Shadow of America
Muggelheim was a short drive from the marina, just thirty minutes even accounting for the state of the roads. Paul parked the vehicle on a dead-end street a block away from the Muggelheim Gasthaus and the two of them hopped off, weapons in hand. Together they proceeded down the street and around the block, where they emerged on a boulevard. The twin streets parted to accommodate a cobblestone median, at the center of which was the entrance to the station.
The two of them followed the road along the edge of the street towards the U-Bahn station Hoffmann had told them about. To Hans' surprise the road by the station's entrance had collapsed at some point, sloping down like a ramp onto the U-Bahn rail below. Hans and Paul stood by the edge, looking down into the subway. Hans noticed a few human rib cages scattered below, most of them partially crushed or missing ribs outright, and frowned again. The skeletons were still wearing the tattered and shredded remains of the EAA uniforms, their weapons scattered nearby along with hundreds of shell casings. "For God's sake please don't be a Wanamingo," he said.
"Yeah," Paul said, and crouched. "No flammenwerfer for you to use this time." He stood and began easing himself down the steep incline and Hans joined him, the two of them going slow and keeping as quiet as they could. They reached the end of the slope and stepped onto the station platform, looking around. Both lines were open, except for the part where the road had collapsed, leaving three tunnels to pick from.
Hans crossed the platform and looked left. Barely twenty yards down the tunnel was blocked by a subway car, left to lie on the tracks for the rest of time. "Not going this way," Hans said, and Paul nodded. The two remaining tunnels stretched on before both of them, darkness quickly swallowing the daylight that poured in from the hole in the ceiling.
"We could split up," Paul said.
"Forget it. Too dangerous," Hans said. "We'll just take them one at a time. Let's start with the left." The two of them approached the tunnel and flicked on their flashlights, cutting into the darkness with the pale yellow beams. The tunnel curved left as it went. The sign above the tunnel declaring the next stop dangled from a single chain, part of its glass façade broken and exposing the Nixie tubes within. A sign on the wall between both tunnels advertised nearby attractions.
Hans and Paul eased themselves onto the track and began slowly walking down its curving length, watching the offshoots and utility doors. As they went they passed more rib cages and scattered remains, and Hans' unease grew. Dark, narrow places were exactly the kind of spots that Wanamingos loved to hang out in. No doubt because the darkness made it harder for their prey to see, a problem that the Wanamingo didn't have to deal with considering its lack of eyes. How they navigated or hunted, Hans still didn't know.
They reached a spot where the tunnel widened out to accommodate a neighboring track and stopped, aiming their flashlights around the gaping darkness. A few subway trains were on the tracks, stopped in place. Navigation hazards. Or cover, depending on your perspective. Hans flashed his light through their windows, remembering the Wanamingos from the Tiergarten tunnel, but there was nothing there.
He looked back at Paul just as the ground shook. Once, twice, then it was still. Each of them cocked an eyebrow and looked around again, confused. Hans aimed his flashlight at the tracks and the ground shook again, hard enough for the pebbles to bounce. "What the fuck is that..." he whispered.
"Let's keep moving," Paul said. The two of them continued down the tunnel, instinctively spreading out, their flashlight beams sweeping through the darkness. They joined up again as they neared a wide utility door, open. They peered inside, weapons at the ready, but it was just a large transformer room, home to a family of four. A mother, a father, and two children, judging by the skeletons. Hans grimaced and took a closer look, curious. The bones had been picked clean and sported numerous teeth marks, and Hans picked one up. As he did so his hand bumped against an empty shell casing and he aimed the flashlight to follow. It rolled until it hit another casing, the tinny sound strangely loud in the silence. The light caught the glint of another shell casing. And another. And another. Hans stood and aimed the flashlight at the ceiling, bathing the whole room in light, and was shocked to see that the floor was littered with hundreds of spent shell casings, all courtesy of the empty MG-42 in the corner, skeletal hands still clutching it. Paul saw what he was looking at and grimaced. "What the fuck takes hundreds of 8mm Mauser and doesn't die?" he asked.
"A Wanamingo," Hans said grimly. He aimed the light at the threshold of the door, expecting to see dried green blood, but the only stains were brown. He aimed the light at the wall, not surprised to see hundreds of bullet pockmarks, and then looked back at the empty MG-42. Human blood turned brown over time, but there was very little blood on the wall or the floor outside the room. Inside was another story, of course, but clearly whatever had killed these people had walked away.
Without ammo the MG-42 was dead weight, so Hans decided to leave it behind. The two of them started moving down the tracks again, now more cautiously eyeing the doorways they passed. Each contained a utility room, transformer room, or break room, and were home to little more than the perennial radroach. Hans was beginning to think that whatever they were looking for had moved on when they happened across another wide utility door, also open. Hans looked inside, another subway tunnel on the other side. He and Paul stood before the threshold, aiming their lights through the opening.
"What do you think?" Paul asked. "Go through, or keep following the tracks?"
"Not keen on leaving an open door behind us. Let's close it for now and come back," Hans said, and Paul nodded. He covered Hans as he approached the doorway and looked for the switch that controlled the door. He aimed the light at the door frame and frowned. "What the fuck...?"
"What is it?"
Hans approached the doorway, his flashlight beam crawling up the frame. The ground shook again, just once, but he ignored it. "There are marks on the wall here," he said, taking a closer look. The wall was made of concrete or limestone, very thick and hard. The marks were more like gouges, and there was a pattern. A pattern of three, like fingers...
Or claws.
"Rovers," Hans said, a little relieved. "Should've known. There are Rovers down here. That's what's been killing the travelers." He straightened up and turned back to face Paul and saw him staring up at the ceiling, aiming his light at it. "What's wrong?"
"...Look."
Hans looked up, bringing his own flashlight up, and stared at the concrete ceiling. There were some marks there, but he wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to be seeing. He swept the light back and forth, trying to figure out what had Paul so spooked. He took another look at the marks and realized they were gouges. Single gouges, stretching across the masonry as if someone had dragged a giant knife across it. Hans stood there, staring at the ceiling, when the floor shook again.
*THUMP!* *THUMP!*
"What is that?" Paul hissed, aiming his light at the open door. Hans clipped his light to the FG42 and aimed it into the maw of darkness, instinctively backing away from the opening. The ground continued to shake, steadily, thumping hard enough to make the pebbles bounce every other second. The thumping was soon joined by a second noise; the sound of something hitting the floor, plodding along. Footsteps. Hans and Paul backed off to the safety of a nearby subway car and kept their guns trained on the opening. The thumping, the plodding, continued, soon joined by a third noise. A deep, guttural, wheezing sound. Breathing.
A clawed hand gripped the doorframe, the tips of the talons scratching the masonry, and Hans' eyes widened. The claws were massive. Easily a foot long each. A fourth sound joined the menacing symphony. The sound of bone raking across concrete. Hans looked, watched, as the abomination rounded the corner, bathed in the glow of their flashlights. Its hide was a tannish orange, its eyes pure white with no pupils. Two horns jutted forward from the top of its scaled head, scratching against the ceiling. As it stepped into the threshold it turned its head to look at them, claws digging further into the stone. It hunched down and stepped through the threshold, a row of spines on its back scraping along the ceiling and leaving fresh scratches.
The creature saw them, bared a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and roared.
"RUN! RUN LIKE FUCK RUUUNN!" Paul screamed and immediately turned tail. Hans wasted no time in joining him, beating feet down the subway tunnel as fast as he could go. They retreated back to the subway cars parked outside the transformer room, climbing inside them to use as shelter. Hans aimed the FG42 back down the way they'd come and saw the dinosaur loping down the tunnel after them, its clawed hands held up in front of its chest. A spike tail swung in its wake, acting as a counterweight. Its barbs raked the walls and subway cars as it went, screeching across the steel and stone. Hans and Paul opened fire, the tunnel filled with a slamming thunder as they sent lead downrange at the monster. It growled and ducked behind a subway car. It slammed against the car and it slowly rolled down the tracks towards them, slamming into their car with a heavy thump but leaving them unharmed. The monster emerged on the left side of the tracks, continuing to advance.
With no desire to be stuck inside a subway car when it reached them Hans and Paul jumped down from the car and ran back to the curving tunnel, towards the collapsed ceiling they'd descended to enter the tunnel. The Deathclaw followed, growling as it squeezed into the tight space. Hans realized that if it followed them out onto the street, where it could freely move, they'd be dead in seconds. He hoisted himself onto the subway platform, dropped the FG42, and pulled out one of his grenades. "GET BACK!" he screamed to Paul. He unscrewed the cap, yanked the cord, and flung the grenade down the tunnel. The abomination paid it no mind and it detonated, showering the monster in shrapnel. Hans watched, horrified, as it emerged through the dust cloud practically unscathed. In the brighter light of the platform he could see the beast more clearly, could see the hundreds of scars across its body, and realized this thing had been lurking in the U-Bahn tunnels for a very long time.
Hans dropped to the floor and deployed the paratrooper rifle's bipod, the thunder of the 8mm Mauser joining that of Paul's STG. Their bullets slammed into the Deathclaw, making it reel and retreat. It slinked back into the darkness, giving them a chance to recover.
"What the Hell is that thing?!" Paul said. "Jesus!"
"It's a dinosaur, I swear to God," Hans said. "I wish Erich was here. I don't even care that we're underground, I'd happily let him fling a mini-nuke straight down that thing's throat." He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. "We can't leave until it's dead."
"Fuck that," Paul said. "Let's go back to the marina and tell Hoffmann to send a whole team of Panzertroopers down here. They'll take care of it."
Hans rubbed his chin, tempted by the idea. "Did you see that thing's claws? I don't think even their Panzertroopers could stand up to that thing. There's gotta be some way to kill it."
"Yeah, bury the thing under a thousand tons of steel."
"Hmm, not a bad idea actually," Hans said, thinking. An idea occurred to him and he perked up. "The subway cars. What if we started one up and rammed the monster with it?"
Paul scoffed. "Sure, if you could get one started. They've been sitting dead on the tracks for the last twenty years, though. Good luck getting one started."
"Where did all your optimism go?" Hans quipped. He reloaded and dropped down to the tracks, watching the darkness for any sign of the monster. Paul joined him at his side, the two of them cautiously moving down the tunnel with their weapons at the ready.
"That thing ate it," Paul shot back. They reached the open section and saw the Deathclaw down the tunnel, lurking. It saw them and began lumbering in their direction, bumping against the subway cars as it went. Hans looked over his shoulder at the other trains in the tunnel and quickly jogged over to the transformer room, kicking the bones aside as he looked the machines over. It didn't look complicated, but then again it was over two decades old. And Hans was no electrical engineer.
"HANS! IT'S COMING AGAIN!"
Hans poked his head out of the transformer room and saw the Deathclaw lumbering towards them, its back spines scraping along the ceiling. As big as it was Hans could only imagine what it would be like out in the opening, where it could stand upright. A fresh chill ran through him and he hurriedly looked the transformers over again, shining the light across the controls. There was a large lever above the rest of the switches and dials and Hans decided to throw it just to see what happened. The transformers clanked, then began to hum, and slowly the lights in the tunnel came on.
*BAM! BAM!*
Hans looked over his shoulder and saw Paul crouched by the door, firing single shots at the monster. Hans turned his attention back to the controls and ran his finger along them, looking for anything else that could help them. He found one labeled 'cars' and flicked it. A quick glance confirmed that the lights in the subway cars were coming on, which was good enough for him. "GOT IT! LET'S GO!"
The two of them booked it from the transformer room, down the tunnel, and into one of the subway cars. There was a sizable gap between them and the next car, perfect for crushing the abomination between. "OK, so what's the plan?" Paul asked. Hans looked down at the controls, amazed by how simple they were. There was a hand-pedal labeled 'Bremsen' and a throttle lever labeled 'Gaspedal.' Hans gently pushed the lever forward and the subway car began to move, grinding along the ungreased tracks.
"Here, take over!" he shouted to Paul, and then jumped down from the subway car. Paul shouted obscenities at him but Hans ignored him, running straight towards the hyper-lethal aberration. It growled and turned towards him, steadily plodding forward. He fired a shot into it, followed by another, and it roared in fury. Hans moved right, over the tracks, kiting the creature along. He backpedaled, moving in a way that kept the monster on the tracks, sweating wildly. His hands shook and his heart hammered, but he stayed focused on the monster.
Suddenly the Deathclaw was illuminated in a blinding flash of bright yellow light and raised its clawed hands to shield its eyes. Hans risked a look over his shoulder and saw the subway car screaming down the tracks, Paul at the controls. He was yelling something, but Hans couldn't hear anything over the wailing shriek of the car's wheels. It slammed into the Deathclaw at over 40mph and rammed it into a stalled car down the tracks, sandwiching it between them and crushing it with a stomach-turning crunch. Hans sprinted down the tracks, reloading the AUG and switching to the FG42 as he did.
Paul stumbled down from the subway car, staggering away when he landed. "My God," he said. "Is it finally dead?! Jesus!"
Hans shined his flashlight on the monster just in time to see its eyes open. It raised its right arm, planted it on the crumpled face of the subway car, and pushed. The two of them watched in horror as the Deathclaw sluggishly stood, blood leaking from its wounds. It stomped one of its feet onto the ground hard enough to make the subway cars jump and roared, blood flying from its lips. Hans and Paul turned and ran, heading back to the platform.
"FUCK THAT! FUCK THAT FUCK THAT FUCK THAT!" Paul screamed, practically throwing himself onto the platform. He stopped only long enough to help Hans up and then he was running again, hands scrabbling at the ramp to the surface. "Back to the marina! I'm gonna rent one of those nuke throwers and turn this thing to fucking ash!"
Hans stopped, watching the tunnel for any sign of the monster. He was beginning to think it was afraid of the daylight when it emerged from the darkness, lifting one of its enormous muscular legs and effortlessly hoisting itself onto the platform. It limped after them, one of its legs injured. "GO!" Hans screamed, and the two of them scrambled up the incline to the surface. They beat feet to the low cobblestone wall that ran around the edge of the median and leapt over it, crouching behind it with their guns at the ready. The Deathclaw climbed out after them, talons digging into the asphalt. Freed from the confines of the tunnel it was free to stand on its legs, rising to its maximum height as it did. Hans uttered every swear he knew as he took in the sight of the towering monstrosity, awed by the immense and unflinching power it exuded. It threw its head back and roared again, hobbling straight for them.
Hans and Paul opened fire again, dumping round after round into the abomination. It ducked behind a parked and decaying Volkswagen and shoved it aside, the multi-ton car skidding across the pavement in a shower of sparks. The car hit the cobblestone wall in front of them, crumbling it and showering them in stone shrapnel. They backed off, waving their hands in front of them to clear the dust, and the Deathclaw advanced.
The two of them ran further down the street, stopping at an intersection to reload. Hans nodded to Paul and they slung their guns over their shoulders, pulling out two grenades each. "HERE, HERE, HAND THEM HERE!" Paul screamed, and Hans handed over his grenades. Paul set them all down on the ground, pulled out a roll of tape, and taped the four of them together. He picked up the grenade bundle and gripped all four of their cords between his fingers. "BITE DOWN ON THIS, YOU FUCKING DINO PRICK!"
He was about to lob the grenade bundle at the monster when a shadow flashed over them. They looked up, shielding the sun from their eyes. The Deathclaw had noticed it too and stopped, looking up. It stood up straighter and sniffed at the air, its prey completely forgotten. Hans saw movement in the sky and turned to look. He watched, amazed, as some thing came screaming in and slammed into the Deathclaw's back. The two of them tumbled across the pavement, tangled together. Hans pushed Paul out of the way and dove after them as the monsters neared, continuing their wrestle. They hit a wall and the flying monster leapt off the Deathclaw, which scrambled to its feet. The creature was unlike anything Hans had ever seen; its body was lithe, powerful-looking, and vaguely feline. Its coat was as black as midnight, its paws tipped with razor claws. It almost looked like an oversized panther, but the bat-like wings and tail belied its true nature. It paced back and forth before the Deathclaw, wings pinned back and tail flicking.
The Deathclaw roared and lunged for the monster, swiping at it with its enormous claws. The winged beast leapt back to dodge the hit then darted forward, latching onto the Deathclaw's arm with its jaw. There was a harsh *crack!* and the Deathclaw groaned, its arm falling limp. The attacking monster dragged the Deathclaw down by its arm and leapt onto its back, latching on with its claws. The abhorrent lizard groaned and growled as the winged monster bit one of its horns. Hans watched, both horrified and amazed, as the creature leapt down to the side with the Deathclaw's horn in its jaw, twisting the creature's head and breaking its neck. It collapsed to the pavement on its side, dead, and the winged monster used its claws to tear into the beast's belly and begin to eat.
Hans and Paul stumbled back, hurrying in the direction of the Kettenkrad. "Fuck that fuck that fuck that fuck that and fuck the thing that killed it!" Paul said. They mounted the vehicle and Paul wasted no time in starting the engine and tearing away from the station, racing away from the scene as fast as the Kettenkrad could go. Hans looked over his shoulder once last time and saw the monster gorging itself on the Deathclaw's innards, a cool voice in his head reminding him that there was always a bigger fish.