The Infamous Adventures of the Basterds Chapter 8: Paranoid, an inglourious basterds fanfic

Author's note: quick update! This chapter practically wrote itself O.o

Anyway, tense stuff up ahead. Hope you'll enjoy it. Thanks to anyone who's reviewed so far. Not too many, but I'm really happy with it :) this is the first fic I've ever written more than one chapter for, and the fact that people like it gives me courage to continue. Thanks again!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: Paranoid.

(January 1944)

They were running. Bullets whizzed by them, crashing into the trees. So far, none of them had been hit, but the chance of that happening was very real, too real. Their only advantage, if you could call it that, was that they were in a forest, relatively kept out of clear view by the trees, and that they luckily had seen their enemy just in time. They had never even had had the chance take their guns and put up a proper fight. It all had happened very sudden.

Lt. Raine had lost track of most of his men as soon as the gunfire had erupted. He hoped for their sake they were clever enough to stick together. He saw Hirschberg and Kagan or Sakowitz (he was a little too busy trying not to get shot to make sure) out of the corner of his left eye, and he thought he'd seen Utivich and Omar somewhere ahead of him, but that was about it.

He noticed the gunshots decreasing, and decided to have very quick look behind him to try to get a view on where his enemy was. He jumped behind a tree, whipping out his handgun and only weapon on him aside from his knife, and glanced in the direction he'd come from. He ducked away immediately, as another round of bullets flew by. He waited for a moment, but the sound of unfamiliar voices drove him out of hiding. He ran at top speed, the adrenaline rushing through his veins pushing him on. He heard more bullets zip by, but somehow, they all missed. He took a sharp turn to the right, hoping to shake his enemies off, and ran down a steep slope, dove behind a pile of fallen trees, and waited. It seemed to work. The noise of gunfire and fast footsteps in the snow gradually faded.

Raine let out a sigh and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He gave himself a moment to calm down somewhat. He wasn't that young anymore, and he felt it.

Fuckin' damn dirty Krauts, he thought. How the hell did they find us here of all places?

They had barely settled down in an open spot for their afternoon break, glad to have a chance to rest a little and put down the things they carried for some time. And then… Then what? It was all still a blur. He remembered they had all jumped up in alarm and that someone had yelled "RUN!", but that could have been him. He hadn't had the time to see if anyone had been shot down on the spot. And if they'd all made it out alive somehow, and hid somewhere like he did, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to get everyone together and organized within the two hours. To make it all even worse, they had lost all their guns, artillery and supplies. Surely, they all kept smaller weapons with them at all times, but they were meant to defend against one, two at most enemies, and not thirty.

Raine silently cursed again. He should have been aware the Germans were planning something like this. Sneaky bastards. Of course they would try to attack them sooner or later. He had been too arrogant to predict that. He had always thought that a captive of theirs would tell him if the Nazis were after them with a special army of their own. Unless the general German soldier didn't know. That had to be it. The Nazi top officers had prepared their counterattack in secret, and had caught the Basterds off guard.

Talk about fightin' fire with fire.

Raine's train of thought was rudely interrupted when he heard footsteps again. Gun in hand and bracing himself, he peered through some branches. He sighed in relief again. It was Donny. His sergeant had made it. He got up, a grin forming on his face, but he immediately froze on the spot.

Donny was trembling on his feet, pale as a fresh sheet of paper, and the hand clutching his right shoulder was wet with blood.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Omar Ulmer stood behind a large tree, with two guns in his hands. He couldn't hear anything suspicious, which made him even more suspicious. He poked his head around the tree, just to be absolutely sure that no Germans had managed to follow him. By the looks of it, everything was calm. He hadn't heard any gunshots for some time now. No one in sight. It seemed that he had actually made it without a scratch on him. He slowly let out his breath, only now realizing he had been holding it.

Then, it hit him. He was all alone, with just two guns, and he had no idea where the others were.

If they're still alive, that is, a mean voice whispered at the back of his mind. He shook his head, as if to get rid of such thoughts. They're all still out there, I just know it.

He realized he had been stupid. He should've tried to stay with one of the others. He was sure everyone else had at least someone with them, and they were probably already trying to find the rest. He couldn't stay at this spot. If no one knew where he was, he'd have to go look for them himself, thus making it easier for the others to find him. Right?

A hand fell on his shoulder.

Omar could barely stifle a scream, and his heart started to pound twice as fast. He twirled around, and looked straight into the faces of Hirschberg and Kagan. They immediately put a finger to their lips.

"Relax, buddy, it's just us." Hirschberg said quietly.

"Fuck, you guys scared the hell out of me…" Omar felt like he'd lost ten years of his life for the second time in maybe 20 minutes. He got a hold of himself again. He wasn't alone anymore.

"Any idea where the others could be?" he asked. Hirschberg shook his head.

"They could be anywhere. And I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but they might as well be captured by the Germans, or worse, they could be dead."

"We gotta go look for them." Omar said.

"Yeah, but I think we should wait till it's dark." Kagan said.

"What are our odds of finding them then? We should go now."

"Those Nazis are still out there!" Hirschberg snarled, keeping his voice down as much as he could. "We're toast if they find us first."

There was no arguing in that. Omar bit his lip. He wanted to know now where his other team mates, his friends were and if they were safe now. But Kagan and Hirschberg were right. They would have to stay out of sight until night fell.

The bright red sphere that was the sun slowly disappeared behind the horizon. In the forest, the shadows crept up from the depths and from behind trees and bushes, spreading like spilled ink. It got even colder than it had been. Everything was awfully quiet.

Lt. Raine was still in the same place, behind the rotting pile if trees, listening. He didn't like the silence at all. He found it very unlikely the Germans had given up so easily, especially now that the Basterds were spread about, and practically unarmed. They had to be up to something. He glanced to his left, where Donny was sitting. He looked slightly better than before.

Donny had been shot twice in almost the same spot in his right shoulder, and still had one bullet in his wound. Raine's knowledge of first aide didn't include digging bullets out of people, so he had taken care of the wound as best as he could, unfortunately having to leave the bullet in place. Donny, who had barely said a word the whole time, thought he could feel the damned thing, as if it slowly dug itself deeper into his flesh. He had a headache, and his body screamed for sleep, but he had to stay alert. He and Raine had agreed that they would come out of hiding as soon as it was dark, to try to find the others. It was a huge risk, since they didn't know if the Germans were still around, but it was better than staying in the same spot.

"Let's go." Lt. Raine said as soon as the shadows had completely swallowed the forest. Donny gritted his teeth, his shoulder hurting every time he moved his arm. But he didn't make a sound. He followed Raine, who was now going up the slope again.

Their plan basically was to go back to where they had left their stuff, hoping no Germans were there and that maybe the others would do the same, if they had the chance. Then, they would go back even more, to the lone monolith they'd passed that morning. It was an obvious enough thing to go back to, they hoped. The stone, that had been standing there amongst the trees for thousands of years, had caught all their interest, and Raine hoped his men would remember the thing. He didn't dare think he and Donny might very well be the only survivors of the attack.

They walked carefully, trying to be as quiet as they could. Every sound they heard seemed to be twice as loud as normal. The whisper of the wind, the rustle of small animals in the bushes, even their own footsteps seemed to mean potential danger. The fact they had been around forests for the majority of their time in France, didn't help much. Never had the environment been so hostile. The darkness did cover them somewhat, but so it did their enemies. Raine thought this might not have been such a good idea after all.

Luck seemed to be on their side, though. They reached the open spot without incident. Aware of the fact the Germans might still be there waiting for them, they kept close to the trees. Raine had his gun in hand, and behind him, Donny cursed silently to himself that he got shot and wouldn't be of much help to his lieutenant when it came to a fight. They both listened and waited. Everything was as silent as ever.

Then, Raine heard the first real suspicious sound. Footsteps. Human footsteps. From where he stood, he could just make out the far end of the open spot, and there he saw something move. His fingers tightened around his gun, and his heart sped up a little. He saw one, no, two figures, and they met just at the border of the trees. He heard voices.

Germans.

They talked in hushed tones, and although Raine couldn't understand what they were saying, he heard they sounded rather bored. He suspected the soldiers were on guard here in case their enemies came back. At least now Raine could be sure of a few things. First, the Nazis were still around indeed, and second, the soldiers here didn't expect anyone here, since they had come out of hiding to chat. An idea was forming inside Raine's head. They still had the element of surprise on their side, which meant they had a chance to take out these soldiers. His gun was still fully loaded, and by the looks of it, only two men were out there. He turned around to face Donny.

"Here's the plan," he whispered. "We sneak up to them from both sides, take 'em out, and take their weapons. Think you can handle it?"

Donny already had gotten hold of his own knife, which was a smaller version of Raine's. His shoulder throbbed, but he ignored it.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

Raine half grinned. Good old reliable Donny.

They split, moving slowly, careful where they put their feet down. A twig breaking under one of their boots was enough to give them away. Their enemies were still talking, unaware of the danger. Raine thought these two weren't the brightest of the bunch. Lucky for us.

Killing the soldiers was almost too easy.

Raine frowned as he swung his victim's machine gun over his shoulder. Where was the backup?

"Be wary." he told Donny. Donny nodded, realizing they were far from getting out of this mess. They moved on, feeling much safer now that they had proper weapons with them.

Raine suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Donny almost bumped into him. Then, he saw it too. The light of the half full moon flickered on something sharp and metal a few inches above the ground, half concealed by the plants.

"Barbed wire." Donny whispered. "Bastards."

The wire crisscrossed seemingly everywhere. Raine tried to look if there was a way around, but he couldn't see enough. He saw something else though, something that looked like a man leaning against a tree. Donny had seen it too, and the two men aimed their guns. The man didn't move. Raine was pretty sure he had to have seen them. Then, he saw there was something wrong. He moved forward, carefully stepping over the barbed wire. When he reached the man, he swallowed.

It was a German soldier, and he was dead. He had been strangled with the barbed wire, and his body was hung from a lower branch with the wire. His feet barely touched the ground. His eye were still open, and stared into oblivion.

In the meantime, Donny had caught up.

"Jesus." he whispered. He turned his gaze to Lt. Raine. Raine nodded.

"This means were not alone. I bet it's Stiglitz that's around here somewhere too."

For the first time in hours, Donny managed to grin.

As they struggled on, their pants getting caught in the barbed wire every now and then, they encountered two more dead Nazis. One had also been strangled, and the other one had had his throat slit. Raine was glad to know that at least one, or maybe even two of his men had survived. They finally got out of the field of wire, and soon reached the monolith. Its massive form towered high above them, and Raine vaguely remembered reading that these things once had magical purposes. He wasn't superstitious, but there sure was a strange vibe coming from the rock. He listened again, hoping to hear anything that meant the rest of his men were here somewhere.

Nothing.

If they were here, they would've come out by now, Raine thought. He and Donny were standing in plain sight. They waited a few more minutes, and then walked to the rock, hiding in its shadow.

"What do we do now?" Donny asked.

"We wait." Raine answered.

"All night?"

"At least for an hour. If no one shows up, we move on."

Donny nodded.

Time passed. Everything was silent. It didn't feel right. The pain in Donny's shoulder got worse again. He got nervous. He could tell by the way Lt. Raine was standing, he was uneasy as well. The confident feeling from before, when they had found the dead bodies, wore off, and they couldn't help but think that, if any of the others had made it, they hadn't thought of coming back here. Or they had been here, and hadn't bothered to wait for anyone else to show up.

The hour was almost over. Raine shifted on his feet, that had gone slightly numb because of the cold. He opened his mouth, to tell Donny they would be going, when he suddenly heard voices again. They were close, very close, and they were talking in German. Lt. Raine and Donny got their guns ready, about to jump from behind the stone and put up a fight for their lives. The voices now came from the other side of the rock. Raine realized at the last minute they sounded very familiar.

"Wicki?" he called. The voices fell silent.

"Lieutenant?

Raine sighed. No harm done. He and Donny came out of hiding. It was indeed Wicki, and Stiglitz was with him.

"So you guys made it too, huh?"

They nodded.

"Know about anyone else?"

"No," Wicki said. "We just looked around about just anywhere close to here. Nobody. Not even Germans."

Raine frowned. That could mean two things: or the Germans had captured (or killed, his mind taunted) the other Basterds and left, or they set up a trap somewhere else, while the rest of his men still walked around. The barbed wire from before seemed to hint the Germans planned to catch them. And they wanted them alive. It would also explain why their aim had been so bad when they had been attacked. He shared his thoughts with the other three.

"Makes sense." Donny said. "Should we stay here?"

His question hung in the air unanswered for some time.

"No." Raine said. "What we gonna do is this: we'll split up, and look for anyone, our guys, or Nazis. We meet back at that bridge we passed early this morning at sunrise. Alright? Good. Donny, you're goin' with Wicki, and Stiglitz, you're comin' with me. Stay quiet, stay safe. Now go."

"What if we don't find anyone?" Donny asked, and Raine could hear a hint of concern in his voice. It wasn't like Donny to sound worried, but it would be a heavy blow for them if their team really had been cut down from ten to four.

"We meet at the bridge at sunrise." Raine said. "We'll see when we get there."

And with that, he walked off, with Stiglitz following him. Donny sighed. He was glad at least four of the Basterds were still alive and free, but he was very worried about the other six. He hadn't realized he'd become so attached to Raine's little gang. He looked up at the monolith, as if it could tell him that everything was going to be alright. Then, he turned to Wicki.

"Okay, let's find out where this party is everyone's disappeared to."

Done. The next 2 chapters will hopefully follow soon, as I'm splitting this one plotline into separate parts, because it's just too long for one chapter. This idea is looking very good in my head, so I hope it'll write easy. But I can promise things will be getting very tense :)