CHAPTER 1

1943

Break Down

"We will not feel threatened by the Communist threat. We Americans and all free people alike will retaliate against the forces of Stalin. The Iron curtain will fall with the balance of power flowing our way………"

The radio died down from flat batteries. A soldier tried to recharge them with a home made charger. People walked by with suite cases and cans of food. Karl slung his rifle on his shoulder and begun to walk towards one of the field barracks in downtown Berlin. Here other soldiers were listening to the BBC and American broadcasts. Karl laid his Kar98k rifle on a bench and sat down next to Schmitt where he was reading.

"Twelve more people have been reported missing Schmitt."

He starred at him.

"Hmm?"

"Twelve more civilians are gone, including four of our men."

Schmitt starred at a page for a second.

"Twelve you say……" He puts his book down and grabs a document ands opens it pulling out a couple of pages. "Then that means we have a problem on our hands."

Schmitt flicked through the documents and pulled out a picture of an S.S officer and handed it to him.

"Do you know who he is Karl?"

Karl Starred at it.

"I'm not familiar with this guy……..why?"

He took the picture away from him and put it back into the document.

"His name is Gunter d'Alquen, he was chief of Propaganda until last year when he vanished from the Reichstag."

Schmitt put a cigar in his mouth and lit it. He then put the documents away.

"Karl……Do you have the weekly reports yet?"

He took a puff of his cigar as Karl handed him the papers. He opened it, sat up and begun walking towards a shelf with some older reports on it. Schmitt took them down and compared them.

"Look here," He pointed to the document Karl gave him. "One hundred tanks and weapons have been dismantled in four weeks."

He then showed him the older documents from six months ago.

"They started collecting weapons and canceling all tank and Aircraft construction. I thought it was just in some random area of Germany," He flipped through the pages. "And in January this year Albert Speer disappeared along with all our best engineers."

I looked at him.

"Don't you see Karl; our military is being disassembled into nothing."

Schmitt put the reports away and sat down, taking another puff from his cigar. It was nothing like Karl had thought, not only was Germany upside down, the once powerful German military is being deconstructed for no reason. The strangest thing is, who is doing it and why? Karl wondered for a little bit more but was distracted by screaming outside. Both Karl and Schmitt ran outside and saw people hiding behind chairs and buildings. A young woman came up to Karl staggering.

"Please help me, my son is gone!"

She looked around franticly.

"Please you have to help!"

"Alright, where was he last?"

She started to cry.

"We were walking together and all of a sudden there was a bright flash of purple and he was gone!"

She closed her eyes and cried into his shoulder. "He was only twenty five and now he's gone!"

She walked off crying as others were demanding explanations. For three years now people were starting to disappear off the streets. Not only in Berlin but all around Germany. All this Chaos started in 1939, like it's been planned from scratch. Something was going on, and Karl could feel in the pit of his stomach that it was going to get worse any day now.