"Gardner Dozois - Down Among the Dead Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

He walked over to the gully and, seeing Wernecke and the Musselmann, said, “Aha, so your friend is
taking care of the sick.” He motioned Bruckman to follow him into the gully.

Bruckman had done the unpardonable—he had brought it on Wernecke. He swore at himself. He had
been in this camp long enough to know to keep his mouth shut.

The guard kicked Wernecke sharply in the ribs. “I want you to put the Musselmann in the cart. Now!”
He kicked Wernecke again, as if as an afterthought. Wernecke groaned, but got to his feet. “Help him
put the Musselmann in the cart,” the guard said to Bruckman; then he smiled and drew a circle in the air
—the sign of smoke, the smoke which rose from the tall gray chimneys behind them. This Musselmann
would be in the oven within an hour, his ashes soon to be floating in the hot, stale air, as if they were the
very particles of his soul.

Wernecke kicked the Musselmann, and the guard chuckled, waved to another guard who had been
watching, and stepped back a few feet. He stood with his hands on his hips. “Come on, dead man, get up
or you’re going to die in the oven,” Wernecke whispered as he tried to pull the man to his feet.
Bruckman supported the unsteady Musselmann, who began to wail softly. Wernecke slapped him hard.
“Do you want to live, Musselmann? Do you want to see your family again, feel the touch of a woman,
smell grass after it’s been mowed? Then move.” The Musselmann shambled forward between Wernecke
and Bruckman. “You’re dead, aren’t you Musselmann,” goaded Wernecke. “As dead as your father and
mother, as dead as your sweet wife, if you ever had one, aren’t you? Dead!”

The Musselmann groaned, shook his head, and whispered, “Not dead, my wife…”

“Ah, it talks,” Wernecke said, loud enough so the guard walking a step behind them could hear. “Do you
have a name, corpse?”

“Josef, and I’m not a Musselmann.”‘

“The corpse says he’s alive,” Wernecke said, again loud enough for the SS guard to hear. Then in a
whisper, he said, “Josef, if you’re not a Musselmann, then you must work now, do you understand?”
Josef tripped, and Bruckman caught him. “Let him be,” said Wernecke. “Let him walk to the cart
himself.”

“Not the cart,” Josef mumbled. “Not to die, not—”

“Then get down and pick up stones, show the fart-eating guard you can work.”

“Can’t. I’m sick, I’m…”

“Musselmann!”

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 Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann - Down Among the Dead Men



Josef bent down, fell to his knees, but took hold of a stone and stood up.

“You see,” Wernecke said to the guard, “it’s not dead yet. It can still work.”