Chapter Text
Oswiecim, Poland, 1940…
Even more people had been taken to the chambers today. Steve was sure his days were numbered. He was surprised that he had even made it past the initial medical inspection, with how small he was. He did all he could to seem like he was fit to work though. He could see even more people marched into the camp. He wondered how many of them would be immediately considered unfit for labor and killed.
“Rogers! Work, now!”
He felt a sharp jab to his back and continued working. His breathing was becoming more scarce. He needed to get it under control, no way was he tipping off any of the guards to his breathing difficulties. He swung his pickaxe, striking at some rocks. He looked at the other prisoners working alongside him, wondering which of them would not be able to work tomorrow. A Polish woman, Magdelena, looked over at him and gave him a small smile. Steve was sure if it weren’t for her kindness, he would have already died. He was really glad that the only things working against his physicality were his small stature and asthma. He had seen pregnant women, people with limps, bad backs, all sorts of physical impairments or limitations immediately killed. He just had to keep working. He didn’t want to be taken to one of those chambers. Not while he could still fight.
“Alright you dogs! 10 minute break!”
Steve dropped his axe, it was getting heavy in his hands. He felt someone nudge his leg. Steve looked up and saw Magdelena.
“Here.” She thrusted a bottle with swallow of water left towards him. He shook his head.
“Can’t.”
She retracted it and looked behind them to make sure there were no guards watching and bent down towards him. “Take it.”
He had been picking up on Polish the last few months, there so many of them here as well. He shook his head again. She huffed and muttered something under her breath.
“10 minutes up! Back to work!”
Steve gave Magdelena a reassuring smile. He didn’t want to give her any reason to worry about him. He picked up his pickaxe and started swinging once more.
“You do not need to be strong all the time.”
He was shocked by her use of German, but kept working as to not tip off the guards. “I know. Neither do you.”
She scoffed and shook her head. Steve always felt so inspired by her strength of character.
“They work us to death each day.”
It was true. Steve’s hands were covered in blisters, his breathing was gradually getting worse, he was over-worked, under-fed, but at least he had a chance to fight. That’s all he needed. All he needed was a chance.
“I do not know how much longer I can stand it, Steve.”
He was surprised that he understood her Polish. He cast a quick glance at her, desperate to not alert any guards. “What do you mean?” If only he could speak Polish.
“I want to leave.”
He didn’t respond, just frowning at the rocks. He was sure he was either about to hear a suicidal plan or a reckless plan, if not some combination of the two.
“I think I can escape. You should come with me.”
Steve cast a glance behind him, curious if any of the guards picked up on what she said. She gave him a gentle kick.
“Stop. It makes you suspicious.”
That certainly wasn’t his intention.
“How?”
“I heard of an underground tunnel that the soldiers rarely use. If we can somehow get an assignment there, we can leave. Be free.”
How nice that sounded. Maybe people would realize how dire their situations were if they had people who could actually report on the condition of these camps. Steve was sure of one thing, he was not useful inside this camp. He nodded his head and saw Magdalena’s slight smile. He hoped that he and Magdalena could pull off this plan.
It had been another 12 hour workday. Steve took slow, deliberative breaths, trying to give some relief to his burning lungs. He was in a cell that was absolutely packed with other people deemed unfit for German society, mostly other Jewish people and Polish. Steve couldn’t even imagine treating farm animals so horrifically. He closed his eyes, trying to find any little sleep he could. He and Magdalena had finally been assigned to the area where the alleged tunnel was. They had also recruited a few more people. Although Steve wished they get as many out as possible, he knew Magdalena was right in exercising caution in recruiting people. As it stood, there would be five people joining them in their escape plan. He and another prisoner, Jakobs, had been tasked with finding the actual location of the tunnel and seeing how the guards moved around it. He was hoping that tomorrow, they’d finally locate the tunnel. It was crazy that-
The lights came on. Everyone began to stir, but the guards began rapping against the bars.
“Hush up, dogs!”
“Where is she? Tell us!”
Steve looked towards the commotion and saw a prisoner pointing at a laying figure.
“Seize her.”
The guards grabbed the figure and Steve noticed that they were grabbing Magdalena. They shoved the other prisoner to the ground. One of the guards grinned at Magdalena.
“You see why the Jews shouldn’t be trusted? They will rat you out to save their own skin. Not that you Pollack dogs are any better. You will be taken to the hole, unless you tell us who else helped.”
She shook her head and was greeted with a punch to the face.
“Your death.”
There was no way Steve could allow Magdalena to be hurt like that. Against his brain’s protests, he stood up. “Stop!”
“What was that, Jew dog?”
He glared at them. “Stop! It wasn’t her idea, it was mine! I forced her!”
They began laugh. The head guard shook his head and pulled out a club.
“Let’s take them both. I believe Herr Zola will be most pleased.” He swung at him, and while Steve was able to avoid the first swing, he got hit on the second. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his head on the way down.
Solitary was absolute hell. He may have been worked to the bone, but at least he was with other people. In solitary, it was just he and his thoughts. His worries about Magdalena, about what would happen to him, the “Herr Zola” fellow that would be “most pleased.” He didn’t feel good. He had even less to eat than before, and sleep was much harder to come by. He coughed, he felt his breathing getting gradually worse. He hoped Magdalena was doing better than him. He wasn’t even sure how long he had been in here, the days in solitary just blended together. The door opened and two guards with guns grabbed him.
“Let’s go. Herr Zola is here.”
He was cuffed and blindfolded, shoved in the back of a car. It was a rather short drive, before the car stopped and he was taken out of the car and dragged into a building. Wherever it was, he was taken to the basement area and strapped to an upright bed or something like that. Finally, his blindfold was removed and he saw Magdalena and an audience of Nazi scientists, military leaders, and even the propogandist, Joseph Goebbels himself. He also saw the leader of HYDRA, the secret science division, Johann Schmidt, there, standing proudly. A short man stood next to Schmidt, but Steve didn’t recognize him. He looked at Magdalena, who looked as stressed as he felt. The short man grinned at everyone.
“Thank you for all coming. As some of you have heard, a drug has been created by one of our scientists that will supposedly amplify the most prominent traits of a person, which, in theory, would either make them a peak human or, a pathetic slug. We plan to test that theory today. Bring out the scientist!”
A graying mustached man with glasses was brought out by guards. He looked stoic, but Steve was sure the man was not actually allied with the Nazi cause.
“This man, Abraham Erskine, has invented the serum that will turn the tide of the war. And we will first test it out on one of these two inferior specimens, just to see what exactly makes them so much more inferior to the German specimen. Then, our beloved Johann Schmidt, will take the serum himself and become an even stronger German specimen!”
There was a resounding round of applause. Steve looked over at Magdalena with wide eyes. She gave him the same look and tried to get out of her restraints, but it was a futile effort. Zola held up two syringes.
“One of these syringes has the serum. The other has cyanide, which will immediately kill whoever shall receive it. According to the scientist, we need to use radioactivity in order to unlock the properties of this serum to its full potential. Guards, remove their gags. I wish to hear their demands.”
The minute Steve’s gag was removed, he yelled out, “Please, Herr Zola! Save her! Give me the cyanide!”
“No, Steven, no! Don’t bother saving me! Save him!”
“Okay, I have your pleas. Strap them tighter.”
The binds cut into Steve’s skin as the ropes were pulled taut. Steve couldn’t move, couldn’t lift his head, none of that. He could hear Zola, though, it sounded like he was giving the injection to Magdalena first. After a few minutes, he heard the footsteps and without warning, he stuck with a needle.
“Okay, we shall intensify these lights and using Beta radiation, unlock the full potential of this serum!”
The lights got brighter and Steve had to look away. He felt a blinding pain, he was sure he was going to die. Good. Magdalena deserved to live. She could do so many great things, he knew she had the internal strength to do so. Suddenly, the pain dissipated and Steve felt a rush of oxygen come to him. Wait, that meant…
“As we can see, our Jewish specimen has increased in physicality.”
The binds had broken by the increase in his muscle mass. He quickly sat up to look at the other bed. However, Magdalena was not moving, not even a rise and fall in her chest. “No… no, she should have lived!”
“Someone shut him up.”
He was easily restrained and his gag was replaced. He looked down at his body and saw how… muscular he was. He also felt much taller.
“I thought this would have surely highlighted his inferiority. That is certainly what you led us to believe, Dr. Erskine,” Schmidt said.
“Perhaps… the serum has instead increased his good, German side?”
Goebbels nodded his head. “Yes, that seems to be the case. Richter, get a picture. We will show how this serum can eliminate those negative Jew traits.”
Schmidt nodded his head. “Yes… perhaps you are correct, Herr Zola. Unlike this pathetic… man, I will not need that infernal cage. I am a man of greatness.” Schmidt picked up a syringe. “And if that’s what it does to this Jew, just look at what it will do to me.”
“No, no, it’s not-”
“Take the doctor away.”
The inventor of the serum was dragged away. Schmidt stabbed the syringe into him and a loud, animal-like groan came from him. Zola looked at Magdalena.
“Stick her body in the oven. You men, take the Jew to the Hole. We will get to him later.”
They went to grab him, but Steve shoved them back, sending them flying back with relative ease. He looked down at his hands in shock.
What have they done to you?
“Tranqs. Shoot him with tranqs!”
He tried to escape, but several darts hit him and he slumped over. Zola approached him, a vicious grin on his face.
“Oh, do I have plans for you.”
Steve tried to keep his eyes open, but the drugs overtook his body and his eyes closed.