The Blue Door in Berlin

Chapter 1: The Door in the Smoke

Smoke curls under the steel door. ⟨Character 1⟩’s left hand is black and split, and he wedges his shoulder against the frame, holding a shimmering blue mouth open with a piece of rebar. He has already killed Hitler and saved eleven Jews, and now the portal is dying in his grip.

⟨Character 1⟩: Go through the gap. Do not ask again. I am holding this portal open with a burnt left hand and a length of rebar, and if you stand here discussing your feelings, the blue will close on all of us and then nobody gets saved. I did not travel to Berlin 1945 to watch you argue.

Woman: There are still people inside the bunker. I will not run without them. You are not a German soldier, so why are you doing this? What do you want from us? We have nothing left to give, only our lives.

⟨Character 1⟩: Because I read a ticket error at three in the morning that said “kill Hitler, save Jews.” I am not brave, just angry and tired. Grab the two children and push them through the blue light, then follow, or I will burn for nothing. I did not come here to be questioned by every person who stops to chat.

SS Guard: Halt! The Führer is dead! I said halt! You are all under arrest by order of the SS. Put your hands in the air and step away from that blue light. No one leaves the Reich Chancellery garden alive!

⟨Character 1⟩: Yes, I know he is dead. I killed him myself with a bronze bust in the map room. Now step aside, or I will add your body to the carpet. There is an old man behind me who needs to reach the portal before it closes, so move, or I will shoot you in the knee and then the head.

Boy: Mister, the soldiers are coming. I have no one to run with. I was hiding in the cellar and saw them shooting people. I do not know where to go. Please, help me.

⟨Character 1⟩: Then run where they cannot follow. You have a fence there, and the barbed wire is only high enough to catch a man who hesitates. Throw your coat over the top and climb. Or stand here and be shot, which is the stupid choice. I have no time to carry a boy who will not save himself.

⟨Character 1⟩: The blue is gone. I am left with this old man’s tin cup and a burnt hand. Fine, I am stuck in April 1945, and I can eat later. At least the server error finally made sense. I wonder if the portal closed because I used the wrong password.

Chapter 2: The Bronze Bust

The bunker floor is wet. ⟨Character 1⟩ steps over a dead German shepherd. A woman in a torn striped dress crouches by a fuse box.

Riva: They will hear you. The carpet is loud. I am Riva, a Jew who works the switchboard because they need someone who can hear through static. Where is your uniform? You will be shot in a minute.

⟨Character 1⟩: I do not care. Where is Hitler? I am a software owner from 2024, not a soldier, and I have seventeen minutes before a blue door closes. Show me the map room or I will find it myself and make noise.

Riva: In the map room. Two guards outside. You cannot just walk in. My brother is locked in the storage room with eleven others. They will be shot when the Führer dies. If you kill him, you kill them.

⟨Character 1⟩: Then I will kill him and open that room. First door on the left, yes? And you will tell me which key opens the storage room. I am a man with a bronze bust and no patience.

Riva: The guard has a pistol but the safety is on. He is lazy. You are not German, you are not even a soldier, but I will help you because you are the only chance for my brother and the others. Go now, they are playing cards.

⟨Character 1⟩: I am walking. The guard turns, I swing the bronze bust of Frederick the Great into his temple. He drops. I take his pistol, check it, and step inside. Hitler. Wer ist da? I shoot him in the shoulder, cross the room, and smash the bust down on his skull. Hitler goes still. That was for the server lag.

Riva: You killed him. Is it true? The Führer is dead. Now we must open the storage room before the SS come down.

⟨Character 1⟩: Yes. Now we save Jews. Or do you want to stand here until Himmler arrives? I have a ring of keys and a map with a red circle around a storage room in the garden. Show me the passage.

Riva: Follow me. The storage room is at the end of this narrow passage. My brother Josef is inside with eleven others. Hurry, your blue door will not wait.

Boy: Is it true? The Führer is dead? Mister, are you the one? Are we going to run?

⟨Character 1⟩: Yes. We leave now. Everyone listen. The garden has a blue door, it will close in six minutes. Run through it. Do not stop for shoes. I will open the lock.

Riva: You found a way out? For all of us? Then open the door, ⟨Character 1⟩, before the boots get closer.

⟨Character 1⟩: I found it in my error log. Move.

Chapter 3: The Ticket Error

⟨Character 1⟩ sits at his desk in a cold room, eating a cold samosa. The support ticket reads “kill hitler, save jews. Portal opens for 17 minutes. Do not come back.” The closet door cracks with blue light.

⟨Character 1⟩: Three years building this history client’s website, and now the server thinks it is April 1945, the cursor blinking on a support ticket that says exactly “kill hitler, save jews.” I should be sleeping or eating a hot meal, not reading this junk. But the room gets cold, the closet door cracks blue, and I am too angry and too full of cold samosa to ignore it.

The blue light tastes like burnt sugar and cold rain. ⟨Character 1⟩ steps through into a wet map room in Hitler’s bunker on 30 April 1945. A bronze bust of Frederick the Great sits on the table beside a map of Berlin.

⟨Character 1⟩: Hitler. I am a man from 2024 who read enough history, and you are a poison that ruined millions of lives. I am not a soldier, I am not brave, I am just a software owner who clicked a ticket error at three in the morning. You are going to die by my hand, right here, right now, so that I can save Jews and go back to bed.

Hitler: Wer ist da? Ein Jude? Ein Verräter? You speak like a foreigner and a coward. I have commanded armies and built an empire, and you think you can walk into my bunker and kill me? The SS will shoot you dead, and then I will personally make sure the Jew you came to save hangs from a lamp post.

⟨Character 1⟩: I am not a Jew, but I am the one holding your pistol. I shoot you in the shoulder now, and you scream like a stuck pig. Then I drop the gun, lift this bronze bust of Frederick the Great, and bring it down on your skull. You go still. That was for the server lag, and for every Jew your hatred murdered.

Riva: You killed him. The Führer is dead, and I heard the blow from the passage. I am Riva, a Jew. My brother and eleven others are locked in the storage room, and they will be shot if the SS find us. You have the keys now, so open the door and save us, or we are all dead in the garden.

⟨Character 1⟩: I have the keys and a map with a red circle around the storage room. Everyone run to the garden blue door, it will close in six minutes. I will hold it open. Do not stop for shoes. Save Jews, and if I do not make it back, tell them I died full and angry.