"Grenades, get down!" I scream to the rest of my squad. A few of us drop into a ditch while the rest of us behind a hill. "How many are out there?!?" Wilhelm, the squads machine-gunner, yells to me. "I don't know!" I yell. "The vegetation is to dense!" As I finish that sentence, the hostile opened fire. The booms of their rifles, and the and the constant firing of their submachine guns drowned out everyone in the squad. Then as the firings dies down I yell to the squad to open fire. The machine gun roars and the loud crack of our rifles compliments it. After a few minutes, we stop firing. I peer above the hill and see an utter massacre. The brush was torn and the bodies of the Russians lay mangled in front of us. "We got them." I yell to my squad. The other eleven soldiers move towards my position. The once deafening forest was now almost completely silent, save for the crunching of twigs under our boots. We look down at our now deceased enemies. "Partisans?" A trooper asks. "No." Another chimes up. "Military." I look up from the bodies. A few of the younger guys look nauseas. "Come on, we need to get to back our camp." We begin walking back. After a while, in bring us to a stop. "What's wrong, sir?" Wilhelm asks. "Shhhh. Do you hear that?" I ask. "No, sir." He responds. "Exactly. We're in out in untouched forest, why haven't we heard or bird or even an insect?" I say. We sit in silence for a moment before I hear a rifleman reloading his rifle. I do the same. One of the younger guys says "Sir, I don't like this. We should keep moving." "You're right. Let's go." I respond.
As we continue, I step on a patch of leaves and fall into a small cave. I yelp as I hit the ground. "Get down!" I hear a man yell. I look around the cave only to find a few bones, a deer skull, and... a human skull. "Shit!" I yell. "Sir!" I hear Wilhelm shout. "What's wrong?" "There's a damn human skull in here!" I shout back. "Get me out of this hole!" I command. "Yes, sir." I hear him yell. I few seconds later I'm out of the pit. "Are you okay, sir?" I hear a younger voice ask. "Yes." I answer. "It's getting dark. We'll keep moving but we need to set up camp soon."
After about half an hour, we set up camp in a clearing. "Wilhelm, you and Klaus will watch the north end, Peter and Walter watch the south. Wilfred watch the east, Kurt, the west. Trade out with Ernst, Rudolf, Thomas, and Josef after 4 hours. Otto, you reload the magazines, belts, and stripper clips." "Yes, sir!" They yell in unison. "This war." I think to my self. "These kids are young, they shouldn't be going through this Hell. Sooner we get to Moscow, sooner this is over." I walk over to Wilhelm and take a seat next to him. "Sir." He says. "Have you written to mother?" I ask. "No." He says. "Why?" "You know why, Friedhelm." He snaps. "Go help Otto, Klaus." I bark. He gets up and walks over to Klaus. "Wilhelm, you know mother still loves you. You need to write to her." I say. "Of course, especially when she kicked me out of the house. Do you think I wanted to be in the military? I had no other choice." "She needed to teach you, Wilhelm. You just can't do whatever you want." "Friedhelm, go. Send Otto back over here, and leave me alone." He glares over at me as he finishes. "Otto." I yell, "Go back to your position." "Yes sir." He responds.
After a few hours I wake to Kurt yelling the friend or foe code "eagle".
"Eagle!" He shouts. I get up and walk over to him. "What's going on?" I ask. "Sir, I heard human size movement 30 feet ahead." He says anxiously. "Calm down." I say reassuringly. "I'm gonna send Otto over here to back you up." "Otto!" I shout. "Sir? He questions, while half asleep. Get over here and back up Kurt. Just to be sure, I want you two too keep yelling the call sign. If they don't respond in thirty seconds, I want you to fire a warning shot. Got it?" "Yes, sir." They answer. As I'm leaving I hear a scream on the east side of camp. "Josef!" I shout. "What's happening!?!" "Help! Get the Hell off me!" His voice getting more distant. A pistol shot rings off "Help! I'm over here!" He screams. "Josef what happened!?!" "Something grabbed onto me and dragged me into the woods!" "Klaus, help me drag him to camp!" We grab his arms and drag him back. When there is finally light, we can see what happened to him. "Shit." I say under my breath. "Wilfred, get the medical kit!" I command. "Why can't I feel my leg?" Josef says in a daze. "Come on! Stay with us!" I yell as I slap his face. "Hurry up, Wilfred!" "Ok." He says. "On three, I'm going to inject, morphine. One. Two. Three!" He injects the vial into what is left of Josef's leg. "Ok. Now for a tourniquet." He pulls off his belt and tightens it around Josef's stump. "Sir, what got him?" Kurt asks. "I don't know, Kurt. Whatever it was took his leg off below the knee." "Everyone! On me!" Within a few seconds, ten men gathered around me. "Everyone, form a perimeter around the camp. You hear anything, shout the call sign, if they don't answer, rip this forest apart. Wilfred, you watch Josef, understood!" I command. "Yes sir!"
After a hour, we hear movement again. "Eagle!" A few men yell. I hear the loading of weapons when Otto yells "Get down!" We hear something get thrown through the trees and land in the camp. After a few seconds, Walter looks backs and screams "Holy shit!" "What is it?" Another man yells. "Josef's leg!"
"Open fire!" I scream. As I finish the order, the forest is filled with the deafening sound of gun fire. After five minutes, I order my men to stand down. The echoes of the gunshots fill the woods, then silence. "Kurt, Klaus, Peter, and Otto, you four circle the camp, fifty foot radius, now!" I order. "Yes, sir!" Then they begin circling the camp, searching for corpses. "Sir." Wilfred says. "Josef is dead."
"Damn. How long?" I ask. "During the firefight. He bled out." He says with a solemn hint in his voice. "Sir!" Kurt shouted. "We found nothing." "Wait," I say, "Where's Klaus?" As I ask that, the color in Kurt's face disappears. "Klaus!" He screams. "The cave!" I exclaim. "What?" He asks, puzzled. "The one I fell into earlier!" "You're right. We need to check it, now!" He shouts. "Wilhelm, Otto. You're going with me and Kurt! Double time!" I order. "Yes, sir!"
"The cave's over here!" Otto shouts. "Alright. I'll head down, you guys watch me." "Got it." They say in unison. I hop down and shine my light. What I see makes me wish I hadn't. Klaus lays there, body mangled. His helmet torn, and his rifle snapped in two. His throat torn out, and chunks of his torso bitten and spat out. "Jesus." I say. "Get me out of here!" "Yes, sir!" After they pull me out, Kurt asks "Was he in there?" "Yes. Whatever got Josef got Klaus. His helmet is torn to shreds, his rifle is snapped in two, and his torso has been partially eaten." I look to the men in front of me. None of them older than twenty-three. Their faces, sunken from exhaustion. Kurt is on the verge of tears, after hearing about his best friend's demise. Otto is on the verge of a mental breakdown from stress. Wilhelm is trying not to look horrified, but is failing. "We need to get back."
"Eagle!" I hear a familiar voice shout. "Gold." I respond. "Did you find him, sir?" Asks Peter with hope in his voice. "Yes. Not alive but yes." I say, my voice filled with sorrow. Peter's face loses all emotion. "Wilfred has been waiting for you, sir. He's over by the fire." "Thanks Peter." I turn to the men that had followed me. "Get some sleep. You need it." "Yes, sir." Wilfred was waiting for me, sitting on a stool, cleaning his rifle. "Any luck?" Wilfred asks. "No. Whatever got Josef got Klaus. His helmet is destroyed, so's his rifle. Whatever this damned thing is, it's deadly." I explain. "Shit." He says, sounding defeated. "While you were out, I examined Josef's corpse. His leg wasn't pulled off, it was bitten off. His lower leg was chewed on." He says. "Anything else?" I ask. "No." "Get some sleep." I ordered. "Will do." I head over to Rudolf, our radio operator. "Any word from command?" I ask. "No." He says. I can't get anything. Haven't had a connection since that firefight." "Is everything working right?" I ask. "Yes." He says. Then he continues, "These radios are meant for long range communication." "Ok. Keep trying, if nothing get to sleep." "Will do." He says.
After sleeping for an hour. I wake to sunlight. Something I thought I'd never see again. I walk out of my tent, to see a few of the men eating quietly. "Where are the other men?" I ask, drowsily. "Burying Josef and Klaus." Peter says. "Here." says Thomas while handing me a tin plate of food. "No. I'm not hungry. Give it to someone else." I say, refusing the meal. Peter nods and covers the meal. "Friedhelm." I hear Wilhelm say. "We put down the grave site's coordinates so the bodies will be found and returned to Germany." "Thank. Now listen up, everyone, start packing. It's about a two day hike back to the main base camp. I know we all want to get back sooner than later." "Yes, sir." They shout, relived. "Two men have died under my control. That's been the most since Poland." I think to myself as I pack. After a few minutes the surviving men are packed and we begin the hike. As we're walking we hear movement to our left. "Down!" I command. Then from out of a tree, a rock flies, straight at me.
I'm looking to the crowd and I see my mother. She's tearing up as she sees me and Wilhelm marching in a parade. Music is playing. People are clapping and cheering. As we keep marching, I see the chancellor. He's saluting to us. And he says something. As I get closer, I can hear him. "Wake up, Friedhelm. You need to wake up." I was confused. Why was he saying that? Then Wilhelm woke me up. "What happened?" I say, still confused. "A huge rock hit your head. The helmet absorbed most of the blow. Just enough made it through to knock you out." He can see my confusion. "Are you okay?" He asks, worried. "Yes. I'm okay." I say, still dazed. "Ok. Let's get going." I get up, and order Peter to take point. As we walk we hear a loud boom. Peter reaches up to his neck and drops to his knees, with a gurgle coming from his throat. "Ambush! Take cover!" I scream. Gunfire erupts, awaking the forest. As Thomas runs for cover, a Molotov flies through the air, covering him in a red-yellow flame. He screams as the fire burns his flesh. As he panics and tries to get the flames off, he looks as though he's poorly dancing. I shoot him. He falls to the ground, the fire still crackling. Then somewhere in the woods, I hear men screaming. The gunfire turns away from us, towards the forest. Eventually the screaming stops, the gunshots stop, and the forest is silent. Then a wet cracking sound appears about fifty feet ahead of me. I can't see anything because of the vegetation, but I know what's over there. "Run!" I command. We all begin running in the direction we were originally going. After running we come across an dilapidated home. I don't stop running and brace myself then hit the door, going right through it and landing on a table, breaking it. My men arrive and run through the now empty door way. All except Ernst, who had been hit during the ambush. He was about to enter when he was grabbed from behind by the thing that had killed my men. As it stood before us, I could finally see it. It was tall, pale, lanky, and had a sunken in face with eyes as red as blood. My squad grabs onto Ernst in a futile attempt to keep him with us. Wilhelm pushes himself into the doorway, firing his machine-gun, hitting Ernst and the beast. Ernst died instantly while the thing just seems to shrug off the bullets, while still walking into the forest. "Shit!" I yell. "We need to barricade this place! Now!" I command. We push large pieces of furniture in front of the door ways, knowing that it'll do nothing more than delay the inevitable for a moment or two. Walter begins sobbing. "I have a wife and kid back in Berlin. What are they gonna tell them? That I was killed by an abomination in the middle of Russia?"
"Calm down, Walter. You're not gonna die." I say. "Friedhelm!" He shouts. "You just watched that thing shrug off rifle rounds! What the Hell do you think we can do to it?!?" I sit for a moment, pondering the question. "Wilhelm. Do you still have that anti-tank mine?" I ask. "Yes." He answers. "Give it to me." I order. Wilhelm hands me the anti tank mine, a look of confusion plasters his face as he dose so. "Here's the plan. Block off every entrance and exit except the front door. Once you do, get out of here. I'll stay back and lure it into the trap." "Friedhelm, are you sure about this?" Wilhelm asks, concern filling his voice. The other men in my squad look at me, with the same emotions on their faces. "Yes. Wilhelm, I want you to take control of the men." "Yes sir." He says.
After the the doors and windows are blocked out I pull Wilhelm aside. "Take these." I say. Handing him my letter to mother and my pistol. "Wilhelm. I can't let you do this." He says, a pleading tone in his voice. "Go. Get them back to base. Tell everyone about this forest." "Ok." He says, tearing up. I give my brother a hug, holding on for what feels like forever. "Go!" I order, trying to contain my composure. They run out of the building. After five minutes, I take off my helmet. I lay the mine down on the floor. I sit down for a moment before screaming "Come and get me, you son of a bitch!" After a few minutes, I hear the thing comping towards me. I look into the forest. I don't see anything until seeing those damned red eyes staring back at me. "I see you! Come and get me!" Then I hear something flying through the air. I watch it hit the mine as it sinks into my mind that it had been watching us. I hear the faint *click* of the pressure plate. I jump behind a table. Then the mine detonates.
I wake up. Around me is a burning building. I look to my side, only to see my arm, hanging from my body by only a few pieces of flesh. I work up the strength to look to my legs, at least where they used to be. I begin tearing up, knowing that I failed my men and my family. As that thought goes through my head, I hear it walking towards me. I try to lift my good arm to no avail. It stands over me, then picks me up by my tunic. It takes its other hand and pushes back my head. I know what it's gonna do. As it rears back its head I say my final prayers. Then it lunges at my throat, it's teeth tearing into my throat. It pulls its head back, tearing out my throat. It drops me down to the ground. I struggle to breathe. The world starts to fade around me. And as I die, the last thing I see is that beasts face...