The apocalypse began with the events of World War II. Richtofen, remembering everything that had happened, from Nacht der Untoten to Buried, is the only one, besides Samantha that remembers the previous apocalypse. Being trapped inside the MDT within a freak accident, Richtofen finds Samantha. She only remembers the story as they "imagined" it as a game with figurines.
Maxis called Eddy down to the basement in order to do some tests. After testing out Element 115, he trapped Eddy in the teleporter, intending to have him killed by the hellhounds, feeling that Richtofen was a burden and would get in the way of Germany ultimately winning the war. Instead, Richtofen stayed in there, not aging, along with Samantha, whom Maxis had trapped in there soon after he had trapped Richtofen. Maxis's goal was to enter the MPD to control the zombie like people to win World War II. It had gone horribly wrong. What instead happened, was a zombie apocalypse.
