Garden of Dreams
Hans had only ever heard stories about Berchtesgaden. A supposed paradise, untouched by The Bomb, where splendor could be seen everywhere one turned. Of course, none of it was true, but the place was still beautiful. The small and remote town had been spared by The Bomb, but the war had still touched it in the form of looting and petty skirmishes. All of the buildings still stood, their colors faded, including a U-shaped hotel. The vertibird touched down by the hotel and the team disembarked, along with Commander Wolfgang.
"Sweet Mary, that was a Wanamingo? My God. Thank the lord for that flamethrower, yeah?" Wolfgang said. He took the case of Item 224 samples and slipped it into a backpack. "We'll all be staying the night here and then tomorrow we'll go up to the Eagle's Nest. With all our strength amassed here the Coalition will have no hope of standing against our might" the Kommandant said, and then he walked away, leaving the five of them by the building.
"Well, what now?" Klara asked.
"I'm going up to the Eagle's Nest to give the Chancellor the samples," Erich said. "I'll see you all there tomorrow." The panzertrooper turned and stepped out of the lobby and in to the darkness, apparently intending to walk all the way up to the Nest.
Hans shrugged. "Anyone hungry? Maybe they have a nice diner here still, maybe a bar. If not then at least the rooms will be nice, I'm sure." The four of them entered the lobby, a throng of Final Order officers assembled by a staircase. The lobby's nice stonework was slightly fouled by the odd cone-shaped canvas ceiling lights, one of which was in tatters. The architecture was nice, for a modern building, but not quite as appealing as a more traditional structure.
"Well, at least it's not hideous," Klara said. No one disagreed. There was a small bar to the left as they entered, staffed by a single bored-looking tender. Paul was already walking towards it, eager to check the vintage, leaving the rest of them in the middle of the room.
Hans didn't want to do much of anything besides rest, and thankfully for him the girls were onboard with this. They left Paul alone at the bar and proceeded upstairs to the second floor. They passed by a lounge, decorated with mounted deer heads and bear rugs, and into a hall lined by doors, some open. Hans poked his head into one and found a typical high-class hotel room inside, the wall lined with wood and a pair of glass doors opening out onto a balcony. There was just the one bed, which suited Hans just fine.
"Mmm, looks rather inviting. Well, we can't all crowd into the one room, but it seems like such a waste for each of us to get a room all to ourselves. Who should share a room with him?" Klara asked, and Hans felt Hilda put her arm around him.
"Me and Hans will share this one, and you and Paul can share one of the others" she said firmly, and Klara looked between her and Hans. He just shrugged, and Klara nodded.
"Suits me fine. I'll go see how our Final Order friend is doing, then. I do hope he's not too drunk already; we just got here, after all" Klara said, and she walked by the two of them and headed back to the stairs down to the lobby. Hans and Hilda entered the hotel room and shut the door behind them, dumping their packs onto the floor. Hans wasn't tired, necessarily, but definitely eager to get into a chair. There was one right by the balcony door, calling for him. He set his rifle down next to it and sat, his toes curling in his boots.
"Mm. If the bed's half as good as this chair I doubt we'll ever leave it," he said, and looked up at Hilda. She smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, looking at him. "We've come a long way, figuratively and literally. Hard to believe it all, isn't it?"
Hilda nodded. "Yeah. Feels like we left Berlin a long time ago, but it's only been...what? A month?"
"Yeah. We left about four weeks ago. Tomorrow's..." he trailed off and frowned. "Tomorrow's the 23rd. Twenty years to the day since The Bomb came. Now there's something I wish had happened a very long time ago. Actually, I wish it had never happened at all. As awful as everything was before it was so much better than everything that's happened since."
"Not everything," Hilda said. "Natursturm is happening right now, which means we're finally going to fix everything. No more scavenging, no more fighting, no more suffering. Projekt Natursturm is going to make everything better."
"Yeah..." Hans said. He slowly got up and sat down on the bed next to Hilda. She put a hand on his thigh, looking at him. "I'm glad I can be a part of it. Be a part of the work that will restore peace and prosperity to Germany. And I'm glad you're a part of it, too. That we're both a part of it, together." He put his hand on her thigh, and she smiled. "It's going to be a long road, and we still have many days, months, and years of fighting ahead of us, but we'll face it all together."
Hilda put her free hand up on Hans' cheek, and he gently grabbed her wrist. The two of them gazed into each other's eyes, transfixed. He hadn't been sure about it at first, but now there was no mistaking what he felt. "I love you, Hilda."
"What does that mean?"
Hans looked at her, unsure of what to think. "It means...that I love you..." he said. He never thought he'd have to explain it. "You know that feeling, that you're feeling right now, looking at me? The way your skin flushes, your chest tightens? That's what love is."
Hilda smiled. "Then I love you, too." They shared a kiss and then Hans stood, still holding Hilda by her wrist. "Come on, let's go downstairs and see how the others are doing." Hand in hand they went back out into the hall and down the stairs to the bar, where Paul and Klara sat discussing something. The dark of the night outside left the lobby lit only by candles and the few lights that still worked, casting soft glows and large shadows everywhere and leaving Hans feeling a mix of nostalgia and wistfulness. If life would ever again be safe and normal, he wouldn't live to see it, but what they were doing today would ensure future generations would get to enjoy their peace, and that was good enough for him.
"Isn't it all just the same? Wine is wine, just like all those cars at the BMW museum we saw. I swear I thought you were going to cry when you saw them, both you and- Oh, hello you two. Come to join us? Paul's going on about his wine again" Klara said when Hans and Hilda approached, still holding hands.
Paul swiveled around in his stool, took a glance at the lovebirds, and smiled. "I'll make a connoisseur out of you all yet, believe you me. Only French wine is better than German wine, and no, wine isn't all the same," he said, turning his attention back to Klara, who rolled her eyes. "One day I'll give you all a proper schooling in wine. Tonight's lesson is a simple one, I think: you put the glass to your lips and drink." The bartender came out holding a bottle, set out four glasses, and poured.
"I'll drink to that," Hans said as he picked up a glass.
"I believe it is customary to perform a toast before drinking wine, yes? What shall we propose our toast to?" Klara asked, and they all looked to Hans. He looked down at the crimson fluid swirling around in his glass and thought, but it didn't take him long to decide. He nodded and looked back up at the rest of the team; Klara Edmund, their former councilor of the U-Bahn station at Pariser Platz; Hilda Muller, their medic and longtime bomb-loving friend with a temper as short as her fuses; and Paul March, the kleptomaniac car-loving wine connoisseur.
Hans raised his glass, standing before the other three, and looked at the only empty stool at the bar. Reserved for the one who would never be there to fill it. "To Walter Steinbatz" Hans said, and the others raised their glasses, their smiles fading. "Flieg in frieden vorwärts."
They each downed their drinks and set the glasses on the bar. "Hear hear" Paul said.
"Everything we do, everything we have done, is for his memory. Atomsturm, Natursturm, and anything that comes after. Walter only wanted a better world, the way we all do. He'll never get to see Natursturm, never get a chance to see the effect it will have on the whole of Germany. Let us never take it for granted, hmm?" Hans said, and the others nodded.
The four of them sat at the bar for a few minutes, just drinking, until Hans looked over his shoulder and saw that the purplish hue of the darkening sky told him it was almost time to turn in. He set his glass down on the bar and stepped away, the others turning to look at him. "It's getting late, and tomorrow's an important day. I'm going to turn in, and I recommend you all do the same."
Paul looked at his watch, still working much to Hans' amazement, and frowned. "Ah, damn, you're right. Guess I'd better hit the hay. Did we figure out the rooms situation?" he asked.
"Hilda and I in one, you and Klara in another."
Paul nodded. "Guess I'll follow you, then" he said to Klara, and they all rose. The four of them proceeded back upstairs to the second floor, the slivery moonlight streaming in through the skylights, and headed for their rooms. Hans stopped by the door to theirs, fishing for his key and watching Paul and Klara walk to their room. They stepped in and the way Klara swiftly shut the door behind her told him everything. He smiled, unlocked the door, and he and Hilda entered their room.
The view outside was absolutely stunning, even if every tree in sight was dead. Hans closed their door and approached the balcony, wanting to appreciate the majestic view for just a few moments. Hilda followed him, and together they stood by the balcony's railing, looking out at the valley. The snowcapped peaks of the Alps lied beyond the valley, silhouetted by the glow of the moonlight and the stars.
Hans felt Hilda put her hand on one of his, and he smiled at her. "Tonight, I want to sleep with you" she said, and Hans nodded, reminding himself that she was nothing if not forward. "Don't stay out here too long" Hilda whispered in his ear, and a gentle shudder ran through him. She went back into the hotel room and, despite himself, Hans stayed outside a few minutes longer. Some small part of him wondered if the trees would ever come back to life; if the world would one day know the beauty of lush green hills and verdant meadows. Hans could only hope they would, and that he'd be there to see it.
Casting one last forlorn look at the valley Hans stepped back from the railing and entered the room. Hilda was nowhere to be seen, though the bathroom door was closed. Hans removed his boots and lied down on the bed, his aching back arching in response as he relaxed. He put his hands under his head and stared at the ceiling for a moment, his mind wandering.
The bathroom door opened and out stepped Hilda, wearing just her shirt and skirt. Hans looked at her and smiled, and she smiled back. She approached the bed and climbed in it, straddling him, sitting on his lap with her hands on his chest. His gaze wandered up her slender figure to her pretty face, and Hans saw something he'd never seen before in her expression. A look that made his body stir just as the weight of Hilda's body was making it stir. "You're wearing the skirt, I see. You must really like it."
Hilda leaned down, kissed him, and put her mouth next to his ear. "Just wait until you see what I'm not wearing" she said, and grabbed his wrist. She guided his hand to her, forcing him to stick his hand up the skirt. He turned his fingers up, staring into Hilda's eyes, and reached out to touch her-
"Oh..." he said, feeling Hilda's body jolt at the strange but pleasant touch. She grinned and lifted the bottom half of her body up and shimmied back, her hands fiddling with his zipper. She stopped, waiting for him, and he nodded. "Go ahead, Hilda." That was all she needed to hear, apparently.
The two of them slept well that night.
The morning came and, after a quick breakfast, the team had boarded a vertibird at Kommandant Wolfgang's request. The five of them had held on as the aircraft lifted into the morning sky, the ground still damp with dew, and continued to rise. The helicopter turned away from the hotel, away from Berchtesgaden, and ascended up to Kehlsteinhaus: the Eagle's Nest.
The chalet was practically untouched, a victim only of neglect and the elements, neither of which were a match for the chalet's stone and brick. Hans looked out the window of the side door at the chalet and saw a few Final Order soldiers and scientists, running back and forth. Behind the chalet, at the top of a flight of stairs, was a machine. As big as a car and shaped vaguely like a cooking pot upside down. The Natursturm device.
The vertibird circled around the chalet and touched down on a small outcropping down from the house, a narrow natural path leading up from it to the chalet. The team disembarked from the aircraft and it took off, heading back down to Berchtesgaden. The late autumn air, slightly chilled from the altitude, gently breezed around them as they walked up the narrow path to the Eagle's Nest. There weren't many people around, besides the officers and scientists. Wolfgang led them into the main hall of the chalet, where a few others had already gathered. There was a pair of panzertruppen at the back of the room, standing by a fireplace. Next to them was...
"Ah, Commander Wolfgang! Over here, if you please" Chancellor Karl Dietrich said, waving them over. The five of them made their way across the room, the heavily armored panzertruppen turning to face them. Hans recognized the one as Erich Braun, but had no idea who the other one was.
"I am glad that everyone is here now," Chancellor Dietrich said. "Projekt Natursturm is ready, and with it we are ready to bring about an end to all of Germany's misfortune. I understand that the Bavarian Coalition is on their way to take this grand machine away from us, to use it for their own ends, but I have faith in the defensibility of the Eagle's Nest and in her defenders. Now, Kommandant Wolfgang, if you'll come with me." Dietrich trailed off as he led Wolfgang across the room, to a secluded corner. At the reminder of the Coalition's impending arrival Hans unslung his rifle, wanting to be ready.
Hans scanned the room as the others slowly fanned out, finding empty chairs to rest in. Friedrich Ademar had said something about the Fourth Reich being born where the Third one died, but the Eagle's Nest didn't look like any Nazi building Hans had ever seen in photos before. It looked rather...homely. If it weren't for the uniformed officers and heavily armored soldiers it'd look more like a nice summer home than a military center.
Hans turned his attention back towards the fireplace, where the panzertroopers were standing. The suit was impressive, that was for sure, if a little bulky. Erich was looking at him, and Hans walked over. He figured there was no harm in telling him. "I wasn't going to tell you this, but yesterday wasn't the first time we met. I've seen you before."
"Where?" the filtered voice came back.
"Dahlem. Die Max-Planck Institut fur Molekular Genetik."
Erich nodded slowly. "Rovers aren't such a threat when you're drowning them in searing plasma."
"Yes, I saw. It was...incredible. I wish you'd been around when we went to the BMW museum; would've made things so much easier" Hans said. "Thanks for coming along with us to the military base."
"Don't mention it. What'd you go to BMW for?"
"Jet engines, to power the Natursturm device. The whole place was infested with Wanamingos. Not everyone who went there came back" Hans said.
The panzertruppe nodded. "Once we're done here we'll really get to work, and abominations like those won't stand a chance." The man sounded eager. Hans couldn't blame him. "Just like the Coalition. Let 'em come."
"I wish I had your enthusiasm. And confidence" Hans said. Erich just shrugged his shoulders. "I have to ask, though. What were you doing at the Genetics Institute? You weren't the only one there, either. There was another squad, who left via vertibird. I didn't find out they were Final Order until much later. So what were you all doing there?"
"Matter of operational security."
"Herr Eckhart, over here!"
Hans looked over his shoulder and saw Dietrich waving him over. He nodded at the panzertruppe, who nodded back, and then he walked quickly across the ornate great hall to where Kommandant Wolfgang, Chancellor Dietrich, and the rest of the team were sitting. Hans joined them, slinging his rifle. Karl Dietrich had set out some papers and books, and the Kommandant was looking them over. "Our lead scientist tried to explain it to me, but I couldn't exactly grasp the nature of it. I was a sales broker before the war, not a scientist or engineer. Closest I ever came to engineering was woodworking in my shed on weekends. This, though, is a magnificent invention. I imagine that, had it been completed before the war, Germany would've fared much better" Dietrich said. "Here, come with me, I'll show you what I mean."
They all stood and went outside, the breeze reminding Hans just how chilly it was at the Eagle's Nest. They walked across the sun terrace and began the short trek up the hill behind the chalet, the device waiting for them at the top. A team of scientists was assembled around it, looking it over. The group proceeded up the steps and looked upon the Natursturm device as they approached, awed by its size. Hans could see the jet engines they'd found at the BMW museum haphazardly mounted to the device, feeding it power.
"Officers, soldiers, and guests of the Final Order," Dietrich said once they were all assembled. "I present to you: Project Nature Storm. A revolutionary pre-War machine known as a replicator, capable of taking in any small matter and cloning it. With the help of some people who are no longer with us the Final Order learned of this incredible machine and, using other pre-War records, we located it in Berlin, practically untouched since The Bomb. The brainchild of IG Farben and Porsche, the replicator was supposed to solve every crisis that our world faced before the Great War. Famine, fuel shortages, material shortages, logistic shortages, everything. Some power problems plagued it, I understand, and in the end The Bomb struck first."
A scientist flicked a switch on the device, followed by a few more, and the machine sputtered to life. The jet engines mounted to it began to turn, their high whine drowning out the hum of the machine's conveyor belt. "Unlimited food, unlimited water, unlimited fuel. UNLIMITED potential! The solution to all of our troubles, right before our eyes. The future of Germany!" Chancellor Dietrich said. "But, you might be wondering, what is the point? Anything that comes out will be just as irradiated as anything that goes in. The background radiation all around us, in the air and in the soil and in the water, will make sure of that, yes?"
The Chancellor pointed to a large computer housed in a silvery suitcase, a number of readouts and displays showing various numbers and figures. "Enter: the GECK. The Garden of Eden Creation Kit! Final Order fieldmen and survey teams discovered this machine in a government vault buried deep beneath the Alps, secured in a bunker and untouched for decades. THIS is the key to Project Nature Storm; the means to endlessly replicate food and water for all Germans, and the means to purify both. THIS is what our brave scientists, soldiers, and freelancers have been toiling for, in the hopes of creating a Germany free from the horrors of radiation and starvation. Gentlemen, if you would."
The scientists produced four apples from a nearby case, placed them into ports on the Natursturm device, and pressed a series of buttons. The machine began to hum, and the engines began to rev up. The scientists looked the machine over, pressed a few more buttons, and turned a dial. The engines whined higher and higher, picking up speed to put out the tremendous amount of power the machine needed. Hans felt Hilda take hold of one of his hands and squeeze, and he squeezed her back. This was it.
The Natursturm device hummed and vibrated, the tempo increasing, and the conveyor belt began to run. After almost thirty minutes an apple came down the belt and dropped into a basket at the end, followed by another thirty minutes after that. In all it took two hours to clone the four apples, thirty minutes for each. When it was over the scientists began to power the machine down. They opened up the ports and retrieved the original four apples they'd place inside, picked up the cloned apples, and held them up. The members of the Final Order began to clap, overjoyed at the success of the machine. It was slow, but it did work, and Hans could hardly believe it. He felt his own joy begin to rise, amazed that everything they'd been through had been worth it.
One of the scientists handed Chancellor Dietrich the apples and he held them up, smiling. "Now comes the truly incredible part," he said. As the machine began to wind down Hans could hear a vertibird, humming in the distance. He looked over his left shoulder and saw two of them approaching from the direction of Berchtesgaden. More Final Order soldiers. He turned his attention back to Chancellor Dietrich as he placed an apple on the GECK and pressed a button. A Geiger counter began to click as it scanned the apple, but Dietrich didn't seem bothered by this. "Irradiated still, yes, as I said they would be. But, if I press this button." The Chancellor pressed another button and the GECK emitted a fine mist over the apple. It rotated on a small dish, every inch of its surface getting coated in the mist. The dish finished rotating and a small tank of water opened. Dietrich picked the apple up, placed it in the tank to wash it off, and returned it to the dish. "Behold at last, ladies and gentlemen. PURIFIED FOOD."
Chancellor Dietrich pressed the radscan button on the GECK and it began to hum as it scanned the apple again. The Geiger counter lied still, motionless, unperturbed, and Hans felt his smile growing. It worked, it really worked. He looked at Hilda, who smiled back at him, and the Final Order members began to clap again. The scientists shook hands with each other, then Chancellor Dietrich, celebrating their victory over the terrible ills that plagued Germany. With the Natursturm device functional it would only be a matter of-
The Geiger counters jumped.
Everyone stopped, and Hans felt his smile slipping away. The apple was resting on the still dish, the GECK flashing a red warning, the Geiger counters clicking rapidly. Chancellor Dietrich and a scientist looked the readouts over, their expressions grim. "Rinse it again. Again!"
The scientist quickly did as asked and put the apple through the radiation cleansing process again. Hans watched nervously as it was sprayed with the mist, dunked in the water, and then put back on the dish to be scanned again. He watched with bated breath as the GECK went through the scanning process, the readouts displaying various information as the computer processed what was on the dish. The scan ended with a tinny chime and-
The Geiger counters jumped.
Hans could feel the blood draining from his face, his heart stopping, as he stared at the clicking GECK. He prayed it was just a malfunction, some kind of computer error, but some small part of his mind told him it wasn't possible. The machine had been sealed away before the war, there was no chance it was corrupted. The scientist looked the GECK over and began typing on its small keyboard, glancing back and forth between the keys and one of the screens. After a few minutes he stopped, his shoulders sagging.
"Well?!" Chancellor Dietrich barked, and the scientist barely moved. He stood up, looking forlornly at the GECK, before swallowing and turning to face the Chancellor and everyone else. Everyone was staring at him, desperately praying he would tell them it was just a computer error, pleading silently to themselves that it was alright. That the machine would still work.
"It's the GECK..." the scientist said. "It's irradiated."
No one said anything, the whole group just standing there in the late autumn air, the only sounds that of the blowing wind and the chop of the vertibird rotors as they approached. Hans didn't know what to say, no one did. They all just stood there, silently coming to grips with what they'd just been told. The replicator, the Natursturm device, the machine that was supposed to put an end to all of Germany's needs, was not only horribly slow, but practically useless. Cloned irradiated food was no better than the irradiated crops being grown today, their bland tastes soured by the bitter chalkiness of a Rad-X tablet.
Hilda was the first to break the silence. "No... It can't be..." she said, her voice thick. Hans let her hand go and wrapped his arm around her, trying to console her. "It CAN'T BE!"
No one else said anything. There was nothing to say. Everything they'd been through, all of their work, had been for nothing. Even the panzertruppen looked down, their shoulders slumped in their heavy suits. Everyone stared at the GECK, at the apples, with a mix of devastation and apathy.
"We... We could pour RadAway on it!" Hilda said, her voice hopeful. "Just pour RadAway all over the machine, the GECK, and then it'll work!"
A few in the crowd looked at the scientists, who shook their heads. The man by the GECK took one last look at the apples, licked his lips, and looked back up at the crowd. "It wouldn't work. RadAway works by binding to radioactive particles in the bloodstream and flushing them out through the user's urinary system, hence why it is administered intravenously and not, say, ingested through the mouth. Pouring RadAway on the GECK would be as effective as pouring it onto yourself. Nothing would happen."
"I don't understand," Hans said, turning to Chancellor Dietrich. "You said you found it in a bunker. How could it possibly be irradiated?!"
The Chancellor frowned and looked at the scientists, who shrugged. "I guess it was already somehow irradiated when it was put in the bunker... I can't think of any other explanation!" Dietrich said.
Silence fell over the crowd again, the reality settling in. The machine wouldn't work. It would do nothing, would solve nothing, and it all had been for nothing. Walter's death, the mission to the BMW museum and the IG Farben building, everything. A waste. Germany was doomed to suffer the fate she'd been suffering for twenty years, and millions would continue to die for want of clean water and food. Hans squeezed Hilda a little tighter, hoping to hold off the tears of despair that were threatening to well up.
A sudden gunshot from inside the chalet knocked everyone out of their daze, and they all crouched, drawing their weapons. Another shot rang out, followed by another, and then suddenly a series of bursts. The clatter quickly rose into a frenetic and overpowering din, shouts from inside the building faintly audible over the battle. An explosion by the sun terrace blew out the chalet's windows, raining glass onto to the stonework and grass on the path that led up to the top of the hill.
The Bavarian Coalition had arrived.