AN: Greetings. I can't tell you how much I loved 'Dead Snow'. Undead Nazi Demon Zombies! Awesome. But what caught my creative bug was the ol' Devil himself, Herzog (loved the 'zombie uses binoculars' bit). What if…just hear me out…what IF he'd not always been so evil that he was rejected by hell and cursed to walk the snowy mountains of Norway for eternity? What IF he had just been your usual, run-of-the-Reich soldier doing his duty for the boss? (Well, being good at his job for the boss, but you know what I mean)

What flipped the switch?

Oh, also…a few points about what would really do this story justice. 1) If I could write it in German, since they'd be speaking German. 2) If I knew a damn thing about WWII. I did quick research on Wikipedia (wrote this at lunch), and then crossed my fingers. And 3) If lots of people actually saw Dead Snow, or go rent it, and then can let me know if they wondered the same damn thing!

Jeez…enough already…on with the show!

-Captain 'Give me back my box of shiny things' Razz

########

Last Exit

The Einsatzgruppen marched from house to house in the tiny Polish village, pulling entire families into the streets. Any who resisted earned a bullet between their fearful eyes, instilling abject terror into all others who witnessed. The prisoners were shoved from their homes into the growing line of marching Jews, and their resigned expressions proved that they had lost all hope.

Obersturmbannführer Herzog watched one of his soldiers crush the skull of a child under his boot; the boy had been trying to join his parents, not knowing that they were in line for immediate execution. The blond-haired, blue-eyed man held no remorse for their brutality. Their supplies were running low and the next shipment of ammunition was not to arrive for two weeks – the soldier would be recognized for preserving bullets in a time of war.

Suddenly a shout escaped an open window three houses up the block. Herzog moved swiftly down the street into a modest home of presumably wealthy Jews. He snorted in disgust. I will recommend that this building be cleansed. No self-respecting Aryan would live in such filth. He shuddered briefly before mounting the stairs; a short hallway at the top contained three bedrooms and a rather luxurious interior washroom. Wealthy indeed, he thought.

Herzog walked to the end of the hall and entered the master bedroom. A young man held a broom handle and stood in defense of his aging parents and two younger siblings. Their eyes turned as one to the imposing Lieutenant Colonel, and he hid his laughter at the wisp of hope in their gaze.

One of his men stepped forward. "This one is causing trouble. He…"

Herzog gave the soldier a withering glance and pulled his service pistol. Before anyone could blink he fired two shots, and the young man fell dead to the floor at his parents' feet. The old woman wailed pitifully, the sound having incredible strength coming from such a tiny woman. She lunged forward trying to reach her son, and the only thing that stayed another bullet from Herzog was that the old man physically pulled her back. He met the Lieutenant Colonel's cold eyes for one eternal heartbeat before he turned his attention to moving his hysterical wife down the stairs.

Herzog regarded the body while the rest of the family was evacuated. A strong boy. He would have done the Führer a great service in the ranks of the Reich. What a waste. Once the room was empty he turned to follow when a quiet scraping met his ears. Herzog paused in the doorway waiting for the sound again but was met with silence. A chill traveled his spine, the sign that he was definitely missing something important, and he swiftly closed the door and brought out his pistol again.

"Come out now." His tone left no room for argument, and his frustration grew when the phantom behind the noise did not appear. He drew his service blade and opened the small closet, running it through the meager clothes hanging in the tiny space. When his efforts were not met with a cry of pain he growled.

"If I am forced to find you, your death will not be swift. It is best if you come out now."

He closed his eyes and waited…one heartbeat, two…and there was the scraping sound again. He whirled around and took two heavy steps toward the wall between this home and the one on its right. Herzog tapped the tip of his pistol against each panel until the third echoed back its hollowness. He replaced the pistol in its holster and raised his blade to throat level before pressing on the panel. A muffled click was followed by a light thud as though a lock had been released, and then the panel slid to the side.

Herzog's voice dried up in his throat when he saw a woman standing in the small space between buildings. Her skin was as black as the night sky, and the whites of her eyes stood out in stark relief against such a contrast. Her nose was broad, her lips full, and she was a tall and thin woman, though perhaps not far past the age of consent. She was dressed in the traditional local attire complete with kerchief over her hair, but it was quite obvious that this woman was not Polish.

Herzog kept his gauntlet trained on her throat. "Your name, woman."

Her dark glowing eyes fixed on his face as though memorizing his features for future reference. "Nakti."

"That is not a Jewish name." Herzog's resolve was floundering under the weight of her stare. The woman laughed while eyeing the blade.

"No sir, it is not. My new family allowed me to keep my name, as it was all that I had left of my homeland."

The Lieutenant Colonel's palms were growing sweaty, and he lowered the blade before it slipped from his grip. "Ah, a moor then? Did they purchase you or adopt you?" He tried to regain some bravado by laughing at his weak joke, but her expression left him no room to breathe – she seemed to know that he was uncomfortable in her presence.

"Rescued me. My village was under attack, they were killing all of the children to wipe out our tribe. My benefactors had arrived to do mission work, and instead brought me home with them." Nakti stepped forward until the blade was touching her jugular. A small bead of blood ran down her ebony skin. "Will you kill me now?"

Herzog faltered back a step when he saw her blood. Whether it was the realization that moors had the same blood as Aryans or that she had forced him to cut her, the Lieutenant Colonel was suddenly at a loss how to proceed. While the battle raged in his brain he residually heard the approach of booted footsteps in the hall. Not understanding his actions, he suddenly punched the woman square in her left cheek and swiftly knocked her out. He caught her body as it fell and shoved her back into the hollow in the wall before replacing the panel. Seconds after it sealed the bedroom door opened and admitted his second.

"Obersturmbannführer, we are ready to proceed down the block. Is there a problem?"

Herzog forced his eyes to hold the young man's gaze, even as they fought to return to the panel in the wall. "No. Move out."

"They are prepared to fire these homes as you instructed."

Herzog flinched for an unnoticed second before leaving the room. "Cancel those orders. The Führer does not wish for senseless destruction, and these properties may be to his liking. We can burn them later if it is his desire."

The soldier nodded and led the way down the stairs, not noticing Herzog's confused glance at the closed bedroom door.

########

Three months passed in a relative blur for the young Obersturmbannführer. He performed his duties flawlessly and without remorse, and his men had begun to call him the Angel of Death. Four more villages were cleansed under his leadership, and the Führer had taken notice of his many accomplishments. It was rumored that he was in line for a promotion.

Only in moments of privacy did Herzog let the façade shatter. He awoke many nights in a cold sweat from nightmares involving dead Jews and glowing eyes in darkness, and more than once her name was on his lips. He still did not know what made him spare the woman's life, but frequently wished he had not, as she now tortured him from afar. It took every ounce of his strength and training to keep his true turmoil hidden from the troops, and it was becoming more and more difficult as time went on.

One sunny afternoon he was taking his lunch on the terrace of a village estate – its owners on their way to Auschwitz – when three soldiers approached from the garden, a struggling sack held between them.

"Obersturmbannführer, we found this one sneaking around the grounds. We thought it best to bring her before you rather than execute on sight."

Herzog blotted a dribble of tomato soup from his chin before rising to meet the soldiers. They dumped the sack on the ground and aimed their weapons before standing ready for his instruction. Herzog stepped forward and cuffed the sack where he thought the head would be before yanking the burlap off with one swift tug.

"YOU!"

At his feet was none other than the ebony figure from his nightmares – Nakti. She glared up at him fearlessly for a moment before rising to her feet with as much grace as she could muster. Herzog visibly shook at the sight of her – his men took it for rage – before grasping the woman's arm and dragging her into the house.

"I will deal with this!" He called over his shoulder.

He dragged her through the blood-stained living room, up a grand spiral staircase with more blood pooling on the marble, and into what was once the owner's study. He slammed the door behind them and for a moment simply leaned his head against it. Perhaps I should have killed her.

"Perhaps you should have killed me," she echoed from behind, her voice soft but strong.

Herzog whirled around and crossed the room in three strides, grasping the woman by her shoulders and lifting her off of her feet to slam her against the wall. "Why are you here? Why do you torment me? You are a witch! Answer me, witch!"

His face was inches from hers, and his breath moved the faint hairs on her skin. "I am no witch."

Herzog growled and released her, whirling around to storm across the room. He reached the far wall breathing heavily, but crossed back to her in an instant and once again had her pinned to the wall. "Answer me! What are you doing here? You should not have come here!"

Nakti's gaze was warm and soothing, and so unexpected that Herzog felt his rage dissipate to tremulous fear in a heartbeat.

"Why did you not kill me?"

The soldier was at a loss. The infuriating woman was confusing him, and his own actions toward her were repeating in rapid succession through his memory. He turned away but did not answer.

"I repeat. Why did you not kill me? You should have killed me. You killed everyone else in my village, thousands more elsewhere, but you let me live." She stepped forward. "Why did you not kill me?"

"BECAUSE I CAN'T!" Herzog whirled around and backhanded her into the wall, her body crumpling to the floor in an unconscious heap. He stood over her breathing heavily for long minutes before he bent to gather her in his arms. This house, like many he'd seen, had its share of hidden nooks. He slipped from the study and quickly ran down the hall to the master bedroom. With the fear of discovery racing down his spine, the soldier quickly accessed the hidden panel beneath the bed and shoved her into it. Closing the panel and lowering the bed skirts, the Lieutenant Colonel briefly rested his head on the mattress.

"Stay away from me, woman. If you value your life, you will run far from me and never look back."

########

The Reich was nearing its full power. Countless Jews had been exterminated as per the Führer's instruction, and Hitler himself had taken a personal interest in the famed Obersturmbannführer who seemed to be single-handedly decimating Poland in the name of the Reich.

Unbeknownst to all who knew him, however, Obersturmbannführer Herzog's internal battle was crumbling. He had not slept well in weeks; not after hiding that infuriating yet captivating woman for the second time. He lived in constant fear that she would appear again – in the line of prisoners, in the graves of the dead, or right in the middle of exercises for the Führer's inspection. His men were growing suspicious of his shortening temper and increasing ferocity towards the Jews; not that his actions gave them pause, only that he had always seemed thoroughly in control of his emotions. These sudden displays were uncharacteristic of the once stoic Obersturmbannführer.

After another long day of cleansing, Herzog retired quickly to the bedchamber in the home of the former town magistrate. A hot bath and a bottle of whiskey did nothing to sooth his nerves. He found himself staring blankly into the fire, seeing her face in the flames. His senses slowed by the alcohol, he did not notice the shadow moving across the room until it stopped right in front of him and blocked his gaze. His eyes snapped up into the barrel of a pistol, and the fog was erased from his mind in an instant. He sat up straight and his gaze passed down the barrel to meet two glowing ebony eyes.

"So now you will kill me, is that it?" His voice hardened in the face of being caught off his guard. Much to his surprise, Nakti lowered the weapon and smiled.

"No, sir. I simply wanted to see how far you have fallen." The woman was unprepared when Herzog launched from his seat, one hand batting away the weapon and the other a vice around her throat. Though he constricted her windpipe, she still managed to squeak out the single question that he'd hoped she wouldn't ask.

"Why have you not killed me?"

########

Morning sunlight filtered into the room through sheer curtains and cast a soft glow across the bedchamber. As the sun rose higher its beams fell upon two bodies rousing themselves from sleep. The arm of the man seemed almost translucent in comparison to the body of the woman beside him, and was the first thing that he noticed as he came fully awake. He lightly pressed his hand to her thigh and studied the contrast, though his scrutiny was interrupted when the woman rolled around to face him.

"You could have simply said so, you know." Nakti's voice was light with laughter, though her eyes showed that she was still alert to the situation.

Herzog gently brushed his thumb across her lips before claiming them in a kiss that left her shuddering in his embrace. "I did not know at the time. Perhaps you are a witch, playing games with my mind and planting ideas in my head."

Her retort caught in her throat when he leaned forward to lick a tantalizing trail from her collarbone to her ear. He felt his arousal growing again and pulled her flush against his chest. She moaned for a brief moment before bringing up her hands to push him away. When her eyes met his they were stern.

"There is no time."

The Lieutenant Colonel groaned into her neck before attempting to entice her with his teeth on her skin. "I can make time."

"I have no doubt that you have complete command of your Einsatzgruppen, Herr Herzog. But what would they do if they caught us? I must leave."

Herzog gave one last ditch effort to keep her in his arms for another hour. His fingers ghosted lightly down the curve of her stomach, sending a tremor through her body that he relished. He slowed his progression as they reached her core, and he teased her body with light touches until she was writhing with passion. Once happily enclosed in her moist warmth with her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, Herzog allowed himself to forget about the war, the Führer and everything else for these few brief minutes of bliss. It was over all too quickly, and this time she immediately rose and began to dress.

He sat up with his knees drawn up and covered with the sheet, and leaned his chin on his arms. Something incredible had just happened to him – incredible and forbidden – and he stubbornly wanted to hold on as long as possible. He was not naïve to the fact that if anyone found out about their little tryst, they would certainly be executed without delay. Suddenly an extremely remote idea planted itself in his mind.

"We could leave."

Nakti turned to face him while finishing the buttons on her blouse. "And go where?" The laugh in her voice made him feel like a child asking for a fairy tale to come true. "There is no escape from your Führer and his Reich. You know this." Buttons finished, she sat to lace up her boots; Herzog realized that she was truly about to leave and leapt from the bed.

"We could go to America. They would never find us there!" A smirk crossed his features when Nakti could not remove her gaze from his nudity. "Be honest…you truly do not wish to leave, do you?"

His ebony goddess rose to her feet and pulled him down for a kiss that made his knees buckle. "What I want has no place in this world. Perhaps we will meet in another life, and can try again."

The soldier swayed with his eyes closed for a moment, reeling in the afterglow of their night together. He was ripped from the memory when he heard the light click of the balcony door. His eyes shot open in time to see her climbing over the stone rail. "Wait!"

Nakti smiled. "I cannot. Goodbye Herr Herzog. If God is willing, perhaps I take a part of you with me." With those words, she dropped the eight feet to the garden and ran across the yard, disappearing into the trees. Herzog watched the tree line until someone knocked on the chamber door. Even then he had a hard time pulling his gaze away. He opened the door while buttoning his pants.

"Herr Herzog, the Führer will arrive in thirty minutes. He wishes to speak with you."

He nodded sharply and dismissed the soldier before rushing to dress. His thoughts swirled around what Adolph Hitler could possibly want to speak with him about, and he pushed the memory of the night from his mind.

Obersturmbannführer Herzog hurried down the stairs to the main salon, voices in the parlor telling him that the Führer had arrived. He squared his shoulders, and after rapping on the door marched smartly in and saluted at once.

"Heil Hitler!"

He lowered his gaze to the Führer, but his arm dropped immediately when he saw what stood behind the man. Hitler's personal guard stood at attention, with Naktiheld firmly in their grasp. She was spattered with mud but it did not hide the discoloration forming around her left eye, or the swollen cut on her lip. She staunchly refused to meet his gaze.

"Ah, Obersturmbannführer Herzog! Your reputation precedes you!" Hitler stepped into his line of sight and clamped a hand on the young man's shoulder. "You are a testament to the righteous power of the Reich, and as such shall be rewarded. But first…"

The Führer turned to the woman. "This creature ran out in front of my motorcade and threw rocks at my vehicle."

Herzog could not pull his eyes from Nakti, and flinched when he felt the butt of a pistol pressing against his chest. He looked down at it, and then slowly up into the eyes of Adolph Hitler.

The Führer grinned, his gaze seeming to eat through Herzog like acid. "A small matter to deal with, and then we can discuss your future."

Herzog locked eyes with Hitler and his hand shook as he grasped the weapon. Without averting his gaze he raised the pistol and fired – one single bullet striking Nakti right between the eyes. The Lieutenant Colonel lowered his arm, hearing the thud of her body hitting the floor and shattering his recently thawed heart. The Führer beamed with pride.

"As ruthless and stalwart as I have been told. You embody the very essence of the Reich! Now…" He grasped Herzog's arm at the elbow and lead him out of the room. "I have a new assignment for you, Standartenführer Herzog."

The officer barely flinched at the new title. His eyes met those of the Führer,and the leader of the Third Reich was pleased to see a cold and empty gaze. Herzog nodded curtly and squared his shoulders in an effort to distance himself from his last chance at salvation. "I am at your command, mein Führer."

"You will travel to a small village in Norway, called Øksfjord..."

########

AN2: No, and I mean ABSOLUTELY NO disrespect intended to ANYONE! 'k? :-)