The Monster of Munich

Hans reached for the flashlight clipped to his shirt and flicked it on, a yellow beam slashing through the dust-filled blackness and bathing the walls in pale light. Hilda turned on the flashlight attached to her MP5, a much brighter white light filling the room they'd ended up in. A workman's entrance, from the look of the dust waging a ceaseless war on the quietly rusting tools.

"You're hurt, you're hurt," Hilda said, and slung her MP5, the flashlight aimed at the ceiling and lighting the entire room. "Hold on." Hans stood there patiently, gun in hand, as his wife looked at his left arm. It looked to him like a piece of shrapnel had cut him as they'd crossed the street; not a serious wound, unless he got seriously unlucky and developed tetanus. If that was the case then he was pretty well screwed.

"Doesn't look bad," Hans said, and Hilda nodded.

"Just a small gash," she said. She disinfected and wrapped it, tying the bandage extra tight. "You'll be fine." There was a lockbar on the door, which Hilda secured to prevent the Sturmers from following them, and they relaxed. "Think they saw where we went?" she asked.

"Well, when they don't find our bodies in that other building, they'll know we escaped. I'm sure they'll search some of the buildings, but I can't imagine they'll search for very long. Unless they got a good look at you; if you are the person they're looking for, then they probably won't give up until they're dead," Hans said.

Hilda scoffed. "What's the deal with that, anyway?" she asked as Hans pushed the room's other door open, checking the hall outside for any threats. "What makes me so damn special?"

"Well," Hans said as they moved out into the hall. "I can think of plenty of things that make you special, but none that a Sturmutant would care about."

"Well, aren't you a flatterer."

The two of them fell silent as they moved down the nondescript hall, keeping their eyes on the few doors and checking them as they passed. Offices, mostly, though for which company Hans couldn't tell. There was a staircase at the end of the hall, which they followed up to the third floor. For whatever reason, the staircase skipped the second.

The third floor was home to more offices, themselves home to old RobCo terminals and desks. Hans moved into one of the offices, Hilda right behind him. The office ran alongside an outside wall of the building, the windows mostly intact. Hans eased up to one and saw the Sturmutants outside, the red one gesturing to the others. The four of them (Hans guessed the fifth was dead) then proceeded down the street, towards the collapsed bridge, and around a corner.

"Trouble?"

Hans looked at Hilda. "Either they just entered the front door, or they're high-tailing it back to the park. We'd best not linger." The two of them went back out into the hall and toward the staircase, crouching by the corner and listening. So far, there was no sign of the Sturmers, but Hans didn't want to go down into the long hallway until he was absolutely certain.

*Crack!*

Hans peered around the corner, down the stairs, and saw a gray Sturmer enter an office. One of his comrades kicked a door, *crack!*, and disappeared from sight. He frowned and pulled back from the corner. "Trouble. They're looking for us."

"Fucking abominations. C'mon, let's keep going up. Maybe there'll be an elevator," Hilda said, and Hans nodded. Together the two of them went back up to the third floor, quietly traipsing down its length. They'd just reached the end of the hall and were about to head up the stairs to the fourth floor when they heard gunfire on the first floor, plus return fire.

"...Are they shooting at each other?" Hans asked, and Hilda shrugged. The gunfire lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to pique Hans' curiosity. They proceeded up the stairs to the fourth floor, the second to last, staying close to the walls, ready to duck into one of the offices if they needed to.

Halfway down the hall, from around the corner of a T-junction, a Sturmutant appeared, FG-42 at the ready. It saw them, they saw it, and then both parties were ducking into cover. "They're here!" the Sturmer shouted. "Let us bring Her Majesty their heads!"

"Damn it," Hans said, and leaned out the door to watch the junction. The Sturmer peeked him and he fired, buckshot tearing apart the corner of the wall in a cloud of stucco and dust. The mutant pushed its rifle around the corner and blind-fired, spraying the hall in a storm of 8mm Mauser. Hans scrambled back from the door just as the frame was shredded into toothpicks.

The thunder of the FG-42 was joined by the chatter of Hilda's MP5, and then suddenly ceased. He cast a glance at her and found her crouched by another door, the window on it missing. "It's dead, let's keep going!" she shouted, and Hans nodded. Up the stairs they went again, the Sturmutants only seconds behind. Hans stopped at the top of the steps, turned, and removed the face of the first Sturmer to round the landing.

The top floor was just a single hall, leading to a pair of heavy-looking double doors. Hans backed away from the stairs, never once taking his eyes off them, until he and Hilda passed through the doors. They pushed them closed and locked them.

Hans glanced at the room to make sure it was safe and what he saw made him look again, curious and a little disturbed. The room looked like a small cathedral, with a single row of seven pews set before an altar, the candlesticks on it plastered with dry wax. Behind the altar, catching the sun's light, was a stained-glass window, in the shape of the BMW logo. It cast the room in a mix of blue and white light.

Hans took a moment to push one of the pews up against the doors before taking another look around the room. Candelabras stood in each corner, unlit candles in them. Outside of that the room was nondescript and devoid of any other features. "What the Hell is this?" Hilda asked, and Hans shook his head. He thought back to the BMW building in Munich, where he and her had found the vault door bearing the BMW logo, and reminded himself that the place had brought only misery.

Hans approached the window and Hilda headed towards the altar. The glass was thick and solid, and outside it was a straight five-story drop to concrete. They wouldn't be getting out that way. Not unless there just happened to be a rope somewhere in the makeshift chapel. With no other way in or out they were trapped there.

"'The Church of the Beam,'" Hilda said behind him, and Hans turned around. She was holding a thin leather-bound book, flipping through its pages. "Reads more like a cult to me. Why were people so tightly-wound before The Bomb?" she asked.

"Remember Munich? These BMW people were really fucked up," Hans said. "I'm really glad we never found a way into their vault; I really don't want to think about what they might have been doing down there, if they worshiped the company like this."

Hilda huffed. "That Wanamingo they sent after us told me everything we needed to know."

There was a sudden *bang* at the door as one of the mutants kicked it, ending their conversation. The two of them moved over to the first pew and flipped it over for cover, guns trained on the doors. "Come out, Monster!" one of the mutants yelled. "If you face trial, your death will be fast and painless!"

"I can't say the same for you, fucking mutant trash!" Hilda yelled back. The Sturmutants responded by opening fire, ventilating the doors. A thunderous din drowned out every other sound as the mutants emptied their mags into the doors, pieces of wood flying across the room. Bits and chunks of the doors began to drop off, exposing the Sturmers and allowing Hans and Hilda the chance to shoot back.

As both sides emptied their guns at each other one of the doors fell off its hinges, the crashing slam audible for only a second over the maelstrom of gunfire. One of the Sturmers was square in the opening and Hans fired twice, killing the mutant. He fired his last shell at another mutant preparing to storm the room and dropped to reload, shakily feeding shells into the shotgun's tube.

He popped up in time to see a Sturmutant rush inside, wielding an MG-34 at its hip. It brought the gun to bear and opened fire, turning the room into ground zero of an earthquake, the thunder shaking every bone in Hans' body. The machine gun turned the pew into toothpicks, sending slivers of oak and clouds of sawdust into the air. Hans scrambled back from the pew and followed Hilda to another one, keeping as low to the ground as possible.

A break in the storm gave Hans a chance to rise into a crouch. The mutant saw him to its left and turned to fire, but Hans was quicker. His first shot caught the abomination in her arm, causing her to flinch and nearly drop the MG. His second and third shots found their mark on her torso, punching easily through her armor and dropping her to the floor.

And just like that the chapel fell quiet, the last sound the clink of the empty brass shell as it fell to the floor. Hans topped up the Walther Automatic and slowly stood, Hilda remaining crouched next to him. A thin haze of smoke hung in the air, the room thick with the stench of sulfur and blood.

Hans swallowed, licked his lips, and blew out a breath. It was a strange feeling, surviving such a frenetic gunfight. In the moment it seemed as if it would go on for an eternity; time slowed and the world was washed away in a haze. There was only the enemy and cover, nothing else perceptible. When it ended, everything came rushing back. Color, smell, sound.

"Let's-"

Another Sturmutant walked into the room, and what Hans saw froze him where he stood. The red-skinned mutant was easily a foot taller than him, clad in black armor. Plates were strapped around his biceps, forearms, thighs, and shins. His torso bore an ebony cuirass, dented and scratched and dull. On his head was a knight's helmet, adorned by two faux wings, swept back. In both hands were zweihander swords, the blades wavy. Flammenschwerter. Genuine antiques, as far as Hans could tell. Expertly forged and extremely deadly.

The elite Sturmutant turned to face them and smacked his breastplate with both blades. "I've waited a long time for this. Her Majesty has told us to bring you both in alive, but I fully intend to exact the vengeance I've long sought!" the Sturmutant said. He pointed one sword at Hilda and raised the other. "When I return your head to Queen Ilse, my name will enter our hallowed halls as the name of the one who slayed the MONSTER OF MUNICH!"

The mutant charged and Hans and Hilda opened fire, peppering him with a mix of buckshot and 9mm, both of which bounced harmlessly off his armor. He reached Hilda and swung both blades, effortlessly hefting the heavy swords as if they were paper tubes. Hilda dropped to the floor and scrambled away, the blades slashing air. The mutant swung down, the swords hitting one of the pews and breaking it in half from the force.

Hans fired again, the mutant only a few feet away. The buckshot skated across the mutant's cuirass and flew off into the walls. The monster ripped his swords from the pew and swung his left sword at Hans, who ducked. Hilda, from somewhere on the floor, opened fire again.

Hans stood and reloaded, watching as the mutant turned the blades and stabbed down towards the floor. Hilda popped up to his left and scrambled around another pew, her eyes wide. Hans snapped the Walther Automatic's handguard shot and fired until the magazine ran dry, having no effect on the abomination beyond denting his armor.

The mutant turned and swung so fast Hans barely had time to drop to the floor, dropping his shotgun as he did. The mutant's left sword slammed into the brick wall, a shower of sparks erupting as the steel raked the stone. He brought his right sword around down towards Hans, who rolled out of the way.

He stood, the mutant yanked his sword from the wall, and turned. He lifted the zweihander in his left hand, the long blade stretching across his torso, and raised the sword in his right hand into the air, the tip pointed at the two of them. Hans hastily unslung his G11, wondering if the little bullets would have any effect.

He was expecting the mutant to say something else, but instead he just thundered forward, swords raised. He thrust his right sword forward at Hilda, his form so flawless the blade didn't bob an inch. She dodged left, about to move again when the mutant thrust his left sword across his body, stabbing her in the arm. She shouted in surprise and pain and dropped her MP5. The mutant turned and raised his other arm, preparing to kill her.

With no other options Hans rushed forward and slammed all his weight into the towering monster. He pressed the muzzle of the G11 to his armor and fired, the assault rifle barking harshly. At such a close range the rounds had no trouble penetrating the armor, but if they had an effect on the mutant Hans couldn't tell. He shoved Hans off him with a flick of his massive torso, inadvertently withdrawing his sword from Hilda's arm as he did so.

Hans fell to the floor and scrambled back in time to dodge the mutant's sword as he brought it down, the wavy blade firmly ramming into the stone and sending sparks across the floor. There was a *pop-pop!* sound as Hilda opened fire with her P38, distracting the monster. He raised both swords into the sky and turned back towards her, ready to strike. He kicked one of the pews, sending it sliding across the floor fast enough to knock Hilda over when it hit, pinning her between it and one of the other pews.

"HANS! HANS!" she screamed, firing her pistol until it was empty. Hans jumped to his feet, fumbling with his holster. He drew his sidearm, a Mars Automatic Pistol chambered in .45 Mars Long, and fired.

*BOOM!*

Pure thunder slammed in the small chapel, the sound so staggering it shattered the stained glass window. The heavy .45 round slammed into the mutant's back and punched straight through the armor, making him stagger. He didn't even care, his attention fixed completely on Hilda. Hans fired and fired until he couldn't hear any more, the heavy pistol bucking his entire arm. Recoil yanked the gun up and up, the final round hitting the Sturmutant in the back of his head, dropping him to the floor with a colossal *wham!*

Hans didn't move, unable to believe they'd survived, unwilling to accept that the monster had taken so much effort to kill. He ejected the Mars' empty magazine and reloaded, returned it to his holster, and slowly picked up his other weapons. Hilda pushed the pew off her and quickly stood, her eyes on the Sturmutant's corpse. The round that had hit him in the head had punched through his helmet and sheared a valley in the right side of his skull, jagged edges of the helmet digging into the wound channel, blood thick with brain matter oozing onto the floor.

"Jesus Christ..." Hilda said, picking up her empty MP5. She reloaded, slung it, and licked her lips. "What the fuck, why wouldn't you FUCKING DIE?!" she yelled at the monster's inert body. Hans walked over to her and she looked at him, her eyes still wide and body trembling. She reached up and kissed him. "Thank you, seriously. Jesus..."

Hans was about to say something when he heard footsteps on the stairs. Before he could push Hilda out of the way and raise his gun a squad of blue-clad humans rushed into the chapel, weapons at the ready. They took the room in at a glance, saw Hans and Hilda, and raised their weapons. "Don't move!" one of them said.

There were three of them, all dressed the same. Worn black pants and patchwork blue shirts. Two men and a woman, who wore a golden sash. Deutsche Kommunisten. The woman was carrying a Walther MPL SMG, the two men K98s.

Hilda looked over her shoulder at them, her hands still on Hans' collar. The DKs lowered their weapons a bit, not fully trusting them but clearly glad the two of them were human. "You killed that red all by yourselves?" the woman asked, and Hans nodded.

"I'm impressed. I'm Kapitan Strauss, and you're..." the woman said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Hans. "U-Bahners." She raised her weapon again. "Guessing the girl's your wife."

"That's right..." Hans said. That the woman hadn't killed the two of them yet was a good sign, though Hans couldn't help but be wary. He and the people of the other stations had been dealing with the Deutsche Kommunists for months. Years, if you counted the Fernsehturm incident.

The woman looked back and forth between them for a moment before she lowered her weapon again. "OK, step away from each other and put your weapons down. We're taking you in."

Hilda scoffed. "Fuck you, bitch."

"Listen, I'm willing to be a little lenient since you killed that Black Guard and these other Sturmers, but the boss is going to want to have a little chat with you two. We know what's been going on with the stations; we've got our own problems with Sturmers. So if you come along willingly maybe you can work something out with the boss," the woman, Strauss, said. "Or you can walk back to Pariser Platz and hope you don't run into any more Stormy squads. Your choice."

Hilda looked at Hans, who nodded. "Let's play along. Not like we really have a choice, anyway."

"Papen, take their weapons," Kapitan Strauss said. One of the men stepped forward, carrying a duffel bag. He collected Hans and Hilda's weapons and put them in the bag, frowning at the immense size and weight of the Mars Automatic. He hoisted the bag and looked at his squad leader. "Search them."

"If you lay one fucking finger on me I'll cut your Goddamn balls off, you little prick," Hilda said, and the man looked at her, nonplussed. He gestured at Hans, who lifted his arms, and the man patted him down.

"He's clear," the man said, and was about to move on to Hilda when she took a step back. "Come on, get with the program already."

"Fuck you!"

"Alright, alright, enough. Would you feel better if I searched you?" Strauss asked, and Hilda looked at her. She seemed to think about it for a second before she shook her head, emphatically.

"No, no way..."

"Papen, Jaeger, leave us." The two men walked out of the chapel, staying close to the doors in case they were needed. "I can't take you back to Alexanderplatz if you're carrying a weapon, but I don't want to force you through a search. This'll be a lot less painful if you just agree to the search. Please."

Hilda chewed her lip for a few moments, looked at Hans, and nodded. "Fine. But Hans stays."

"Deal."

Strauss slung her weapon and approached, and Hilda lifted her arms. The DK woman patted along Hilda's arms, torso, and legs, stopping when she patted around Hilda's waist. "There's something here. It's not a gun... What is this?"

"My anti-rape belt."

Strauss gave her a look. "'Anti-rape belt'?"

"I found it in a shop last year," Hilda said. "A BDSM shop, whatever that means."

Strauss looked skeptical. "Mind if I take a look?" she asked, and Hilda hesitantly nodded.

"Go ahead."

Strauss stepped behind Hilda and started unbuttoning her pants, and Hilda's eyes widened. She looked at Hans, taking shallow breaths through her nose. With her childhood being the way it was Hans wondered if she'd have preferred it if one of the men had been undressing her.

Kapitan Strauss, to her credit, didn't completely undress Hilda. She loosened her pants and pulled them down to her thighs, looking at the thin leather-lined steel belt strapped to her waist. She checked the front for weapons, intrigued. "A chastity belt, huh? To protect against rape? Good idea, sister. I should get one for myself."

"Just shut up and fuck off already."

"OK, OK," Strauss said, and pulled Hilda's pants back up for her. "You're good. Papen, the cuffs" Strauss said, and Papen came back into the chapel. He lightly cuffed the two of them, just enough to keep them in line.

Strauss nodded and took another look at the dead Sturmutant. "No wonder we've been having so much trouble with the stations, if the two of you managed to kill a Black Guard by yourselves."

"You wouldn't be having any trouble at all with the stations if you commies could learn to make your own shit instead of stealing from people all the time," Hans said, and Strauss rolled her eyes. She grabbed him by the arm and began leading him and Hilda out of the chapel.

"Save it for the boss. He's the one who'll actually care. Like I said, with our own problems with the Sturmers the way they are maybe you'll come to an agreement and then we can all start playing nice, hmm?" Strauss said as the group left the chapel and started making their way down the stairs. "Really, though, I'm impressed you two managed that."

"Just what the Hell were you doing here, anyway?" Hilda asked.

"We were in the neighborhood and heard gunfire and an explosion. I thought it was one of those nutcrackers from the theater being chased by the Stormies, but Jaeger saw you two running across the street with the mutants on your trail and suggested we help. Had no idea you were U-Bahners until we ran into that chapel," Strauss said. "Fuckers tried shooting at us, too."

Guess that explains the gunfire we heard on our way up Hans thought. They were all silent the rest of the way down, nothing left to say. The DKs led them to the lobby of the BMW building and, after a quick check to make sure it was clear, outside and around the building. They passed under the el-train line behind the building and made their way down an alley, where a battered Kubelwagen waited for them. The two men got in the front seats while Strauss helped Hans and Hilda into the backseat, sitting between them. Papen started the car's engine and they backed out of the alley, driving slowly through the streets as the DKs took them to see their leader.