leave her." Faxon commanded. This time the two did exchange a glance, but they obeyed with no questions, dropping her in the dust.

As the two hurried off, Faxon stood forward, waiting for her to pick herself up."

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[Madeline Dunsberg]

Maddy's head spun as she got picked far too quickly up from the ground. She didn't even notice the digging into her arm as the two guards nervously fumbled for reasons behind their actions. Color her not surprised that they didn't. The sharp features of the Major can into view, though he was mostly a menacing silhouette in the pale yellow light from the watch-lights set up high over head.

As the Major stepped in closer to the two guards, Maddy felt the hold on her arm tighten. Nervy half wit, she thought, giving a small tug at her arm. Maddy still felt dizzy from getting yanked up. She didn't know it, but the boot kick had caught her forehead, besides reopening the cut on her cheek, there was a new one. Just above her temple. She hadn't looked up at the Major since his arrival. Maddy was just glad that the beating had gotten stopped and was nearly too tired to hold herself up. Her head drooped, long dark brown hair hanging as limply as she felt.

"And I know you aren't so stupid as to be helping her contact allies…"

That did catch her ear though, her dark eyes flicking up briefly, but being too tired to do much else. Mistake. She thought that immediately after doing it. The comment shouldn't have illicited anything from her, there was no reason it should have.

The guards stammered through several more excuses before Maddy got re-acquainted with the hard ground. She had landed hard on her ribs, which had taken the brunt of the beating. Coughing hard, she slowly pushed herself up. Digging her elbow down, the over holding her sides, Maddy got to her knees. Steadying herself, she then managed to get back to her feet. She folded her arms across her chest, flipping some hair out of her face with a quick movement of her head.

This couldn't be good, the thought blaring through Maddy's brain with bright red lights and sirens. Looking over to the Major, she steadied her swaying self and looked him in the eye. "I think they need some new watches issued," Maddy said in a tired way though her eyes looked far from it.

[Major Faxon Jurgen]

Normally, it wouldn't even have been worth noticing. The slightest of flickers from her dark eyes at his accusation. The action would be considered as a normal response, brought from fear at such a claim being laid down, but Faxon was keen on it now, and seeing that made his heart skip. Too quickly was the gaze drawn back and directed at something else, covering up for the mistake of giving any indication that she was guilty. Success.

Faxon dealt with the guards quickly, wanting to get to work as fast as possible. The tension was nearly intoxicating.
A captured soldier? That wasn’t anything too amazing here, but maybe something more. It was incredible to imagine, but she already proved to be far more inelegant then the normal sheep that were brought in here, and twice as brave. Some countries did allow their women action, after all. A spy would give him great insight on what the enemy was doing and what might have already slipped into their hands from the Axis side.

He sent them off with the promise of penalty. Faxon could have delivered it there and then, but that would be depriving him of the opportunity to make an impression on the others, and leave him from getting to work on finding out who this cur really was.

The major strode forward, eying the backs of he guards’ heads as they retreated, and stopped before Maddy. He looked down, arching his head up slightly and gave her a dour glance, half antagonized and half amused.
Then she joked, to which he made no comment, understanding it to be a pathetic attempt to regain her stature and confidence. Faxon snorted, realizing he probably just saved her life.

”Come with me, Judevieh.”

[Madeline Dunsberg]

Maddy looked up at Faxon with an wary eye. Right now, she wanted to just slink back into the barracks. Tomorrow was going to feel like twenty years when she woke up...if she woke up. Her guard was back up by this point. It was weakened but Maddy was sure there'd be no more slips, however small from her. She wanted to believe that more than anything else. But her three days in this place and the recent drubbing, there was no telling what kind of condition she was really in.

She ignored the name. She had heard them all, growing up and then in the past few days heard them all again, along with several new ones. Maddy followed where ever it was that the Major was going. She took the chance to study the grounds. Usually they were being rushed off too much to notice much of anything. Maddy needed to learn as much of the lay of the land as she could. Escape was always on her mind. Every place and every one had a weakness, no matter how well hidden. Maddy just needed to find this place's.

[[Apologies for the shortness]]

[Major Faxon Jurgen]

Faxon saw that she was going to follow him with no fight, but he didn't want to take any chances, and moved closer to her, putting his hand on the small of her back. This drew a lot of attention, the Major leading a prisoner with no back up, and he had to wave off at least four guards before they made it to an old gray building.

It actually wasn't that old. The building itself had only been constructed in recent years, built mainly for this purpose. Which, as it were, required that it looked as imposing as possible. It was a mixture of different grays, with streaks of wite cracking up the sides. The only windows it had were just below ground, sticking up only about three inches above the earth.
A basement, obviously.

This was not one of the many storage houses for prisoners made to die, though it did have its own gas chamber. There were no great posts that spilled out ash, and it was relatively empty.
This was the camp's only psychological ward, made for breaking spirits and mental experiments.
It worked great for interrogation, Faxon's favorite part of being a Nazi.

[ooc] It's fine ^^ Short but amazing. Sorry for the lame-ness of my posts

[Madeline Dunsberg]

The tips of his fingers seemed icy to Maddy as she felt them through the thin fabric of her clothing and there was no point in trying to fight him off at this point. Since she had been in the camp, Maddy hadn't caused a fight since the train depot. The fight had just been to make sure she had gotten into the right line of people. Since then she had been bleeding into the nameless crowds and observe. And right now the guards were lurking around everywhere, Faxon had to dismiss several of them as they made their way to a building.

The structure looked ominous and Maddy was not familiar with it. Shuttled quickly inside, Maddy took a look around. It took dark though for Maddy to make out much of anything.

"Not a new barracks assignment, then?" She asked without looking up at Faxon. Her mind was working quickly though. He had picked up on her noticing his veiled comment. But still, he didn't have anything real, only his suspicions and Maddy would let those torment him. So she reacted. She had just gotten beaten within inches of consciousness, the fact that she reacted to anything wasn't anything.

[Major Faxon Jurgen]

"Not quite." He said, pushing her into a room. It was perfectly clean, with no real smell to speak of. There was no window here, but there were double-bulbed light fixtures on two opposite walls. They gave off a clouded light, but there was no corner left with a shadow. In the corners there was a box, filled with convenient and very relevant things.

In the middle of the room sat a table with and two chairs made out of cold iron. There was only one way to go about interrogation someone, and that was always to just start asking. The setting should be enough to stir uncomfortable emotions Maddy, and Faxon remained conservative as ever.

"Sit." he ordered, pointing to the chair furthest away from the door. He stood over the seat that was meant for him, his back facing the door, but he remained standing.

[ooc] And that. That was just ugly x-x

[Madeline Dunsberg]

So, in Maddy's years of working for the British Intelligence had Maddy ever been interrogated before? No, she had never gotten in such a situation like this before either. While she hadn't been in a real interrogation before, she wasn't ignorant of the procedures and she already set about readying herself for it. It had been a large portion of training for all the spies just before they got sent out to their field locations. Special attention had been given to those that were plotted for Germany.

But the tactics had been taught under the best of conditions. Maddy had slept well the night before, eaten some real food and knew that it was just training. Here and now she was half awake, half everything it seemed. Could she still play the game? She didn't have a choice, she told herself as she took a seat on the metal chair. She had to play it and she had to win. Failure was never an option for anything Maddy did. Her hands rested open in her lap, her gaze directed away from Faxon, seeming like she had more interest in the dark corner of the room than him.

The cool breeze from the door slamming shut stung at the cuts on Maddy's face and she felt the blood starting to dry tackily that had ebbed down from them.

"I was only trying to get out of the stale air in the barracks for a bit. I wasn't aware that would warrant a full investigation from ranking officers," she said, only looking up at Faxon at the very last part. Her tone was even, if not tired and her eyes remained steady and sure. The game was on.

[Major Faxon Jurgen]

Faxon smiled, an alienated light that never fully reached his eyes.
”People find themselves here for different reasons, but you are the first Jewish prisoner to ever land in this room. He clapped the tips of his fingers together softly, nodding.

”You’re making history, though I wish the circumstances were different.” The officer looked down briefly, resting his palms on the chair and moved over to sit. Faxon remained ridged, refusing for now to make himself comfortable and gave her a considering look.

There were many ways to start of an interrogation. Most thought the best tactic was to waste no time in breaking out the utensils and begin with the torture. Such marvelous and innovative things the human mind could come up with to hurt one another. Modern technology could fix and mold the strongest wills with the simple infliction of pain. For that, all you would need is a simple wrench, but it’s the style that counts.
Faxon like to take the psychological approach, frightening it out of him. He didn’t like the gruesome effects and the mess afterwards.

For now, they would start off with the soft approach.

”Who were you trying to contact?”
Simple, yeah?