Chapter 2 of The Wolf pack. Enjoy as we delve deeper into the catacombs...
Chapter 2: The humanity!
'Hey! Komm hier! You have to open this gate!' yells Xander as he peeks through the bars of the closed gate after he heard someone scream behind them. He and the other two tried to open it but the weight of the gate and the mechanism behind it wouldn't allow that. Xander looks over a thin plus shaped intersection, with the actual intersection in the middle. Pillars are placed closely to each other, just packed enough to prevent him from seeing the other roads.
From the left, a terrified German soldier firing his MP40 at two undead comes in his vision. He wears a normal helmet and has two belts forming an X on his stomach and a backpack on his back. The belts are packed with Stielhandgranate and the backpack might be packed too. He was the one screaming for help as she desperately rambles and curses as those creatures simply wouldn't die.
He heard Xander's yell and turns his frightened face towards him. Some hope returns to him when he points at the two undead creatures that are coming for his flesh. Xander got the message and orders Günther and Aiolos to take care of them. He joins in as well.
They do that, having tremendous effect on the attacking creatures. The combined salvo's of Xander and Günther fills one with lead while the other's skull blows apart after when Aiolos' Mauser fired just one shot. With both undead down on the ground, the other soldier finishes the job.
'Are you okay?' asks Aiolos. The soldier wipes some sweat from his forehead and exhales relieved that he sees someone walking that doesn't want to kill him.
'That was too close.' he says to himself before turning to Aiolos. 'Y-yes. I'm fine… thank you. If it weren't it for you three, I would have been torn by those monsters.'
'Can you help us get this door open? With the four of us together… that gives us more chance to survive in here.' claims Xander. The soldier agrees quickly and runs towards the gate. He grabs the underside of it along with the other three.
Xander starts the countdown as his friends are lined up and ready for it. 'Ein… zwei… drei… Aufheben!'
The four puts their full potential into trying to lift the gate, but without any result. It doesn't even budge, let alone shudder when Günther kicks against once they give up on it. Aiolos' hands are fire-red and burn intensely. He turns around and walks away from the group a bit, blowing in his hand to cool the welts around the base of the metacarpus. He curses something in Greek before chewing the pain away.
'That was heavy…' he comments complaining. Günther sees the opportunity to mock Aiolos' family again. His hatred towards them comes from the point in time when Aiolos got out of his house. The family and namely the mother, weren't too nice to the stationed Germans in Aiolos' town when Günther so-called "kidnapped" Aiolos. His mother was an influential woman in town and didn't tolerate the German presence one bit. It almost started a small uproar before Aiolos drove off with Xander and Günther in the back of a truck, away from the village. What happened with the uproar, is unknown. It's not that Aiolos ever asked for it.
So Günther simply goes for it: 'You think that's heavy? Have you ever seen your mother?'
Xander can't resist getting a laugh on his face. He tries to hide it as best as possible, having immense trouble with it. Aiolos, pinching his nasal bone, a little sick and tired of all those jokes, comes closer to Günther.
'Mencken.' he starts off easy. You can hear he restrains himself from straight up choking Günther. 'My friend. Could you keep my family out of your jokes next time?'
Günther shrugs indefinite and laughs on a little. He swings his arm around Aiolos and acts carefree. 'Oh Aiolos. It's just too verdammt easy!'
'Uuurgh…' moans Aiolos who knows that the message of his point went out as fast as it got in.
'Listen; the next time you feel the opportunity to joke about my family, just do it, okay?'
'Chit-chat time is over guys.' tells Xander. 'We need to focus on this gate.'
'What do we about it then Xander?' asks Günther as more eyes look upon the Charrführer to find a fitting solution. Xander doesn't need long to figure out a plan. Those explosives strapped to the soldier they just met could be very valuable.
'Soldat. What's your name?' he asks in a harsh way as he puts his arms behind his back, standing like a real commander. A real SS'er. The soldier understands what he needs to do, even if it seems out of context when looked at the environment.
'Franck Groβ, Herr Charrführer.' he marks loud and clear, standing at attention.
'Hmhm… Groβ huh? Well, in my Gruppe you are nothing more than a maggot do you understand? A tiny moth that I'll squash when you don't listen to me. Understood!?'
‚Sehr sicher Herr Charrführer. What are my orders?'
Xander gets a smile on his face, having a menacing tad to it. The right side of his mouth curls up as the position of his eyebrows turn him into a maniac look-alike.
‚You have explosives don't you? Why don't you put that brain of yours to use before I feed it to those monsters when I find out that you have less intelligence than they do!'
Franck understands what needs to be done and places his backpack on the floor close to the gate. He grabs a lot of explosives out of it, leaving only a few in it. He plucks two grenades from the X-shaped belt and straps a small amount of explosives on him, leaving a large pile. The rest is dumped with the backpack on the floor below. He pulls the cords underneath the grenades and knots them together, making them a twin.
‚Stand back!' warns Franck as the three take cover, away from the gate. Franck throws the two grenades towards the backpack and takes cover as well. The 5-second fuse of the grenade was already at three when he threw it and it's at one when Franck takes cover.
The blast is immensely loud, able to pierce ears that weren't covered by hands. The explosion generates some immense heat, instantly melting whatever is in radius within a fraction of a second. That isn't the only thing it does; it seems that the catacombs weren't built to withstand an explosion of that size. The whole structure starts to rumble. Cracks appear in the walls and pillars as whole parts of the ceiling collapse. The hallway Xander came from implodes so to speak, blocking any chance of going back there.
'That might have been too much.' comments Franck in hindsight as the rumbling turns into an average earthquake. He looks up as he hears cracking coming from the ceiling. He sees that the cracks separates in two and comes together a few dozen centimeters further, forming a perfect rock to squash him like a tiny moth as Xander described it.
He looks away from it and holds his helmet on his head, expecting the worst. The earthquake stops and a haunting silence comes to him. It is like living within the moment of shell-shock. But there is no loud beep in his ears. He hears only one last crumble above him before he closes his eyes.
(…)
(…)
TINK!
(…)
That's all he hears. He opens his eyes and sees that one small rock, nothing bigger than a pebble come on his helmet. He grabs it from the ground, looking surprised at the size. It's not that he'd wished that it was bigger, but it was certainly not what he expected. He looks up to the ceiling and sees that the rock is stuck. In other words: he lives to see the life of another day.
'That was really anti-climactic.' he comments exhaling for a second time. He rises from his squatted position to show Xander and the rest that he's okay. The Charrführer and his men in the meantime have moved through the gap that was once the gate. Only the outlining is left standing and that's to be interpreted seeing the corroded and molten mush that must qualify as "a gate".
Günther just can't resist it. 'That's one big hole in this thing. Does it remind you of when you were bo- Ho ho ho hey!'
Günther drollery has been stopped as Aiolos has had enough of it. With a threatening wag of the left index finger and his right hand already around the grip of his Luger, he demands Günther to stop. Günther raises his hands with MP40 in the air up to his neck and carefully takes a few very wise steps back.
'Could please stop dragging my mother into every gag of yours?' asks Aiolos most charming. Günther swallows his words, knowing that Aiolos is a cowboy when it comes to the quickdraw. "The Greek Wild West", "Pistolero Kofta" or simply "The Greek Quickdraw" were a few nicknames for this toy box full of tricks. Before Günther could even think of aiming his weapon, Aiolos would have filled him up with the wrong turkey filler.
'Okay. I'll stop.' promises Günther solemn. 'I swear that on my heart and soul.'
'It would surprise me if we even have a heart if we keep standing here and wise crack.' Xander turns around to his friends, currently not too serious while they should be. 'Do I need to remind you how deep in the crap we are?'
'No Xander.' reply the two simultaneously as reality comes blackening in again. Xander turns to Franck.
'Well done Soldat. It seems we don't have to leave you here.' he laughs with a secretive pride in the tone set of his voice. 'Do you know where the exit is? Or where we can find someone who knows where it is?'
Franck nods and points towards the hallway that was originally going to hold position to kill the approaching undead. 'That way and then downstairs. There are more trying to survive this madness. If we go together, we have a better chance of getting there alive.'
'No problem Franck. Günther! Aiolos! We're moving out.'
The four now move on towards the supposed extra soldiers trying to get out of here alive as well. Franck leads the way followed by Xander, Günther and with Aiolos closing the row. But Franck's presence in the team seems to enrage the structure as the walkway they are on crumbles when Franck is only a step away from the door.
The rupture of the bridge starts at the bottom and quickly rushes upwards. Xander spreads his arms horizontally and backs off. His spread arms block Günther and Aiolos from coming any closer and forces them back. Franck had no chance; the moment was too sudden and he fell too fast for Xander to react anything other than the way he did. Franck's screaming was short-lived as well as his face slams into a sharp rock on the floor. With a fatal smack, his extremely short service in Xander's squad ends.
'OH! The humanity!' calls Aiolos disgusted as he hears the entire front side of Franck's skull break. The dead corpse flails on its back, revealing the bloodied and disfigured face of Franck. He's missing a lot teeth, that just a second ago where scattered all over the floor. Nothing is left of his nose; only a large dent in the shape of the sharpened point on the rock he fell on.
Aiolos turns away from the group, this time to finally let the nausea do its work; he empties his stomach on the intersection as he couldn't hold it in. He gasps and pants on his knees before Günther checks up on him.
'You okay buddy?' he asks sympathetic.
Aiolos wipes some slime of his lips that was dangling there for no good reason before turning his face to Günther. 'Danke Günther.' He raises from the floor. 'I'm fine. Thank you.'
'Heh heh. Remind me never to eat any of your local cuisine as the French say it. Ha HA!'
He's referring to the smudge that is mangled within the barf. Aiolos can have a laugh about it before the two come back to Xander.
Xander was standing flash frozen on the edge seeing Franck's corpse when Günther left to check up on Aiolos. The sight gives him an eerie feeling. The same one he had at the excavation site. This could just as well have happened to Günther or Aiolos. Would he have reacted the same way? Was it wrong of him to react the way he did? Can he get his men out of here?
All those question bother his mind and it becomes a heavy burden to carry around. He looks ahead, at the door they were supposed to go through. *He said downstairs huh?*
'Poor guy. Maybe those explosives now took its toll on him.' suggests Günther a little sarcastic as he stands right of Xander. Aiolos joins on his left. 'Anyway… that gap is way too big to jump over.' states Günther.
'I know.' confirms Xander with a plan already in mind. It's snatched out of thin air but it's better than just standing here. 'But he said that there are other downstairs, didn't he?'
'He did. But why is that relevant here?' wonders Aiolos.
Xander points downward. It's only several meters, not more than four. 'That's downstairs, isn't?'
'Das ist quatsch Herr Charrführer!' proclaims Günther with a raised voice. It tones down in the next sentence. 'Something like that is very farfetched don't you agree?'
'If you have any other options Obergefreiter…'
Günther looks around but there is nothing to prove that this farfetched option is the wrong one. The way they came from is blocked off. And even if they got there, the ladder remains split in half on the floor. The other walkways are closes off by similar gates and could just as well splinter like this one did.
'Thought so.' reacts Xander as he carefully lowers himself down. He lands perfectly fine as he turns towards his friends looking over the edge. 'I need you guys to be my overwatch. I'm gonna find us an exit.' He focuses on Aiolos. 'That means don't miss.'
Xander turns around and checks the area. He goes for the explosives dropped down here by Franck earlier. Maybe they can use those for later occasions.
Aiolos on the walkway squats down and aims over Xander's head. He's more nervous than he already was. It can be noticed in his inconsistent and quick breathing and sweat dripping from his forehead. Günther only notices Aiolos' strange demeanor.
'Still a little sick from that image?'
Aiolos shakes his head. 'No. That's not it. It's… what Charrführer Xander just said to me.' he admits a little shameful. He knows what went wrong one of the times that Xander entrusted him with overwatch duty. At all times, success was guaranteed. Except for that one time.
Günther is curious when Aiolos tells him about that exception. Aiolos keeps peering through his sights while telling the story. It seems to calm him down as well as making him emotional.
'Do you remember Sevastopol?'
'Of course I do. It was one of the first missions we did together as a group of four.' It hits him. 'Oh yeah… the four of us.'
The memory strikes hard and relentless. Aiolos wasn't the third member, but the fourth of the group. There always was someone else in the team: 300th tank battalion Unterfeldwebel Edgar Schäfer.
'Edgar…'
'Edgar indeed Günther. And if was my fault.'
'W-what happened then?'
Aiolos looks at Günther's puzzled face. Günther never knew what was going on because they were separated for a brief time. When Günther heard that Edgar was killed, it was fifteen minutes later. Aiolos never came clean about it until now.
'Xavier told me to pop a Soviet artillery spotter to protect a line of six Panzer III tanks that were heading into an outskirt of Sevastopol. It would mean that the siege could be won a little faster if they made it in. Xavier was riding along on the last tank when he gave me the order.'
He takes a deep breath as he delves into the memory he had suppressed for the almost one and a half year. It's something he hoped never to open.
'I had the bastard in sights. They could have thrown everything at me to throw my aim off. They could have shot me, they could have thrown grenades, rocks and sand… whatever. They could have bombed me with mortars, artillery and tank shells! Even throw up a cloud of dust.'
'Then what did? Because those tanks were hammered with artillery.'
'It was a stupid little rock that did it. It broke of a wall. Instinctively, I looked over there to check for danger. I fought it and jittered a little to the right. I pulled the trigger in the middle of it. It missed the spotter's head by a hair. I tried to get my rifle ready to fire again, but it went a lot more awkward than harder than any other time. I did put a bullet in his brain, but it was too late. The first tank… Edgar's tank… was hit by a shell that annihilated the turret. Another hit the frontal armor, as if no one was already dead inside of that tin can.'
'So… that's how it happened huh?'
Aiolos nods a bit, not wanting to throw his aim again. He blames himself it so much. Even worse, was when Xavier survived. The tank saw the other tanks being blown to shreds and took off in reverse. It was just enough. Xavier hopped off while the remaining tank retreated. He looked over the sight of the flaming tanks. No one survived. He looked up at the position where Aiolos was. It was the top floor of a bombed building.
The look… the disappointment. It was miracle that Aiolos was able to stay in the team. Xavier never really forgave him for it. He just dropped it. 'Some things are best when stored and locked up for good Aiolos.' was the message he gave the Greek. 'It never happened, verstanden?'
Aiolos understood it well and he vowed to never miss again. Unless it was meant to be.
'So that's what happened. If feels strangely satisfying to know it now.' comments Günther a tad emotional. 'Thanks for telling me Aiolos.'
It seems he already closed that chapter in his life. All it needed was a proper end and Aiolos just gave it to him. Xander in the meantime has collected the backpack and is now stripping Franck's corpse for his grenades. It feels wrong for him to scavenge of a fellow soldier. So to give the man some honor if he'd ever was to be found, he grabs the dogtags he took from the Blazkowitz and puts them in Franck's hand. As if he took care of him.
'Rest in peace Franck Groβ.' he wishes to him as he rises with all equipment ready. 'Günther. Aiolos. Come down here. We need to find a way out. I got all of Franck's stuff.'
Günther has no trouble in going down to join Xander. 'Geronimo!' he yells as he drops down before Xander hands him some grenades. Aiolos however feels something fishy about this all. He heard a thud coming from behind the wall where Franck dropped the rest of his explosives.
'Aiolos!' calls Günther out. 'Aren't you coming?'
'Someone is close to us…' answers Aiolos vague. Günther looks at Xander and makes a gesture suggesting that Aiolos might have lost his mind.
'What is close to us?' asks Xander. If Aiolos feels something, it might be danger. Aiolos focuses all of his hearing and sight as he aims for the wall. His hunch was right, but incomplete as two walls break. The one where the backpack was found and one where Xander and Günther are standing. Four skeleton warriors burst out of off the two walls, completely surprising Xander and Günther.
Aiolos quickly turns to the warriors attacking Xander and Günther. He cannot miss now, not at this time. A fire awakens in him as a warlord rises within. He will not fail!
He fires the first shot without screaming or uttering anything but an exhale. At the dead point of his heart rate, he fires. The bullet travels to a skeleton armed with a battle-axe and having a Gothic helmet on. The small strip in between its non-existent eyes narrowly misses destruction as the bullet misses that by a hair; instead, it's the right eye-socket of the skeleton that shatters before it exits through the back of its head.
Faster than ever, Aiolos readies the weapon again. He aims and fires within a second and blasts the second skeleton to kingdom come. An extreme relief for Xander and Günther, who see that Aiolos is completely in the zone. So conflicted about keeping the past the past yet having to deal with the cocktail of guilt that is Edgar's death and him leaving his family… it all comes out a fiery display of power.
The other two skeletons aren't spared. Aiolos goes a little more a little more morbid on them. He shoots one skeleton's sword out of its hand before separating the head from the spine with a very accurate shot. And before it even hits the ground, Aiolos already has his weapon ready for the other. He shoots this one in the knee is it was smart enough to cover its face. The skeleton kneels in pain but grins vile at Aiolos, somehow knowing it was his last round. But his grinning degrades very fast when Aiolos shows his quickdraw; why you shouldn't mess with "The Greek Quickdraw".
Four bullets are fired in different places to puncture the upper body of the skeleton. The skeleton is done for and collapses on its back, dropping shield and weapon. Aiolos simply exhales and holsters his Luger. He reloads his Kar98K before jumping down.
Xander and Günther don't know what they have seen but it saved their lives for sure. 'Thanks Aiolos. Whatever that was up there…' comments Günther a little discouraged by Aiolos' calm charisma. He should be dead tired. Guess that's why he's a toy box full of tricks. One time he's this, then he's that.
'No thanks Günther.' replies Aiolos completely casual. He gives him a friendly and humble smile, as if it was nothing. Xander can appreciate his humbleness; it means he doesn't see himself as too important for the others.
*That's humanity.* he goes by himself before he's forced to focus on a blood-gurgling scream coming from behind the broken wall where the backpack was. It seems that a dark hallway was behind it. And someone must have encountered the skeletons' friends. *It seems we need to show some humanity to some unholy creatures.* he thinks persistent as he cocks his MP40.
