Rise of the Undead 1943 Read Free Page A

wouldn’t just stand there gawking,” he tells
Oddball as he removes the protective covers over the telescopic sight of his
sniper rifle.
    “Why not,” Oddball says defiantly as he pulls a pack of
smokes from his shirt pocket.
    Pilch gently cleans the glass, “Never good when we stop this
long.”
    Something moves under the sand by the German corpse near
Oddball. He doesn’t notice as he struggles to light a cigarette in the desert
wind. Oddball turns around trying to use his body as shelter from the wind when
it stops and a peaceful calm comes over the desert. He lights the cigarette and
looks around. A lone cloud passes in front of the sun and the bright day
briefly goes dark. Pilch shoulders his rifle, ready for action. The sand moves
again, closer to Oddball. As the cloud moves from the sun the wind hits with a
roar.
    Pilch looks around, “I got a bad feeling.”
    Oddball looks over to Pilch, “What ‘ya mean?”
    “I’m just saying I got a bad feeling is all.”
    “Well, why you gotta say that? Now I got a bad feeling,”
Oddball whines as he looks to the top of the canyon.
    Matty strolls up behind Pilch and smacks him in the back of
the helmet, “You always got bad feelings. You ever thought that maybe your just
a bad person?”
    Pilch looks to him, offended, “Why you gotta say that? Now I
got a bad feeling about you.”
    Yusif turns from Camir to face Pender, “Several Germans wait
ahead.”
    Pender peers into the distance, “Where?”
    Camir leans his head around the rocks, and Pender follows
his gaze. They see three Germans in the distance, atop a group of high rocks
above the abandoned archaeological camp.
    “Shit, we ain’t gettin’ them outta there easy,” Pender notes
and waves Harris over.
    “What the hell?” Pilch says looking to see the German corpse
has disappeared. Oddball and Pilch exchange a ‘what the fuck’ look.
    “Where did he go?” Oddball asks in alarm.
    “Where’d who go?” Matty asks.
    “The German,” Oddball whines.
    Matty looks around, “What German?”
    Pilch gazes accusingly at Matty, “How’d you do that?”
    “Do what?” Matty whines.
    “Hide the German,” Pilch barks.
    Harris joins them trying to tuck all of his accessories into
pockets, “What do we got?” He demands and looks to Yusif.
    Yusif can sense something is wrong; he looks past Harris
toward Pilch and sees something moving under the sand near his foot. He slowly draws
his scimitar; it hums as it leaves the sheath. The sand stops moving. Harris
follows his gaze and then looks back to the scimitar.
    “Got a group of Krauts waitin’ on us,” Pender informs him as
he checks that his weapon is ready and not noticing the strange moment with the
scimitar, “Monte, take first and second, string out in a line and pivot in.
I’ll take the rest along the rocks here. You give us a good base of fire.”
    Pender looks up to see Monte staring at the humming scimitar.
Pender snaps his fingers to get his attention, “Sergeant!”
    Monte looks up to Pender, “Got it.”
    Harris looks up from the scimitar to find Yusif staring at
him. He looks to Pender, “Sergeant, I’ll give the orders here.”
    Pender looks to Harris. The two men lock eyes.
    Pender grinds his teeth but breaks, “Yes sir.”
    Harris looks to Monte, “You wait for my orders to pivot.
I’ll lead the other half and we’ll sneak along the rocks, I want prisoners.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “But sir, they have the high ground, and it’s pretty open
out there,” Pender objects.
    “We’ll sneak. You hear that men, no one fires unless I give
the order.”
    Harris doesn’t wait for any more objections and moves around
the rocks.
    Pender shakes his head, “This should be fun,” and follows.
    Harris leads the men along the rocks toward the German’s
position. Pender tries to slow him down, “They got a bead on us, sir.”
    Harris doesn’t slow, “You’re paranoid-- or you’ve lost your
nerve.”
    Pender’s eyes go wide with rage,