Monsters of the Reich

by Eric S. Brown

  “Still, we need to take precautions in case you’re wrong,” Kristen urged, getting up from the edge of the cabin’s bed where she had been sitting. “We need to get him tied up, and fast, just in case.”

  Chuck found some rope and threw it to Kristen. She started toward Derek with it.

  “Do we really have to do this?” Kendal protested. “Lance just said—”

  “We do,” Kristen told him firmly, leaving no room for argument.

  Kristen tied up Derek’s arms and hands. When she was sure that the rope around him would hold, she backed away from Derek.

  “He’s wounded,” Payne shrieked. “Can’t you see that he’s hurting? Don’t you people even care?”

  Lance nodded. “Go ahead. Grab one of the first-aid kits and get him tended to.”

  Payne hurried to do just that.

  As she wiped away blood from Derek’s torn cheeks and cleaned him up, Lance said, “We can’t let this slow us down. We need to get moving. We’re burning daylight here, people.”

  “Damn you, Lance,” Payne spat at him. “Can’t you think of anything but yourself and this game?”

  “I am,” Lance told her. “I am thinking of all of us. You know as well as I do that our only means of getting home is beating this game. We can’t do that sitting here. Besides, the longer we stay in one spot, the more likely it is trouble is going to find us.”

  Lance walked over to Derek. “You got yourself together enough to walk, buddy?”

  “I think so,” Derek said, nodding.

  “Then everybody gear up and let’s get moving,” Lance ordered.

  ****

  The sun was fully up as the group left the cabin behind them. Its rays glittered over the white of the snow that covered the ground of the woods as they trudged through them. They left the bodies of the zombies where they lay. Lance didn’t see any point in trying to hide them. The Germans would find them eventually no matter what precautions they took. He figured speed was their best option at staying safe for the moment. The destination marked on the map that he was leading them to lay to the south and so that was the direction he took them in.

  Lance took point with Kendal close behind him. Kristen and Payne made up the middle of the group with Derek between them. Kristen was keeping as close an eye on him as Payne was, though clearly for very different reasons. Chuck brought up the rear, carrying his M1 rifle at the ready.

  It was freezing cold, even with the rays of the sun beating down on them as they moved. Their breath was like puffs of smoke coming out of their mouths in the frigid air. Kristen picked up her pace to join up with Lance and Kendal.

  “Any idea where we’re headed?” she asked.

  “I’m taking us to the spot that’s marked on the map,” Lance answered.

  “And what exactly are we looking for there?” Kristen demanded.

  Lance was silent.

  “You don’t know, do you?” Kristen flashed a wry smile.

  “It’s the only lead we have,” Lance said.

  “Okay, but that doesn’t mean we should go charging straight at it,” Kristen argued.

  “Odds are, it’s the place this secret project of the Nazis’ is being developed. We get there, we take it out, we get to go home.” Lance shrugged. “It’s as simple as that.”

  “We’re one squad of soldiers, Lance,” Kristen reminded him. “Not an unstoppable army or a group of superheroes. The three of you went up against six dead guys and look at Derek,” Kristen said. “How do you think it’s going to go down when we’re up against German soldiers who shoot back or worse?”

  Lance sighed. “It’s all we can do, Kristen.”

  “If they’re building an army of the dead like the guys we fought…” Kendal started but Kristen cut him off.

  “They’re not,” Kristen said.

  Lance stopped and turned to look at her as if her words had made him realize something he had overlooked.

  “What do you mean they’re not?” Kendal shook his head. “You saw those guys. I’d bet anything there are more like them where we’re heading.”

  “And maybe there are, but they’re not the focus of whatever this weapon project is. They’re slow, mindless, and well, let’s be honest, not that much of a threat to someone who knows how to handle themselves and has a gun,” Kristen pointed out. “Whatever is waiting for us at this place we’re headed to, you can be sure it will be a lot worse than them.”

  Kendal felt sick as he thought about it, but there was no denying what Kristen had said.

  “The gear the game gave us…” Lance spoke up. “Have you ever seen anyone fight a zombie with a cross?”

  “Oh no.” Kendal knew where Lance was going even without him saying it. “Vampires… It’s freaking vampires.”

  “That would fit with the equipment we’re carrying,” Kristen admitted.

  “I hate vampires,” Kendal muttered, more to himself than to either of them.

  “Think about it,” Lance said. “Vampires are super strong, super fast, and blasted hard to kill. They have powers too…a wide range of them, depending on which mythos you’re talking about. They would make perfect soldiers driven not just by loyalty to their cause but their own need to spill and drink blood.”

  “God help us.” Kristen’s fingers found and clutched the silver cross she wore on the necklace underneath her uniform.

  “I don’t think he’s into video games,” Derek snorted, he and Payne having caught up to them since they had stopped moving.

  “Good to see you’re still breathing,” Kendal said, smiling at Derek.

  “He’s not going turn.” Lance walked over to Derek and cut his hands loose with the blade of his hatchet. “If he was going to, he would have by now.”

  Derek was clearly surprised and relieved by what Lance had done. “Thanks, man,” he said to Lance in a quiet voice.

  “Vampires are some bad mothers.” Derek rubbed at his wrists where the rope had scratched at them.

  “You say that like you’ve fought them before,” Kristen said with a laugh, though there was nothing funny in what he had said.

  “Come on.” Derek flashed a grin. “We’re all gamers and geeks here. You ever heard of a vampire that died easily without taking a mess of folks with it?”

  The gunshot came out of nowhere. One second, the crack of a rifle echoed amid the trees, and the next, Derek was on the ground screaming. A bullet had torn through the meat of his right leg. Derek clutched at it, rolling about as sprays of red burst from it with each beat of his heart. Kendal sprinted for the cover of the nearest tree even as Lance yelled, “Sniper!”

  Kristen flung herself into the snow, dragging Payne with her. Payne fought against Kristen’s hold on her, trying to break free and crawl toward where Derek lay.

  “I see him!” Chuck shouted, bringing up his rifle. A second shot sounded in the distance. Chuck grunted and toppled over backward as if someone had hit him with a sledgehammer.

  From his position where he had taken cover, Kendal saw the sniper too. Only it wasn’t a single sniper. It was a squad of German soldiers bounding toward them from the west. He saw Lance looking in his direction and motioned at the soldiers. Lance nodded that he saw them too. Their own squad was exposed and vulnerable with one man down already.

  Kendal knew he had to act fast, do something, anything to draw the fire of the approaching Germans away from the others. He left his cover and ran to take up better firing position between the Germans and his friends. His M3 chattered as he opened up with it. It was the Germans’ turn to scatter and take cover as he blazed away at them. Kendal couldn’t tell if he had hit any of them or not, but he had at least brought their charge to a sudden halt. Behind him, Kristen was dragging a wailing Payne toward better cover in the trees. Lance moved up to take cover behind a tree near the one he was using.

  “We have to end this fast,” Lance yelled at him.

  A bullet hammered into the tree in front of Kendal, sending a rain of splinters explo
ding into the air. Kendal ducked back, his heart pounding in his chest as adrenaline continued to flood his veins. His attack on the Germans had forced them to come to a sudden stop in the open clearing beyond the denser part of the woods they were in. That gave them an edge, but Kendal wondered if it would be enough to save them.

  Lance had apparently gotten a better look at the German squad than he had because he signaled that there were five of them out there beyond the trees. The Germans continued to take random shots at them, but the cover of the woods and their positions were protecting them so far.

  Kendal watched as Lance leaned around the trunk of the tree he was behind and took aim at the Germans. His M1 barked, bucking in his hands. A fraction of a second later, a German cried out in pain. Lance slipped back behind the cover of his tree and flashed Kendal a grin as if to say “got one.”

  Both sides were pinned down by the other. It was a stalemate but one that Kendal knew couldn’t last. One side or the other would do something to break it as quickly as they could. Kendal hoped it would be his side and that Lance had something brilliant up his sleeve. He was out of luck in that regard though.

  As Lance leaned to take another shot, several bullets slammed into the tree. He heard Lance cursing loudly as he threw himself flat against the tree’s trunk. The Germans were clearly ticked off and ready to take whatever action they had to. Almost as one, they rose and charged directly toward where he and Lance were hiding. Their rifles cracked in rapid succession as they moved, keeping both of them from taking advantage of the moment.

  Something snapped inside Kendal as he felt the German rounds shaking the tree he was leaning on and striking its other side. His teeth clenched in a grimace of anger, he drove out from behind the tree, squeezing the trigger of his M3 tight. He hosed the Germans with a stream of bullets that tore into their ranks. Several of the Germans screamed and howled in pain. His insane and unexpected attack had done its job, Kendal thought as he thudded onto the ground and the Germans’ return fire zipped through the air above him. He heard Lance open up his rifle, firing one shot after another. Then there was a pause in the gunfire. Kendal crawled for the closest tree and pulled his body up behind it. He didn’t dare risk taking a look around it to see how many Germans were left. A bullet came streaking past him to smash into the tree Lance was still using as cover. In its wake, he saw Lance lean around the tree again, returning fire.

  Kendal stared at Lance as his friend emerged from his cover, walking straight for him. Lance offered him a hand to help him to his feet.

  “It’s over,” Lance told him. “We got them all.”

  Shaken up, Kendal could only nod as he tried to regain control of his frantic breathing.

  “Chuck,” he managed to rasp, but Lance was already moving to check on him.

  The sound of laughter surprised Kendal as he saw Lance standing over Chuck. He was equally surprised and relieved when he saw that Chuck was moving. The heavy-set man rolled about on the ground and finally sat up, tossing his helmet aside. A large bruise marred the flesh of his forehead.

  “Anybody get the license plate number of the truck that hit me?” Chuck asked, holding his head in his hands.

  “You are one lucky bastard.” Lance smiled as he picked up Chuck’s helmet and held it up for Kendal to see. It looked like the bullet that hit Chuck had struck his helmet at just the right angle to bounce off it instead of tearing through it.

  “We need to make sure those Germans are dead,” Kristen said, appearing from the trees to go marching by them with her pistol drawn in her hand.

  Lance stepped out of her path and Kendal didn’t blame him. She looked as angry as he had ever seen her.

  “She can handle the cleanup work,” Lance assured him as Kendal ejected the spent magazine of his M3 and shoved another fresh one into the weapon.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Kendal said.

  “Derek!… Oh God… Please no!” Payne was sobbing where she sat cradling Derek’s head in her lap.

  Both he and Lance sprinted to where they were, dropping to their knees next to her on either side.

  “Let me check him!” Lance growled at Payne, but she refused to give up her hold on Derek.

  “Payne, you’ve got to let us try to help him,” Kendal pleaded.

  “There’s nothing you can do,” she spat at him. “He bled out while you were having your gunfight!”

  The paleness of Derek’s skin appeared to confirm what she was saying, but Lance wasn’t taking any chances. Lance shoved Payne away from Derek as gently as he could. He reached to place the tips of his fingers on the side of Derek’s neck, checking for a pulse. Payne slapped at him and pounded his back with her fists, but Lance just endured it, keeping his focus on his task. When he looked up, Kendal knew that Payne had been right and that Derek was dead.

  “And then there were five…” he muttered under his breath.

  Kristen’s pistol boomed in the distance somewhere behind where he sat. After all his years of gaming and dreaming of battles, Kendal finally really knew what folks meant when they said that war was Hell.

  ****

  Payne was a mess. Her eyes were red from crying, and her body still shook with sobs as she watched Lance and Kendal at work digging a shallow grave for Derek’s body. Given the frozen state of the ground, it was far from an easy task. No one else in the group had wanted to take the time to do it. All they could think about was moving onward in the game and trying to get home or at least it seemed that way to her. Maybe it hadn’t sunk in for them yet, but Derek was gone. Not just here in the game, but in the real world back home too, according to Lance. She had no one to blame for Derek’s death but him. If he hadn’t been so hung up on impressing Kendal and the others, he never would have bought this stupid game they were all trapped in now. The relationship between Kendal and Derek from Derek’s side of it was a very deep, emotional thing. Derek had always thought of Kendal as his best friend and maybe his only real one. The two of them had known each other since they were kids. Payne could see that Kendal was hurting too despite the effort he was putting into acting tough. She realized too that Kendal felt just as responsible for the mess they were in as Derek had. His focus was on keeping the rest of them alive and getting them home. Payne understood what he was feeling, but it didn’t make it any easier as she had fought with him and Lance over burying Derek at all. They claimed it wasn’t his real body and they had no time to do it, but she had won Kendal over in the end.

  Wiping at her eyes, Payne tried hard to get herself together. She wasn’t the level of gamer that the rest of the group was. If it weren’t for Derek, gaming wouldn’t even have been a part of her life. Now though, she felt as if she owed it to his memory to woman up and beat this game. She needed to make it home alive so that she would be there for his real funeral when the time came. Payne concentrated reaching into the depths of her minds and accessed the skills the game had given her, studying them.

  Handguns - Level 9

  Marksmanship - Level 8

  Hand-to-hand combat - Level 5

  Field medicine - Level 2

  As she understood the ranking system of the skill levels, 1 equated to almost non-existent and level 10 was superhuman. She allowed the downloaded skills to come to the forefront of her mind and willed them to be a part of her, accepting the traits of the character the game had made her.

  Derek’s gear had been distributed among the rest of the group. She had taken his sidearm and now she knew why. Pistols were her character’s thing. She wore a pistol holstered on each of her hips now instead of just a single one like the others. Payne drew them with the speed of an old west gunfighter and twirled them on her fingers.

  “Wow,” she heard Chuck comment. “I guess someone has been listening to Lance.”

  Payne scowled at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “He wanted us all to master the skills the game has given us and it sure looks like you have to me,” Chuck said in appreciation of how she wa
s handling her pistols.

  Payne stopped spinning them and holstered them, still scowling at Chuck.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Chuck asked.

  Ignoring him, Payne stormed by him, heading for Lance and Kendal. The two of them looked up at her approach. They had just finished putting the last shovelfuls of cold dirt on what was the top of Derek’s grave.

  “I’m done with you taking command of everything, Lance,” Payne growled. “From now on, we’ll all be making decisions as a group, not just bowing down to you, you arrogant prick.”

  “Payne.” Kendal reached out for her, but she refused to let him touch her. “Running into those Germans would have happened even I had been leading us.”

  “I know Lance is your friend, Kendal, but he’s not mine,” Payne said, shooting Lance a nasty glare.

  “This is a military unit,” Lance snarled back at her. “There has to be someone in combat. A democracy doesn’t work in circumstances like these.”

  “This is a game, Lance,” Payne argued. “That’s all. A deadly one, sure, but still just a game.”

  Having said her piece, Payne did an about face and marched away from the two of them, leaving Kendal and Lance both staring after her. It felt good to stand up for herself, and she wished she had started doing it earlier. If she had, maybe Derek wouldn’t be dead. She wasn’t really the whimpering, soft woman she had acted like when they entered the game. Everything had just caught her so off guard, and this new world they were in was utterly alien to her. She hoped that Derek would’ve been proud of her, and she swore to herself that she was going to honor his memory in every way possible, including beating this game for him.

  ****

  “That woman isn’t messing around anymore,” Kendal commented to Lance as he folded up his shovel and returned it to his pack.

  “She’s lost it,” Lance said. “Loss like the one she just experienced will do that to a person.”

  Kendal shook his head. “You’re wrong. She hasn’t lost it at all. She’s found herself, Lance, and that’s a good thing for all of us.”