Chapter V
Gypsy Ways

Roddy was stunned by what he saw. The woman in the dungeon cell was, well, stunning. She was a gypsy, judging by the simple but elegant red and gold peasant skirt and blouse she wore. Her long hair fell past her waist; the ebony tresses were so dark they absorbed what little light there was in the room, then shone from within to illuminate a face of classic beauty. Her deep, dark eyes, her ruby lips, her olivine skin belonged in an epic tale of Persian Empires, lost kingdoms, battles fought for want of a single kiss...

"Roddy?"

"Hmmm?" Roddy responded, disturbed from his reverie.

"The keys?" the beautiful woman said, indicating the large ring in Roddy's hand. "Could you?"

"Oh! Of course," said Roddy, suddenly remembering where they were. He found the right key and turned it in the cell door lock. "I'm sorry but, have we met?"

"No, but I believe you were just about to introduce yourself," suggested the beauty in her sultry east-European accent as the cell door was opened for her.

"Flight Lieutenant Roderick Williams," said Roddy, snapping to attention. Then realizing he was speaking to a civilian he added, "My friends call me Roddy."

"I hope that includes me," replied the vision. "Please, call me Zolfina."

"Zolfina," said Roddy, trying out the exotic name as if tasting it on his tongue. "How do you know my name?"

"Well, you just introduced yourself," Zolfina said evasively. She looked up as shots rang out, echoing through the labyrinthine corridors. "We must get out of here!"

Roddy knew where his duty lay. He led the way through the dungeon, past the cells, and up the stone staircase into the tunnels. The shots were always well ahead of them; Lupei and his men appeared to have found the armoury, and were doing a good job of clearing these halls. Still, Roddy proceeded with caution, never knowing who or what might lie beyond the next bend.

"You knew my name," he finally said, unable to let it go. "Before we met, you called out to me! How did you know I was there? How do you know me?" He knew they had never met, and no one in these tunnels knew him! Where would she have learned his name?

Zolfina crouched behind Roddy as they stayed low at the intersection of two corridors. She sighed with resignation.

"I have been here, in these tunnels, that cell, for a long time," she explained. "More than a year. The Germans, they also wanted to know, how I could know the things that I know. They questioned me, tested my abilities, experimented. Then six months ago they received new orders, and began their super soldier experiments. Since then they have moved on, forgotten me, left me alone."

Roddy led them down another tunnel and then cautiously waited, listening, at the next corner. Zolfina took a breath before continuing. "All that time I knew you were coming, Roddy. I saw you! I knew you would come, and that you would release me. I get glimpses, of the future. And what I see always comes true."

Roddy scoffed. "Clairvoyance? Precognition? ESP? I don't believe in any of it."

Zolfina smiled. "I knew you wouldn't."

A couple more turns and Roddy led the pair into the great hall, the underground cavern which had been used as a laboratory, and the base of the operation. Tables and machines were overturned; the battle had obviously proceeded through here, although the sounds were growing more and more distant. A number of soldiers lay dead across the floor. Zolfina gasped at one right near the entrance; Roddy grabbed a sheet from an overturned gurney and tossed it over the body.

Roddy crossed the floor, toward a rough cut stone staircase leading up. "This appears to be the way out," he said turning to Zolfina, except she was not following him; Zolfina was wandering in the opposite direction, looking at the ceiling.

"What are you doing?" Roddy called out to her. "You realize we're not safe here?"

Zolfina stopped, and looked at him. "We need to destroy this place. What they are doing here – it must not be allowed to continue!"

"Well you're not going to get any disagreement from me," Roddy told her. "Except I'm at a bit of a loss how that can be accomplished."

"This column," Zolfina said, indicating a stone pillar near the centre of the cavern. "The engineers came in one day. They said it supported tons of stone above this room. You see, they reinforced it! Destroy this column, and you will destroy the room."

Roddy came over to look at the pillar. It was about four feet across, and twenty feet high, reinforced with concrete.

"Yes, well unfortunately I just used my last thousand pounds of TNT," Roddy said with typical British understatement.

Zolfina looked around, hoping to find something useful. She spotted a dead soldier nearby. Bending down, she plucked something from his belt.

"What about this?" she suggested, displaying the grenade to Roddy.

"Give me that!" Roddy yelled, anger masking fear as he snatched the explosive from her hands. "This could easily kill us both, but it wouldn't make a scratch on that pillar." He inspected the weapon more closely and added, "Besides, this is an incendiary device. It will create a lot of flames, but stone doesn't burn."

Roddy clipped the grenade safely to his jacket, but then his attention was caught by something else. The contents of an overturned filing cabinet had spilled across the floor. Roddy scanned the scattered files, and found one which attracted his attention. He quickly leafed through the report.

"This is a summary of their research!" he said, displaying the top secret document to Zolfina. "If we can't destroy their research, at least this will help our side to catch up."

"No Roddy, you can't!" said Zolfina. "You don't understand what they were doing!"

"I met their super soldier," Roddy told her. "Can you imagine an army of such creatures?"

"Yes, I can!" Zolfina pleaded. "Can you? Can you imagine a war waged by them? Can you imagine a world controlled, enforced by such monsters?"

Roddy flipped the pages of the report, scanning the text, when suddenly he stopped and read.

"My god," he finally said. "Fritz, their super soldier! He was dead. Zolfina, when they brought him in here he was dead, and they brought him back to life! Do you realize what this means?"

Zolfina looked downcast as she replied, "Yes. Yes, I understand all that it means."

"This is incredible!" Roddy exclaimed. "Zolfina, you don't understand. I shot a man today. I watched him die. Zolfina, it was the lowest point of my life. But now, it doesn't have to be the end! He doesn't have to die! No soldier ever needs to die, ever again!"

Zolfina shook her head as she stared at the floor, unable to meet Roddy's excited gaze.

"Roddy, a war without death, is a war without end."

Roddy appeared not to hear as he folded the report and stuffed it into his jacket. He turned to head toward the stairs, but instead ran straight into a huge wall that had not previously been there. The wall had arms, and enormous hands, which it used to grab Roddy and toss him across the room.

Roddy hit the cavern wall and crashed to the floor, but quickly got back up to one knee. Assessing his opponent he realized it was not Fritz, although that was not necessarily a good thing. This person was possibly even larger than Fritz. He was not dressed as a soldier, but instead wore old clothes, all black, including a black cloak with a hood that covered his face.

"I thought there was only one of you," Roddy said as he caught his breath.

The Monster glared at Roddy, another puny being that wanted to create life. He pulled back his hood, revealing his face as an angry snarl crossed his hideous features. A scream from Zolfina distracted him, and he turned toward her.

Roddy reacted in an instant. It took less than a second to cross the distance between them, and he grabbed The Monster. He had been trained in hand-to-hand combat, and his instructors stressed that if the techniques were used properly then size was not a factor. Roddy was about to put that theory to its ultimate test.

Using his momentum and placing his leg behind that of The Monster, Roddy put the creature off balance and brought it to the floor, falling like a massive oak. He then leapt on his opponent in a manner that should have resulted in at least a few broken ribs, but apparently had no effect whatsoever. A few well-placed blows to the chin and head had similar lack of effect.

The Monster was slow to react, not used to finding himself fighting from a disadvantaged position. However he quickly tired of Roddy's punches. Grabbing Roddy's fist, The Monster endured his ineffective punches and kicks as he stood to his full height, glaring down at his much smaller opponent before knocking him across the room once again.

"You're not one of them, are you?" Roddy groaned as he slowly got up to one knee. This time it didn't look as if he was getting much further, though. The Monster approached him, fists raised in rage.

"Give him the report!" Zolfina cried out. Roddy wasn't quite sure what that would achieve, but it was something he was capable of doing and he couldn't do much else. So he reached into his jacket, pulled out the report and held it out toward The Monster.

The Monster snatched the document from Roddy's outstretched hand, curious as to what it might be. As he read the cover and scanned a few pages, though, it did not seem to make him particularly happy.

"We are here to destroy this work, not continue it," Zolfina said. "Tell him, Roddy!"

Roddy looked from Zolfina to The Monster, then nodded. "Yes, that would be my first choice."

The Monster looked uncertain, but then with a snarl he reached down and, grabbing Roddy by his jacket, lifted him to his feet. Looking more closely at the RAF officer, The Monster noticed the grenade Roddy had clipped to his jacket earlier. Still holding Roddy by his jacket, The Monster tossed the report across the room where it landed in the pile of loose pages and files. He then snapped the grenade from Roddy's jacket and tossed it as well.

Roddy barely had time to react as he ran to Zolfina, pulling her to the ground while the other side of the room erupted in flames. The two then scrambled toward the stairs as the flames spread throughout the floor.

The pair watched as The Monster crossed to the massive pillar at the centre of the room. Placing his hands against it he pushed with all his immense strength, trying repeatedly, yet nothing happened. He soon tired of this, and in frustration punched the pillar again and again, doing little more than chipping the concrete with his massive blows.

Suddenly a khaki blur erupted from a side tunnel, charging The Monster and smashing him into the pillar. Fritz hit The Monster with the force of a freight train, yet The Monster barely hesitated before responding with a blow of his own, bringing the German super soldier to his knees.

"Time for us to leave, I think," Roddy suggested. Zolfina nodded her agreement, and the pair made their way up the stone stairs. At the top was a balcony, where Roddy turned for one last look. The room below was engulfed in flames. The two combatants struggled throughout it all, pitting their titanic strengths against one another. The last Roddy saw of them was the two horrors grappling as they tipped over the edge, falling into the deep underground chasm.

Roddy turned and followed Zolfina to the exit, and freedom.

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(@ @)
  VVV

Roddy and Zolfina made their way down the road and away from the former German stronghold, the flames now having reached the surface and set the entire building ablaze. It was the middle of the night, although a full moon lit their path well enough to see. But when they came across an old farm, Roddy suggested they could rest and wait until morning in the barn.

The structure was warm, and filled with plenty of dry hay they could use to create a soft place to sleep and to keep them off the cold, hard ground. Zolfina quickly accumulated enough for a nest and fell upon it, exhausted. Roddy set up his own as well, a small but respectful distance away.

"You said you knew I was coming," Roddy said, unable to sleep as questions swirled in his mind. "And back there, even facing a creature like no one has ever encountered before, you knew exactly the right thing to say and do. How?"

"I told you," Zolfina replied, rolling over to face him. "I see the future, sometimes. Only glimpses, but every so often enough to understand, enough to act." She shrugged her shoulders in the dim moonlight. "I am a gypsy."

"Visions of the future," Roddy said skeptically. "I don't believe it. I only believe in what I can see and feel."

"You can see me," Zolfina said softly. She reached out and took Roddy's hand, placing it on her cheek. "You can feel me. Can you then believe in me?"

Roddy was briefly at a loss for words as he touched the beautiful woman's face and stared into her captivating eyes, and so Zolfina continued. Undoing the buttons of her blouse she told him, "We have a tradition in my culture, when someone saves our life."

"And what is that?" Roddy asked, still staring into Zolfina's deep, dark eyes.

Zolfina removed her blouse, exposing her bare skin to the chill of the night. "We say thank you," she told him.

 "We British also have a tradition," Roddy replied as he quickly removed his jacket. "We say you're welcome!"

A/N: I'm sorry, but I don't write R-rated scenes. But, please feel free to imagine anything you want happening between Roddy and Zolfina until morning! 

So I hope that was the most unusual WWII story you ever read! I must say, this part of the story grew to be much longer than I ever expected. But come back next week because there's much, much more to come!