Nacht der Untoten

WINTER, 1944:

German lines are broken during the Ardennes Offensive, clearing a way for the allies to successfully breach the Siegfried Line.

MARCH, 1945:

The allied forces crossed over the Rhine River in Operation Plunder and took over the city of Frankfurt.

APRIL, 1945:

Berlin became under siege from all sides by the allies, soon leading to the suicide of Adolf Hitler less than two weeks later.

MAY, 1945:

Germany surrendered unconditionally, and the war in Europe had officially ended.

Three weeks later, Europe was at peace once again, but with a cost of millions of innocent lives. Shortly after their defeat, it was uncovered the Nazis performed unspeakable acts on civilians at their concentration camps; hundreds of bodies of men, women, and children were found in several of them across the country. Rumours began to stir about top-secret experiments being tested behind the scenes that would’ve helped them win the war, if they had been successful. What those exact experiments were was unknown at the time.

On June 3rd, the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron of the US Army were assigned a top-secret mission into Polish lands which were formerly taken over by the Third Reich, along with a top-military official, before landing in Poznań to refuel after finishing the job. Once they were filled up, the Squadron made their way to Berlin where the rest of their men would be. They were back up in the air by midnight.

June 4th, 1945

Morasko, Poland

Pvt. Woodward

61st Troop Carrier Squadron

In the C-47 transport aircraft was a crew of two, carrying a squad of twelve troops who were all having a laugh after a successful mission. The entire group knew each other well and fought valiantly alongside one another during the war. Their morale was significantly improved once Germany lost; they all knew they were one step closer to home.

Sitting down by himself with a photo of his mom in his hands was a young silver wolf named Matthew. He was excited about the thought of greeting his mother again after not seeing her for roughly three years. He could imagine it — stepping out of the car in front of the house, and her running towards him to finally embrace with her son once more, knowing he was safe and sound. Not long after, a puma came over and sat down next to the wolf, smiling at his own thoughts as he sighed.

“I can’t believe we’re going home soon,” he said next to him. His name was Pvt. Riley Northridge — a fellow soldier who befriended Matthew during the war. “I’m gonna get to see my wife and daughter again...it’s been so long.”

“I know,” the wolf agreed. “I can’t wait to give my mom the tightest hug.”

“What’re ya, Woodward, a momma’s boy?” A voice from the other side of the deck called out.

That voice came from a Boxer dog named Pvt. Milo Kowalski — the two of them didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but they respected each other enough to fight alongside during their chaotic battles. If it weren’t for their sergeant, they would’ve never been able to fight together.

“Oh, I’m sorry that I have someone I care about, Kowalski,” he responded sarcastically. After giving out a soft chuckle, the Boxer gave up with his attempt at teasing Matthew, seeing he wasn’t having any of it.

“I’m just prayin’ that my family are alright,” spoke out a red fox with a slight Southern accent.

That fox was Pvt. Thomas Clearwater — he was a more anxious type of guy. He was always praying before heading into battle and wore a cross with his dog tag at all times; he was certain God was on his side.

“That’s enough of those worries, Clearwater, I’m sure family’s all fine n’ dandy,” out called the sarge.

As their journey to Berlin continued through the night, the plane shook more often than when they first took off. It seemed the weather was starting to get worse where they were heading.

Meanwhile, in the cockpit, the two pilots flying the plane were listening in on the comms, making sure they were on the right track. Soon after, the signal from the comm began to stutter — the voice on the other end of the radio cutting in-and-out constantly, the radar flashing on-and-off at a rapid pace, things were starting to get concerning.

“Airfield, do you copy?” The pilot called out — no response.

“Airfield, this is the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron on the C-47 — we need guidance, do you copy?” He called out again — still no luck.

The two continued their attempts at contacting their home-base, but as far as they knew, they were flying blind. They had no sight at all — just a dark, shadowy void.

Not long after their signal was cut off, they began to hear booms and cracks outside of the plane in the distance, the noise only getting louder as they got closer to the source.

“Sounds like a storm coming in,” stated one pilot.

“But from where?” Asked the other.

There was nothing to be seen in front of them — just the pure-black sky they’d been looking at for a couple hours at that point, until—

*BOOM*

A bright flash of lightning struck the plane’s left wing, sparking a large fire inside AND outside the engine.

“HOLY SHIT!”

The troops inside the main deck stopped their chattering and remained quiet immediately after, more rattling soon following. As the intense shaking of the plane continued, the sergeant went to the cockpit to check on the pilots while Matthew and the others stayed in their seats. The shaking became much worse and threw some of the fellow soldiers out of their seats, this time they could all feel the aircraft losing altitude. It didn’t take long for the sarge to come rushing back into the room, this time yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Hang onto something! The ENTIRE left wing’s gone! We’re going down!!!”

As he clutched onto the nearest thing he could find, the sounds of the plane’s sirens and the panicked voices of the other troops were the only things Matthew could hear. His life began to flash before his eyes while last-minute thoughts overwhelmed his mind — he became anxious about the thought of not being able to see his mother one last time, upset from all that fighting in the war just to die from a bad storm, until everything suddenly turned black.

When Matthew opened his eyes again, he was laying on the ground, surrounded by the his fellow brothers-in-arms and the remains of the aircraft he was in before he blacked out — few of them were now dead. He coughed a few times due to the black smoke from the flames, his abdomen was in agony, and he felt the air brush against his freshly-cut wounds from the crash.

“Woodward?” A voice called out to him; he couldn’t tell who the voice came from because of his blurred vision and the loud noise of the roaring flames next to him. But as the voice drew closer and his eyes adjusted, he was then able to identify the person — it was Northridge and Kowalski, covered in dirt and soot from the wreckage along with minor cuts in his fur.

“You alright, bud?” The cougar asked.

“Never better...you two look like hammered shit.”

“Better than how you look, I imagine,” Milo snickered. “C’mon, I gotcha.”

The pair grabbed hold of Matthew by his arms and picked him up from the ground, letting him be able to move his legs freely again.

“Can you walk?”

“I can manage,” the wolf responded, the two soon letting go of him to walk by himself.

“Where’s the sarge?” He asked.

“He’s dead...a few of the others, too.”

He looked around to see the bodies of the soldiers he fought with in the war along with one of the pilots, now laying lifeless on the cold hard ground. Others that were still alive could either barely walk, or had broken limbs.

“Y’all alright there, Matt?” Asked a man from the corner of his eye — to his surprise, it was Clearwater with two other soldiers by his side, their bodies still in decent condition.

“Fantastic...glad to see you’re still alive.”

As the remaining troops were recollecting themselves, Milo heard voices faintly in the far distance. The forest they were in was surrounded by a misty fog, and in the fog a silhouette came into view. They appeared to be a person, though this person wasn’t walking — they were shambling, as if they had broken an ankle.

Soon after, more of those shadowy figures followed closely behind; the soldiers began to hear noises coming from their direction — not talking, but rather grunts and groans of men.

On high alert, one of the soldiers stood up to unholster their M1911 and point it in strangers’ direction.

“Who are you?! Identify yourself!”

As the mysterious men shambled towards the troops, Matthew noticed something odd about them. They wore German military uniforms with the iron-cross symbol patched on their chests, yet they were unarmed — what could they possibly be doing out there? As the wolf looked up further towards their faces, he was greeted with an unusual sight; their eyes weren’t any regular colour, but yellow, with a bright glow to them, and their fur was torn and covered in what appeared to be blood.

“Stop right there, kraut! Don’t come any closer, or I’ll shoot!”

“Kraut?!” Milo rushed over to the scene and pulled out his own sidearm to point at the enemy soldiers coming their way.

Despite being held at gunpoint, the nazis didn’t obey his order and continued to stumble towards the group, their pace only quickening as they drew closer.

“I’m warning you! STOP!”

Once again, they didn’t listen. The soldier shot one bullet at the German. Even though he had just taken a shot in the torso, he carried on moving towards them with no sign of stopping, the same groans coming from his bloody mouth.

“What the fuck?” Said Riley — he and neither of the others could believe what they were witnessing.

Both the soldier and Kowalski opened more fire on the rest of the nazis — still no reaction from any of them.

With all the gunfire waisted from their handguns, the Germans were still coming toward them at a faster speed, until one finally reached the group. The first one to make it there lunged at the US troop and pounced onto him, the man screaming in agony on the ground not even 5 seconds later. One other troop rushed to his aid and attempted to push the nazi off his friend; however, what he saw was horrifying. The German raised his head up to reveal he had torn a chunk flesh from their buddy’s neck, the poor friend’s screams being suppressed by the amount of blood he was gargling from his mouth.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” He yelled in disbelief as he fell backwards onto the ground.

It didn’t take long for the other nazis to arrive and soon pin the other soldier down and repeat the same action as the first, this time multiple of them joining in which his cries following soon after. As even more of those monsters came into view from the fog in the distance, Matthew and the others began to back away as they overwhelmed the crash site.

“No...please...get me OUTTA HERE!!!” Screamed a man, unable to run away due to his snapped legs, but there was nothing they could do. The crippling nazis had already gotten to him and proceeded to rip his body apart, that familiar crimson liquid spilling everywhere in front of them.

“QUICK! FALL BACK!” Commanded Milo.

Matthew and the others that remained fled from the wreckage and escaped the zombies, sprinting full speed into the woods as fast as they ever had done in the war. The few minutes they ran for felt like the longest few minutes of their lives — none of them wanted to even imagine what it was like dying the way their fellow allies just did.

Just as they were beginning to run out of breath and give up, thinking the forest just went on for miles with no sign of civilisation, they soon saw a glimmer of hope in the distance.

In front of them were wooden fences with barbed wire wrapped around the top of them, along with tall electric posts. Further ahead was a small concrete building surrounded by German transport trucks and what appeared the remains of Panzer III’s — they had finally found shelter.

Once the group had found a way into the building, they sat for a few short moments to catch their breaths.

“What...the fuck...did we just see out there?” Asked the cautious Milo.

“Damn cannibal krauts is what we just saw out there!” Riley responded.

“Why weren’t they dying?!”

“I DUNNO! What I DO know is that they should’ve fallen to that much gunfire — there’s NO WAY they’d still be alive after that.”

Meanwhile, Clearwater had cooped up in the corner with his knees tucked in, his body shaking from head-to-toe. The wolf was mentally scarred by the horrifying scene he had just witnessed moments ago; he had seen some gruesome things in his life — especially during the war — but nothing topped what happened to those men back at the crash site. In an attempt to take his mind off the situation they were stuck in, he attempted to light a match from one of his pouches and turn on the lanterns he found across the room. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t take the screams and sight of the soldiers’ mangled bodies out of his mind — fortunately for the wolf, the match worked and he was able to light up the lamp, giving them more visual access to the building they were in.

“Where are we, though?” He asked the men.

“Looks like some sort of Nazi base — maybe an airfield, or something.”

“Hey, I think I found the generator!” Riley noted from further down the hall, the clicking sound of a flicked switch following shortly afterwards along with the lights from the ceiling turning on, as well as the ones outside surrounding the bunker.

Once the power was activated and they could see much more clearly, they could finally get a better look at the building they were in; The walls had several cracks in them from the aftermath of the war along with piles of rubble, there were shelves stocked up with boxes that had the infamous Iron Cross printed onto them containing ammunition, nazi uniforms were hung up in the corner, a large leather couch was blocking the stairs, and a few flames burning in the corners of the bunker that gave off some extra light.

Near the four men was a large wooden door, with the word ‘HELP’ written onto it with white chalk; For some reason, the letter ‘P’ wasn’t quite written properly, like they never finished it — though the bloody handprints along the doorframe gave a brief sign as to what might’ve happened.

“Hey, Matt — help me move this,” said Milo.

With enough force, the two of them managed to open the wooden door and see what was inside the room behind it, but they didn’t have long to search around. The howls of those foul creatures could be heard in the distance — they were coming for them.

“Oh, shit,” Matthew muttered under his voice.

“God, help us all...We’re gonna die...”

“What are we supposed to do? We don’t have any ammo!” Riley noted.

“Well, if you were paying any attention, you’d know bullets didn’t do SHIT to them!”

“What else can we do?!”

“GUYS!!!” The wolf butted in between Northridge and Kowalski. “There’s nothing else we can do except hold our position. We gotta board up these windows. Clearwater — check inside that room for any weapons and ammo. We’ll be out here if you need us.”

With that said, Thomas quickly rushed into the ‘HELP’ room and began searching through the boxes on the shelves while the other three gathered planks of wood from a corner to barricade the windows. Fortunately in one of those boxes on the shelves contained tools such as nails and hammers.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

The beating sound of the hammers against the nails echoed throughout the bunker, suppressing the screams and groans of the undead soldiers approaching them outside.

“These planks ain’t gonna hold,” warned Northridge.

“They may not hold, but it’ll buy us some time.”

After a few short moments, Clearwater came back into the main room with a Kar98K in his hands, a bolt-action rifle used by the Germans; he handed it over to Milo who had been out of ammo for his M1911 since they left the crash site.

“A kraut gun?!”

“Well, it’s better than nothing, Kowalski,” the wolf reminded him.

“Y-you’re gonna wanna see this,” said Thomas, confusion on his mind.

“Is it more important than boarding these windows up?”

“Yes.”

Matthew stopped what he was doing and could only stare for a moment, unsure of what to think. However, he left the planks with the Boxer and followed Clearwater into the other room.

Upon entering the room, he turned to his left to see the vulpine standing in front of a long, rectangular wooden box; it had two question marks printed on top of it, which appeared to be flashing between two colours: a pale yellow and a frosty white.

“...What is this?”

Soon after, the fox opened up the crate, and what Matthew witnessed was unreal. A lullaby began to play and out came an MP40 which then changed into an M1 Carbine — then to an STG-44 — then an MG42 and several other weapons, until finally changing to an M1 Garand. The rifle stayed levitated in the air by itself, with nothing holding it up.

“What the fuck is this?” He asked the fox.

“Take it.”

With no further questions asked, Matthew leaned over and grabbed hold of the familiar US rifle, the box then shutting on its own without anybody touching it. He pulled back on the Garand’s bolt to check if it had ammo — to his surprise, the gun was fully loaded.

“HERE THEY COME!!!” Yelled out Riley, making sure Matthew heard.

Once he came back into the main room, he rushed to a boarded-up window and lined up his sight to the oncoming wave of zombies heading their way from the misty fog.

“I’ve got contact!”

With the pull of a trigger, a loud bang shortly followed and Milo’s bullet planted a hole through one of their bodies; unfortunately, it had the same result as before.

“The fuck!? WHY WON’T YOU FUCKING DIE?!”

Further down the room Riley began to open fire with his pistol at the few undead Nazis shambling towards him — still no results from his side either.

With the iron sight of his rifle lined up to one of their heads, Matthew shot a round into them. To his surprise, the walking corpse was no longer standing, and this time it never got back up from the ground — he found the solution.

“That’s it! Aim for the head!” He ordered to the other two.

Further down the hall, Matthew could hear the blood spit out of the corpses from the gunfire, with the sounds of the bodies plummeting shortly following afterwards.

“Got one!” Milo called out.

A few more rounds and lifeless corpses later, the wolf’s M1 Garand pinged and ejected the clip from the rifle. Quick to grab a new one from one of his pouches, he reloaded the gun and began firing again. Though they knew the threat wasn’t immortal, they weren’t the soldiers they were familiar with on the battlefield. The only way to put them down was to destroy the brain, so they had to make every shot count.

Despite them now acknowledging the fact they CAN die, it didn’t seem like their numbers were thinning — in fact, quite the opposite. Beyond the mist they could still hear the roars and moans of the monsters which were only getting louder.

It didn’t take very long for Riley’s pistol to click with no bullets exiting the barrel.

“Shit — I’m out!”

“Grab a gun from the box in the other room!” Yelled Matthew.

Once Northridge entered the ‘HELP’ room, Thomas rushed out with an MP40 in his hands and quickly positioned at Riley’s window, the sound of the machine gun reigning fire into the ever-growing crowd echoing the halls.

Even with the precise aim of the soldiers and the countless heads they’d penetrated, the horde soon became overwhelming as time went on.

Matthew picked up the sound of planks being torn off a window from behind. Once he turned around, he was shocked to see the zombies had taken down almost every board. It had came to a point where those wretched beings had surrounded the entire bunker.

“JEEZ, THEY’RE ALL OVER THE PLACE!”

The horde eventually made it to Matthew’s window while he was focused on another, and began ripping the boards off the frames with little effort, reaching their bloody, rotten hands in to grab him. He quickly turned back around to try and fend off the invaders breaking through, planting bullet after bullet into them until he was dry out of ammo. While he was distracted and panicking due to the pressure, the zombies managed to enter the bunker without anybody realising it. One that broke in limped towards him and was extremely close to taking a chunk out of the anxious wolf’s neck, until—

*BANG*

The grey canine turned his head to see the undead Nazi — who had crept their way into the building — on the ground, and was missing the top half of its head.

“Watch your back, wolf,” advised Northridge, pumping the Trench Gun he had acquired from the mysterious box.

Above the body appeared to be an ammo crate, floating in the air with a bright, green glow and a slight shimmering noise to it. Riley took a step forward and reached out to touch it, only for the object to whoosh away the moment the puma came in contact with it.

“What was—“

Immediately after, Matthew’s M1 Garand had clicked in his hands, which made him look down. He couldn’t believe it — his rifle was full of ammo once again. It seemed as though that levitating ammo box had magically granted him extra ammunition for them to survive. It was almost as if somebody was watching over them...

As the horde of the undead grew faster by the minute, it had become overwhelming for Milo in particular. Due to his rifle being a bolt-action, he had to individually insert every single bullet into it, which lead to the hungry mob overflowing his window.

“Need some help over here!” Called out the Boxer impatiently.

However, it was too late; the walking corpses bombarded his window and started spilling into the bunker one-by-one. With Matthew taking over for him while he fled into the ‘HELP’ room, the wolf peripherally noticed they were breaching his once again. Further up ahead he saw Thomas sprinting down the hall with a huge wave of them behind him, Riley soon doing the same as they nearly caught him.

“THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!!!”

“FALL BACK!”

Woodward, Northridge and Clearwater backed off to the entrance of the ‘HELP’ room due to the overwhelming numbers and attempted to hold them off, spraying and praying into the the army of the undead.

Things were not looking good for them anymore — their ammo was depleting, the zombies were getting faster, and their number just kept growing. Them being outnumbered was a massive understatement.

The same thoughts raced through Matthew’s mind as the ones he witnessed during the plane’s fall: He wasn’t going to get to hug his mother after all, Riley wasn’t going to be able to see his wife and daughter again, Tom wasn’t going to kiss his lover for one last time, and Milo wasn’t going to—

*RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT*

Bullets began spraying into the horde at an even faster rate with chunks of their decaying flesh flinging into the air.

“I got you! GO!” ordered Kowalski.

Without a second thought, the three of them rushed into the room and made way for Milo, who was now holding the heavy Browning M1919 — a Light Machine Gun that was capable of taking down hundreds of enemies.

With no sign of the gunfire stopping any time soon, Tom and Riley set up new positions at two windows that were on the other side of the room. It didn’t take long for those vicious monsters to show up and start tearing down their boards too.

While the three of his fellow brothers-in-arms were occupied with the hordes of the undead, Matthew quickly ran to the box once again to grab a different weapon — one more useful for their dire situation.

He opened the crate and the ever-changing cycle of firearms floated back up to greet him. Once it finally stopped, he didn’t expect to see such a bizarre-looking weapon. It appeared to be some sort of large, maroon pistol, with plenty of curves in its shape and a very thin barrel — like nothing he had ever seen before. He didn’t know what to think at first — was it a useful tool that could help change the tide in their battle against the undead? Or was it a silly child’s toy? There was only one way to find out.

“I’m running low!” Milo warned to Woodward.

In a hurry, Matthew grabbed the ‘weapon’ in the box and quickly rushed to Milo as his LMG had emptied all its rounds. With the large number of zombies heading his way, he lined up the crossed sight of the gun to head-level, and hesitantly pulled the trigger.

To his surprise, it had quite a kick to it. Out of the gun’s barrel came a glowing, green ring with an unfamiliar sound as it whooshed its way to the horde and echoed down the halls, blowing off chunks of flesh and even limbs before knocking a few of the Nazis down.

“The fuck is THAT?!” Shouted Milo.

It was clear to Matthew that it was indeed a weapon — a very powerful one.

He fired off more of those neon-green rings into the mob and blew off several limbs of each and every single one of them, including their heads. He felt unstoppable; however, that was only for a limited amount of time that soon ran out.

Twenty rounds — that was all it took for the gun to make that haunting clicking noise, meaning it was out of ammo.

*Click*

*Click*

*Click*

“FUCK!”

Matthew had to bail behind Kowalski once again as the Boxer reigned fire with his freshly-reloaded Browning. As much as the weapon was powerful, the crowds of corpses were getting much more stubborn. As more came into the building, it became harder to take them all down. Even Northridge and Clearwater’s windows were starting to overflow with the undead and they soon tore the planks off of them.

The two of them ran back to the part of the room where Matthew was as the horde chased them down the hall, the two of them firing behind them hoping to pick off one or two of them. Now the four of them were together again.

They were trapped — they had nowhere else to go. All they could do was spray and pray.

However...Matthew subtly noticed that familiar green glow in the middle of the crowd. As the zombies separated and gave him a better view, he got a good look of what that was. It wasn’t a floating ammo box this time, but rather something much bigger and more round. It looked almost like...a nuke?

Acknowledging what the ammo box had done for them recently before, he felt it was another potential helping aid for them. He had to do something — he had to act NOW, otherwise they were doomed.

In a last-ditch effort, the wolf, sprinted towards the crowd.

“WOODWARD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

With the last of his strength, he squeezed in between the zombies as much as he could, fighting for his dear life to get that bomb. He felt them grabbing onto his arms, trying to tug him back so they can munch on his flesh, but he refused to let them — he just kept going. He reached out as far as he could, hoping that just the tip of his finger was enough to trigger the effect.

Before one could sink their teeth into the wolf, his vision was blinded with a white light.

*KABOOM*

The lupine’s ears were ringing and he couldn’t see a thing. For a moment he thought he was dead — however, the whiteness and ringing soon faded away, and he was greeted by the sight of zombies burning in front of him. One-by-one, each of them began to fall and their haunting groans became less frequent every second, until it all finally came to a stop. The screams and groans of the dead could no longer be heard by any of the four.

“What the hell just happened?” Asked Kowalski.

“It was a bomb.”

“A bomb?” Riley asked with a confused tone in his voice.

“Yeah...That ammo crate we saw earlier? I saw a bomb floating with the same glow. I’m guessing that must’ve killed them all.”

Thomas was laughing at the thought, shocked they all managed to survive against hundreds of undead nazis.

“Well, looks like someone’s watching over us — eh, boys?”

Matthew — exhausted yet relieved — sat down in a corner and let out a long exhale. They just experienced a nightmare turned into reality. He was mind-boggled by the thought. It looked like he was going to get to see his mother after all.

“I can’t believe it...it’s over...” said Northridge in between breaths.

*Rooooooooaaaaaaarrrr*

Just as the group began to settle down after their supposed victory, the screams and groans of the Nazi zombies slowly crept back into their ears, growing louder and louder once again.

Alerted by the sounds, the four soldiers gripped their guns tight with fear and anxiously aimed back at the archway through the ‘HELP’ room’s entrance — it looked like they had to do a LOT more work to get out of that hellhole.

“No...it ain’t over...this is just the beginning...”

_______________________________________

FINALLY!!! I finished it! This story was meant to be finished back in October before Halloween, but some things came up that pushed my story-writing back a bit ^^;

Anyway, I’m REALLY proud of this story — my first ever horror one! And it’s based around Call of Duty: World at War’s Nazi Zombies mode. For anybody who’s wondering: yes — the abandoned bunker in this story is the first ever Zombies map :D

This INCREDIBLE pic was done by the amazing Jailbird!