Der Riese
Dec. 21st 1939
1217/12:17 P.M.
Teleportation Testing
"Schuter, ready the log book, if you vill." Richtofen asked, readying to power up the teleporter.
"Logbook, recorder, all ve are missing are Maxis, her child, and ze subject." Schuter replied, the filing cabinet slamming shut.
"Curse you, Maxis..." Richtofen muttered under his breath. The test was scheduled for 12:15, and we was all ready late.
Suddenly the door opened, and footsteps were heard in Richtofen's ears. He turned and saw Maxis, Samantha, and Fluffy walking towards him, Maxis in the lead.
"Ah, hello Dr. Maxis." Richtofen said, motioning for him to take a seat.
"Richtofen, let's get zis over vith, then..." Maxis said, taking the seat, Samantha standing by him with Fluffy laid down at her feet.
"Schuter, if you vould, please log ze vitnesses." Richtofen said, preparing the teleporter.
"Now, I'm sure you are vondering vhat ze subject vill me, Doctor Maxis." Richtofen continued, turning to the seated man.
"Richtofen, vhat sadistic live subject are you using?" Maxis asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Schuter and I vould like to request ze use of ze child's dog." Richtofen pointed at the dog curled up at Samantha's feet, her tongue hanging out and her tail wagging.
"Richtofen, I have all ready told you zat she vill not take part in your experiments. Samantha even vants to keep ze puppies as vell." Maxis said.
"And I will keep them, right Daddy?" Samantha asked.
"Ve vill see, Samantha." Maxis replied, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder.
"Maxis, I am sure ze possible loss of ze dog is veighing heavily on your and your daughter's mind, but your clouded judgement means zat you have neglected ze small chance ze dog vill not reappear, but zose chances are vone of ze smallest in ze calculations." Richtofen continued, pacing back and forth next to the control panel.
"Ze dog vill not participate in your demonstration, Edvard, zat is final!" Maxis yelled, nearly ready to go over to the man and punch him.
"Maxis, I vill ask you vone more time to allow us to use ze dog." Richtofen asked, hiding his frustration.
"Nein, Richtofen, you vill not use my daughter's pet in zat machine!" Maxis yelled, standing.
"Not vone more step, Maxis." Richtofen commanded, his hand inside his coat pocket.
"Or vhat, Richtofen?"
"Or ze child vill cease to exist. Now sit!" Richtofen took his hand out of his pocket, his hand wrapped around the DG, otherwise known as the Ray Gun. It was pointed at Samantha, who was staring back with a frightened expression.
Maxis reluctantly back up and sat down, Samantha continuing to stare at Richtofen.
"Schuter, please restrain ze child so Maxis vill not be tempted to attempt a daring rescue." Richtofen turned the gun to him as Schuter seized the little girl, pulling her over to the corner where he would keep her until the experiment was over.
"You, animal, over here!" Richtofen yelled at the dog, whistling as it looked up. It trotted over to him, looking confused.
Richtofen nudged the dog, moving it towards the teleporter.
"In you go, dog, yes, now stay there." Richtofen began the transfer, sliding the power button forward, and pressing the large red button.
The same process happened, the receptor struck the dog, the electric shield appeared at the entrance, and Richtofen looked to the pad.
The dog wasn't there.
"Shit! Schuter, ze dog is gone!" Richtofen yelled to the other scientist, who looked confused, his hands flying through his calculations.
"Doctor, zat is impossible, zis is ze only pad linked to ze entire mainframe." He found the note, saying that all other pads would be deactivated and unlinked from the mainframe.
"Damn, ze teleporter von't power down!" Richtofen yelled, rapidly trying several of the methods to shut down the teleporter. It should not be doing this, the 115 should have been used up entirely, unless...
"It's not done teleporting..." Richtofen said to himself, looking up at the still crackling with electricity.
"Schuter, use ze DG-2, ze dog is still teleporting, it may be stuck somevhere!" Richtofen ordered, spinning around to train the Ray Gun on Maxis and Samantha, who was silently crying next to Schuter.
Schuter opened a large box on top of the filing cabinet, the WunderWaffe DG-2 inside, crackling with electricity.
Schuter flicked the switch, and inserted three power modules, flicking it again to initiate the power transfer, allowing the cells to power the DG-2.
"Richtofen, move!' He yelled, looking through the sight.
Richtofen ducked and Schuter fired the DG-2, the electric bolt hitting the receptor of the teleporter, causing a major spike in power levels. The electric shield doubled in the amount of bolts it was sending out, the inside of the teleporter itself was striking a nonexistent itme multiple times, no results happening.
Then the pad electrified, a bolt of electricity coming down from the receiver on the roof, and a small curled up form was there, not the same size as Fluffy, nor making the same happy movements.
"Richtofen, vhat is zat!" Maxis asked, outraged his daughter's favorite animal had disappeared, and amazed something other than her had come out.
"It appears to be a... puppy?" He looked closer at the animal, seeing it was indeed a puppy, but something wasn't right. The dog appeared to be missing flesh in several places, and it's hair wasn't the same as Fluffy's, rather alternating between grey and red.
The dog's eyes were amiss as well, no pupils were visible, and the dog's eyes appeared to alternate between a deep blue and a blood red.
"That's not natural.." Richtofen muttered, reaching out to the creature.
The creature snapped at him, nearly tearing his fingers off as he withdrew his hand, the creature now staring around the room, seeing four people.
Then it burst into flames.
"Mein God!" Richtofen screamed, backing up and stumbling backwards, nearly falling over Maxis.
"Run!" Schuter screamed, running for the door, dropping the DG-2 with a large clang from the steel frame.
Samantha let out a sob as the creature looked to her and the rapidly moving Schuter. It went for Schuter.
"GAH!" Schuter screamed. It appeared like the creature had teleported, grabbing Schuter's leg and bringing him down, preparing to rip it off.
"Get off of my assistant!" Richtofen yelled, firing the Ray Gun at the dog, disintegrating it instantly, but Schuter still lay there, a look of horror in his eyes as he clutched the bleeding leg.
"Schuter, are you all right?" Richtofen asked, moving to help the man.
"... Zat thing is not natural, Doctor..." Schuter said in a low voice, his leg bleeding all over his hands.
"Schuter, you can die later, we have to get out of here!" Richtofen attempted to drag the man, who went limp, unconscious from the pain.
"Maxis! Try and shut zat thing off!" Richtofen ordered, pointing at the still running teleporter, that was striking the inside of the teleporter with electricity multiple times again.
Maxis began fiddling with the panel, pressing random buttons in an attempt to shut it off.
Another creature appeared, this one all ready standing and on fire.
It lunged straight onto Maxis, it's face in his as it clawed into his chest, snarling.
Richtofen fired the Ray Gun again, as Samantha screamed, "Get off of my daddy!" And ran over to her father, attempting to help him stand.
He was fully conscious, the cuts made by the claws shallow but long, and he was able to stand and lean on the control panel and fiddle with it again as Richtofen tried to stop Schuter's bleeding.
"Zat thing vill just keep spitting dogs at us if we don't stop it, Maxis!" Richtofen exclaimed, propping Schuter up in the corner.
"Ze buttons vill not work, Richtofen!" He yelled back, attempting to power down the teleporter the way he'd seen Richtofen do before, but the button did not do anything.
The electricity struck again, the dog flying into Maxis again, this time landing a solid swipe across his throat before Richtofen could hit it.
Maxis' throat gushed blood, covering the top of his shirt, his breathing becoming ragged as Samantha tried to speak to him.
"Maxis, can you hear me?" Richtofen asked, running over to him.
He'd never actually meant for this to happen, and now he'd have the injuries and possible deaths of his boss and coworker on his hands, as well as Maxis' wrath over the loss of his child's pet.
Maxis tried to speak, but a gurgle came out, followed by more blood. Richtofen knew he would probably die, but Samantha wouldn't accept it, and Richtofen knew his conscience would never allow him to leave the girl here alone without offering to take her with him.
"Samantha, I know we've had our disagreements before, but your father vill most likely not be coming back to see us again. You can stay if you vish, but ze dogs vill not stop coming, and I must leave soon!" Richtofen offered her, standing up and moving over to Schuter, who was still alive for the moment.
"Daddy will come back, he won't leave me." She said in a low voice, tears streaming down her face and onto his coat, his eyes looking at her emptily, but still moving, his chest rising and falling slowly.
"Saman...tha..." He said lowly.
"Daddy?"
"You must... leave me... go.. vith... Rich...tofen." He choked out, coughing as he did.
"But I can't leave you, daddy!" She exclaimed, clutching her teddy bear and his coat closer.
"I am gone... Fluffy is... gone... and you... vill be... if you... stay vith me..."
"But.." She got out.
"You are... ze only... sane one... left... Make sure... Schuter... does not... become like Rich...tofen." He choked out again, straining to see the face of his daughter, his vision clouding over.
Samantha quit clutching his coat and looked at him before standing up and looking at Richtofen.
"This is all your fault, you devil! You evil person!" She screamed.
"You think I do not realize zis, child? It vas merely an unintended consequence of an authorized experiment. Things happen, little girl, and your father vas just in ze wrong place at ze wrong time." Richtofen replied coldly, hiding the sorrow in his voice at the unintended death of Richtofen, and injury of Schuter.
Samantha stood silent, and then slowly made her way over to Richtofen, and stood by him as he dragged Schuter to the door.
Suddenly the electricity struck again, this time two dogs appearing instead of one, both coming straight for them.
"Shit!" Richtofen managed to get out, along with a single Ray Gun bullet that stopped the dog coming for him and Schuter.
"Ahhhh!" Samantha let out a whine as the dog scratched and clawed at her, ripping her chest half open before opening its mouth to bite her.
Richtofen shot it, just as Samantha let out another scream, blood pouring from the long deep cuts made by the claws.
"Little girl, you should have gotten behind me!" Richtofen screamed, dropping Schuter and attempting to help Samantha stand.
When she did stand, she let out a cry of pain and fell over again, clutching her cuts.
"Child, I'm sorry." Richtofen meant it, he was sorry for her death, but not that much. He knew she wasn't dead yet, but she would be soon, and then she'd be with her father, unable to interrupt him ever again. Oh, how wrong he was.
Samantha said nothing, just stared over at her father's body as she herself died slowly.
He began dragging Schuter again, managing to make it to the door as soon as the electricity struck again, two more dogs appearing.
"Gah, zey are like ze Hounds from Hell!" Hell Hounds, it fit them.
Richtofen once again shot one, the other ripping Schuter from his other hand, biting into his chest and clawing at his lower body, getting several gashes across his stomach.
"Schuter... I am sorry." He said, this time genuinely sorry. The man was the only one he'd ever liked or thought was useful, and now he'd be dead with the other two soon, the gashes too big and deep to clot.
The man didn't respond, he was still unconscious. He would at least die peacefully, not like Samantha and Maxis.
Richtofen quickly exited the room, and locked it and barred it shut behind him, moving quickly down the hall to Maxis' office.
He ran into Sophia, who looked surprised, the Ray Gun still in his hand.
"What happened to Maxis? And Samantha? And Schuter?" She asked.
"Zey are dead, ze little girl's dog went into the teleporter and gave birth, making monstrous flaming dogs. If you know vhat you want to do, then do it now and then leave, because those dogs vill find you and kill you." Richtofen answered, pushing his way past her into Maxis' office, examining the papers in his room.
He just grabbed everything in the file related 115, the undead file, and everything in his inbox, stuffing it into the spot between his arm and side, holding it like that.
Sophia was gone when he came out, so he proceeded out of the door of the building, locking it as he went. He needed to get out as fast as he could, or the hounds would find him.
"Oh, if only zat dog had never been pregnant..." he muttered to himself, trudging on the path, never looking back, but his thoughts on Schuter who didn't deserve this, Samantha who just wanted to love the dog and its puppies. Finally, on Maxis, who had disagreed with him and pain the ultimate price, death because he would not let him use the dog.
"Oh, Edward, how did you let yourself get into this?" He asked himself.
