WE'LL MEET AGAIN

Bang, crash, raw, forked lightening! It was the perfect storm the rogue Nazi doctors had been waiting for as no one would be outside on such a malevolent night. Their occupation of the island of Jersey isolating them from mainland Europe meant their secret would never escape.

Under the cloak of darkness they paid a visit. There was a menacing knock on the front door; the heavy oak door they prayed would protect them from the dangers of The Occupation.  Mother peeped through the heavy drawn curtains, “Oh God, it’s the Krauts,” father tried to compose himself as he opened his home to the Nazis. “We have come for your daughter Mary, she is to work and live with the German Army, we give ten minutes and then Mary must come with us.”

 Mary’s parents watched their daughter’s small frame climb into the rear of the blue grey windowless truck with its red and white ambulance markings, then the door was slammed closed. Mary’s parents retreated to their sofa and sat in stunned silence.

It was what Mary was dreading. She knew it was coming but when it did, it shocked her to her bones. Mary’s eyes caught the others, two girls and three boys, local companions and friends from St. Lawrence College who were part of a group that formed a larger organisation of insurgents, protesting and carrying out undercover defiance against the occupational forces. Frank’s eyes lit up, smiled and said, “Mary” with surprise! Mary put her arm around her fiancé as all the passengers travelled in silence. Mary started singing her favourite Vera Lyne song, “Well meet again, don’t know where don’t know when, but I know we will meet again some sunny day.” Then slowly the group one by one joined in, until the end when they burst out laughing.

After a quarter of an hour the vehicle came to a sudden stop, then the engine cut. They could hear abrupt German orders, the engine growled back to live. The truck travelled down a slopping track, the heavy rain endless beating on the metal roof of promptly stopped, whilst the temperature slowly rose until it settled at a constant 13c.

The six did not know it but they were in the lower depths of the German WW2 underground hospital named Hohlgangsanlage 8. It was built by employed local Jersey workers, one of whom was Mary’s father. They worked alongside slaves taken from prison of war camps from Eastern Europe, but were treated very differently. 

In the innermost area of the labyrinth of tunnels the truck came to a standstill. As rear door was opened with authority, they could smell a slight dampness in the air. Ironically they were an underground cell, publishing an underground news paper for the Jersey compatriots and here they were, underground. 

Two German nurses ordered the passengers to follow them to two dormitories. It was here they were isolated into two single sex rooms, with just bare functional furniture and industrial fluorescent lighting, not one window to tell if it was day or night. They were expecting to be taken to the notorious H.M. Prison in Gloucester Street in Saint Helier, where the Nazis imprisoned the active members of the resistance, but the journey was too short and this was nothing like the Old Clink.

Their days were interrupted only to be fed or taken away to the clinic for medical examinations and tests. On the first meeting a Nazi wearing a doctor’s white coat asked Mary in broken English. “Why do you, your rebellious comrades like not the German army? We have been very good to your island.” It was said in a way not to be answered. He continued whilst looking at her college reports. “You as top student as well the Captain of the Channel Islands’ netball team.  Jolly good you English say!”

Inspecting Mary’s personal Jersey medical records from her own local doctor Dr. White he continued, “Your records show how you are in very good health mentally and physically this is most satisfactory news. You can be very helpful to us and mankind, as we say in Germany, “Not yet any scratches or dents.”

 Mary replied in a sarcastic tone, “You Germans have such a great sense of humour!” as she gave a thought to her father’s stories witnessing how the Germans brutally treated the tunnel slaves who suffered appalling health, atrocious injuries and even death at the hands of the Nazis. The doctor gave the last word, “You may go back to your dormitory.” Leaving her with a smile as the nurse led her away. She did not return the smile just thought.

In the girls dorm they would laugh at their joke, that they were being kept like mushrooms; kept in the dark and fed on manure, but now the joke felt very sinister. The same went for the times they thought it was funny causing mayhem cycling on the wrong side of the road jousting with German army trucks coming in the opposite direction, after the Nazis ordered everyone travel on the right side of the road.

For the first week the six were in a state of restlessness and flux, mentally and physically. There would be agitated tears and hysterical laughter but as they went in to the second week the group started to get into a routine, whilst giving each other moral support. Mary would be woken by the industrial hum of the ventilation system, not the dawn chorus of happy native birds singing as she lay in her bed back at home, she would reminisce when she and Frank made intimate tender love under  the patch work quilt she and her mother made together.

In the second week the six prisoners’ state of mind had more clarity, they had a daily exercise routine. They read the books that the guards thought appropriate, as well as playing games both physical and mental and some just silly like the girls’ pillow fights. The girls would keep track of the days as many a prisoner had done over the centuries by scratching the days on their cell wall. With college girl humour they put their own take on it by drawing a man’s penis for every day of incarceration.

As the first month was coming to an end the examinations and tests were becoming more regular, one by one they were not returning to their dormitories leaving Mary isolated in the dormitory. In the outside world her life was very busy, life just got in the way of living, but now all alone she had time to reflect on Frank and how handsome he looked and what he meant to her. The way their lives had become so entwined and all the fun and loving together. With tearful eyes knowing Frank was just feet away and not having any contact with him just amplified the pain; Oh how she pined for him!  

Mary marked the last day of January on the white washed wall with a man’s penis but it didn’t seem funny anymore, being all alone it felt very eerie. There was a knock on the door followed by it being unlocked, a doctor in a courteous but flat voice called her name. She was escorted to a room next to the clinic, on the door a sign said. “KPU`O- YOVIK`N,” Greek for cold production, the Nazi doctors so admired the ancient Greeks.

The rogue German doctor, said, “You must be very proud of yourself, you are doing a great thing for medical science, and mankind. Now you must sleep.” He continued to release the air from his syringe, and then inject the lethal serum into Mary’s arm. 

Mary’s mind became dazed as the trolley she was laying on was wheeled into the thermostatically controlled storage vault next door, she passed six upright glass capsules’ all occupied but one. In the first glass coffin was Frank, her fiancé, no more the warmth of her life, but a cold, arctic thing, Frank was now a frozen Frankenstein with all the emotion he showed. The doctors had the five corpses mummified in -180c liquid nitrogen using cryprotectants to prevent ice formation during cryoprerving to preserve their bodies for resuscitating and restorations; Mary thought she must be having a nightmare. Mary’s stupor became heavier until she passed away and then her body was placed in the one last unoccupied capsule!

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Back at Mary’s parents’ home the same dark knock was repeated on their front door, once again Mary’s mother spied though the curtains. This time in a hard voice, “It’s the German gangsters,” father trying not to show his anger opened it to the same two German officers.  “We have bad news, your daughter died trying to escape and fell off the storm damaged cliffs. We have buried her body at your local church cemetery. We give you our condolences!”  Mary’s father slammed the door in their faces and then put his arms around mother as they both wept for their one and only offspring.

In the week that followed the bereaved parents with black hearts that were beyond tears had a headstone crafted with the words, “In Our Hearts You Will Live For Ever.” They arranged a service for Mary their beloved daughter who was in the prime of life, as for them they had aged a hundred years. The day the Nazis took the love of their life away they had left her bedroom as a memorial, but they could not really accept she was really gone.

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On the 6^th of June the opposing forces to the Germans had launched Operation Overlord; the invasion was a complete surprise to the Nazis occupying France and the Channel Islands. In the following days the invasion had made massive advancements, the Nazis knew they would inevitably have to surrender.

The German Commandant of Jersey with his top table of officers along with the Nazi doctors from the German Hospital made plans to escape from Jersey before they would have to officially surrender.

The doctors made plans for resuscitating and restorations of the six bodies. To do this they needed to repair the damage from a lack of oxygen, thermal stress (fracturing) and freezing tissues that did not successfully vitrify. To do this the rogue doctors were to use an acumination of bioengineering and molecular nanotechnology technologies.

For the doctors this had been their life’s work, being excited and tense at the same time they chose Mary first, as the statistics showed that she had the best chance.

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In the dead of night the German Commandant of Jersey, with his senior officers and the Nazi doctors along with their boxed up secret papers to the Cold Production plus the new results to their experiments, fled the Island of Jersey like vermin rats and boarded a waiting ship; but before the doctors escaped they had one last task

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At the exit to the German Hospital, a doctor opened the large tunnel door. “Marry you are free, Auf Wiedersehen.”

 With the slamming of the door behind her Mary in a state of shock stood in stunned silence, she turned to the door and stood a while longer.  Mary turned back around, in the distance at the highest point in the area she could just make out the familiar spire of Saint Valentine’s lit up by the full moon. It was her local church, the same one where Frank and she were to be married. Mary with trepidation put one foot in front of the other and then again until she got into a rhythm, slowly but surely she started to follow the long snaking lane with its testing gradient.

Eventually with her tired body Mary arrived at the gates of the churchyard, she slowly drew them open and entered. Walking along the path Mary froze at what she saw, there with the newer graves was Mary Parker. Engraved on the headstone was the date of her birth and the day she was murdered, then her body preserved. The church had been a place of sanctuary for hundreds of years, but now her muddled mind went into shock, weeping she collapsed on top of her own grave and passed out.

With a head that felt like a Summer Cider hangover she came to. In the background there were the familiar sounds of a dawn chorus from her beloved native birds singing and then Mary heard his voice call her name!

Aroused, Mary slowly opened her eyes and there, haloed by the rising sun was Frank leaning over her. With Mary’s heart racing Frank helped her up then they hugged and continued with smouldering kisses. His never washed mohair jacket was like an infant's comfort blank to her with its familiar reassuring warm scent. In the background the church bells started to ring out, then to Mary’s astonishment in the background walking up the lane for Sunday Service were Mr & Mrs Parker; Mum and Dad!

The End