Time unknown

Location unknown

Pain, and a dreadful headache, these were the combination of symptoms that awoke Rudolf from his blissful slumber. Groggily he opened his eyes, finding himself slumped awkwardly over the butt of his MG34. Rising from his crooked position the taste of fresh blood seeped into his mouth, his neck protested as he looked around the rest of the hull. The hull itself seemed to be intact but its occupants had not proved so lucky, the rest of the crew lay in all sorts of contorted positions, all of them appeared to be unconscious or so he thought. Claus was crumpled like a wet paper bag, his body had landed in the rear right corner of the tank, having been thrown from his position by the impact beforehand. Lutz had managed to find his way underneath the cannon breach snoring peacefully as the small cut on his forehead trickled a small stream of blood. The other two were slumped on each other, sprawled out over their respective weapon systems.

Lutz was alive, his snoring was enough to tell that but the health of the other crew members eluded him. Slowly and painfully he awkwardly crawled out of his seat and to the back of the vehicle, clutching at his side whilst he did so. Finally making his way to Claus, he held his hand to his neck but hesitated before touching him.

What if he was dead, what would he do then, Claus wouldn't die like this, could he?

He pushed the thought out of his mind and knelt down next to him, putting a hand to his throat he could feel a strong pulse. Rudolf let go of his breath, sighing in relief he began to shift around the breech to Gunther and Deinhart, with both of them being merely unconscious.

Once assured of their health, Rudolf became aware of the growing temperature within the tank, which was strange, the heater shouldn't have been running without the engine. Stepping over Lutz, Rudolf made his way to the main hatch on the rear of the tank, undoing the two bolt locks on the door he slowly pushed it open, a bright light shone into the tank followed by a warm breeze. Letting his eyes adjust to the light he stuck his head out as a warm breeze beckoned him out of the tank.

Instead of the cold, dull, concrete bunker that he expected, it was open plains as wide as the eyes could see, long yellow grass and pale blue sky. Stumbling outside the tank he was greeted by a happy golden sun, basking him in a warm heat that he hadn't felt in a long time. Looking back at the tank it didn't look so health, small gashes and craters littered the tank, the Zimmerit he had spent so long applying being reduced to what was essentially French cheese, pot-marked by shrapnel and gunfire. The items that they had strapped to it hadn't faired so well either, many of the spare track links had been blown off completely as well as much of the recovery equipment.

The Jagdpanther itself lay in a ditch surrounded by the rolling plains, a sea of dull yellow, there were no roads, no paths, no evidence of civilization of any sort, no evidence of how they had got there.

Where was the snow? Where was the forest? Where was the bunker? Where the hell were they?

Rudolf stood there dumbfounded, mouth agape at their current situation. It was at this point that the groaning of Claus could be heard.

The noise caused Rudolf to snap out of his stupor, bringing some amount of relief to his mind.

Claus would know what to do, Claus always had some sort of plan, always.

"Ah, my god that hurts" Claus whimpered as he lifted from his position, "Gunther are yo-… shit shit!"

Rudolf heard a panicked scramble as Claus moved towards the still body.

"He's not dead, just unconscious."

"Oh, Rudolf you're ok, good… good" the relief dripping from every word. "Guess it's not the first time we've seen him like this, is it…" Claus said as he chuckled glancing at Gunther's still body "Holy… gave me a good scare" his voice still noting a hint of terror "I assume Deinhart is the same."

Rudolf nodded his head.

"Ok… ah… Rudolf…. where are we?"

Rudolf looked around taking in the outside world again.

"No… clue…"

Claus slowly clambered out the hatch, making no sudden movements as if he were trying not to scare this warm spring day away. He sat next to Rudolf and staired up into the pale sky.

"Did we die?" Claus murmured "We were in a bunker just before, were we not?"

Both sat in silence for a while letting the breeze and dry air wash over them, seemingly for the moment taking away their worries. For the first time in… forever, Claus looked relaxed seemingly lost in the sea of yellow that stretched before him. But before long Claus got up again and began to brush himself off before stretching.

"Alright, up we get" Claus said as he nudged the side of Rudolf's gut.

Slowly and begrudgingly he slowly began to get not wanting to leave his happy summertime dream.

"Oh, get over yourself, we were always going to have to do this." Gesturing to the bodies still lying limp inside the vehicles.

Slowly and awkwardly, they began lifting the bodies out of the vehicle, making sure not to add to their possible list of injuries them too much.

"Careful with his neck… Jesus man… don't twist it too much" Claus hissed, "Are you even lifting."

"Yes, I am…" Rudolf said as he struggled to lift Lutz from out under the breech "Maybe if he wasn't such a fat… fuck."

After laying him flat on the engine deck they repeated what they had just done, however with a bit more ease and a bit more speed. Ten minutes later they had all their compatriots lying flat on their backs with their heads propped up by small blankets and rags scattered about

"Alright, I'm going to look them over and after that… I'll figure something out" Claus said as he rummaged around a disorganized medical bag "make yourself useful, check the suspension and tracks."

"After that?"

"Go have a look around then, get up on some high ground and tell me what you find." Claus ordered, as he started tending to the small wound on Lutz's head.

Rudolf nodded and about faced, finding himself staring out over the strange plains once again. He eagerly jumped off the tank, landing he winced a little, he was still a little tender from before. But for the first time in months, he didn't feel the immediate frigid dampness in his pants, nor did he sink into mud or slush, no, his feet were firmly planted on solid ground, in fact, it warranted a small jig. He began to waltz across the solid ground, prancing and jumping up down, finally he was far from that icy hellhole.

Though his happiness was short lived as he finally began to examine the tank, it was one step short of looking like a beached whale, it was half buried in mud and grass with the tracks being barely visible. Walking around to the front, he found that the whole left side was up to its belly in dirt and mud. It appeared that whilst the surface was solid it was merely a façade, hiding the boggy reality underneath. At the sight of this Rudolf collapsed to the ground, lying on the ground he stared up in the sky.

"Fuuuucckk…"

He lay there, temporarily contemplating life and the events that had led to that moment. Before long though the sun beat down on him long enough that lying there became mildly uncomfortable. Getting up he brushed the grass of his white jacket and hastily took it off, revealing both a woolen grey sweater and an abhorrent sweaty stench that quickly filled his nostrils. Evidently it had been a while since he had bathed. He hung his jacket over the muzzle of the Jagdpanther as he started to walk up the nearest hill.

Finding himself at the peak of one of the few hills that he had found, though it could hardly be called a hill, it was more like a rise in the middle of nowhere. Wherever they were it really was just nowhere, there was a severe lack of identifying features anywhere. The only thing that was for certain was a tiny ridge line far into the distance, maybe ten kilometers. But other than that, it was simply empty. Honestly, it was very boring, but at least the lack of snow and ice was nice. So very casually he began to stroll back towards the tank, however as he began to take his next steps he unceremoniously tripped and fell, receiving a mouthful of grass for his troubles. Getting back to his feet he spun around, finding no evidence that he had tripped on anything, no rock, crevice, or branch that he could have possibly fallen on. Slowly Rudolf began to prod around the area in which he had fallen, solid, solid, solid, not solid. Here, a small indentation where his foot had originally plunged, whatever it was, it was covered in grass so tenuously he began prying away the thick strands of grass. It quickly revealed something very peculiar, it was a large hole, maybe a metre across and it had been concealed under a thick layer of grass.

Now this was far more interesting, the first thing he noticed was the smell of decay and must though he could only see a few metres before the light become nonexistent and he didn't have a torch with him, so currently the spelunking would have to wait. But before he got up there was a small glint in the overgrown grass. Kneeling down again he brushed away the dead plant matter and dust to find a… shattered sword and… bones? Digging a little further a milky white knuckles slowly revealed themselves and there in the grass was a sword, still being clutched by its long deceased owner.

Now turning around, he once again walking towards the tank, however he quickly found himself on the ground again, and once again his foot had revealed another hole, getting up again he now far more carefully began to walk back towards the tank. It seemed that the whole area was out to get him because every step was one closer to another hole. It was miraculous that he hadn't fallen in one when he originally walked out here.

Through his incredibly careful navigation of the area (luck) he managed to finally make it back to the tank, which was now a small hive of activity, with the rest of the crew huddled around one of the many supply crates that were originally attached to the Jagdpanther exterior. Getting closer to the groups voices now becoming recognizable, Gunther was quite perturbed by whatever was going on.

"You're telling me that they don't allow fucking beer in heaven" Gunther groaned as he stood over the shattered remains of his chardonnay, wine, beer and other acholic beverages.

"We're not IN heaven dipshit, how many times do I have to tell you this" Claus responded.

"Then tell me how the fuck we managed to go from southern Poland in the winter, to God knows where in… I don't know… summer?"

"How come we saw multiple other people drive into that bunker?" Claus asked.

I don't know, maybe they took the easy way out."

Claus simply chuckled at Gunther before lifting another going back to fiddling with the boxes.

"Also, alcohol is allowed in heaven" Lutz chirped in "John 2:1-11 stat- "

"Oh, shut up, I would have asked for you input if I wanted it" Gunther snorted as he gave Lutz a goading smile.

"Wait why the hell do you think you would go to heaven, out of all the people here you're the least likely to end up there of all places" Lutz shot back, "pride, sloth, lust, you sir, are a walking sin."

"Ah, well… I guess being in hell would make more sense than ending up at the pearly gates" Gunther replied, now stroking his chin as if he were a great philosopher "But doesn't seem like hell, just yet a least, still lost all the wine though."

"You know, if I knew you were going to whine this much, I wouldn't have bothered waking you up" Claus huffed, his face painted with fake annoyance.

It appeared that his companions were off to a smashing start to the day, or maybe midday. Most days were like this, someone would start a stupid argument, and everyone would get in on it, throwing insults out for no real reason. Claus always said it was an effective way to blow off steam. As such the lot of them continued bickering, pointlessly, no one ever won these arguments. However, their torrent of words was silenced by Rudolfs return.

"Ah look who's back" Claus said, any annoyance in his voice dissipating "any luck finding where we are."

"None so far, plains as far as I can see" Rudolf said as he began pointing in the direction from which he had just came "However there is a mountain range over that way and a bunch of really deep holes in the ground."

The lot of them looked over to where Rudolf was pointing, trying to see the holes about which he was talking.

"Is… was that it?" Claus asked, as a disappointed smile crossed his face.

"No… actually… there was a body there as well." Rudolf said excitedly, "Next to one of the holes, still gripping a sword."

"Rudolf, whilst that's wonderful news that you may or may not have desecrated a grave was there anything else to mention or do we need to have a longer expedition.

It appeared that Claus did not share in his excitement, which bummed Rudolf out a little, it was of little concern however he would get that sword and keep it as some sort of keepsake. Why didn't he just do that before?

"Alright, Gunter, Lutz, Rudolf you guys will do some proper recon of the area and find out where we are, me and Deinhart will stay here and tend to the tank" Claus paused for a moment before looking at Gunther "Actually, you can stay and help us start digging."

"But sir, my arm is just… killing me" Gunther said in a satirical manner "and… and my face… Deinhart if far too stocky to be a suitable crash pad for my delicate features.

"Gunther…"

"Yes"

"Grab a spade"

"Asshole"