Jaws of Darkness
The day's sunlight made it as far as ten feet into the tunnel before it was swallowed by darkness. Hans clipped his flashlight onto the CAWS' barrel and flicked it on, and Friedrich did the same. The Panzertroopers had flashlights built into their helmets, which they switched on. Hans shouldered the shotgun and aimed it into the tunnel, the pale yellow light bright enough, but certainly not as bright as the Panzertroopers' headlights.
"After you," Hans said to Erich and the Panzertroopers, and they lumbered past him and into the tunnel proper. The entrance had been narrow, just two lanes, but it opened up to four once they were inside, giving them more room to maneuver. The same would be true for whatever was lurking inside, though. Hans watched the vehicles as they went, keeping his eyes peeled for anything and everything.
"Has anyone else noticed what I noticed?" Friedrich asked, and Hans looked at him. The Panzertroopers stopped and turned around, dimming their lights. "The cars. They're practically spotless."
Hans shined his light on an atomic Mercedes and frowned. Aside from some fading of the paint the car was virtually untouched. The tires were flat, of course, but intact, along with the windows, panels, and upholstery. There was no sign of the driver, but there was a bag of golf clubs in the back seat. He aimed the CAWS at an electric Beetle and it was much the same; the front bumper was bent where it had rear-ended the Mercedes but otherwise it was untouched.
"Now how often do you see something like that?" Friedrich said.
"Not often," Erich said. "Most cars were stripped clean within days of The Bomb coming, and nature took care of the rest. Whatever's down here has prevented any scavving, so we can rule out the possibility of anyone shooting back at us."
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it didn't," Hans said, and they got moving again. As they went along he became more and more unnerved by the preserved cars; few things in Berlin were dangerous enough to deter people from scavenging untouched cars. The tunnel itself made a great, if dark, shelter, and the engines in the cars (if one knew how to restore them) were nearly priceless for providing electricity and heating.
Hans passed by a white BMW and stopped, looking inside. The driver was still there, wearing his tuxedo. He was a nice-looking fellow, for a skeleton. The PPK still in his hand answered the obvious question, but the blue-bound book in his left hand piqued Hans' curiosity. He tried the door and it was unlocked.
"Find something, Herr Eckhart?" Friedrich asked.
Hans reached in and picked up the book, flipping through it. "It's a Bible, I think... But every mention of God and Jesus has been replaced with a man named Gustav Otto."
Friedrich chortled.
Hans scoffed, frowned, and tossed the book back into the car. "Fucking BMW owners," he said. "One day I'd like to find out just why they were all so fucked in the head."
"Quiet," Erich said. Hans gently pushed the car's door shut and rejoined their Panzertrooper friends. "I heard something, deeper in the tunnel. A scream."
"Let's keep moving," Hans said. The five of them continued to make their way through the tunnel, meandering through the maze of cars. They spread out across the tunnel's four lanes, the Panzertroopers in the lead. Hans cautiously eyed each door they passed, looking out for the service route that would take them from the tunnel to the U-Bahn line that ran underneath the Spreebogenpark.
They were a couple hundred feet into the tunnel when they came across a bus, half-turned in the tunnel and blocking three lanes. They each slowed to a stop and looked at the single open lane. A perfect chokepoint. The bus's doors were on the other side, so there was no way to go through it.
Hans' ears perked back. "What the fuck is that sound?" he whispered, and the others looked at him. Faintly, from the other side of the bus, he heard a rasping or wheezing sound. Like breathing, but too loud to be a person. He shined his light at the bus's windows, hoping to see through to the other side, but there was nothing there. As he shined the beam across the vehicle the wheezing stopped, and he stopped as well. There was a short, soft chirp, and then a plodding sound.
Footsteps.
Hans and the others immediately crouched behind the nearest vehicles, weapons trained on the chokepoint. A strong, black tendril slammed into the rear of the vehicle, making him jump. Another one hit the wall, and then the bus was moving, being pushed aside. The tendrils withdrew and a moment later, from the gaping maw of darkness, an adult Wanamingo emerged. Their lights dully reflected from the creature's eyeless onyx hide, its brilliant white teeth shining in the light.
Hans' scream of "KILL IT!" was immediately drowned out by gunfire as all five of them opened up, peppering the monster with bullets and buckshot. The Wanamingo screamed and rammed the bus aside, sending the twenty-ton vehicle skidding across the pavement. It charged straight at them, green blood dripping from its mouth and hide. The darkness of the tunnel was lit by a disorienting array of muzzle flashes, only slightly hampered by their flashlights. The Wanamingo climbed atop an unmarred Volkswagen, crushing it under its feet, its talons shredding the upholstery. It pinned its tendrils back and trumpeted another scream, close enough that Hans realized its breath was completely odorless. It leapt down from the VW and lashed out at the Panzertroopers, who all ducked and rolled to the side. Hans watched as his buckshot shattered the creature's teeth but otherwise left it unharmed. It turned its sightless attention to him, growling, and rose from its crouch. He watched, heart gripped in a blind terror as it stood to its full height of ten or twelve feet, the tunnel tall enough that the creature could stretch its legs without issue.
Hans backpedaled and hit the fender of a car, stumbling and falling onto his ass. The Wanamingo began loping towards him, its talons scratching the blacktop as it advanced. He saw Erich standing behind it and he kept low as the Panzertrooper fired, his Gauss Rifle's slug ripping through the abomination's upper hide.
That was enough to get its attention. It stumbled, screamed, and turned around. It hopped in place twice, slamming the ground hard enough to make the cars jump, and went after Erich. He fired again, the slug flashing through the Wanamingo's mouth and out its backside. It roared and collapsed to the ground, crushing an Opel truck. Green blood flowed from its wounds and it shrieked again, a dying scream of animalistic fury. Erich shot it again and it writhed on the ground, slowly losing strength. It settled on top of the truck, painting the vehicle in green blood and went limp, finally dead.
Hans scrambled to his feet, reloaded the CAWS with slugs, and ran past the Wanamingo's corpse. "FUCK those things!" he said. The others backed away from it, approaching the bus one by one. Irmina went around it first, checking the other side for any more of the creatures, before the others followed.
"What the Hell was that?" Oskar asked.
"Wanamingo," Hans said, and the others gave him a look. "Some fucked-up American organic weapon. When I was in Munich a few years ago my team and I found a whole hive of them. Thought they were aliens at first, before we found a file describing them. The fucking Yanks created those things in a lab for use on Europe's battlefields. Thank God for all these cars; if we'd faced it on open ground we'd all be dead."
"Speak for yourself," Erich said, and they got moving again, a little quicker now. Even with the confined space the Wanamingos still had the advantage, and Hans was sure there were more in the tunnel. The faster they found the door and got out of there, the better.
The team neared a duo of military cargo trucks, side by side, and slowed down. Friedrich climbed into the back of one and Hans smiled triumphantly. Tunnel or not, he hoped there was a crate full of rocket launchers in one of the trucks.
Friedrich dropped out of the first truck empty-handed, checked the other one, and came out the same. "Fucking rations!" he said, and Hans' smile died. There was a yelp further down in the tunnel, followed by another, and he instinctively crouched. He moved ahead and the others followed, all eyes and lights focused down the tunnel.
Hans crouched behind an imported electric Chryslus and looked over the car. Ahead, in a clearing, were human remains. Fresh, too, their blood still moist. Their weapons were scattered across the road, including...
Oh, yes!
An adult Wanamingo came out of the darkness, followed by a second. They 'saw' the team and bared their teeth, growling. They folded their tendrils in close to their bodies and stalked back and forth, keeping their distance. Oskar and Irmina set up their Madsens on the right side of the tunnel, keeping them firmly trained on the monsters. There was an overturned panel van that the Wanamingos were using for cover, and Hans was once again reminded that not only were they extraordinarily fast and dangerous, but also smart.
One of the Wanamingos barked and yelped at the other, who responded by trilling and stomping one of its feet. The first one emerged behind the panel van, keeping low behind a Mercedes. Even at their lowest the monsters were still gigantic, big enough to be seen over the vehicles, but what they were doing Hans couldn't say.
Suddenly the second Wanamingo leapt back, ran forward, and rammed the panel van with its head. The vehicle skidded across the pavement with a scream of dragging metal, and the second Wanamingo jumped on top of it. The van collided with the car that Oskar and Irmina were posted up behind, knocking them over and pinning them underneath. The Wanamingo jumped off the van and landed behind the team, sandwiching them between it and its sibling.
Clever girl...
The team scattered and opened fire, the Wanamingos screaming as they attacked. Hans backed into an alcove by the clearing, eyeing the weapons by the body parts. He saw Erich rush over to Oskar and Irmina, firing errant shots at the Wanamingo charging them. Hans cast a glance down the tunnel and saw the other Wanamingo ramming its head against one of the military trucks, trying to tip it over. Erich leapt over the panel van and fired a clean shot on the advancing Wanamingo, stunning it. "HANS!" he screamed, pointing at the dead bodies. "HANS, GET THE FLAMMENWERFER!"
Again with this shit?!
Hans swore and scrambled out of the alcove, gunning it straight for the flamethrower on the ground by one of the bodies. The pilot was still lit, meaning the weapon still had fuel. He snatched it up, shrugged on the tank, and grabbed the pipe. To his amazement it was an M1917 Wechselapparat, older than all five of them combined. He aimed the tube at the Wanamingo, grabbed the front handle, and opened the nozzle.
The crushing darkness of the tunnel was immediately and violently banished by the brilliant inferno of the flammenwerfer, the scorching napalm hitting the first Wanamingo in the back and bathing it in fire. It screamed in fury and pain, thrashing violently.
The Wanamingo turned around, flaming globs of napalm dripping from its back, and it rushed at Hans, who rode the flammenwerfer's nozzle down. The monster screamed and the jet of fire went down its throat, roasting its innards. It howled and flailed in agony, legs and tendrils smashing nearby cars. It dropped to the ground, thrashing as it was cooked inside-out.
The second Wanamingo became aware of what was happening and charged at Hans, who let loose with the flamethrower again. The Wanamingo actually jumped over both the flames and him, landing in the clearing with the dead bodies. Hans began to turn, knowing that it was far too late. At best he could hope to take it with him.
Halfway through his turn, as the Wanamingo opened its dripping maw and darted forth to kill him, its leg was suddenly blown off and the creature dropped to the side. It lashed out with one of its tendrils and Hans dropped to the floor, just feet away from the massive creature. It screamed and tried to stand, using its left tendril to lift itself up. Hans remained prone and opened up with the flamethrower, the fire skating across the blacktop, melting the asphalt, and washing over the Wanamingo's body. It screamed and screamed until, at last, it died.
As the second Wanamingo fell still the tunnel became silent again, the only sound in Hans' ears that of his hammering heart and the cracking of the fires as they roasted the Wanamingo corpses. He slowly stood on weak knees, unable to believe he'd survived. He looked over at Erich, who was reloading his M72. He nodded at Hans, who leaned forward, put his hands on his knees, and panted. A scrape of metal made him look up and he saw Irmina helping Oskar to his feet.
"Where's Friedrich?" Hans said, and a moment later their number five crawled out from underneath one of the military trucks and dusted himself off, a bewildered expression on his face.
"Guess I owe you for that one, Herr Eckhart," he said as he approached the group, who reloaded their weapons. Hans took the flammenwerfer's tank off and hefted it, discovering that the tank was nearly empty.
"Christ's sake..." he said, and put the tank back on. It'd have to be enough; it was the only weapon they had that could actually kill one of the things, besides Erich's M72. Or the M42, but Hans was sure if they fired that in the tunnel it'd kill them all.
"Let's keep moving," Erich said, and Hans raised a hand.
"Wait, just wait a minute," he said, doubling over again. He hadn't seen a Wanamingo, let alone fought one, since Munich. Fighting them, even just one, was extremely taxing. He pulled out his canteen, took a drink, and wolfed down some ration bars. After another minute to catch his breath he blew out a sigh and said "let's go."
The five of them continued on their way, heading down the tunnel and checking each door they came across. Most contained utility rooms, electric rooms, bathrooms, breakrooms, and corridors connecting each of the aforementioned. Hans estimated that it was more than an hour, and that they were more than halfway through the tunnel, when they finally found the door they were looking for.
"Perfect," Erich said, looking at the plaque above the door. "Tiergarten zum Reichstag-U-Bahn-Portal. This is the one." He tried the handle and, of course, it was locked. "Red, unlock this."
Friedrich did as asked and crouched down in front of the door. He was about to reach for his picks when he frowned. "What on Earth is this? There's no keyhole."
Hans bent down and took a look for himself. Sure enough, there was no keyhole. Just a keypad, to the side of the door. "Fucking Hell," he said. "We'll have to find the code. Or break it, somehow."
"Allow me," Irmina said, and she crouched in front of the keypad. "Sometimes you get lucky and these are three digit codes. If it's four we're fucked." She punched in a random set of numbers and the pad flashed red. "Well, it is three, and that's the good news. The bad news is that this could take a while."
"Well, then we'll just stand here and make sure you don't get hit by any cars," Hans quipped. Irmina ignored him and got to work, punching in codes, starting with 000, then 001, 002, and so on, each time the pad flashing red. He looked down the darkness of the tunnel, wishing that the power was on. If it was then at least they'd be able to see the Wanamingos coming. As it was all they could do was keep their ears open.
It didn't take long, either. They didn't have eyes, but they sure as Hell had ears and noses. Hans didn't know how sensitive either was, but within two minutes he heard the telltale chirping, trilling, and yelping of a Wanamingo. His hairs stood up and he tightened the grip on his CAWS, waiting.
The Wanamingo emerged from the darkness a moment later, a brown-skinned juvenile. It stood there and watched them, tendrils pinned against its body. It bared its teeth but did not growl or move, just stood there, and Hans felt a shiver run down his spine. Despite what he'd learned in Munich there was still just so much they didn't know about the things, and that scared him even more than the Wanamingo itself.
The juvenile sized them up and seemed to catch wise that it was outmatched, because after a few moments it backed off into the darkness and plodded away. Hans watched it go, still nervous. At Munich, in the BMW headquarters, even the juveniles had rushed after them. What made this one smart enough to walk away was just one more question to add to the mystery of the Wanamingo.
Two sudden, barking yelps put Hans on edge again and he shouldered the shotgun, aiming the flashlight's beam into the dark. Erich and Oskar moved to a nearby car and crouched behind it, their much stronger headlights slashing through the pitch. The tunnel was just so long, though, and even their flashlights were soon drowned out by the darkness.
Hans saw the movement on the left side of the tunnel and turned to look. There was an adult Wanamingo there, crouched behind a car, 'watching' them. It turned left, towards the darkness, and chirped. A second adult appeared in the middle of the tunnel, by a civilian cargo truck. It trilled and yelped, and then the first Wanamingo approached it. A third adult stepped out from the shadows, and that's when Hans' nervousness faded to fear. He slung the CAWS and unhooked the flammenwerfer's tube, praying he had enough fuel left to hold off the three of them.
"Why are they just fucking standing there?" Oskar asked. He had the bipod of his Madsen deployed on the hood of an imported Corvega, keeping the muzzle firmly trained on the alien abominations eyeballing them. The Wanamingos continued to chirp at each other, uncurling their tendrils and then returning them to their sides.
What the fuck are you doing...
The third Wanamingo let out two shrill barks, its siblings replied, and then two of them backed behind the cargo truck. The third slinked back into the darkness, still trilling and yelping.
Oh shit...
With a loud WHAM the two Wanamingos behind the truck rammed it. With a squeal of flat rubber the truck began to move, pushed ahead by the Wanamingos who remained behind it the whole time. The truck screeched across the pavement, the air filling with the stink of burning rubber, as the Wanamingos pushed it down the tunnel.
Oskar, Erich, and Friedrich opened fire, their guns flashing in the darkness. The truck hit a BMW, just feet from the Panzertroopers, and the Wanamingos emerged from behind it. Erich fired his M72 at the left one, hitting it in the forehead and forcing it to retreat. The one on the right came around and was peppered with a mix of 8mm Mauser and 7.62 NATO, little green pockmarks opening up on its hide.
"AIM FOR THE LEGS!" Hans screamed, and his teammates adjusted their aim. Their bullets hit the Wanamingo in its right leg and it retreated with a shriek.
*WHAM!*
The Wanamingos rammed the truck again, and it rocked back and forth. Erich and Oskar backed away from the BMW, retreating to a Beetle by the alcove. Hans glanced left and saw Irmina frantically tapping in combinations. 222, 223, 224. Each time the keypad flashed red.
*WHAM!* *WHAM!*
The Wanamingos continued to ram the truck, trying to knock it over. After a couple more hits the vehicle tipped and slammed into the pavement, crumpling its cargo bay. The Wanamingos jumped back, as if surprised, and then reached out for the underside of the vehicle with their tendrils. They ripped the exhaust pipes and axles off the truck and threw them at the team, forcing them to duck. The car parts slammed into vehicles behind the team, crushing their bodies and shattering their windows.
Hans gripped the flammenwerfer tighter, wishing the Wanamingos would come closer. They were hanging back, though, apparently smart enough to keep their legs hidden behind the cars. Hans watched the blood drip from the holes in their bodies, the Wanamingos completely oblivious to the wounds. One chirped to the other and then they moved to the front of the truck and started ripping the electric motor out.
"Fuck this," Erich said. He dropped his M72 on the ground and unslung the M42, and Hans' blood froze.
"DON'T USE THAT IN HERE, YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!" he screamed at the Panzertrooper, but he ignored him. Erich put the M42 on his shoulder and pulled out one of the mini-nukes, slotting it onto the spigot and locking the catapult back.
Hans held his breath as Erich fired the M42, the nuke's whistling scream deafening in the tunnel. It sailed past the Wanamingos, who jumped back and watched it go. The bomb traveled forty yards down the tunnel before hitting a car and detonating, an atomic sun swallowing up the cars closest to it and launching the cars it didn't scorch into nuclear ash. The tunnel's ceiling was blown out, then collapsed as a hundred tons of earth rushed through the hole and into the tunnel. The cars the mini-nuke had launched soared down the tunnel towards them, tires on fire and windows melting. One slammed into one of the Wanamingos, shredding its hide and leaving it with what would eventually be wicked scars but otherwise failing to harm it. Another car landed by the second Wanamingo and it jumped back, shrieking. It snatched off two of the flaming tires and threw them at the team.
The wounded Wanamingo backed off with a chirp and a yelp and then the third Wanamingo returned, joining its unharmed sibling. The two of them jumped over the cargo truck and rushed for the team, their feet slamming into the pavement hard enough to crush it. The team opened up with their guns and the flamethrower, the searing flame roaring across the tunnel to meet the Wanamingos.
The monsters split up, one going left and the other going right. The one that went left went for Hans and Irmina, bobbing between cars as it approached. Hans ignited the flammenwerfer once more, barely aware that he was screaming to himself as the weapon screamed itself, the inferno lighting up the entire tunnel in light that was drowned out by the still-rising atomic fireball of the mini-nuke. He bathed the Wanamingo in fire until the flammenwerfer sputtered empty, the last globs of flaming fuel dropping to the floor.
The Wanamingo rammed a car with its head, sending it skittering across the tunnel in a shower of sparks. The flaming Wanamingo continued to advance, roaring a deep guttural scream that made Hans' stomach shrivel up. He dropped the flammenwerfer's tube and unslung the CAWS, pumping slug after slug into the monster. He watched as the Wanamingo jumped and landed to his right, but didn't attack him. Instead it turned towards Erich, who had his back to it as he sighted in on the other Wanamingo.
"ERICH! BEHIND YOU!" Hans screamed. Erich looked over his shoulder and then rolled to the left, dodging the Wanamingo's attempted bite. He hit the side of a car, lying on his back underneath the Wanamingo, and fired his M72. The hypersonic slug punched up through the monster's jaw and out the top of its head, and it thrashed and screamed.
*Bing!*
"DOOR'S UNLOCKED," Irmina shouted. She yanked it open and scooped up her machine gun. "COME ON!"
Hans stepped aside to cover the others as they began to move for the door. The wounded Wanamingo staggered away, back towards the darkness of the tunnel, before it turned around. Its unharmed sibling moved right, leaping over and between cars as it approached. Hans watched as Erich aimed the M72 and fired, but not at either of the Wanamingos. Instead he hit an imported Corvega the wounded Wanamingo was standing next to, the slugs punching through the engine block. The Wanamingo flinched but didn't move, instead hopping in place and screaming. Hans watched as the Corvega's engine block began to glow, tongues of orange fire licking at the air. The wounded Wanamingo turned to face the Corvega just as the glow intensified.
*BOOOOOMM!*
Another nuclear fireball erupted in the tunnel, the blast wave shattering every window that had somehow survived the mini-nuke, the heat warping and buckling the solid steel panels of nearby cars. Half of the wounded Wanamingo's body vanished in the atomic storm, its scorched guts spilling out onto the pavement. The shockwave from the blast knocked the unharmed Wanamingo off course and it collided with a car, sandwiching it between its body and the wall and crushing it. The monster staggered back, blood dripping from gouges in its hide, and screamed as Hans backed through the open door and slammed it shut, the rest of the team safely inside.
"Jesus Christ!" Oskar said. "Those things just don't give up, do they?"
Hans dumped the empty Wechselapparat on the ground, reloaded the CAWS, and stumbled back from the door. "No, they fucking do not," he said. He leaned against the wall and Friedrich collapsed next to him, both of them panting hard.
Their armored friends didn't seem to be bothered, though. "Take a few minutes, but we're going to get moving soon," Erich said calmly, and Hans looked up at him, a scowl on his face.
"Are you fucking insane? You nearly killed us all, firing that nuke launcher in the tunnel like that!" Hans said, and slowly stood. "That thing's not a toy!"
"Sure is fun, though," Erich said. "And you're still alive, so give it a rest already. I made sure to fire it as far from us as I could."
"Christ's sake," Hans said. He took his helmet off and ran a hand through his hair, the adrenaline still pumping through him. He put his helmet back on, blew out a sigh, and unslung his shotgun. "How are we all doing on ammo?"
Friedrich looked over his gear and patted his mag pouches. "I have enough. Our tin can friends will mop up the bulk of the Sturmutants at the park anyway, I'm sure."
"You know it," Irmina said. "Oskar and I are good, too. These suits have more pockets than you think."
"One shot, one kill," Erich said. "That's why I love the Rheinmetall M72; ammo efficiency is top-notch. We all ready to go?"
Hans nodded and then they got moving again, heading down the connecting corridor to the Reichstag U-Bahn tunnel. The corridor stretched on a short distance before rising up a staircase to another door, which was unlocked. The Panzertroopers made sure the coast was clear and then they all emerged in the U-Bahn tunnel. To the left was a plaque with arrows, one pointing left and the other pointing right. The right-hand arrow had three stations listed under it: Reichstag und Spreebogenpark, Bahnhof Berlin Friedrichstrasse, and Deutsche Historische Museum.
"This way," Erich said, and the team followed him as he went down the tunnel. Hans could see the station's platform a hundred yards ahead, well-lit and seemingly clear. As they approached Hans realized the platforms really were clear, apart from a few skeletons here and there. He always wondered about that.
The Panzertroopers climbed up on Platform A, with Hans and Friedrich taking Platform B, and ascended the stairs to the station's lobby. It was clear, and they were free to approach the station's main door. To Hans' surprise it was chained shut, a problem quickly overcome by the Panzertroopers. Erich crushed the lock in his armored hand, ripped the chain off, and yanked the door. Sunlight poured in, filtered by a gate that was also easily defeated. Beyond the gate was a staircase, or at least it had used to be. At some point the canopy over the entrance had collapsed, along with the wall, leaving the entrance to the U-Bahn partially buried.
"Guess that explains why the Sturmers never used the U-Bahn tunnel to look for us," Hans said. "Doesn't look like they even tried to get through here."
"Good, works for us," Erich said, and turned around. "So here's the plan. It's simple: we take out the park first. Kill as many of the fuckers as we can and blow some holes in their walls to let the prisoners escape. When we've thinned out their numbers as best we can one of us will escort back to the venue anyone too young, old, or weak to make it on their own, while the rest of us move on the Reichstag and kill Queen Ilse. Hans, what's the park layout like?"
Hans rubbed his chin. "It's shaped like the letter D. In the far left corner is a pre-War building. That's where the workers are kept overnight. During the day they work the fields. Do you want to wait until tonight?"
"No," Erich said. "We'll go in a minute. Indiscriminate fire is not allowed. We'll work our way through the park methodically. If what Hans has said is true, then the Sturmutants will probably protect the workers themselves. Civilian casualties should be light."
"What happens once we move on the Reichstag?" Friedrich asked, and Hans answered.
"Queen Ilse will either be in one of her offices or, more likely in the basement, once the shooting starts. I told you all about that high-tech door I saw in the basement, by the holding cells. It was guarded by two Vengeance Troopers, so whatever's inside is important. We'll get in there, one way or another, find Ilse, and kill her, like Erich said."
Friedrich nodded. "Glad to see you two have thought everything through," he quipped. "If that's everything then what are we waiting for? Let's go put an end to this."
"Hehehee," Erich giggled. "My thoughts exactly."
The five of them checked their weapons one last time, made a gap in the rubble, and proceeded up the stairs and outside into the bright Berlin afternoon, ready to be done with it all.