Monsters of the Reich

by Eric S. Brown

  Kendal did as he was instructed, lifting the binoculars to his eyes. After a second of adjusting them to his vision, he could see the men in the trees more clearly. There were what looked to be icicles hanging from parts of their uniforms. Their skin was a bluish hue and their eyes were vacant of anything that could be called a soul.

  “They’re… They’re dead, aren’t they?” Kendal rasped.

  “I think so,” Lance agreed.

  “But then how did they get there, and how are they still standing up?” Kendal lowered the binoculars and turned his head to look at Lance.

  “I think they crept up on us during the night and just decided to wait until we came out to make their move,” Lance said.

  “You just said they were dead,” Kendal challenged him.

  “Yes, I did.” Lance frowned. “I think they’re zombies of some kind.”

  “Frag it, Lance,” Kendal growled. “Why haven’t you told the others already?”

  “Those things out there aren’t moving, Kendal, not in the slightest. They’re waiting on something, and waiting on us to make the first move makes the most sense as to what that might be.” Lance pointed at one of the dead German soldiers. “Do you really think the others would have gotten any rest or stayed focused on learning how to use their weapons and skills if they knew those things were out there? When we do start out of this place, everybody needs to be as rested and ready as they can be.”

  “I understand what you’re saying, Lance, but…” Kendal said.

  “They’re about to find out as soon as our conversation is over, Kendal. If I had thought those things were dangerous to us right now, I’d have been screaming at the top of my lungs from the second I first saw them and you know it. The way things have played out, we’re all better off that I didn’t.” Lance sounded a bit defensive about the call he had made, but thinking things over, Kendal couldn’t really claim that it had been a bad one.

  “I count six of them,” Kendal said, changing the subject.

  “Me too, but who knows how many more are out there? This is the only window. There could be a whole platoon behind the house for all we know,” Lance warned.

  “So how do you want to handle this?” Kendal asked.

  “We need to break this to the others easily and then take those things in the woods out as quickly and quietly as possible. The last thing we want to do is draw more of them to us here, or worse yet, draw the attention of other Germans nearby that aren’t dead and frozen,” Lance told him.

  “Lance, I trust you,” Kendal whispered. “You know that, but you’ve been really pushing things since we entered this game.”

  Lance cocked an eyebrow at the accusation. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve taken over leadership of this group. I have no issue with that, but some of the others seem like they do,” Kendal explained, careful with how he worded what he was saying so as to not upset Lance any more than he had to. “You’ve gone all soldier on us, man. You’re hard and I don’t know…distant, for lack of a better word. The others have noticed that too.”

  “I’m just trying to keep us alive, Kendal,” Lance said, sincerely looking a bit hurt.

  “I know that, Lance.” Kendal flashed him a friendly grin. “All I am saying is take it down a notch or two, okay?”

  Lance grunted. “I’ll do what I have to, Kendal, and you know it. I have things to live for in the real world. I am not going to die in this game just because Derek is an idiot and I made the mistake of trusting him.”

  “We all did,” Kendal corrected him and then said, “I think it’s time we told the others about those dead Germans out there, don’t you?”

  ****

  “What do you mean we’re surrounded?” Kristen demanded.

  “It’s just like Lance said, Kristen,” Kendal assured her. “Go over to the window and look out for yourself if you want.”

  Kristen huffed but didn’t get up from her seat at the table in the cabin’s center.

  “I think the bigger thing issue here is that you’re telling us those soldiers out there are dead,” Chuck spat. “Just how in the heck is that possible if they’ve got us surrounded?”

  “They’re zombies,” Derek said in a very serious voice from where he stood at the window. He had made straight for it as soon as Lance had told them about the dead soldiers outside.

  “That’s just fantastic. It really is.” Chuck’s sarcastic tone really ticked off Kendal.

  “They’re waiting on us to come out,” Lance said. “Once we do, they’ll move in for the kill.”

  “If they’re really dead, then they have to be slow, right?” Payne asked. “Aren’t zombies slow?”

  “Not all of them.” Kendal shook his head. “We have no idea what those things are capable of or how to really fight them.”

  “Headshots,” Chuck blurted out. “That’s how you kill a zombie!”

  “Sounds like as good a plan as any,” Derek piped up, still staring at the window as he spoke.

  “We could just stay here,” Payne suggested. “Maybe they’ll go away or freeze solid or something.”

  “No,” Lance said. “We’re going to have to go through them. It’s the only way out of here, and we have to get on the move ASAP if we want to beat this game. Beating the game is the only way home.”

  “Might as well get it over with then,” Derek said and raised his rifle, getting ready to smash out the window so he could open fire on the dead Germans.

  Kendal reached him just in time to stop Derek from doing what he intended.

  “Whoa!” Kendal ordered, grabbing a hold of Derek’s weapon. “We need to do this quietly if we can.”

  “None of those soldiers appeared to be armed,” Lance said. “That doesn’t mean they’re not, but there is a chance that since they’re dead that they will act like zombies. That means they’ll come at us tooth and nail if I’m right in my thinking. Two or three of us might be able to handle all of them at close range quietly if we’re careful and keep our heads about this.”

  “You volunteering?” Chuck asked.

  “I am.” Lance stared Chuck down. “Kendal has too. We just need one more person who’s up for a fight and has a strong stomach to go with us. Everyone else will be safer inside the cabin if we fail.”

  “I’ll go,” Derek said. “I’m the one who got us all into this mess. I figure this is something I need to do to make up for it.”

  “Okay then.” Lance picked up the small hatchet that was lying near the pile of wood by the fireplace. “Leave your guns behind. That way, you won’t be tempted to use them if things go south.”

  Kendal unsheathed the knife strapped to the side of his boot and clutched it in a white-knuckled grip as the three of them started for the door.

  “Derek…” Payne called after him.

  He paused to look back at her.

  “Be careful out there,” Payne whimpered.

  Derek drew his knife too as Lance opened the door. A cold wind swept in the cabin through the open door before they were out it and had it shut behind them. Stepping outside was like stepping into a freezer. The temp had continued to drop throughout the night. As soon as Lance, Kendal, and Derek were out the door, the dead soldiers started moving toward them. Their movements were slow and clumsy. Kendal imagined he could hear their bodies creaking as they lumbered forward.

  “Lance,” Kendal croaked, watching the approaching dead men.

  “Just keep calm,” Lance ordered. “We’ve all seen zombies killed like this hundreds of times in movies and other games. The game equipped each of us with the level of skill of the guys we’re playing. Stay focused, and go for their heads.”

  “They’ve got us outnumbered three to one, Lance,” Derek pointed out.

  “At least that, yeah,” Lance answered, keeping his eyes on the dead. “We don’t know how strong these things are. Try not to let them get a hold of you as you take them out.”

  One of the dead soldiers reached Lance’s positio
n. Its arms moved to grab at him. Lance avoided them, launching himself past the dead soldier. As the dead soldier tried to turn to come at him again, Lance sunk the blade of his hatchet into the side of his skull just below the bottom of the dead soldier’s helmet. The dead soldier lurched from the blow but regained its balance to try to tear its head free from the blade Lance had driven into it. Lance raised a foot and kicked the soldier away from him, freeing the blade of the hatchet in the process. The dead soldier lost its balance and collapsed onto the frozen snow. Lance brought his hatchet down into its face with all the force he could muster. The dead soldier’s nose parted as the hatchet’s blade slammed into it. Black pus bubbled up around the hatchet’s blade as the dead soldier’s body twitched and started to spasm. When Lance yanked the hatchet free, it made no move to try to get back to its feet. Its body continued to twitch until Lance kicked its helmet from its head and brought the hatchet down a final time into its forehead.

  Lance stood over the thing’s unmoving form and looked over at Derek and Kendal. “See? It’s not that hard. You just have to watch yourself.”

  “Says the man with the hatchet,” Derek snarled. It was going to be a lot harder to kill the dead soldiers with a knife, and both he and Kendal knew it.

  Kendal moved to meet the first of the dead soldiers coming at him. He used an entirely different tactic from Lance’s. As the dead soldiers lunged at him, he caught one of its upraised arms and yanked the thing forward. It toppled face down into the snow. Before it could try to get up or even roll over, Kendal dropped onto its back, driving the blade of his knife into its spine at the base of its neck. Kendal grunted as he twisted the knife about inside the monster he was sitting on. He heard the crack of bone snapping as he finally managed to sever its spine. Its body stopped moving, but he knew it wasn’t dead yet. He shifted his weight where he could roll it over. The dead soldier’s teeth were chattering together in a mad fury, and its empty eyes stared up at him, devoid of anything except a look of desperate, instinct-driven hunger. Kendal shoved the blade of his knife into the thing’s right eye and kept pushing against it until he was sure it was dead.

  “Kendal!” he heard Derek yell at him. “Watch out!”

  “On your six!” Lance added.

  Kendal tore his knife free from the dead thing on the ground in front of him and whirled about to see that another one of the dead soldiers was almost on him. He wasn’t in a position to fight it so he rolled out of its path, springing to his feet several feet from where it stood. Its head slowly turned to follow him as its soulless eyes tracked his movement.

  Derek screamed a battle cry as he leaped forward at the dead soldier watching Kendal. He plowed into it like a football player, tackling it and knocking it into the snow with him on top of it. Derek scrambled to get himself up onto his knees above the monster as it snapped at him with its teeth. He smashed the bottom of his knife down against its helmet with a loud clang. The impact rattled the dead soldier enough to buy him a moment of time so that he could shift his position over it. Derek yelled again as he thrust the blade of his knife through the underside of the dead soldier’s chin, pinning its mouth closed. The fingers of its cold hands racked along the sleeves of his jacket, trying to dig through them into his flesh. Derek released his hold on the hilt of his knife and moved aside as he saw Lance closing in to help him.

  “Get its arms!” Lance ordered. “And keep them out of my way!”

  Derek grabbed the dead soldier’s arms and forced them into the snow at its sides. Lance dropped to his knees, snow crunching under him, at the dead soldier’s side. Raising his hatchet over his head, he slammed it down and severed the monster’s rotting head from its neck. Black pus leaked out from the stump of its neck onto the snow. Derek felt the dead soldier’s arms go limp and stop fighting against his hold on them. He let go of them and got to his feet as Lance rose up beside him.

  “We’ll have to remember to deal with that head,” Lance told him, “but this one is done for now.”

  “More coming in,” Kendal warned as the rest of the dead soldiers continued to stumble toward the three of them.

  “It’s just three on three now,” Lance commented. “Let’s finish this.”

  The three remaining dead soldiers were clustered together. Lance charged right into them. He shoved one from its feet and swung at another with his hatchet. Its blade clanged against the side of the helmet of the dead soldier to Lance’s left and sent it careening off balance to topple over a few feet from where he stood. Derek went after it, not giving the thing time to try and right itself.

  The dead soldier Lance had shoved over was getting up, but Kendal put it right back down by running up to it and kicking it squarely in its chest. Ribs cracked as the tip of his heavy boot struck them. Kendal dropped directly onto the dead soldier, shoving its head back beneath the weight of his falling body. Its neck snapped, and he knew most of the battle was already over. All he had to do now was destroy its brain. His fingers, avoiding the thing’s snapping teeth, found the strap keeping its helmet on its head and unclasped it. He yanked the helmet from the thing’s head and drove the blade of his knife into its forehead. When he looked up, Kendal saw that Lance had finished the one he was engaged with too. Its severed head dangled at his side, his fingers gripping it by its hair.

  “Die, you fragger!” Derek was shouting as he wrestled with the last of the dead soldiers. The thing was fighting him hard. Somehow, it had managed to roll the two of them to where it was on top of Derek, the jagged nails of its fingers clawing at his cheeks. The snow around them was stained red with blood and long, nasty-looking gashes covered Derek’s face. Derek wasn’t giving up though. He had the blade of his knife buried in the dead soldier’s neck, pushing upward to keep its teeth away from him.

  Lance walked quickly over and swung his hatchet at the back of the dead soldier’s neck. There was a loud thunk as its blade met bone and was driven into it. The dead soldier went limp, its spine severed. It flopped on top of Derek who squealed in terror before he realized that the soldier was truly dead and not moving anymore. Derek grunted as he rolled the weight of the dead soldier’s body off of him.

  As soon as he was free of the dead soldier’s body, Derek’s hands reached up to touch the mangled and clawed flesh of his face. His fingers and palms came away smeared with his own blood. Derek looked up at Lance and Kendal in utter horror.

  “Does this mean…?” Derek started, his eyes welling up with tears and his voice trembling.

  “I don’t know,” Lance said in a flat, emotionless voice.

  “Oh, Derek,” Kendal said sadly. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Derek pleaded, as if either Kendal or Lance had the power to change his fate if the zombies were infectious.

  “We can’t just leave him here,” Kendal said to Lance.

  Lance was still thinking things over. “I didn’t say anything about us leaving him. Give me a minute, will you?”

  Kendal helped Derek to his feet. He pitied him but couldn’t think of anything to say to make the situation any better.

  “I don’t believe you’re infected,” Lance said suddenly.

  “What?” Derek stammered. “How could I not be, man? Look at my face! That thing tore me up good.”

  “This isn’t a zombie apocalypse game,” Lance said. “These dead guys…” He gestured at the bodies in the snow. “Their movements were coordinated. They worked together. Maybe they weren’t too smart themselves, but someone likely ordered them to come after any Allied troops in this area.”

  “I don’t get what you’re saying.” Kendal’s expression was one of confusion.

  “I think these zombies, since we’re calling them that, are more like the old school voodoo zombies. That means they were created somehow to be used as cannon fodder. That means they shouldn’t be carrying any kind of infectious virus,” Lance explained.

  “Thank God,” Kendal breathed, relief washing over him knowing that one of his
best friends wasn’t about to turn into a mindless monster.

  “How can you know that?” Derek cried, unwilling to accept what Lance was saying. It was as if Derek had already accepted that he was going to die and that nothing could change that fact.

  “I can’t be sure,” Lance admitted, “but the evidence points to what I just said being the case with these things.”

  Lance put a hand on Derek’s shoulders, steadying him and trying to comfort him. “Let’s get you back inside. We’ll deal with things from there.”

  Derek shook his head. “I don’t want to put everyone at risk. I’m already responsible for getting us all trapped in this game.”

  “That doesn’t matter right now, Derek,” Lance told him. “It’s going to take all of us to see this thing through and get home.”

  “Come on,” Kendal urged Derek. “I promise you that if you turn, I’ll put you down myself.”

  Some of the fear and tension finally bled out of Derek and he laughed. “You don’t have to sound so eager about it.”

  Lance and Kendal led Derek inside the cabin. The others were all waiting on them. Payne sat at the table in the center of the cabin with Chuck. She leaped out of her seat at the sight of Derek’s mangled features and ran to him.

  “Whoa!” Derek said, his heart breaking by the sound of his voice, as he held up his hands to keep her from getting too close.

  “You’re hurt!” Payne shouted.

  “He’ll be okay,” Kendal lied, not knowing whether Derek really would be or not. His words seemed to calm down Payne a bit, but she kept her eyes on Derek as he staggered over to take the seat she had left.

  “What happened out there?” Chuck asked.

  “We killed the zombies,” Derek said, laughing darkly. “But one of them got me.”

  Chuck scooted his seat back from the table, putting distance between himself and Derek. His head shot around at Lance. “And you brought him back here? What the hell are you thinking?”

  “Cool it, Chuck,” Kendal warned. “Lance doesn’t think they were that type of zombie, and I agree with him.”