Martinez made himself more comfortable and then continued.
“Well, I shouted at this guy, but the next thing I know the other one is grabbing for me as well. I hit him with my M1 and he fell down, I hit him really hard. Tony was screaming so I ran to him and punched and kicked the guy off him. He was bad, man; he had loads of blood coming from his throat. He was a dead man, I was sure of it.”
Smith handed Martinez his canteen, he took several gulps, finishing the water and then dropped it to his side.
“Are you alright kid?” Smith asked.
Martinez attempted a smile, “Yeah, just about, my leg is killing me.”
The Captain added, “Carry on Corporal, what happened next?”
“Yes, Sir,” he responded.
“I tried to help Tony, carried him a short way but those two guys kept coming at us. They were slow, not running but they kept reaching out for us, and those mouths, fuck me, those mouths!”
The obviously traumatised Martinez muttered to himself for a moment before refocusing on the men. Clarke moved back to the group of bodies, checking their wounds.
“Sorry, uh, yeah, they tried to pull Tony off me and then I got pissed! I fired at both of them, good shots, square in the chest. Those shots just wouldn’t stop them though. I tried to get away but Tony was slowing me down, I had to drop him so I could aim properly. I emptied my mag into them and Tony did the same. I thought this time they were definitely dead. Anyway, I tried to help out Tony, put a dressing in his throat but he was just bleeding out too fast. He didn’t have long and the bastards attacked me again! The crazy bastards, this time they came for me! One of them got my leg, he just kept trying to bite my bloody leg off,” he pointed to his wounded leg.
“Bite your leg off? What did you do?” Captain Scott asked.
The soldier grinned.
“I used my little friend.”
He pulled out his pistol, a Colt 1911 automatic pistol. The M1911 was a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, handgun chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. It was both reliable and powerful, the perfect sidearm for many Allied soldiers.
“I put a few rounds into the one that was biting me. A few hit the guy in the chest, but I could see they were not going to stop him. The last one I put between his eyes, that did the trick.”
Clarke came back, confirming the news on the bodies.
“Yeah, its like the Corporal said, the one guy died from major wounds, mainly to his throat, the other two died from gunshot wounds.”
“What about the other one?” asked the Captain.
“Tony took care of him, it was the last thing he did. I think I passed out or something because the last thing I remember was waking up and hearing gunfire. I dragged myself down to here in case it was more of those crazy bastards, then you turned up.”
“I can get a splint on that leg, do you think you can walk on it?” said Lieutenant Harvey.
“No way, Sir, I can hardly feel it anymore,” replied Martinez.
“That’s weird, the blood loss doesn’t seem too great and it has clotted very quickly,” observed Harvey. He turned to the Captain.
“I suggest we put him on a stretcher and get back on the trail for the bridge.”
“I agree,” answered Captain Scott, “we’ve made quite a bit of noise, who knows who else is out here.”
“What about the bodies?” asked Clarke.
Smith replied straight away.
“Strip them of ID and ammo and move them off the trail. We don’t have time for burial, if we hang around we might end up joining them.”
Both the officers nodded in agreement.
Captain Scott spoke to Lieutenant Harvey, “I appreciate these are your men and I’m not here to interfere. I’ll stay with you just as long as needed till I meet my unit. Is that going to be a problem?”
Harvey responded with a look of satisfaction.
“No problem at all Captain, I’ll do my best to get you to your unit as soon as possible,” he turned to Smith.
“Get the bodies out of sight, when you’ve finished assemble the men, we will continue in ten minutes.”
Smith saluted the officer, “Sir!”
He returned to the men who were now preparing to move out.
The mission would continue.
CHAPTER FOUR
Adrienne and Madeleine both sat quietly, they had now been waiting almost half an hour and there was still no sign of the others. The only movement they’d seen were several rabbits that had darted out from the wood in front and scared the two girls half to death. From their position they had a good view out into the field of anybody approaching, the main reason they had chosen this spot. For the last few weeks the girls had been running errands for the local resistance cell that they and the two men were a part of. It was a risky business but all of them wanted to do their bit to drive the Nazis away from this area.
Madeleine spoke quietly, “Do you remember how many trucks we saw yesterday on their way to the base, you know, the ones with all the boxes on them?”
Adrienne scratched her head whilst counting on her hands.
“I think there were seven or eight of them, about the same as the night before.” “Madeleine spoke to herself, “I wonder what they are up to?”
“Look!” called out Adrienne, pointing to the tree line in front of them.
Shadows crept out onto the grass at the front but it looked like more than two people. Adrienne looked towards Madeleine with a confused expression.
Madeleine looked more carefully, finally spotting the figures of Pierre and François as they emerged from the trees. She lifted her torch up and flashed it briefly at the two men, the light revealed far more than either of the girls expected. Chasing the two Frenchmen were a dozen German soldiers, staggering towards them as though they were hurt or drunk. In the middle of the group was a soldier with a long coat, he looked like an SS or Gestapo man. Pierre shouted out to the girls to take the radio and run, but before he could finish his sentence one of the soldiers grabbed his foot and pulled him down. The man in the long coat seemed to be biting him. François turned back to help but was dragged to the ground by three of the soldiers. He shouted and flailed wildly but in seconds another two were on him, clawing and biting as they went.
The two girls stood in terror as they watched the two men being attacked in such a violent way. Madeleine’s fear turned to anger and she pointed the torch at the group as she went to move forward to try and help them. One of the soldiers looked up, blood dripping from its mouth. It opened its jaw unnaturally wide and let out a terrifying groan. Two of the others dropped the Frenchmen and looked towards the girls.
Adrienne lunged forward, grabbing Madeleine to stop her moving towards the scene of carnage. As soon as she stopped the Germans turned back to their victim, almost oblivious to the girls. It was now clear that they could do nothing to help the men as more and more of the soldiers crowded around and started attacking them. François screamed and then a sickening tearing sound stopped him. The light from the torch showed a heaving group of people, a head lifted up, it was one of the soldiers and looked directly at the girls. From its mouth dripped blood and it chewed on what looked like raw flesh. Adrienne screamed and turned to run. Madeleine tried to stop her but she was too late. The girl’s movement attracted the attention of the soldiers and this time a small group left the dying Frenchman and started moving towards the girls, one of them grabbing Madeleine. Madeleine’s decision on whether to help the men or not was made for her as François must have pulled out his pistol. With just two shots fired in quick succession the screaming stopped and the group of cannibalistic Germans turned en mass to the girls. Madeleine left the radio equipment but did grab her notebook and then chased after Adrienne who was already thirty feet away.