Decision

When Alex woke up, it was already the next morning. Looking at the lavish decorations around him, Alex was bewildered. Had I already left that terrifying Auschwitz?

Just as he was wondering, a delighted voice rang out beside him. It was Audrey Hepburn.

"Brother, you're finally awake!" Audrey had changed into a fresh set of clothes. After a simple wash, she looked much more lively. Seeing Alex awake, she ran over happily. Behind her, Ella and a middle-aged man approached at a steady pace.

Alex looked at the middle-aged man standing ramrod straight and vaguely recognized him. "You are?"

"Toby Manes. Thank you for saving us yesterday." The middle-aged man walked to Alex's bedside and gave him a proper military salute, his face full of gratitude.

Alex immediately came to his senses and propped himself up into a sitting position. Through the window beside the bed, he saw a stretch of gloomy buildings and a vast open yard beyond the clear glass. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar scene, Alex suddenly realized that he was in White Glove's three-story building.

"How is the concentration camp now?" Alex took a deep breath, jumped out of bed, and began tidying himself up as he looked at Toby Manes.

"Everything is under control." At the mention of business, Toby Manes immediately turned serious. "But leaving this place..." Toby did not continue. Auschwitz was in Poland, deep within German occupied territory. Escaping would be truly difficult.

"I know that!" Alex said helplessly. With only four or five people, they would have been a smaller target and could have escaped more easily. But circumstances had not allowed it, and he had never expected things to develop this way. No matter what, Alex could not bring himself to sneak away with Audrey and Ella while leaving everyone else behind.

Once he had straightened himself up, Alex walked out of the small building. He glanced at the Wall of Death across the open yard, stood there in a daze for a long while, then asked, "The other concentration camps nearby haven't noticed anything unusual here, have they?"

"No. They didn't even send anyone to take a look." Toby felt somewhat fortunate. Such a huge disturbance yesterday had not drawn anyone to investigate. They had been incredibly lucky.

"When someone dies here or a gun goes off, no one cares." Alex walked out of the building and headed toward an office building to one side. "Are the others all right? Have they all been locked up?"

"Don't worry, everything is fine!" Toby nodded, seeming as though he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Alex noticed Toby's expression and looked puzzled. "What is it?"

"There are over twenty thousand of us who were captured this time. The others should have been sent to other concentration camps. I... I..."

It was as if a pillow had arrived just when he was sleepy. After taking over the entire Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Alex naturally could not flee alone. He needed to find a way to save everyone in the camp, but the people in this camp alone were clearly not enough. If they had another twenty thousand prisoners of war, however, that would change everything.

But before that, Alex had something even more important to do.

Alex did not wait for Toby to finish. He waved a hand to cut him off. "All right, I understand. We'll save them!" With that, Alex strode into the office building and soon found a telegraph machine after searching for a while.

Alex quickly sent out a string of Morse code. As he waited for a reply, he turned to Audrey, who had been following close beside him. "Audrey, where's Marx?"

"Marx is resting. Not long after you passed out yesterday, he passed out too." It was Ella, not Audrey, who answered. After yesterday's battle, she had truly come to understand Alex's strength and felt even more at ease leaving Audrey in his care.

Alex nodded, then turned to Toby. "How many guns and bullets are there in the camp?"

"The camp doesn't have much ammunition in reserve, only enough for a thousand people." The first thing Toby had done after taking over the camp was locate the ammunition depot. Unfortunately, there had not been much stock inside. The small amount of ammunition could only sustain the camp's daily needs.

"There should be no problem launching a surprise attack, right?" Alex frowned, worried.

"More than enough!" Toby had guessed what Alex intended to do, and delight appeared on his rugged face.

"Good. Send people to prepare. Find as many capable men as possible."

Just then, the telegraph machine received a response. As Alex read the returned message, his brows furrowed again. "This is troublesome!"

In 1940, Germany and the Soviet Union had not yet gone to war. That completely ruined Alex's original plan to lead everyone into the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union would not risk offending Little Mustache by taking in a group of "fugitives" like them.

After finding a map in the office, Alex stared at it for a long while, feeling a headache coming on. After all, he was not a professional. Seeing Toby beside him, he quickly pulled him over and pointed at the map. "Toby, see if there's any way we can fight our way out?" Auschwitz was in Poland, deep in German occupied territory. It was rather close to the Soviet Union, but France was far, far away, nearly across half the European Continent.

Toby shook his head with a bitter smile. "Other than escaping into the Soviet Union, we have no other choice."

"Don't even think about that." Alex waved the telegram in his hand, looking dispirited. "The Soviet Union won't agree."

Earlier, Alex had sent a telegram to contact Howard, hoping Howard could establish ties with the Soviet Union and let them escape there safely. Unfortunately, Howard had given him terrible news. Germany and the Soviet Union had long been colluding in secret, and they would never agree.

Toby cursed under his breath and said unwillingly, "Then we can only fight our way back!"

"Are you looking to die?" Alex rolled his eyes irritably. They were still over a thousand miles from the German-French front. This was enemy territory. Fighting their way back sounded easy enough, but they would probably be surrounded before they had gone more than a few steps.

At that moment, the telegraph machine sounded again.

Alex looked at the decoded message, then at the map on the table. He stood there stunned for a long time before finally handing the sheet of paper to Toby. "Take a look. Do you think this could work?"

Toby took the paper and glanced at it. Surprise flashed through his eyes, and he lowered his head to study the map. After a moment, he looked up at Alex. "It could work, but it's very dangerous."

"Anything's better than staying in this hellhole!" The moment Alex heard that, he could not help shouting excitedly. At last, they could leave this hellish place.

Toby nodded, then asked somewhat doubtfully, "Are you sure your friend can do it? Once we make a move, there's no turning back."

Alex waved a hand, his face full of confidence, and pointed at the paper. "Do you know who he is? Howard Stark, America's largest arms dealer. Something this small won't stump him."

Toby immediately laughed. "Then I'm relieved."

Author's note: Scorpion has no chapters saved up. Writing on the spot also requires research, so the update was late. Please forgive me!