The Long Room

Chapter 1: The Crack in the Concrete

The tour group huddles in the muddy underground passage of the Führerbunker remains, rain dripping through a grate above.

guide: Keep to the puddles, folks. The floor’s uneven here. We’ve had a small shift in the concrete, nothing to worry about, but watch your step.

⟨Character 2⟩: ⟨Character 1⟩. Put the phone away. We paid forty euros for this. Look at something. Anything.

⟨Character 1⟩: I’m looking. I’m looking at the website. The servers are down in Pune. I can fix it from here if I just get two minutes.

⟨Character 4⟩: He’s been on that phone since the airport. I bet he doesn’t even know we’re in Germany.

⟨Character 3⟩: Hey JP, it’s me. We’re in a tunnel. It smells like old socks. Call me back when you get this. I got to level nine last night, by the way. Beat that.

guide: And here, if you look down, you’ll see a hairline crack. It wasn’t here last month. The engineers say it’s from the new drainage work.

⟨Character 4⟩: That’s not drainage. That’s the floor pulling apart. You can see the edges are fresh.

⟨Character 2⟩: ⟨Character 4⟩, don’t touch it. You’ll get your hands dirty. We have dinner at seven.

⟨Character 4⟩: It’s warm. Like something’s breathing under there.

The crack widens under her finger. A low tremor runs through the passage. The guide shouts. The floor gives way.

⟨Character 3⟩: Mom!

They fall through darkness and land hard on a dirt floor in a cold cellar lit by one weak bulb. A dozen people huddle against the walls, wrapped in coats.

rivka: Quiet. Quiet, for God’s sake. They’ll hear you. Who are you?

⟨Character 2⟩: We’re… we’re lost. We were on a tour. Where are we?

rivka: You’re in the cellar under the bunker. The guards come every hour. You have to be quiet. And you have to hide. Now.

A flashlight beam cuts through the dark. An SS officer steps in, pistol drawn.

krüger: Still! Who’s in here? Show yourselves.

⟨Character 2⟩: We are… cleaners. Dutch volunteers. We got lost. We are sorry. We go now.

krüger: Dutch? You don’t sound Dutch. And you’re not wearing uniforms.

⟨Character 3⟩: Where’s the exit? I need to call JP.

krüger: English. You’re English. Spies. All of you.

⟨Character 2⟩: No! He’s just a boy. He’s confused. We’re not spies. We’re just… we’re lost.

krüger: Lost. In the bunker. At night. With a dozen Jews hiding in the cellar. You have twenty-four hours to kill Hitler. If you don’t, I shoot you and every Jew in this room. Guards will be at the door.

Krüger turns and leaves. Two guards take positions at the door. The family stands frozen.

⟨Character 2⟩: We have one day. We start now.

Chapter 2: The Price of Necessity

In the cellar, by the light of one bulb, ⟨Character 1⟩ spreads a stolen floor plan flat on the dirt. The refugees watch from the walls.

⟨Character 1⟩: Here. A service tunnel runs from this cellar to a stair under the study. It’s narrow but it’s clean. If we move at nine, we pass the guard post while they change shifts. Ten minutes, maybe twelve. Then we’re inside.

⟨Character 2⟩: Supplies. Two flashlights. A wire cutter. Something to carry a charge. I’ll need a clean cloth. And a fuse. Don’t tell me we can’t find a fuse.

⟨Character 3⟩: I got this. The clerk in the hallway, he asked who I was and I said I was a lost Dutch boy and he just… handed it to me. It says the study is used at ten every night. Private meetings. No one goes in before nine forty-five.

⟨Character 1⟩: How did you get that? ⟨Character 3⟩. You went out there? You spoke to a clerk?

⟨Character 3⟩: He thought I was Dutch. I did the accent. It was easy. He gave me a biscuit too. ⟨Character 4⟩ says the air above the study comes through one shaft. I found the grate. It’s right here.

⟨Character 4⟩: Above the study. It’s not on this drawing, but I saw a grate in the ceiling of the corridor past the lift. If it’s directly over his desk, that’s the way.

The cellar door creaks. A woman enters with a basket of bread, a kitchen apron still tied at her waist.

lena: You’re the ones they’re holding. I heard. I’m Lena. I work the kitchen. I brought what I could. Bread, some sausage. You won’t last on nothing.

⟨Character 2⟩: Thank you. Truly. We need help. Someone who knows the kitchen, the lift, the times. Someone who can tell us when he eats.

⟨Character 1⟩: We don’t know her. She walked in with a basket and a story. That’s all.

⟨Character 2⟩: Ignore him. He doesn’t trust anyone. Tell me about the tea. When does he take his tea?

Later, in the bunker kitchen, Lena leads ⟨Character 2⟩ between steel counters. ⟨Character 4⟩ watches from the corridor.

lena: Nine forty-five. Tea at nine forty-five, then the study. He likes it in the study. The door closes at ten. No one goes in after that. You can set your watch by it.

⟨Character 4⟩: Dad. Dad, come here. She just gave something to the guard. A note. She handed it to him and he took it.

⟨Character 1⟩ steps into the kitchen. Lena’s face changes.

⟨Character 1⟩: What was in the note? The one you gave the guard. I saw you.

lena: You think you’re the first to try? I have children too. I did what I had to do. Guards! Guards, they’re here!

Krüger arrives with two soldiers. Lena has a pistol. She levels it at two refugees who are shielding the others. Two shots. Two bodies on the floor.

krüger: The tunnel is known. Your little escape is finished. You have until ten tomorrow night. Not a minute more.

⟨Character 2⟩: The shaft. It’s the only way now. But it’s too narrow for any of us to climb in and get back out. Someone has to go in and stay.

Chapter 3: The Price Is Standing Here

The cellar is silent except for the guards shifting outside the door. The bread basket sits untouched.

⟨Character 2⟩: I’ll do it. I’m the smallest adult, and I can keep calm. You get the children out. That’s the whole plan. No argument.

⟨Character 1⟩: There is an argument. There’s a big one. I’ll go. I’m heavier, I’m stronger, I can carry the charge and I can take the fuse. You’re the one who keeps them together.

⟨Character 2⟩: You’re not the one who stays up all night with a sick kid. I am. You sleep like a stone. I’ve taught you nothing about what to do when you can’t sleep. They need you now.

⟨Character 3⟩: Mom. Don’t. Just don’t. I’ll be quiet. I’ll be so quiet. We can all hide.

⟨Character 2⟩: I have to write this down, or your father will forget. Feed the cats twice a day. The clean water goes in the blue bowl, not the green one. Water the plants on Sunday. Call JP’s mother. Say they fed you and took you to a game and you were polite. That’s what I want at home.

⟨Character 4⟩ does not speak. She kneels beside her mother and looks at the floor plan, empty and frozen.

⟨Character 1⟩: Take it. Take the phone. It works. It has to work.

⟨Character 2⟩: No signal down here anyway. Off you go.

⟨Character 2⟩ hugs ⟨Character 3⟩, then ⟨Character 4⟩, then ⟨Character 1⟩. She crawls into the vent with the charge. There is no light, only sound: her knees on metal, the charge scraping.

The family guides seven Jews down the service tunnel. In the air above them, muted behind concrete, a single voice, tired and final, gives instructions in German.

⟨Character 1⟩: That’s him. Keep walking. Don’t stop.

Up in the shaft, ⟨Character 2⟩ looks down through the grate. Then she does it. Her hand moves. The fuse catches, briefly orange and yellow. The whole bunker shakes. Dust pours from the ceiling.

⟨Character 1⟩: Run! Don’t look back. Run!

They climb out into 1943 Berlin, grey and broken, sirens falling away. ⟨Character 4⟩ finds a crack in the street, and behind it, a tearing sound: the floor gives way again.

They stumble into the living room. ⟨Character 5⟩ and ⟨Character 6⟩ are curled on the couch. ⟨Character 7⟩ puts his head on ⟨Character 3⟩’s lap. ⟨Character 8⟩ chews a slipper.

⟨Character 3⟩: It’s JP. ‘Where were you? Level nine is nothing. I beat it.’

⟨Character 4⟩ touches the crack in the ceiling. It does not widen. ⟨Character 2⟩’s list lies on the coffee table. ⟨Character 1⟩ picks it up and reads it slowly.

⟨Character 1⟩: Twice a day. Blue bowl. JP’s mother. Call them.

One by one they lie down on the living room floor, the animals round them, the list in ⟨Character 1⟩’s hand. They sleep, and the house is very quiet.