Michael Thomas - Night of the Nazi Zombies

“You think he’s going to go crazy like Martinez, don’t you?”

Chard nodded, too shocked and pumped up on adrenalin to actually speak.

Smith pointed the pistol he had taken from the now dead officer, he looked at him carefully, looking for any glimpse of movement. The body was completely lifeless, he eased back on the trigger, perhaps he was just dead. He almost smiled to himself at the thought as though death now meant something different to just hours before. Wait, he saw something on his face, was it movement? Smith squinted, looking down the barrel of the pistol, and then he saw it. Lieutenant Harvey opened his eyes, the same glassy look they had seen on Martinez and then open his mouth in the shrill cry of these undead monsters. Without hesitating he pulled the trigger, putting a single round into the base of the brain. The officer’s body snapped backwards, joining Martinez on the floor.

Chard, who by now was starting to get enough oxygen back into his lungs to calm down, voiced his observations.

“Looks to me like these creatures have some kind of venom, like a snake. If they bite you it somehow turns you into one of these.”

Humphreys looked less than impressed.

“What the fuck do you mean it turns you into one of those things?” he pointed to the bodies on the ground.

Chard looks a little confused at his outburst before spotting the bandages on Humphreys, “Oh shit!” he swore, realising both the risk he saw in the man and also the insult he had just announced. He added an uncomfortable, “Sorry,” to the end of his little speech.

Humphreys carried on with his rant.

“Look, I’ve been bitten and I feel fine, nothing wrong with me, look!”

Captain Scott looked unsympathetic. “I agree with Chard here, those things do something to you but, and this is a big but, it only seems to affect people when they die. Look at Harvey and Martinez, they both died from their wounds before turning, maybe that is what happened to the ones outside.”

M. Poulain joined in, “I agree. Everything I have seen shows me these things always attack you after another one has hurt them and after they have died. It looks like devil’s work.”

“Or Nazis’ work?” called Captain Scott.

“Same thing isn’t it?” Smith interjected.

Captain Scott spoke to the old man. “What did the girls have to say?”

“Well, it seems they were out with a group from the other village, they’ve been waiting for you to arrive,” explained the old man.

“Waiting?” asked Captain Scott.

“Yes, the girls and their family have been working with the resistance for some time now. They were working with, I think you call them pathfinders or something?” asked M. Poulain. Captain Scott gave a look of acknowledgement.

“They say they were attacked by these things when they were heading to meet their friends. They were the same ones, same movement, smell and noise. It seems they are the same things.”

“So based on what you know, how many of these things do you think there are out there?” asked Captain Scott.

The old man continued. “Well, so far I have seen more of these things than there are people in any of the surrounding villages. From what the girls have told me though, I think I know where the rest have come from.”

“The source of what makes them act like this or the source of the people?” asked Sergeant Smith.

“I think the answer is the same for either, Sergeant,” said M. Poulain in a matter of fact tone.

“Madeleine was telling me that they have been recording the movements of lots of lorries in this area. Normally this would not be unusual, as the Germans are always up to something. The strange thing this time though is that they have been bringing lots large wooden containers.”

“Where are they taking them? To one location or lots?” asked Smith.

“That is the interesting bit, there’s a German military base not far from the village,” he pointed out to the north. “Madeleine says they have a small number of soldiers there, but also lots and lots of these containers she keeps seeing. They have been storing them in large numbers but she doesn’t know why.”

Smith turned to Captain Scott, “Do you think we’ve destroyed them all?”

He turned to M. Poulain for clarification, “Did the girls say if any of the containers were broken?”

Without checking with the girls he answered the sergeant, “No, they didn’t stay long enough. I do know where they are though.”

“Don’t forget, if these things bite you it seems they can spread it to anybody. If they have got out, and it seems they have, they could be anywhere by now,” said the Captain.

“Actually, that is not entirely true,” said M. Poulain. The creatures that attacked you and your men seem to have come from a wide area.”

Captain Scott looked intrigued.

“That makes sense, and so far we have seen locals as well as Allied and German soldiers. Interesting, so either they were sent to attack us and have been killing and creating these creatures on their way or they have been heading towards us for another reason.”

“Could it be something we did or are doing, is drawing them here?” added Smith.

Captain Scott continued questioning M. Poulain, “You said some of the local people here have been hiding from these things. Have they been attacked since hiding?” The old man shrugged.

Scott carried on, “We need more information, and I don’t think it wise to wander around this area till we know more.”

“I agree,” said Sergeant Smith. “If these things are out there in larger numbers they could wreak havoc on the invasion. I think this takes priority over the bridge right now.”

Chard piped in, “Also, if we’re all dead we can’t help anybody.”

Captain Scott grinned, “Hell, you’ve got that right!”

CHAPTER SIX

In less than half an hour, following the death of the Lieutenant, the airborne soldiers had already started work on converting the church into a more substantial base of operations. Whereas before they had been guarding just the perimeter, they had now moved all their heavy equipment inside and were working on stacking heavy furniture so that the men could reach up to the windows to watch the open space around the church. The bodies of the Lieutenant and Martinez were in a discrete corner of the chancel. Using wood salvaged from broken up pews the men had boarded up a number of the windows, just leaving enough spaces for them to use as firing positions for when the time came. The base of the church tower had quite a narrow access point from the nave and made an ideal position from which to establish a fallback position, should the chancel and nave fall in any follow up attacks. The tower also featured a much smaller door on the western wall that gave the soldiers the equivalent of a medieval sally port if they needed to abandon the position at any point in the future. Using a series of ropes the men had pulled up some of the captured German equipment, including the prized MG42 and lots of ammunition.

Near the porch the soldiers had piled up all the heavy furniture and boxes they could find, ready to push against the doors should they need to block them at any point in the future.

Captain Scott and Sergeant Smith were busy discussing their plans with M. Poulain whilst the rest of the men continued working on the church.

Captain Scott outlined his plan;

“We need to establish five things before we can take effective action in this area. First, we need to know how many of these things are still out there. Second, we need to know how far they have spread, assuming there are more of them. Third, we need to know for sure where the source is. Fourth, we need to find any survivors and get them here, Fifth and finally, we need to work out how we can contain them and even more important, how to keep them away from our forces arriving soon.”