NationStates Jolt Archive


First Heretic Crucified in 50 Years

Witzgall
28-02-2005, 02:06
“AHHH!” the painful screams echoed throughout the dark hallways. The lights flickered in the hallway, and the two guards ignored the screams and darkness. Another cry of mercy emerged from the room where the two men stood, protecting the door with their automatic rifles.

Suddenly, music began to play from within the confines of the room. The two guards were startled by the music, but ignored it as well. All kinds of unusual sounds came from that room, the two guards knowing only some of the details of what happens within.

“Heh. How about that interview with General Chzenski last night?” one of the soldiers asks, trying to stir up a conversation to get his mind off of the brutal torture that is obviously happening behind the metal door.

The lights come back to a standard on, their brightness practically blinding the two guards. “Meh. I wasn’t awake for it.” the other guard replies, wiping his eyes to adjust himself to the extreme light.

“No! God, no!” echoes another scream from within the door. The lights flicker off and on again, this time with a lengthened pause between the flickers of darkness and bright.

“I love this job…” mumbles one of the guards, sitting down in a wooden chair that sits across the hall from the door and where his comrade stands. He rests his chin upon his palm, thinking about his family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tell me the combination, Nikolaus.” says the man, dressed in his black uniform that shows he is a member of the Centurion Initiative. The man he is speaking with sits in a metal chair, stripped of his shirt. Long and straight scars plague his chest, and tears run down his eyes. “TELL ME!”

The Initiative agent backhands Nikolaus across the face. He is angered at his former comrade. “You don’t want to talk about the combination? Fine. I have other means.”

“God! Please, Rainer, you don’t have to do this!” exclaims Nikolaus, struggling to get free of his handcuffs and shackles. Rainer, the agent of the Initiative, strolls over to the fireplace within the dark room. It is the only source of light, besides the lamp which floats freely over Nikolaus.

Rainer picks up a fire poker from the small holders, selecting the sharpest one with two prongs. He picks it up slowly, looking back at Nikolaus and releasing a cruel smirk. The poker’s tip grew orange with the immense heat it gained from the flames of the fireplace.

“Please…Rainer…be reasonable…” said Nikolaus, begging for mercy. His handcuffs would not let him move even the slightest bit. He was restrained to his chair perfectly, not able to move an inch without immense pain.

“Do you really think I could just let you stroll out of hear without giving up the code, Niko?” Rainer says, twirling the fire poker in his hand, as if to tease his hostage into psychological pain.

Nikolaus screams out in anger, disbelief, and intense pain as the fire poker touches his chest, scorching the skin on contact.

“Give me the combination, Niko!” exclaims Rainer, pushing harder and harder with the poker before finally tossing it to the cement floor. Rainer grabs Niko’s face with both hands, placing one on each cheek. Tears flow freely down Niko’s face, touching Rainer’s fingers.

“How does one become a traitor to his beloved homeland, Niko? HOW?!” Rainer shouts, backhanding his former comrade once again. Nikolaus stares at Rainer blankly, his eyes watery from the pain he has been suffering for over three hours.

Rainer rises from leaning over Nikolaus and begins to pace behind his former apprentice. Rainer grabs a combat knife from the back pocket of his uniform, and begins to toy with the blade.

“Oh, sweet Nikolaus. Sweet, pitiful, disgusting Nikolaus. A traitor to the Eighth Reich. Do you know how we deal with traitors and heretics in the Reich, Niko?” Rainer questions, placing the blade of his combat knife firmly against the throat of Nikolaus. Nikolaus flinches in fear as the cold blade touches the skin, slowly getting closer and closer to drawing blood.

“I know you’re going to crack sooner or later. Might as well make it sooner.” says Rainer, placing the blade back into his uniform’s pocket and spitting at Niko. Rainer grabs the car battery which lays at rest next to Niko’s left leg, and attaches two magnifiers to the battery’s outputs. He grabs the wires attached to the magnifiers and convertors, and begins to rub them together. Small blue shocks jump back and forth as the wires scratch up against one another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two guards sit in silence. Another loud scream emerges from the room, and the lights once again flicker on and off, on and off.

“Damn…that has to hurt…” says one of the guards, cocking the bolt of his rifle and beginning to clean the barrel.

The door flings open, and Rainer emerges wearing his officer’s hat. The two soldiers salute him and await orders. “What can we do, Sir?” asks one of the soldiers, standing at attention.

“Break his legs, and proceed with Protocol Six.” says Rainer, fixing his hat and walking down the hallways. The two soldiers salute Rainer and walk into the room. Niko’s chair is overturned and lying on the cold and desolate floor of the room, with Nikolaus still chained to it. Blood drips slowly from his lips as the two soldiers uncuff and unshackle his body.

The two soldiers lift Niko and one of them attaches wooden braces to Nikolaus’ ankles. The soldier looks up at the shivering and broken body of Niko, who is still tearing silently from the pain and suffering he has been put through by his former mentor.

“Detlev…go get the hammer.” says the soldier, adjusting the tightness of the wooden braces. Niko flinches as the small razors within the shackles pierce his skin and blood slowly exits his body at the ankles.

The other soldier comes back into the room just moments later, carrying a large sledgehammer in his hands. “Done.” he says. The soldier’s comrade places his leg behind Niko’s, and quickly trips him backwards. Niko’s back hits the cement floor hard, and he cries out in pain, begging for mercy.

The sledgehammer wielding soldier walks over to Nikolaus’ prostrated body, toying with the hammer. The other soldier takes a two inch thick of steel and fits it inbetween the two shackles of Nikolaus’ ankles, and grabs a rope from his comrade and ties the two shackles together.

The sledge-wielding soldier lifts the hammer, and with all of his might he rains down the metal sledge against the wooden shackle of Niko’s right ankle. A loud and fierce crack is heard as the bone of Nikolaus’ right ankle breaks and fractures.

Niko screams in pain, his spine and back twisting into an arch as the pain sends mixed signals to his nervous system. The soldier proceeds to hit the left ankle with just as much power as he did to the right, shattering the bone.

Nikolaus begins crying profusely, as well as sweating. The soldier wipes his forehead and removes the balaclava which he wears, revealing an eye patch which he was given during a torture “game” with another prisoner, in which the victim lashed out with a knife and cut his eye.

The soldiers remove Niko’s shackles and lift his broken and torn body off of the cold cement floor of the room. The two soldiers let go of Niko, causing him to stumble two steps forward and collapse on the floor. The two soldiers, once again, lift the body of Niko up and force him to walk out of the room at gunpoint.

With each step, Niko screams as more and more pain surges from his legs up into his brain. The two soldiers force Niko to walk down the long hallway at gunpoint, their rifles pressed up against his back.

In front of him, Niko can make out the downfall of stairs. He stares at them in fear and glares back at the two soldiers, who have an evil smirk on their face. One of them shoves Niko forward, and orders him to continue this “March of Heretics.” Niko approaches the stairs, collapsing at their head.

“Get up, you filthy bastard.” says one of the soldiers, grabbing Niko by his long black hair and lifting the pitiful man to his knees.

“Please…have mercy…” Niko begs, grabbing onto the soldier’s leg and looking into his evil eyes. The soldier glares into Niko’s eyes, nodding his head “no.” The soldier lifts Niko, spins him, and pushes him forward.

Niko takes the first step downwards, and the pressure that is a burden upon his ankles causes him to collapse on the first step.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rainer enters the office of his comrade, Colonel Günther van Wessen. The Colonel looks up from his attempted sleep at his comrade, who salutes the Colonel upon entering his office.

“Did he forfeit?” Günther asks, rising from his desk and grabbing a cigar out of his front pocket. The Colonel looks displeased as Rainer shakes his head, a simple no. “Damn…we really need that combination…”

“I know, Sir. But he just wouldn’t give it up. I have the guards proceeding with Protocol Six.” replies Rainer, taking a seat opposite that of the Colonel.

“Six? The stair method?” Günther questions, trying to revamp his memory of the eighteen extraction protocols.

“Yes. I’m going back in half an hour, he should be plenty ready to speak then.” Rainer says, once again playing with his combat knife. The Colonel smiles before speaking.

“Twisted…but well done. You’re excused. Next time I see you, you had better have the code.” says Günther. Rainer stands from the comfortable leather chair, adjusts his hat, and salutes the Colonel once more before leaving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Niko has made it to the sixth stair. His body, bruised and broken, worn down to the point of devastating and crippling effects. “Walk, you lousy heretic.” says one of the soldiers, placing the barrel of his rifle to Niko’s temple. Niko grabs onto the steel bar that runs down the stairwell, and lifts himself. “C’mon! I said walk!”

Nikolaus lashes out in painful shouts and screams, cursing the name of the Fuhrer as he makes his way down the stairs ever so slowly. The two soldiers stand behind him, their guns still teasing Nikolaus against his back.

The door at the bottom of the stairwell opens, and Rainer emerges from the light. The door shuts, and darkness is restored to the building. “Are you ready to talk, Niko?” Rainer asks, removing his officers hat and looking at the body of his disciple. Normally Rainer would feel sorry for his victim, but Nikolaus deserved the torment he was receiving.

Nikolaus spits at Rainer, hitting the officer on the cheek. Rainer wipes the mucus off of his cheek, and glares at the victim. The two soldiers stare at their commander as his face turns read with hatred and anger. “I’ll take that as a maybe…” Rainer says.

“Sir, Protocol Six isn’t working.” says one of the soldiers, grabbing Rainer’s attention and diverting his frustration with the traitor.

“I can see that, soldier. Bring him back to my office.” Rainer says, nodding to the soldiers. The two men grab Rainer by his arms and drag him back up the stairs, tossing him back into the dark and concrete-laid room of which he suffered within.

Rainer enters the room, still playing with his combat knife. He speaks, a certain tone of disgust rolling off of his tongue with each and every syllable. “Niko…give me the combination and all of this goes away. Continue with your silence and mockery, while wasting away my time, and…well, you won’t be pleased. This concrete tomb isn’t the worst I can do, I’m sure you know.”

Niko bites his tongue as Rainer punches him in the stomach, causing Niko to collapse onto the cold cement floor. Rainer paces around the fallen former-soldier, flicking the blade of his knife in and out of its switchblade holder. Rainer kicks the fallen body of Nikolaus, who lays on the floor absolutely defenseless.

“You know what, Niko? The longer you continue with these antics that associate yourself not with a soldier, but that of a schoolgirl…the longer you play this ‘I don’t know shit’ game, the longer this continues. I’m not in a position to grant you death, sorry. You will suffer for as long as possible.”

Niko spits up a cough full of blood as Rainer kicks him in the chest again, almost certainly breaking one or two of the rib bones. The two soldiers shut the door once again, sealing off Niko’s contact with the outside world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Niko’s broken and fragile body is dragged into the city’s square, just outside of the Fuhrer’s office. Six soldiers surround Niko, blocking the public from getting too close.

“This man…is a heretic. He is the lowest of low, defying the state and Fuhrer in the name of a false man called Jesus. Today, we give him what he deserves.” one of the soldier says.

Rainer enters the Fuhrer office, and directs Hur IV to look out the window. The Fuhrer obliges, and witnesses the crucifixion of a convicted heretic. The cross is laid out on the ground, made of pure wood. Niko’s broken body is tossed onto the wooden grave of which he will be soon accompanying into the afterlife.

The six soldiers, as police hold off the public, grab large metal spikes and tie down Niko to his cross. One spits in Niko’s eyes in pure disgust at the trechery which he had shown in the name of his Lord, defying the Fuhrer as the one who is to be worshipped.

Niko cries out in prayers as the he is bound to his cross by tight ropes which scratch his already beaten skin into submission, drawing small amounts of blood yet causing severe pain.

“Lord,make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.” Niko shouts as large metal spikes are driven into his shattered ankles.

“Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.” he says, metal spikes piercing his hands as blood trickles down his arms and hit’s the cobblestone of the City Square. The soldiers all watch as the cross is hoisted up and placed in the small dug-out hole in the square, for all to witness.

“O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek. To be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love.”

The soldiers spit on Nikolaus’s body as the light from the beautiful sun scorches his bare body, blood slowly dripping and following river-like patterns throughout his body. The public watches, shocked by the sight of a public execution. They hadn’t seen such a sight in over five decades. “For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”


The Fuhrer and Rainer watched closely as Niko cried out with his final breaths, just before his lungs collapse. “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life…” Niko says, his head collapsing down to greet his chest. Rainer releases a twisted and dark smirk upon his face, and the Fuhrer just watches the dead body of the fallen traitor.

“Did you at least get the code, Rainer?” asks the Fuhrer, turning his eyes away from the crucifixion.

“No. He wouldn’t give it up, no matter what I tried.” Rainer replies, folding his arms over his chest.

“I didn’t think he would…”