Engel re-entered his brother's residence where the rest of the family remained.
"There you are!" Sarah cried, rushing up to him with Tom. "We all heard gunshots out there. Is there something you need to tell us?"
"If there was, I would probably loose my career and my badge." Engel sighed. "But I'll tell you what. I'll make an execution just this once. But you all need to swear not to tell anything of what I'm about to tell you. Because if you do, I won't stop the government from coming after you to silence you."
Everyone gave this some thought and reluctantly agreed.
"Okay." Linda said.
"I guess I won't argue against that." replied Howard.
"Why? What are they gonna do? Kill us?" Stevie asked sarcastically.
"Stevie!" Linda tapped her harshly.
"Just two days ago, when the storm first hit, we all heard it loud and clear in the Pentagon. We deployed a procedure we call Protocol 9."
"What's that?" asked Beth.
"How should I put that?" asked Engel.
"You can try being honest." Sarah suggested.
Engel's mouth went dry and his thoughts went spinning for a response. He relented and explained, "We send out...monsters...to help do good deeds, save civilians' lives, protect the country to ensure that they are trustworthy enough to live among the humans."
The entire family's eyes widened and everything went silent. Most of them were confused by this supposition.
"Are you drunk?" asked Howard.
"You wanted the truth. That's the truth."
"You expect us to believe that there are actually monsters out there that the government captures and sets free to be heroes?" Aunt Dorothy groused.
"I know it's hard to digest, but yeah." Engel nodded.
Aunt Dorothy scoffed, "Yeah, and I got out hunting for fairies to grant me wishes."
"Anyway," Engel shook his head, continuing. "We have word that what caused this storm isn't natural in any way, but we know for sure that it's supernatural."
"What do you mean?" asked Tom.
"...There's creatures out there. Hiding, waiting for the right time to strike. All lead by a large creature with big horns, according to Lt. Hopkins-"
"Creatures? What kind of creatures? What do you mean?" Linda interrupted.
"It's really hard to explain." Engel answered her.
All the while, as soon as she heard him speak about the demonic Santa Claus-like monster that the Alpha team encountered in his absence, Omi's face contorted to a look of fear and anxiety. Meanwhile, the monsters stood outside of the house away from the windows so that the family wouldn't see them.
"And I thought we were going after a giant rabid polar bear." replied Runyat in a snarky manner.
"You'd love that." Luz rolled her eyes.
Raeffael turned to Ulrich and asked, "What you do think we should do now? You just tell us."
"Yeah, you're our leader." agreed Luz.
"Me?" repeated Ulrich.
"Of course." Azur nodded, while everyone else did as well.
Ulrich looked around for someone and noticed someone was missing.
"Where's Ólafur?"
As soon as he asked this, everyone started to look around for said spirit, but found him no where in sight. They began to suspect that he might've slipped away while they weren't looking.
"Jesus. One of them got away." Lt. Hopkins replied and reached for the device to activate Ólafur's explosive, before Ulrich stopped him.
"There he is."
He pointed up to see him wait up in the tree clutching his arms around the tree trunk tightly like his life depended on him.
"He's trying to escape." said Lt. Hopkins instinctively.
"No, he's not." groaned Ulrich as he and Luz walked over to the tree, looking up at the spirit.
"Get down from there, please."
"No way!" gripped Ólafur. "I never signed up for this crap! I'm not coming down!"
"No, you know what? Stay up there then." Ulrich suggested sarcastically. "What does it look like up there? What can you see from up there?"
"I don't see no freaking goatman out to get me!"
Luz sighed aggravated, "You got to fucking kidding me. Just come down from there and quit being a damn baby."
Ólafur just flipped her off in response, refusing to leave his hiding spot.
"That's it, screw this. I'm going in." said Ulrich as he left to go inside to speak with Capt. Engel.
That's when Ólafur finally relented.
"Okay, I'm coming down!"
He then lets go of the tree trunk and hovered onto the snow ground. Ulrich bursted into the house, slamming the door behind him, staring straight at Engel.
"Alright, G.I. Joe, you mind telling us what it is we're fighting?" He demanded.
"That's classified information until further notice, hot shot." answered Engel, strictly.
"Who are you?" Sarah asked him.
"That's one of our squad members, Ulrich Frankenstein." Engel said for him.
"Wait, "Frankenstein"?" Stevie and Jordan chuckled.
"Damn right. You gotta a problem with that, chumps?" Ulrich quipped, silencing them, before adding a sarcastic jab. "But don't you all get too comfortable now. They may think we're here to assassinate Donald Trump."
"How did you survive the storm?" Tom asked, shaking off the negativity.
"I wasn't here when the storm came." Ulrich said. "But Lionel has helped us keep warm in the bitter cold out there. Mother Nature looked totally pissed at us right now."
"You're not one of the monsters are you?" asked Aunt Dorothy sarcastically.
"Maybe." Ulrich shrugged.
"You don't look like one." Howard stated arrogantly. "Where's your horns and your pointy tail and your red skin?"
Ulrich shook his head and replied, "I'm human, dumbass. And I don't look anything like a certain someone."
Without any further questions, Ulrich took off out of the house and closed the door.
"He's creepy." Beth said.
"I'll say." commented Howard in agreement. "Who does he think he is going around dressed like that? Did he come back from a death metal concert?"
"Howard!" Linda hissed.
"I'm just saying!"
Night had fallen upon the snow-filled area and the soldiers decided to rest at the Engel household for the night. They set up camp inside throughout the dining room, the kitchen, somewhere upstairs, anywhere they felt comfortable. Tom and Sarah were nearly uncomfortable about having soldiers stay in their home. But what could they do? They needed to do their job and you can't tell them where to be. The monsters needed shelter as well so the squad decided to set up some wind-and-snow-resistant tents for them to sleep in outside the house. As for Azur, well...since he was grew up near the Arctic Circle, there was no way he was going to get cold or freeze to death that easily. In fact, because most of his body tissue is thicker than normal, he held more body heat than anyone. Sarah approached Engel in the kitchen who was scrubbing his Colt 9mm SMG. Sarah swallowed and sat across from him at the island and knocked on the table, getting his attention.
"Hey." She responded.
"Hey." He said back while still scrubbing. "Shouldn't you be with your family and whatnot?"
"Well, Stevie and Jordan are busy trying to pressure some of your men in a wresting match or some crap, I wanted to be somewhere else."
"I forget. Are they boys?" asked Engel.
"No, they get that a lot. They're females." Sarah answered.
"No comment." Engel said confused.
"Listen, I've been meaning to ask you. What happened between you and Tom?"
"Why do you want to know?" asked Engel.
"Well, Tom is my husband, which makes you my brother-in-law. So it's my job to now. Can you please tell me?" Sarah urged desperately.
Engel sighed, "Long time ago when we were kids, Tom was always the favorite child. Our Dad always loved him better and I couldn't do anything without him giving me blank stare or random feedback in a low voice. Each day on Christmas, they cared more abut getting toys, singing Christmas tunes and watching Christmas specials and all that shit. I was more focused the true meaning of Christmas. Our Mom used to tell me stories about her family was taken away by an ancient spirit. I believed her, while no one else did. I believed in Santa Claus while Tom just thought he was only born to give us presents. I was so pissed off that we got into fights a lot about it and I eventually decided that maybe it wasn't worth it."
Sarah frowned with concern. She never knew Tom was that kind of a child once.
"So our Dad had me sent to military school, I got drafted into the army and things just stayed that way." finished Engel.
"Tom...never mentioned any of that." Came Sarah's response.
"I'll bet he didn't." Engel said as he placed his submachine gun on the formica counter.
"Well, maybe this Christmas will be better than the rest...in a way." Sarah said, trying to lift his spirits. At least a little.
"That's what I've been telling myself year after year before I joined the army."
His tone made Sarah's heart drop with a plunk. But, nevertheless, she couldn't keep her hopes down. Not with the storm still howling outside. Speaking of which, in the camp outside, Tobias was getting that strange feeling. So out of curiosity, he unzipped his tent just a smidgen to take a peak outside. What the strangest was was that there was an entire group of large, grim and intimating-looking snowmen all facing towards the house. That strange feeling was proven correct and Tobias glared suspiciously towards the snowmen. He snorted out a puff of steam before zipping the tent back up. Inside, little baby Chrissy was watching a children's Christmas movie on the iPad and enjoying it when Sarah walked in carrying blankets for everyone.
"Won't the battery die?" She asked with worry, afraid that they'll waste all the battery life on their electronics, knowing that there was no way to recharge them.
"They gotta die sometime." Linda assured with a shrug. "Might as well enjoy it while we still can."
Tom was boarding up the windows just the make everyone feel safer presumably. Howard sat by the windows with a few soldiers and holding his rifle which he had gotten from his truck "Lucinda", having volunteered to keep watch with them.
"Hey, Tommy." He whispered to him. "I, uh...I just wanted to say, in case we don't survive this predicament, I'm sorry I thought you were a spineless dick all these years."
"Don't worry about it. We're family." responded Tom.
Max padded over to have a look through the windows.
"You should get some sleep, pal." His father told him as he viewed the land through binoculars.
"How?" He asked.
"Good point." Tom sighed in agreement.
Tom could see the snowmen standing on their front lawn and began to feel unnerved by this.
"Dad? We're gonna die, aren't we?" asked Max, more concerned than the others.
"No, no, no, no." Tom assured his son comfortingly.
"Omi's been acting different ever since the storm came." The boy said looking at his grandmother still sitting by the fire. "And from what Uncle Daniel says, it doesn't sound good."
"Max, Uncle Daniel's just doing his job. There's nothing too serious about this." said Tom. "And besides, Omi always gets a little weird around Christmas."
He said in a hushed whisper so that his German mother does not hear.
"Why?" asked Max.
"I don't know. She never talks about it."
"Max, come on. Time for bed." Sarah called to her son, padding a spot next to her on the couch.
"It's gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine." Tom gave Max a warm hug.
The boy went over to his mother and sat next to her comfortably to get ready for sleep.
"You know," said Howard to Tom. "Linda and I butt heads time to time, but I can't imagine a life without her."
Tom and Sarah smiled at each other.
"You should probably catch some winks with your family." Howard informed. "I'll be fine. I'll be keeping with the rest of the men. A shepherd's gotta protect his flock."
Tom was beginning to feel uneasy about letting him keep watch with the soldiers, but since he was more experienced with guns than he was, he couldn't argue. So he just nodded and went ahead to sleep with Sarah and Max on the couch.