Stuck in the Middle with You

February 14th 1945

Feels weird uploading this and reading it back after so long of it sitting in my drive because this story is so damn dark and un-PJO. Like especially this chapter is pretty fucked up and I don't know if people will like it. For the record, I'm sorry I decided to make a Pertemis fanfiction set in the depths of WW2. I promise the Pertemis itself was gonna be great and romantic. Also sorry for uploading it one day at a time, literally just for engagement or whatever. Thats the reason its so short, because this was all supposed to be a oneshot.

February 14th 1945

75km north of Poznan, German-Occupied Poland

The man in the black uniform pushed Artemis. Her gun was on the floor of an empty house, her hands were empty and so were those of those she was forming a single-file line with. The cold made her bare fingers shiver uncontrollable, that mixed with the fear of the situation.

She was no god. Without her gun she was helpless. There was no such thing as punching her way out of here. They had guns, she didn't. The man with the large moustache, the black uniform and the lightning bolts raised a thin pistol and aimed it in her direction. "Dort! Drüben Huren!" He yelled.

Artemis could speak German. Her German mother had taught her a lot. The German mother that was killed by German bombs. This man had just told her and these other women in the line to move, before referring to them with a word that made Artemis wince.

Artemis tried to keep walking with them but she was suddenly stopped as she bumped into an older woman, who was maybe in her 40s or 50s. She was staring at something and had suddenly broke down into tears, wailing loud enough to make her cringe. Artemis looked in the direction the lady was facing, the direction they were forced to walk.

There was a large dugout trench or hole there.

Bang

Blood sprayed as the woman fell silent, falling forward in front of her. Not onto her knees like in a film or play. She just fell forward, stiff as a bird who'd passed away on a tree branch before she hit the dirt and sprawled out. The man with the moustache grabbed Artemis roughly by the shoulders and once again shoved her over the dead woman. "Gehen!" He once more yelled for her to move. Blood on her face as a quiver in her body, Artemis didn't disobey.

Artemis followed the other women to where the blonde soldier in the grey had stopped them, standing next to the large hole. He pointed to the right before telling them to look in his native language. They were made to face away from the hole standing side by side.

There in front of them were twelve men, all dressed in Wehrmacht attire. Some had helmets, some didn't. One was even wearing an officer's cap, yet like the rest he held a rifle.

Tears came to Artemis' eyes as she stared them down. This was it. A death sentence she had received and here was her execution. So far from home with no family left she was to die in a field and be dumped in a hole after all these years fighting. So close to victory and she wouldn't be allowed to see it, just with all the other things war had refused to allow her.

The moustached man stood to the side and looked at the soldiers. "Bereit, Jungen zu feuern! Herr Himmler möchte, dass wir hier aufräumen, für den Fall, dass die Kommunisten uns aus Polen zurückdrängen!." He shouted, telling them to be ready. Artemis knew what they were getting ready for.

As the soldiers checked their rifles one of them grinned and called out. "Oh meine Damen. Zeig uns deine Klopfer und wir könnten dich ersparen? Am besten zieht ihr euch aus und gebt uns das Ganze, Hündinnen!" He taunted, making the entire group cackle. Even the commander smiled. One of the men on the right mimicked the motion of ripping his shirt open.

Knowing their language, Artemis was appalled by what they were insinuating. They suggested they throw away their dignity for their lives. Whore themselves out to these soldiers for the chance they may be spared. Artemis knew better than to trust a German. She'd prefer to die with her dignity and her innocence intact, an angel as so many saints before her did.

What astonished her was that she seemed like the only one to think this.

With virtually all of them drowning in tears, most of the woman began to comply with the Fascists request. Some merely unbuttoned their shirts and exposed their breasts, a few removed their shirts entirely, and one girl no older than Artemis stripped down fully in desperation to live.

Artemis looked to be the only one with any courage left in her, despite tears framing her eyes as she watched in horror. The Wehrmacht soldiers cheered the horrified and traumatized ladies on while another two dumped the lady from before into the pit behind them, making a good majority of them flinch from the thud.

Some of the women next to Artemis began to beg the soldiers for their lives, their pride and dignity just as ruined as the cities of the east. The soldiers in response merely wolf whistled and made obscene gestures. The commander in black seemed to be over with this. "Genug! zielen, Männer!" He shouted, snapping the Fascists out of their frenzy and back to discipline. Artemis' lip quivered as she knew what it meant.

The soldiers all took aim as the sound of the rifles being cocked sounded all at once. Artemis began to cry fully, while many of the girls next to her wailed in devastation as they finally realised their pain and humiliation was for nothing. They were going to die anyway.

For the Motherland, for the Motherland, for the Motherland- Artemis repeatedly chanted in her head, thinking about her lost family and all her struggle. All for nothing. All for nothing.

"Feuer!"

B-bbang! Bang bang! Bang!

Artemis fell back as a bullet lodged in her stomach, all of the other victims doing so as well as they collapsed into the pit. Artemis fell first, so the half-naked girl next to her fell on top of her, landing on her face and staying still in the silence of death.

In severe pain and struggling to breathe, Artemis weakly began pushing at the girl. The weight of a soulless body crushing down on her neck had Artemis disrespectfully smacking at her, pushing her, trying to get her off just so she could breathe despite the round stuck in her gut.

Crack!

Artemis felt a similar sharp pain in her torso and the girl finally fell off of her. She saw the man in black pointing the thin pistol that had killed that other woman. The smoking barrel lowered and like a child being told to go to bed Artemis refused to move a muscle or make a peep. Crimson blood pooled out of her stomach onto the other bodies surrounding her, her face became pale. Believing the Russki dead, the SS-officer left with the einsatzgruppe to another point of interest.

Feeling as though she were choking on her own blood, Artemis refused to give up. Free of the corpse constriction she could move her arms, she could reach out for anything that could help her. She had to save herself. She owed it to herself, her friends and family who she'd lost to the war. Three years of gunfire and bombings, she could not die in a hole.

So close to victory. So...nearly... free...