Michael Thomas - Night of the Nazi Zombies

Along the other side of the ridge was a small field, bordered by a low wall which the tank had ploughed into. With a brief signal the three crept forward, Smith moving to the tank, the other two stopping short and providing cover. Once Smith reached the tank he found the stink of decaying corpses. He turned and covered his face from the stench. Fighting the urge to retch he moved closer, stepping carefully to avoid the mangled bodies. They had all been killed by a substantial amount of gunfire and the evidence of the bullet casings was all around the tank. He climbed up onto the tank and peeked inside the turret, there was another body inside but nothing unusual, well, nothing more unusual than what was outside. He jumped down, narrowly avoiding landing on a splattered hand. He moved out into the road and towards the other side.

Gardner and Lewis followed him whilst checking the bodies for any clues as to what had been going on. The two things the bodies had in common was that they were all unarmed and all in German uniforms. Either they had been disarmed and killed or more likely, they had discarded their weapons due to becoming one of those creatures.

Smith whispered to the other two, “Come on, to the church and fast!”

The three men vaulted the low wall on the other side of the road and continued their run to the church. It wasn’t far away now. Smith was thinking that they needed to evacuate the church and get back on the road as soon as they got back. The German base had shown that the creatures in this area were almost certainly related to the activities of the Germans. He’d heard about the Germans developing all sorts of wondrous and secret weapons with which to try and strike back against the Allies. So far he had seen no evidence of this and hoped it was all idle speculation. The markings and symbols on the materials at the base definitely showed the Germans had been storing something dangerous that perhaps had overwhelmed the garrison guarding it. On top of this there was all the medical research including the images, paperwork and diagrams that they’d brought back with them. This all added up to something that the British soldiers really didn’t want to get involved with until they had numbers on their side. He needed to get this intelligence back to the church then urgently to High Command. Smith suspected that this information might have great significance to the war effort.

“Sarge, look!” called out Gardner.

Instinctively the three soldiers hit the ground, each man crouching low and aiming their weapons in the direction pointed out by Gardner. About a hundred yards to their right was the shape of one of the creatures. It was stood out in the open and looking up at the sky.

“Shall I drop him?” asked an eager Lewis as he slightly adjusted his rifle sights.

Smith answered immediately, “No, we need to keep quiet. This one doesn’t seem to have spotted us.”

Whilst the three men kept low they could now make out the shapes of more of the creatures in the shadows of the woods and fields. They scanned around the area; all around the horizon seemed to be moving.

Smith spoke, “It looks like they follow sound, so let’s keep going and keep the noise down.”

They both nodded and were about to move when Smith signalled for them to keep still.

Gardner swore first, “Fuck me Sarge, can you see them?”

The NCO pulled them both lower to the ground, checking their route ahead.

“We’ve been lucky. I reckon another five minutes and we’d have had them between us and the church.”

Gardner nodded in agreement.

Smith continued, “Ok, one last push and we’ll be there, keep it low and don’t stop for anything, got it?”

Smith as usual went first, his back hunched as he moved. After months of training he was both fit and very experienced at moving with the minimum of sound. This training was finally paying off, as he was now very close to the northern face of the church and could just make out an occasional movement in the church tower that must be Trent. Without stopping Smith kept jogging, following the perimeter around till he reached the low wall that had until recently been where they had fought their defensive battle against the creatures. Right behind him came the other two, both vaulting the wall as they simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

Inside the church the preparations were proceeding well, until the doors swung open to reveal Smith and his two companions. They were panting but by no means exhausted. Captain Scott and Lance Sergeant Jones both moved close to him. Jones tapped him on the shoulder.

“Good to see you Sarge, had a feeling you wouldn’t vanish on us.”

Smith smiled but his serious composure returned as he took the pack from Lewis and placed it on the floor.

“We’ve found some disturbing evidence, Sir” he said.

Captain Scott, unsurprised by Smith’s statement added his own comments. “Between Jones and the survivors they brought back here, I think we have a pretty good picture.”

He proceeded to explain everything that had happened so far. Smith described everything about the base, the documents he’d brought back and the number of creatures outside. Clearing space in the nave they pulled a container over and used it as an improvised table. Smith laid out the map and the German soldier wandered over. Gardner, shocked at the sudden appearance of the enemy, raised his Sten and was stopped from firing at the last minute by Jones.

“It’s ok, he’s with us.”

Gardner shook his head in disbelief, “You’re kidding me, right?”

The German soldier pointed at the base on the map, as well as the areas marked in red, and spoke with the Captain.

The Captain translated as the German spoke.

“He says this base, the one you just went to, was a drop off point from some kind of materials. He said that he and his men were sent there and then attacked by the creatures.”

Smith asked bluntly, “Do you trust him, Sir?”

The captain nodded, “I don’t see any reason why he would lie. Jones found him hiding in one of the houses and he was under attack by the creatures.”

Smith carried on, “What about the symbols on the maps, does he have any idea what they are?”

Captain Scott spoke to the German who kept shaking his head as he spoke.

“He doesn’t know, though he kept calling them the undead or something like that.”

Smith turned the corner of his mouth up at the name.

“Sounds a pretty fair description to me, they aren’t really dead or alive from what I can tell.”

They were interrupted by the German who’d been looking through the paperwork Smith had recovered from the German base. He seemed almost excited, or possibly agitated, with what he’d found and kept repeating the phrase Wiedergänger.

Captain Scott spoke first to Smith, “One moment,” and then turned back to the German.

Whilst they spoke Smith asked Jones, “How many people did you get out of the houses?”

Jones looked pleased with himself, “In total seven plus this German guy.”

Smith continued, “Any of those things?”

Jones looked at his Sten, “Yeah, we were attacked by two of them. Nothing my little friend and I couldn’t deal with.”

Smith smiled to himself, tapped Jones on the shoulder and then moved back to the Captain who was still talking to the German.

“He says that the papers you brought back keep referring to Wiedergänger, some kind of mythological undead monster. It also mentions something to do with Nachzehrer. Apparently that is a kind of undead vampire thing.”

Smith looked less than impressed with his comments; he thought for a moment. “Of course, these could just be codenames for a new weapon, maybe something that makes the dead turn into these things. What if the Germans are experimenting on making an army of them?”