We carefully begin our trek eastward and out of the minefield. Tanner has cleared a path to us and Townson managed to find his way to Guzzo. We step in a straight line careful not to deviate from Guzzo's clear path. After a while of slow walking and prodding the earth, we believe that we escaped the mine field. We begin to relax as we trek, my arms grow tired, my hands ache from carrying Coleman. He is asleep now and quietly moans, his face and skin pale. With our flash lights we travel east and then we are puzzled for we should have entered the dead forest of hanging Germans, which we came this afternoon.
A shriek fills the night to the front of our pack. "They're gone! They're gone!" exclaims Guzzo. Tanner yells snappishly "What hell are you talking about?" "They are really gone!" also exclaims Townson, who was following behind Guzzo. "What do you mean their gone?" says sarge calmly. "The dead krauts, they're gone." shouts back Guzzo.
Then Doc Avery turns his flash light up to reveal and, we were shocked, they were indeed gone. Only nooses remain as they gently sway in the wind. We were all deeply unnerved. Tanner blurts " What the hell is this? They couldn't have possibly cut them all down in a few hours." "They didn't cut them down though." responds Townson. "I dont like this." says Doc. "Maybe they got down and walked off." jokes Guzzo to an unappreciative audience. "Gone or not, we keep moving." barks sarge.
We continue for a while through the eerie woods, and entered a clearing, still carrying Coleman's crippled body. Suddenly a movement from among the trees catches my attention out of the corner of my eye. Then another, I whisper, "Sarge, Krauts in the trees." He looks around and halts then attempts to project his whisper, "Krauts in the trees." Guzzo, Townson, and Tanner stop and get down on one knee, rifles raised, scanning the tree line. Me and Sarge gently set down Coleman and retrieve our weapons. I unsling my thompson and look about the trees. More movement catches my eyes. We quickly turn off our flash lights and immediately darkness envelops us. The only light that remains is a half moon above which dimly lights the woods but not enough for us to see adequately.
Suddenly Guzzo far in front of us disappears in to the darkness as if he were swept away. Terrified screams follow, we are all shocked.
The sound of screaming begins to fade to silence. "Guzzo!" we all shout. "Guzzo! Sound off!" commands sarge in the darkness. Silence follows. The sounds of rustling leaves can be heard all around us. "God dammit form a parameter!" Barks sarge. We begin to crouch a circle around the injured Coleman. "I really don't like this." blurts Avery. "What is going on sarge?" says Townson almost in childlike voice. "I dont know!" snaps sarge.
Sargent Johnson pulls out from its holster a M-8 flare gun. He holds it far above his head and fires. The flare rises high in to the sky and burst above us. Its heavenly radiance brightly illuminates the forest. I am temporarily blinded, my eyes burn from the light. I close one eye and my sight adjusts and I see something that terrified me to my core. I see figures standing, surrounding us far off in the trees just out of the range of the flares light. Their shapes have silhouettes of humans.They stand there still as statues almost shoulder to shoulder, their eyes glow piercing red in to the darkness. For the time being, the silhouettes of men stand there eyeing us menacingly. The forest is quiet. Soon one figure walks toward us. We all turn to engage, fingers on the trigger.
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The figure slowly steps in to the flare light. Its Guzzo! He's ok! "Nice trick Guzzo! You had us worried." Townson shouts childishly. But something is wrong. As he approaches, I see he has his head down as he walks, his uniform is tattered and torn. Fresh blood drips from his forehead and neck. As he comes closer, he looks up. And his eyes glow red! He grins wickedly and charges at us.
"Shoot him! Shoot him!" shouts sarge. Gunfire erupts breaking the silence, gun flashes blind me. Bam! Bam! Bam! The sound of the BAR barks. Sounds of mine and sarge's Thompsons chatter in the music of battle. Guzzo's body shudders and recoils but does not stop. His body mutilated by bullet holes though he does not bleed. He sprints until six feet from us before he falls face first upon the ground. The gunfire stops and soon roars of laughter fills the forests. Then it quickly falls silent, the flare still shines brightly over the forest illuminating ground with a bright glow. Then the silhouetted figures move slowly toward us in unison, their glowing red eyes burning with malicious determination.
"Reload!" orders sarge. We quickly reload our weapons and a wave of fear passes over me. What happened to Guzzo? Who are these men or what are they? Then almost in unison they step in to the flare light. They're Germans! Their complexion is so pale that they almost glow. The many silhouettes come in to view are wearing german uniforms, though they are not armed. They grin wickedly sending shivers down my spine.
Suddenly sargent Johnson barks, "Open fire!" The air fills with the sound of gunfire a second time. The blinding flashes compete with the flare for dominance over the brightness. I raise my rifle to my cheek and fire in a short burst at three germans in front of me. My thompson chatters and the targets recoil but do not fall and instead they continue on their path. Firing occurs in every direction, tracers fly and everywhere, and still our enemies approach, taking multiple wounds. Only a few of the heavily mutilated by bullet holes fall out of line and sprawl across the ground. They glare at us with burning red eyes of malicious intent, still keeping a horrifying grin upon their faces, they do not bleed. The gunfire and clacking of guns reloading still sound. The eerie Germans still trudge slowly closer not fazed by our desperate attempts to defend ourselves.
"We got to get out of here sarge!" exclaims Townson above the sound of battle. Avery runs up to sarge proclaims "This is bad! Very, very bad!" "We are leaving! Ryan! Townson! Cock grenades and clear us a path!" shout sarge. I pull my Mark Two pineapple grenade from my belt and pull the pin. The cocking lever releases and I throw it as close I can to the rapidly approaching figures. Townson follows suit and soon an explosion, followed up by another, explodes amongst our adversaries. My ears ring, the ground shakes and earth and dismembered parts of our assailants are launched upward.
The sargent shouts, "We got a hole! Move dammit!" Tanner runs forward, throwing another grenade and blasting a larger hole into the enemies line. The earth shakes and even more dismembered figures are launched skyward. Avery and sarge pick up the disfigured Coleman and quickly carry him via the canvas to our newly made escape route. Me and Tanner bring up the rear, the unnatural Germans rush to close on us. They seek to prevent our escape!
They sprint with unimaginable speed and they produce terrible laughter as they close. Their line collapses on us, Me and Tanner fire our weapons wildly in vain attempts to ward of these supernatural enemies. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Townson firing erratically as Sarge and Doc clear the gap with Coleman hobbled between them. The gap closes with our adversaries cutting off Me and Tanners escape. We are trapped! These adversaries make no attempts to pursue them. A wall of grinning figures separates us from the others.