He then picked up his PPSH that was still on the ground and ran up the stairs as fast as his legs would carry him. Steiner reached the same level as the man and before he could speak the strange old man gestured to the arch to the right, leading off behind him. As Steiner walked past him he noted the bandolier of shotgun shells he was carrying, slung across his body. Even more unusual was the fact that he was carrying a large axe, it was thrust into a rough brown belt around his waist. As Steiner continued along the landing he noticed a large number of bodies dotted about, some on the floor, others up against the walls, slouched as though they had been dumped there. Against the walls were the tell tale signs of a bloody close quarter fight.
Behind Steiner the firing continued as the old man fired more shots down the staircase. He could hear a pounding sound coming from the front door, it was as if the creatures were trying to knock down the door using just their bodies. A crashing sound of glass indicated that something was trying to enter through the lower windows. The pounding now started in one of the lower rooms until just seconds later multiple arms appeared through the entrance to one of the rooms near the entrance. The barricaded door ripped open as more of the creatures poured inside, they must be a lot stronger than their decaying bodies suggested. The old man fired another two shots and then proceeded to load more shells. Four of the creatures started to move up the stairs, another dozen milled around near the entrance. Steiner lifted his weapon to his shoulder and fired a short burst, finally expending his ammunition. The bullets slowed down those on the stairs but didn’t stop them. Throwing down the weapon he pulled at the old man to leave. Turning to face Steiner he could now see the man’s skin was pale and his wounds were deep and fatal. Quite frankly Steiner was amazed the old man wasn’t one of the creatures already. He pulled off his bandolier and thrust it and his shotgun into Steiner’s hands. He shoved the German soldier into the large room at the end of the landing and then slammed the door shut behind him.
Steiner spun around, trying to open the door. It was securely locked and he couldn’t open it without tools of some kind. Lowering himself he peered through the keyhole, looking to see what was happening. He could just make out the shapes of several of the creatures making their way along the landing to the old man. Looking hard to his right he spotted the man, wielding the heavy axe and in the middle of taking one of the thing’s head clean off with the weapon. The last thing Steiner saw was the old man rushing off to the stairs, hacking with his axe as he went. Steiner simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Turning around he looked into the room. In the centre he saw a body laid out on the table with bullet wounds in the chest and head, presumably one of the people here had turned on them. There was blood everywhere as well as more bodies.
Two men, one in his early fifties and another who looked like a labourer came in from the other side. The older man beckoned for him to follow them. They moved away, Steiner didn’t want to leave the old man though and lifted a chair in the room, ready to strike at the door. The older of the two men grabbed his hand and spoke quickly.
“You must leave him, we can do nothing for him now.”
Steiner looked confused; looking over his shoulder he could hear the sound of howling and fighting on the staircase. A single gunshot rang out and the sound of the fight immediately vanished, to be replaced by the scratching and movement of the creatures.
“Crazy bastard!” muttered Steiner to himself.
He lowered the chair, not happy with the fact that the old man appeared to have been killed. He followed the two men out of the room and into a smaller storage room. There he found another man who was loading a rifle with bullets. There was a table to one side with a handgun resting on it along with what looked like an empty magazine. Steiner looked around, taking in more details. There were piles of tools and a bizarre mixture of weapons including a pitchfork, several shovels and what looked like decorative swords that must have been pulled from the walls of the house. The man loading the rifle spoke first in German.
“If you want to live you need to come with us,” he said.
Steiner, a little surprised at both his comments and the fact that he was speaking in German, said nothing.
“Those things have most of the house now, we need to get out of here,” the man continued.
Steiner regained his thoughts and put a hand on the man’s upper arm.
“Who are you and what happened?” he asked.
The man looked frustrated, especially as the two older men were beckoning for them to keep moving into the next room. He got up from his chair, explaining briefly to Steiner.
“I am a photographer from Der Angriff. I was heading back from visiting the Atlantic defences when we were attacked,” he answered.
“We?” asked Steiner.
The oldest of the three men left the room, signalling for them to follow. The photographer did so and Steiner stayed with them, entering a long hallway with paintings down one side.
The photographer continued, “Yes, these men were in the truck with me when we crashed, not far from here. There were others but they were killed by those things outside.”
The small group entered another room facing the south of the building. The older man shut the door behind them and proceeded to drag a heavy desk over to it, barricading it from the hallway.
Steiner gestured towards the direction they had just left from, “What about the man on the stairs?”
The photographer sighed, “Yes, he was a good man. He was one of those bitten after the crash. They turn into monsters after they’re bitten, you know?”
Steiner nodded; he was familiar with these things.
“He didn’t want us to kill him so he went out through the door to kill as many as he could.”
There was an uncomfortable silence that Steiner quickly broke.
“Isn’t there anything you can do for him?”
“No,” answered the man who looked like a labourer, “once you’re bitten we think you only have an hour or so and then you turn into one of them. The only thing he wanted us to do was to let him go and kill them.”
Steiner slumped down, exhausted and confused. The older man looked up and down at him, noticing the insignia on his uniform.
“How about you, your unit is based nearby isn’t it?”
Steiner explained what had happened at the tank and then his minor saga in evading the creatures to get to the house. The photographer took in all the details, seemingly intrigued about the church and the people Steiner thought were hiding there.
“Do you have any idea how many are in the church?” he asked.
Steiner was confused by the man’s almost obsessive interest in the church. He looked over to the other man, trying to get a better idea as to what was going on. He then turned back to answer the question.
“No idea. Right now I’m more concerned with what we are going to do,” he replied.
The older man moved to the window and looked out towards the church. He sounded excited as he explained what he saw.
“I can see lots of the creatures now, and it looks like they’re trying to get into the church.”
Almost at the same time came a flurry of gunshots along with the buzzing sound of machinegun fire. He looked at Steiner without saying anything else. More shots started as a number of people began some kind of firefight, presumably at the church.