Flight of the Valkyrie

by Christopher Vale

  Volker looked over his shoulder at Axel. “We cannot take any chances that the Americans know about us,” he hissed. Volker then turned to Freyja. “My dear, be so kind as to send the bomber to Washington,” he said.

  A wolfish grin spread across Freyja’s face. “With pleasure, Herr Doctor,” she said before turning and leaving the room.

  “What are you doing?” Axel asked.

  “We are going to bomb the capital of your adopted home of course,” Volker chuckled.

  “How are you going to bomb Washington when we have your bomb?” Axel asked snidely.

  Volker threw his head back and laughed at that heartily. “My dear boy, you may have the zero-point energy bomb, but I can still drop an atomic bomb on your precious Washington.”

  Axel heard Dawn gasp. Like Axel, Dawn was raised in Washington. Almost everyone either of them knew lived in that city. Axel stared coldly at Volker. “I swear to God I will kill you,” he said through clinched teeth.

  Volker leaned forward glaring down at Axel. “I highly doubt that.” He straightened. “Now, back to the matter at hand. Where is my bomb?”

  “Screw you,” Axel swore.

  Volker opened his mouth to shout at Axel once more, but suddenly stopped. He decided to switch tactics and smiled at Axel. “Tell me Donar, have you met my pet wolf, Valko?” he asked. The wolfman turned and growled at Axel. “Valko is an animal of good taste. He detests Jews.” Volker laughed an evil cackle. “Valko, if Axel does not tell me what I want to know by the time I count to three I want you to rip this woman’s face off,” Volker said while pointing to Brygida.

  The wolfman leaned in close to his prey and Brygida pulled back instinctively.

  “One,” Volker said.

  The word had not yet left Volker’s lips when Axel felt the cuffs around his wrists loosen and open. He glanced quickly at Dawn who gave him a little wink.

  “Two,” Volker said.

  “No,” Rolf shouted. Axel turned to look at his giant of a brother.

  “Three.” Volker said.

  “Leave Mama alone!” Rolf shouted as he pushed himself to his feet. The thick chains binding his arms snapped as Rolf ripped them from his body.

  The guards surrounding Rolf aimed their rifles at him, but just as they were pulling their respective triggers the rifle barrels suddenly flew up and the bullets shot harmlessly into the ceiling. Dawn then used her telekinetic powers to toss the guards against the wall.

  Axel quickly turned and zapped the two guards behind him and Dawn with a high voltage, before spinning back around and blasting the two soldiers nearest his mother with a blue energy bolt. Rolf lunged toward the wolfman as the beast turned and leapt toward Rolf. Valko sunk his teeth into Rolf’s arm causing the giant of a man to scream in pain. Rolf then lifted the wolfman up over his head and slammed him down onto the ground and began to pound the beast in the face.

  Volker surveyed the room and realized the tables had quickly turned against him. He fled swiftly from the room in panic, shouting for his troops to come and kill the Americans. Axel knew it would not be long before the entire base was descending upon them.

  Axel rushed to Brygida, placed his hands beneath her arms and lifted her up off of her knees. “Dawn—the cuffs!” he shouted and Dawn hurried across the room as Axel turned to fire energy bolts at Nazi troops attempting to enter through the back door.

  As soon as her hands were free from the cuffs, Brygida bent down and snatched a pistol from the grip of an unconscious guard. “We’ve got to stop that bomber!” she exclaimed.

  Axel nodded in agreement. “Let’s go!” he said and followed Brygida to the door to see his mother sprint from the room firing the pistol at Nazi soldiers with deadly accuracy as she ran. Axel attempted to follow her out of the doorway, but a burst of machine gun fire sent him diving back inside as the bullets riddled the door frame.

  “Crap!” Axel swore. He turned and peeked back through the door, and noticed that the room opened onto the walkway surrounding the U-boat dock. Thus, enemy shooters had several angles from which to fire at them. Axel poked his hand out of the door and began firing lightening bolts at soldiers to try and give his mother some cover.

  “How bad is it?” Dawn asked referring to their odds of escaping.

  “Worse than Vietnam,” he said as more and more troops began moving toward them.

  “That good, huh?” she asked sarcastically. Suddenly, she heard the door in the back open as more troops attempted to rush in that way. She spun and used her telekinetic powers to rip the rifles from their hands and slam them against the walls.

  While Dawn joined Axel in fighting off incoming Nazi troops, the wolfman managed to force Rolf onto his back. Rolf was doing everything he could to keep the snapping jaws at bay. Finally, he managed to fling the monster to the side, slamming Valko into the wall. As Rolf regained his feet the wolfman leapt at him, his jaws open wide.

  Rolf caught the wolf by the throat and slammed the beast into the floor. He then placed a massive boot onto the wolf’s chest and began to pull on it’s head. “I told you to leave my Mama alone!” Rolf said and then with one last jerk ripped the wolfman’s head from its body. The creature’s arms fell limply to the floor.

  Rolf turned around to see Axel and Dawn staring at him wide-eyed. He tossed the wolf’s head down on the ground and then looked down at his arm. “He bit me,” Rolf said softly and looked as though he were about to cry.

  “It’s alright sweetie,” Dawn told him in a motherly voice. “Now how about helping me with the Nazis coming in the back door?” she asked sweetly.

  Rolf smiled broadly. “Okay,” he said. The door swung open again and Rolf snatched the first man through the door and slammed him against the wall. Axel couldn’t help but chuckle as he turned back to the battle at hand. He peeked out of the door. There were hundreds of Nazis out there trying to kill them. He did not know how they were going to get out before the place blew sky high. They were quickly running out of time.

  ***

  Alena slid to a stop as she noticed blue bolts of energy zipping out of a room and hitting Nazi soldiers. “Axel,” she smiled to herself, glad to see that her old friend was still alive. Then her smile turned to a frown. There were so many soldiers, hundreds of them. There was no way Axel and the others could fight their way through all of those soldiers. They needed something to occupy the Nazi’s attention and Alena thought she knew what would do it.

  She turned and darted back the way she had come. Her plan was risky—extremely risky—but it was probably their only hope of getting out alive. She ran quickly back to the large prison containing the cells full of werewolves. She would have to face her fear of them.

  Once inside, Alena rushed to the large wall panel which operated the cell doors. She paused for a second. Did she really want to do this? A pack of freed werewolves would present a whole new set of problems to overcome. She drew in a deep breath. The gun wielding Nazis trying to kill her and her friends were their biggest obstacle at the moment. Until something was done about them, none of them would get out alive. She decided releasing the wolves was worth the risk, because there was simply no other way to escape. Unless the Nazi soldiers were occupied with another threat, they would eventually kill her friends. She drew in a deep breath and quickly pressed each of the buttons on the control panel. The cells opened one-by-one and snarling, growling wolfmen stepped out.

  Alena shivered, but then calmed herself and regained the courage that had pushed her and Alexi through so many successful missions. “Hey!” she shouted at them in German. “Come get me you flea-bitten Nazi guard dogs!” The wolfmen leapt for her, but she dashed from the room at blinding speed. The beasts dropped to all fours and gave chase.

  Chapter 24

  Brygida leapt over the body of the Nazi she had just shot as she sprinted along the walkway surrounding the U-boat dock. From her current angle she could see the platform above the U-boats which supported the aircraft—including the bomber that p
resumably carried the atomic bomb bound for Washington. Two more gun-wielding soldiers stepped into her path and she raised her pistol, firing twice without even slowing down. The two Nazis collapsed dead on the ground and Brygida hurdled over their bodies.

  She reached the stairwell knowing that she had to move quickly up the next two floors. She bounded up the steps three at a time and burst through the door when she reached the fifth and final floor. She turned to her right, sprinting as fast as she could along the corridor toward the platform holding the aircraft.

  Brygida reached a solid wall at the end of the hallway and quickly glanced around to find a way to reach the bomber. She noticed a ladder bolted to the wall on her right and realized that it would allow her to reach the aircraft platforms above. She grabbed hold of the rungs and pulled herself up, climbing the ladder quickly. Once she reached the top she climbed over the ladder and ran the several yards to the catwalk leading to the platform which held the bomber. She could see Freyja speaking with the pilot as members of the crew boarded the plane. Brygida raised her pistol and fired her final round at the pilot. The bullet grazed his helmet knocking him to the ground. The pilot was otherwise unharmed, and Freyja quickly helped him to his feet and instructed him to hurry onto the plane.

  Freyja turned to face Brygida, who, by this time, was charging across the catwalk. Freyja reached for her own sidearm, drew it and fired two shots, both of which missed. Before she could fire a third, Brygida was on top of her pushing the pistol to the side and slamming a right hook into Freyja’s jaw, knocking the Aryan stumbling backward and losing her pistol.

  Freyja and Brygida both leapt for the pistol. They reached it at the same time and fought over it, each taking a turn grabbing it and knocking it out of the other’s hand. Suddenly they both felt a jerk as the platform began to rise upward. Brygida turned her attention to the ceiling of the base a part of which began to open up like double doors swinging upward and revealing the clear blue sky above.

  While Brygida was distracted, Freyja punched her in the jaw before rising to her feet holding the pistol in her hand. Brygida kicked across the floor, sweeping Freyja’s legs out from under her and causing Freyja to land flat on her back upon the platform. Brygida was then on her feet as Freyja sat up and aimed the pistol at her. Brygida took a step forward and kicked the pistol as one might a football, sending the gun flying from Freyja’s hand and over the edge of the platform into the water below.

  “Damn you!” Freyja cursed as she pushed herself to her feet and charged Brygida, swinging at her. Brygida blocked the first swing and second swing, but Freyja caught her in the gut with a jab of her knee, doubling Brygida over. Freyja then connected an uppercut to Brygida’s jaw sending the Valkyrie stumbling backward.

  Freyja moved in again swinging and punching Brygida. She punched her again. Then Freyja bent over and lifted Brygida into the air and tossed her toward the edge of the platform. Brygida hit the ground and rolled across the platform. She barely stopped before tumbling over the edge. Brygida glanced up and realized that the platform was about to arise from the top of the base. Brygida pushed herself to her feet and turned raising her hands ready for a fight.

  “Good-bye Valkyrie!” Freyja smirked and then charged Brygida, leaping through the air, feet first to kick Brygida from the platform. Brygida caught Freyja’s legs in the air and used her own momentum to turn and toss Freyja from the platform. Freyja screamed as she fell several stories into the icy water below.

  Unfortunately, the maneuver knocked Brygida off balance and she fell over the side as well. Luckily, she snagged the edge of the platform with one hand and somehow managed to hold on. She swung her other hand up, grabbing hold of the platform as she saw the ceiling coming closer and closer. She had to move quickly to either release the platform and drop into the water, or pull herself up. Otherwise her hands would be crushed between the edge of the platform and the ceiling of the base. She refused to let go and pulled with all of her might swinging a leg up onto the platform. She then pulled her other leg up and rolled out of the way just as the platform cleared the ceiling of the base and rose up into the open Antarctic air.

  Brygida breathed a sigh of relief as she glanced around at the snow covered ground. She rolled over onto her stomach and pushed herself to her feet as the propellers of the bomber began to rotate.

  The plane was like nothing Brygida had ever seen before. It had propellers on each wing but they were positioned like a helicopter for a vertical liftoff. The bomber began to rise up off of the ground and Brygida charged toward it. Brygida leapt up and caught hold of the tail of the plane and pulling herself up onto it as the bomber continued to rise higher into the air. Suddenly the propellers shifted downward and the plane flew away horizontally.

  ***

  Dr. Volker frantically shouted at his men to stop being cowards—move in and kill the Americans—as bolts of blue energy continued to leap out from the room at the Nazis. Volker heard a scream and turned to see Freyja falling from the bomber platform high above and into the icy water near one of the submarines.

  He turned back to his men. “Kill them!” he shouted angrily as he jumped up and down like a petulant child. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a red blur moving down below and turned to see Alena attacking his men, dancing among them, her swords flying and soldiers falling to the ground dead or dying. He began to boil with anger.

  “They brought the Slav girl!” he screamed. “Kill her! Kill that little bitch!” he shouted pointing to Alena, but she disappeared in a flash before anyone could take a shot at her.

  Volker threw back his head and shrieked with rage. What had happened? Everything had been under control but now it was all falling apart. He reached up, grabbing his hair, his fingers pulling chunks out as he roared obscenities at his troops, blaming them for his problems.

  Suddenly, Volker froze, his stomach sinking as he heard a blood curdling howl. He swallowed hard and slowly turned, praying that he would not see what he knew was there. His worst fears were realized as hundreds of wolfmen emerged from the corridor after Alena. “No,” he said under his breath. His men noticed the wolves too and looked to him for direction as the beasts began moving toward the soldiers. “Well, don’t just stand there,” he admonished his soldiers. “Shoot them!”

  The Nazi troops turned their attention away from Axel, Dawn, and Rolf to focus on the wolfmen. Hundreds of the beasts charged into the groups of soldiers, attacking them furiously, tearing into their flesh and ripping out their throats. Volker suppressed the panic he felt rising inside of him. His head began to bob up and down in a nod as he came to an agreement with himself and decided it was time to evacuate the base before things got any worse.

  “Come with me,” he said to the team of troops around him. Volker turned and fled for the stairs bounding down them two at a time, to the U-boat dock. Once on the bottom level he sprinted from the stairwell and rushed for a U-boat. As he did so, he saw Freyja climbing out of the water. “Come, my dear, we are leaving,” he said as he reached down and helped pull her from the icy water. Freyja nodded even as she shivered from the cold. They climbed up the ladder to the top of the U-boat, one that was always on standby just in case the worst ever happened. The worst was happening now, however, the fear had always been the Soviets or Americans discovering the base and bombing or invading it. It had not been a small group of super soldiers come home to roost, with a pack of werewolves Volker himself had created.

  Chapter 25

  Axel ducked quickly back into the doorway as bullets ricocheted nearby. He glanced at his watch and then turned to Dawn. “We’ve gotta find a way out of here fast.”

  “You’ll get no argument from me,” Dawn said. “But how?”

  “Still working on that,” Axel responded. More bullets zipped past. Axel stared at Dawn for a long moment. She looked tired and scared as she huddled in the room with him. Yet, she had never looked more beautiful.

  “If we somehow get out of this thing with our lives
, I’m taking you to dinner. And then I’m taking you to bed,” he said. “I don’t care what that might do to the team.”

  Dawn reached out, grabbed him, and pulled her lips to his. “Well then, let’s get out of here,” she said.

  Axel smiled. “Think you can locate Valkyrie and Sickle?” he asked.

  Dawn sat back and squeezed her eyes closed. As she did so, Axel leaned out of the door and fired two bolts of electricity to keep the Nazis at bay. He turned back to Dawn as her eyes popped open. “Your mom is on the bomber,” she said.

  “On the bomber?” Axel asked.

  “Yes,” Dawn replied. “Flying somewhere over the ocean.”

  “God help her,” Axel whispered. “What about Alena?”

  “I’m having a hard time pinning down her location,” Dawn said. “She moves too damned fast.”

  “Alright, well, I guess Mom is on her own. There is nothing we can do to help her. I really don’t want to leave Alena, but if we don’t get out of here soon, we’re all going to be blown sky high.” Dawn nodded. “Rolf!” Axel shouted to his brother and the big man turned to look at him.

  “What?” Rolf asked.

  “I’m about to light these guys up and we’re going to get out of here. Dawn will follow me and do her best to knock these Nazis on their tails. You follow her. We’re running as fast as we can out of this place understood?”

  “Yep,” Rolf replied.

  “Good and you watch our backs, okay?” Axel instructed him.

  “I got it Blitz,” Rolf smiled.

  Axel looked at Dawn. “You ready?” he asked. She nodded and he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers one more time. “Alright, let’s do this!” he said and was just about to stand up and push through the door when it swung open.

  Axel shouted excitedly when he saw Alena standing there, swords dripping with blood. “Are you guys coming or what?” she asked causing them to laugh out loud.