Stabgefeiter (equivalent to a lance corporal) Walter Strisenburg was on patrol near the Lithuanian-Russain border with a full combat load for part of NATO “exercises.” Walter came from a military family. He could trace his family history all the way back to the siege of Vienna. In which his great great great, however many greats grandfather held the wall of Vienna until the polish winged hussars could arrive.

If his ancestors could see them now, they would not be happy. Just the other day, they had to ask an American platoon for extra socks and MRE spoons. But at least his platoon had gotten some NVGs (night vision goggles) from the 100 billion euro fund.

Walter noticed his Luetnant (Lieutenant equivalent) looking at his compass and map. Walter had a couple of years in the army, so he knew what this meant. If your lieutenant ever keeps looking at his map along with his compass, that means that your squad is lost. He wondered where Sergeant Ludwig was.

Walter stepped on a lumpy piece of dirt, and everything went black.

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Walter woke up in a stream, an icy stream. He jumped up. “Shit,” he cursed, his shoulders slumping. He got started walking out of the stream. Walter could feel small rocks and silt getting into his cold war era boots. For what feels like that millionth time, Walter cursed the politicians for all the red tape.

Walter clambered out of the stream. “Friedrich, I know you hate being in the water, but we got to keep going.” silence, “Friedrich?” Walter turned around. No one was there. “Funny joke, guys, but we are on patrol, so cut it out.” no response. “I am going to get chewed out so bad for this.” with a resigned sigh, Walter started walking down the stream.

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I woke up to chirping birds, the wind pushing open the tarp door, airing out the cave, and light from the doorway spilling across the cave floor. Light!? I shot up out of… well, you can’t really call it a bed. I shook my head and looked around. The newbie was still there and breathing, my backpack… I remember wearing that. I guess Alexei pulled that off me last night. Maybe he was trying to see if I got anything good. There he was, sitting in a corner snoring away.

Idiot, well, no use in waking him up now. I’ll chew him out for falling asleep later. I walked over and grabbed my pack, and started pulling out stuff. I take out the radio set and start putting it together. You could tell when the radio turned on as it began to crackle like dry leaves in fall. I stick the receiving end out the tarp door into the fresh air.

“Well, look who is a busy bee,” Alexei said as he raised his head. He had deep dark circles under his eyes, which silenced my unspoken reprimand about him not keeping watch.

“You look tired as the devil himself. Get some sleep.”

“Don’t worry. I plan to. Actually, right now, in fact.”

He shuffled over to the sleeping bag, got down, and crawled into the bag. I turn back to the radio and see a little sticky note on the side. The text is so tiny I can’t read it without picking it off the machine. It is just a yellow office sticky note ‘this works just like any other radio when not calling for support.’ well, I might as well test it out.

“Hello, anyone out there?”

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Walter was walking downstream, hopping over rocks and walking through mud. When his radio went off, he was hopping across rocks to get to the other side of the stream. “Hello, anyone out there?” the voice scared him so much that he fell off the rock he was on, landing straight in the river. Then, the voice came again, “hello, anyone, please respond.” the voice was definitely American, but their german was perfect.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Walter hurriedly reached over to his radio, “Yea, I am here,” ‘great, nice communication skills there. They definitely know where you are from the description of ‘here’.’ Walter thought to himself as he waited for a response from his radio.

“Well, I am going to need more than that.” Walter looked around him, getting a good grasp of where he was.

“I am in a stream or small river. There is a hill or rise in the landscape about 200 or 250 meters away downstream.” Walter turns around to describe what's behind him when he spots it. A big black bear with glowing red eyes stalking him. It was on the side of the river he had crossed from.

“You are going to want to go to the hill downstream… you there? Everything alright?” The radio voice got increasingly agitated as Walter stared at the beast in front of him. Walter started backing across the stream as he leveled his MG3 machine gun at the bear, which in turn just watched him, not moving a muscle.

The water from the stream was clawing at his uniform. His boots were occasionally catching on rocks below the water. It was all he could do to not trip over his own boots. So he decided to run for it and try to get help before that thing caught up to him. He gripped his machine gun, turned on his heel, and started running.

The water felt like it was holding him back, his gear holding him down. The end of the stream wasn’t that far away. He kept running as he threw a glance over his shoulder. The beast was just sitting there watching him with those red eyes. Walter ran onto the small beach, which was now a sandy hell. He kicked up the sand as he ran, but it felt like the sand was trying to suck him down. Walter pushed on, finally making it to solid ground.

Walter didn’t stop there. He began running through the brush and low-hanging branches. He tripped over shrubs and rocks several times but got up and kept moving toward the hill every time.

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The german had stopped responding to his radio. ‘Something must have happened to him,’ I thought ‘no shit, captain obvious,’ I mentally replied. I could hear the sounds of someone over the radio running through water, then sand, and the heavy vegetation. I moved over to Alexei and shook him. His eyelids slid apart.

“We got company inbound, grab your gun.” Alexei just nodded his head. As Alexei was getting ready for a shit storm, I kept explaining the situation to him.

“We got a friendly on his way to us. He may have something chasing him. You got all that.” Alexei racked the charging handle on his AK, looked back at me, and nodded.

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Walter had been running for what felt like an eternity when he finally got to the base of the hill. He ran to the bottom of the hill with the last of his energy. Walter turned around, raising his machine gun, which he couldn’t aim properly because he was panting so hard the barrel was swinging all over the place.

Walter reached down and realized that he had locked his radio on when he was panicking in the stream. Walter shrugged and started talking into his radio, “I am on the bottom of the hill,l I am coming up. Don’t shoot me.”

“Roger, we got two friendly guys up here, so don’t shoot us.”

“Alright,”

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Alexei and I had moved up the hill and gotten into firing positions while we waited for the german to show up.

“What do you think is chasing him?”

“I have no idea, maybe a Lovecraftian abomination or something more classic like a werewolf or vampire.”

“I’m guessing a succubus or hot women in general. Got to keep my hopes up.”

Alexei turned to me, “you really are a marine.”

I put on my best shit-eating grin. “Well. We haven’t gotten a shipment of crayons, so I have to keep my hopes up for something.”

A voice came from my radio, “I am on the bottom of the hill. I am coming up. Don’t shoot me, please.”

I respond, "Yeah, there are two of us up here, so don’t shoot us.”

The jerry responds in the affirmative.

“Alright, get up here. We got shit to do.”