by Matt James
“We still don’t,” Logan said.
“True,” Jan said, “but at least we have a better idea now.”
Logan stepped forward, over the slick flooring where Pandu should have been. He could see a streak of fluids continuing down the corridor out of sight. Whatever had taken them, dragged the bodies deeper into the facility. The streak disappeared around the corner.
It could be waiting for us right there, Logan thought, aiming his rifle into the communal barracks, quickly re-checking to see if it was occupied. It was possible something was in one of the rooms they already cleared, waiting to spring a trap.
He took a step through the doorway but stopped at Jan’s request.
“Don’t bother,” Jan said. “I doubt they would leave anything pertinent in a public place, especially around the regular troops here. It would either be in Mengele’s quarters or down in the labs.”
Logan nodded, agreeing with him, and stepped back into the hallway.
They moved forward, careful not to slip in the twin streaks of blood. Whatever was down here had taken Pandu first, and then Saami, dragging them both together.
Still together, even in death.
“It’s the next door on the left, correct?”
“Yes,” Logan said, answering Zeus. “We searched it earlier, but didn’t really think to turn the room completely inside out.”
Logan entered first, weapon up, finger over the trigger. He gasped at what he saw.
“You’re kidding me!” He lowered his SCAR. He stepped in so the other two men could follow. Their expressions were also those of confusion.
“Um,” Zeus said, unsure, “I thought you said the doctor’s body was sitting in a chair?”
Logan gawked at the empty office chair. Mengele’s body was gone too. He kind of understood why Saami and Pandu’s were taken—or maybe why. If something feral was down here and it was hungry, the bodies would at least supply it with a meal. But the Nazi scientist’s corpse made zero sense. It was all bone and ragged, dried out skin.
Logan looked down at the floor and saw something that shouldn’t have been there. Tracks. They were embedded in the dust coating the room’s floor. Something had been walking in Mengele’s quarters between now and the first time they were here.
They were smaller than full grown humans, maybe the size of a child, and slightly shuffled forward, dragging its feet a little.
I swear, Logan thought, if there are a group of undead zombie preteens down here…
“Were those there last time?” He asked Jan, pointing to the floor.
Jan looked down at his feet and stepped to the side. “They were not,” he said, his German accent sounding a little menacing considering their surroundings.
“That can’t be right… Right?” Zeus asked.
Logan could only shrug, unsure. It was a common thing to do right now—shrug. No one understood much of what was going on. You could only shrug your shoulders and move on.
“Either the doctor’s body still held some significance,” Jan said, kneeling closer to the footprints, examining the closest, “or…he’s alive.”
51
“You’re bullshitting me, right?” Zeus asked. “You said the guy put a bullet in his own head back in the forties. No one—and I mean no one—can come back from that.”
Under normal circumstances, Logan would have agreed wholeheartedly with the American. Very few—if any—people survived a point-blank shot to the head. Even less when they’d been sitting in a concealed bunker for more than half a century. Mengele was dead. But now… He wasn’t sure what to believe.
“At this point,” Logan said, getting Jan and Zeus’ attention, “we have no idea if the good doctor is alive or not and it doesn’t really matter either way. We came here for one reason,” he held up a finger, “research on the God Blood.”
He turned his attention to the desk. “Start tearing this room apart. Look for anything you think might help. Jan can translate if it’s needed.”
The three men dug in, searching every nook-and-cranny of the room. Logan dove into the other loose papers on the corner desk, while Jan went through the titles of the various books again, primarily focusing on the German titles. Zeus opened the trunk that CJ originally went through and found nothing. He then knelt and looked under the bed, but again, saw nothing.
“Nothing over here,” Zeus said, scratching his head.
“Over here,” Jan said, waving him over. “Help me with these.”
Zeus complied and joined Jan over at the large bookcase. There were hundreds of them in all different sizes, crammed into the wall-sized case. Two sets of eyes would definitely help.
Finding nothing of importance on the desk, Logan started his search in it. He opened the center drawer and found pens, pencils, and a few other kinds of nonessential office supplies. He then moved on to the top drawer on the right. He would then search the bottom one.
There were a few files, but none of them looked to be anything science related. He held them out. “Jan, a moment, please?”
His friend joined him, taking the offered documents, flipping them open quickly. Jan scanned them for any keywords pertaining to research done at the facility. Seeing nothing, he quickly closed the first file and went to drop it to the floor. But he didn’t. Instead, he flipped the folder open again and reread the author of the letter inside.
“Can’t be…” Jan said, his voice trailing off in thought.
“What?” Logan asked.
“The letter,” Jan said. “It was written by Heinrich Himmler.”
“Himmler?” Logan asked shocked. “The commander of Hitler’s SS?”
Jan nodded. “But from what I read, it didn’t sound like he was giving Mengele orders. Himmler was giving Mengele progress reports from Germany and from other Nazi installations abroad.”
“They were working together?” Zeus asked from behind, still scanning the bookshelf.
“Could have been,” Jan replied, “but there is nothing said between the two men that undeniably linked them to this place—no hard evidence.”
Was Himmler a member of the Wohn Tod? Logan thought. Geez… This just keeps getting better and better.
As Jan started on the second folder, Logan shut the top drawer hard, feeling his frustration getting the better of himself. He then grabbed the handle of the bottom drawer, forcibly yanking it open. The heavy wood stopped abruptly, going as far as it could.
CLUNK.
Something in the drawer rolled, hitting the front of it with a loud thud. Logan peered inside and froze. The hell? That was the last thing he expected to see.
“What did you find?” Jan asked, having heard the sound.
Zeus joined them as Logan reached a gloved hand into the opening. He gripped the bleach-white spherical object and carefully lifted it out.
“Is that a skull?” Zeus asked.
Logan didn’t know what to say. It was obviously a skull, but he had no answer to why it would be in a desk drawer.
“Lights,” Logan said, lifting his night vision goggles from his eyes. He waited a couple of seconds for the others, then clicked on his small flashlight. The skull seemed to glow in his flashlight’s beam, but he knew it was just his eyes getting used to the bright light. The others followed suit, clicking on their own lights, adding to Logan’s.
As careful as a surgeon, Logan turned it over, stopping when he saw the teeth. They were razor sharp and looked like an animal’s, perfect for tearing flesh. Whatever this thing was, it would have had a devastating bite.
“Was it human?” Zeus asked, leaning in for a closer look.
Logan examined it again, seeing nothing besides the teeth that would say otherwise. “Looks like it,” he said. “The teeth aren’t right for a human being, though—even if they filed them to points like some cultures are known for doing. They’re way too animalistic—like a carnivore’s. Man has the best of both since we are inherently omnivores.”
“K-9’s and molars…” Zeus sai
d. “Got it.”
“It’s not a man,” Jan said, reading a newly found file. There had been a stack of them under the skull, “at least,” he looked over to Logan, “not completely.”
“I don’t follow,” Zeus said, adding his light to the papers in Jan’s hands. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s all here, Logan,” Jan said. “They have information on the origin of the God Blood—where it came from.”
“Came from?” Logan asked. “It’s natural?”
“Seems to be,” Jan said, reading, “but Mengele also explains that they…” he paused, thinking of the right word, “tinkered…with it, trying to expand on it. They tried to enhance the abilities of the Verbraucher.”
“Verbraucher?” Logan asked.
“Yes,” Jan said. “It means, Consumer.”
“Consumer?” Logan said, eyes wide. “Unbelievable!” He looked back down to the skull with a new mindset. “It means, Eaters—as in Dead Eaters?” He turned to Jan. “You’re telling me the Nachzehrer—the German folklore—were real?”
Jan didn’t get to answer.
Something tackled Zeus to the ground, trying to bite him on the muscles between his neck and shoulder.
“Fuck off!” he yelled, thrusting his combat knife into the creature’s eye. It fell from the protected Kevlar vest, having nearly struck his flesh. He rolled up and drew his pistol, ready for another attack. But none came. The only thing the three men could hear was frantic hooting coming from down the hall.
In what could have been viewed as a perfectly choreographed move, they all flipped down their night vision devices, once again reducing the world around them into shades of green.
“What the hell was that?” Zeus yelled, grabbing his rifle off the bed. He had dropped it when attacked.
“Baboon,” Logan replied.
It looked like any other baboon too. It didn’t have any of the obvious genetic modifications that some of the others had acquired. Only the eyes—or in this one’s case, eye—was red. Definitely infected.
“You okay?” Logan asked, Zeus.
“Fine,” Zeus replied, voice shaky. “Got me in the shoulder strap on my vest—no skin. Got lucky.”
No shit, Logan thought.
“We must leave,” Jan said, shoving the procured folders into his backpack. “There are more coming.”
Logan heard the hooting too and couldn’t agree more. Jan could finish translating the notes back at headquarters. First, they needed to get out of here alive.
“Let’s move,” he said, leading Jan and Zeus to the door.
CRACK!
Something smashed against the floor just outside the office. A chunk went flying further down the corridor, but the rest stopped at Logan’s feet. It was another skull, but this one still had decomposed flesh on it. It wasn’t chemically cleaned like the Verbraucher skull was.
It was Mengele’s head.
Well, that solves that, Logan thought. 100% dead—
Damn. He forgot to give Jan the skull he’d found. CJ would want to examine it closer.
He raced back to the desk and found where he set it down, grabbing it. He then returned to the doorway and unzipped Jan’s bag, sliding it in. Jan turned as Logan finished, about to question him.
“A gift for my sister,” he said.
Jan smiled, slightly, but it disappeared quickly as the rest of Mengele’s mangled corpse landed in front of them.
The hooting arose again, but this time it came from both directions. There was an army of these things down here with them and they were coming in fast.
“Move!” Logan shouted. “Don’t stop until we’re topside!”
Zeus exited the room, turning right. He led the way, firing down the hall as he ran. Logan could hear bodies falling in front of the Delta man as he followed Jan out.
The skittering of feet behind Logan told him he had company coming up on their six. He spun, still moving in the correct direction and saw the incoming force. There were four of them, one on every surface of the hall.
Bloody hell.
52
Logan squeezed off two quick three-round bursts, dislodging the baboon on the ceiling. It's limp body fell, tripping up the one on the floor. Logan calmly dispatched that one with another burst. He then turned his attention to the ones on the walls. He unloaded on the one closest to him—the one on the left. Two of the three shots ripped into it, knocking it off the wall—just as the one on the right leaped straight at him.
The thing’s skull exploded as Jan’s Mossberg blew its head apart. He then pumped a shot into the baboon Logan had maimed, leaving the four attacking Nach dead.
BOOM!
A concussive force shook the corridor as Logan and Jan turned, seeing a fireball down at the other end of the hallway. Bodies and pieces of bodies laid strewn about everywhere, some on fire. Zeus was just standing there loading another grenade into his rifle’s launching attachment like it was just another day at the office.
Which it was, Logan thought. Stuff like this was a pretty normal thing for people like them—like what he used to be. Except the bloodthirsty horde of demon monsters trying to eat you, of course.
Zeus shrugged when he saw the two SDF men staring at him. “Seemed like the easier way to go.”
Logan agreed, but his targets had been too close to use his identical GL40 accessory. One shot was always easier than more than one.
A chorus of hoots followed the men as they reentered the bunker’s short entrance tunnel. They all walked backward facing the incoming threat, ready to unload on the bastards.
And then they came.
A dozen of the baboons poured into the opening, gnashing their teeth, snapping at each other as they vied for position. The three men opened up on them, cutting down the first wave.
Logan reloaded, quickly slapping in a new magazine as Zeus did the same. He and Jan—who wouldn’t need to reload anytime soon because of the specially made high-capacity drum mag—continued their assault. He had at least another ten or so slugs left. Logan hoped they’d be up the ladder by then.
Bullets flew and bodies fell. They started to clog the entry, slowing down the mass of primates. With four left, Logan shouted for Zeus to get his ass up the shaft. Not wanting to disappoint him and wanting nothing better than to get the hell out of there, Zeus obliged, racing up the metal rungs.
Logan dropped another of the monkeys as Jan’s shotgun ran dry. The German went to reload it, but Logan waved him off. “Forget it!” he said, putting another two rounds into the second-to-last baboon. “Get up there with Zeus and get ready to close the lid!”
Jan nodded and started his ascent, leaving Logan to fend off against the last of the Nach. It jumped high over its fallen brethren, turned, and clung to the ceiling above. It smoothly continued forward, racing on all fours like it would have on the ground. He flinched when its head turned like an owl’s, rotating nearly all the way around. It then bared its right-side up teeth, snarling.
Carefully, Logan aimed between its glowing eyes, taking his shot. The bullet zipped past the thing’s head as the Nach dodged, entrenching itself into the beast’s thick shoulder meat. Cursing himself for missing its head, he reacquired the target once more and pulled the trigger.
Click.
He was out of ammo and there was no way for him to reload in time. He dropped the SCAR and went to draw his Desert Eagle, but the creature was too fast. It let go and spun, landing on all fours, pouncing in mid-stride, reaching for Logan’s throat.
He ducked and unsheathed his Bayonet, slicing the creature along its underbelly. The tough skin resisted for just a second, but soon it gave way, spilling the beast’s innards all over Logan’s shoulder and neck as it passed overhead.
Logan gagged as the rotting mass of organs slid off his back, smearing the thing’s juices all over him. He swung around to meet his undoubtedly alive foe—and just in time. It sprang up and racked its claws against his chest.
He reeled back at the
strike, inwardly thanking the inventor of Kevlar for protecting him. As a result of the aggressive strike, the creature overextended itself, leaving it open to retaliation.
And Logan did just that.
He swung his arm in a long underhanded arc, driving the blade through the baboon’s chin and into its brain. It’s how he killed the infected Saami too. The creature dropped and Logan quickly picked up his empty SCAR. He’d reload it when he got to the top of the kopje. Not ever forgetting his knife, he reached down and yanked it out of the baboon’s chin.
He then stood, spun, and stepped on the bottom rung, freezing at the sound of more scraping behind him. Another wave of the things was on their way and he had no way of killing them all.
Logan scrambled up the ladder as the hooting of the next group of baboons entered the short passage. They’d be on him in seconds. He quickly reached the top as the ladder shook. Something was climbing it behind him.
Jan went to slam the hatch shut, but they had no way of locking it from the outside. The combined strength of who knows how many of the things could push it back open with no problem.
“Zeus, on me!” The two SCAR wielding soldiers aimed their rifles down the vertical shaft and gasped. There had to be two-dozen of the baboon’s this time…and they were seriously pissed.
“Get ready, Jan!”
Jan stepped up behind the lid and leaned into the heavy metal, getting prepared to shove it over.
“Fire!” Logan shouted. He and the American simultaneously pulled the secondary trigger controlling their grenade launchers, immediately diving down to the next level of rock as Jan shoved the lid shut with a bang. Jan followed closely behind Logan, leaping with the grace of a hippo, covering his ears.
The blast wasn’t as loud as they thought it was going to be, but the SS engraved hatch went flying into the air, followed by a plume of fire. The lid sailed into the night, landing somewhere in the burial pit.
“Mo?” Logan asked, laying on his side, covered in sweat, dirt, and gore.