Chapter 2: Walk on the wild side.

(5 days later)

Utivich was standing in the middle of the road, slowly rolling a cigarette. He was waiting, had been for an hour now. To his left and right, hiding behind the trees and bushes of the forest this road ran through, were the rest of his companions. He couldn't see them, but they were there alright. They were waiting for a German army truck, full of soldiers on their way to the south they were sure would drive by this afternoon. They had gained this information the previous day, when they had ambushed another patrol. The one soldier they had kept alive for questioning, hadn't told them much, simply because the man hadn't had more information than he had given them. He had been new in the army, looking not a day older then eighteen. Utivich would've felt sorry for the guy when he put him out of his misery with a bullet if he hadn't been his enemy.

The patrol they had attacked yesterday had been the first of a group of soldiers that would go to the border for backup, since there were enemies around that ambushed and brutally killed soldiers that patrolled the area. Lt. Raine and his men had laughed when their German captive had told them that.

"Guess who you just ran into." Raine had chuckled, taking out his snuff box. "Unlucky you on your first day in the army…"

It was Raine's plan to make sure any new patrols never got to the border.

And now they were waiting. Utivich would make sure the truck stopped, and as soon as that happened, the others would attack. Taking a drag of his cigarette, he found it was taking damn long for the truck to get here. Unless the German soldier had given them wrong information. Son of a bitch, Utivich thought, but, at that precise moment, he heard the humming of an engine. Throwing away his half smoked cigarette, he saw the truck approaching. He saw the driver eye him suspiciously before the man slowed down a little, as if he hoped Utivich would just step aside. When he didn't move, the driver started blowing his horn, making angry gestures, slowing down still. The truck came to a halt about 2 inches in front of Utivich. The driver poked his head out of the window, spitting out a stream of angry German.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Utivich said, whipping out his handgun and shooting the driver in the head. Simultaneously, the others jumped from behind trees and bushes, charging around the truck, rifles and machine guns in hand.

"Everybody out!" Donny shouted. The German soldiers were completely caught off guard. One of them recovered very quickly, firing randomly at his attackers, missing them by inches. He was answered by a spray of bullets, sending his body to smack against the floor of the truck, blood seeping out of his torn uniform. Within seconds, the soldiers had their weapons taken from them, and were forced on their knees with their hands on their head, forming a line on the road.

Then, Donny walked up to them and shot one of the soldiers in the head. The other ones flinched, eyes wide with terror.

"Who's next?" Donny shouted again, an aggressive and slightly crazed look in his eyes, while he stomped up and down the line. Without warning, he grabbed one of the soldiers by the hair, turning his face up to his.

"You maybe?"

The man began to tremble, his eyes darting anywhere but Donny's face. He shook his head as far as the sergeants iron grip on his hair let him. Donny put his gun against the man's temple.

"You sure?" he asked, grinning. The man now began to stutter, still shaking his head.

"Check it out, serge, he just pissed his pants." Omar said. Donny looked down and started laughing.

"We'll keep this one for questioning." he said, taking back his gun, instead shooting the soldier to his left.

"Get their superior officer over here." Lt. Raine said, sitting on a stump on the side of the road, watching the scene. Wicki and Utivich roughly grabbed a rather tall, blonde man in German lieutenant uniform by the shoulders, half dragged him along and pushed him on his knees in front of Raine.

"Willy, ask him what his name is and if he speaks any English."

Wicki, being the only German speaking man on the team, did as he was told.

"He says his name is Günter Hermann and that he doesn't speak any English."

"Alright Günter, I'm Lt. Aldo Raine, and these are my men. I got a question for you, and you better answer it. Do you know how many more trucks like yours are gonna pass by here today or any of the following days?"

The man listened to Wicki's translation, and then answered in one short sentence.

"He says he doesn't know." Wicki said. Raine gave the German lieutenant a wry look.

"You don't know, Günter, or you don't wanna tell us?"

Günter didn't answer this time. Instead, he spat on the ground, right between Raine's boots. Raine sighed and took out his knife, pushing the tip under the man's chin.

"Look, Günter, either you cooperate, or I'll tickle you a little with my knife. And as you can see, it's a pretty big ass knife. The kind you don't want to get tickled with. Now answer my question."

Günter this time answered in a stream of German, sounding angry.

"He says he'll never tell you anything, and neither will his men."

Raine chuckled.

"Really now?" he said, pushing his knife up a little, so that a little bit of blood started to seep past the blade. Günter didn't look like he was going to budge. Raine looked away from him, to Donny, who got the message and shot another soldier.

"Go ahead, shoot 'em all. Y'all can start scalping 'em too, see if that helps our good friend Günter's memory. Oh, leave the one Donny picked alive." Raine ordered.

Günter watched in horror as all his men were all shot several times. He averted his eyes as soon as Utivich started to dig his knife into the skin of the head of one of the dead soldiers.

"Judging by that look on your face, you don't really like it when we kill your men, huh Günter." Lt. Raine said. In the meantime, Donny had brought the surviving soldier.

"Hey, lieutenant, this one looks like he'd talk." he said.

"Yeah, good, Günter don't seem like the talkative type."

"He sure isn't… Oh!" Donny's eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait a minute, I got an idea, I'll be right back…" He hurried off, back to the trees, where they had left their bags and such. Raine frowned. He wanted to get this over with, seeing as he didn't know when more trucks would show up. They didn't have much time to mess around.

Donny returned, his baseball bat swung over his shoulder. That same baseball bat he had been dragging along with him the whole time, without it having any real purpose. As far as it concerned Raine, it just had sentimental value for Donny: baseball was his favorite sport, and his bat had the names of all the Jews he knew in his neighborhood in Boston carved in it. But now, if Raine was thinking what Donny was thinking, that bat could come in handy after all.

"May I, sir?" Donny asked, grinning sheepishly.

"Knock yourself out." Raine answered.

"Oh, I'll be knocking something out alright…"

Donny grabbed Günter by the hair, forcing him to the middle of the road, right in front of the dead soldiers. He started walking around the German lieutenant, whacking his bat in his left hand, with an odd mix of almost childlike excitement and murderous intent in his eyes. The others watched. For a moment, it seemed that even the forest around them held its breath.

"Ever heard of baseball?" Donny asked, stopping in front of Günter, placing his bat to the side of the man's head. Günter didn't say anything, his face pale, his eyes strangely empty.

Donny swung his bat.

The remaining German soldier screamed something, just as wood met the thin, softer bone that can be found in any human beings temples.

"That's got to hurt." Omar stated.

"No shit." Utivich said. They looked at each other and started laughing. Donny still walked circles around his victim, panting slightly.

"Man that felt good…"

"You're some kind of bastard, you know that Donny?" Raine said.

They all laughed now, as Donny just grinned and walked over to the last survivor of their attack, who looked like he could burst into tears at any minute.

"Want some of this, huh?" Donny barked, poking with his bat. The man flinched, shook his head violently and started talking. Wicki translated.

"He asks if we could keep him alive, that his brother already died in the war and that his mother can't handle another dead son."

"I don't care for one second about that. Ask him what I asked Günter." Raine interrupted.

The soldier, whose name appeared to be Michaël, told them that five more trucks would be passing by later that afternoon, and that he didn't know about any others, but that he did know about a military base about 15 miles up north.

Raine nodded, smiled and patted Michaël on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Michael, that's really gonna help us. In fact, you got me in such a good ol' mood, I'm gonna let you walk outta here, to spread the word."

The soldier's face lit up when he heard this.

"Wait, I'm not finished yet." Raine said. "Now, as I see it, when this war is over, you'll be going back home, to see your mom, most likely. You'll also most likely take that uniform you're wearin' off," he poked one of the swastika's on Michaël's jacket, "and you'll probably get rid of it, to try to forget about your time in the Nazi army. But we here think that once you were a Nazi, you don't stop being a Nazi. Now, without that uniform, you'll look like any good lookin' young fellow. But we know you ain't just any good lookin' young fellow, and you know you ain't just any good lookin' young fellow. So, I'm gonna give you a reminder. Something you can't take off."

Raine got hold of his knife again, ordering Omar to keep Michaël under shot, in case he'd try something funny while he was busy adjusting his face a little.

"Not bad." Omar said when Lt. Raine had finished carving a swastika into Michaëls forehead.

"Goes great with the color of his eyes." Donny commented. He pulled Michaël up, and pushed him onto the road. "Go, shoot, before we change our minds!"

The soldier didn't need to know any English to understand what Donny meant. He started to run, faster and faster, until he was nothing but a tiny figure in the distance.

"Are you sure we should've let him go, lieutenant?" Wicki asked.

"Yeah. By the time he's found any help, we'll be long gone." Raine answered. "Now get your asses back behind them trees. Those other five trucks could be here any minute."

As soon as everyone was back in the forest, where they had a good sight on the road without being visible themselves, Lt. Raine explained how they were going to take out five German military trucks.

This time, they didn't have to wait that long. Donny, Utivich, Omar, Wicki and Kagan were hiding in the bushes nearby the road. They each held 2 grenades, which they would be dropping underneath the trucks as soon as the Germans stopped to see what had happened to the other truck and its passengers. Donny and the others would then back away, wait for the bang, get the rest of the team and kill any survivors.

"Okay, now!" Donny mouthed to the others, sneaking forward towards the trucks. The drivers of the two front ones had gotten out, staring in shock at the dead bodies that lay sprawled over the road in front of them. They didn't see the 5 men place grenades underneath their vehicles and sneak back into the woods.

Donny and Utivich got behind the same large tree, hoping they were far enough into the forest to be more or less safe from the explosion. They weren't really used to using grenades.

Then came the blast.

The entire forest lit up, and a smoldering heat filled the air. Donny had thought he was used to a thing or two, but now, he was proven very wrong. He grabbed Utivich by the arm and yanked him along, shouting to the others to get the hell out of there. As they ran, they saw things flying everywhere. Pieces of metal that would kill you for sure it you got hit by one of them, fiery pieces of fabric, and lots and lots of bloody, burning limbs. Donny saw a head fly by, a body that was missing legs and something he could only identify as insides.

They reached the others without any major incidents.

"I… think… we may have… overdone it a little…" Donny said, panting heavily, his face and clothes covered in blood splatters from falling pieces of human. The other 4 weren't looking all that good either. Lt. Raine stared at the burning trucks through the trees, speechless.

"Yeah, we may have." He said eventually. "Let's get the fuck outta here. We don't want to get fried alive."

They all took their bags and weapons, hurrying away from the fast spreading fire. They got lucky, though. It started raining again. They marched for about an hour before stopping to camp for the night.

After dinner (canned corned beef with canned carrots and canned peaches) they sat together and talked about the happenings of the day.

"… and BOOM!, and things started to fly around everywhere, and I thought, shit, I gotta get away. Man, that was intense!" Donny said, making wide gestures.

"About as intense as a Red Sox game, serge?" Omar asked.

"Okay, maybe not that intense… but still."

"We're lucky bastards." Utivich commented.

"We sure are… but, you know, we're like the bastards." Donny said.

"Like a name for the Germans to remember?" Omar said.

"Yeah! Absolutely!" Donny nodded enthusiastically. "What do you think, lieutenant?"

"Sounds good, you bastards."

They all grinned.

Later that night, by the light of a cigarette, Lt. Riane carved out two words out of the wooden part of his rifle, hoping those words would make any Nazi's blood run cold when he heard them.

'inglourious basterds'

It sure sounds damn good, he thought, taking one more drag of his cigarette before he put it out and would try to get some sleep.

They had e few busy weeks ahead of them. And he intended on getting all his scalps from his men.