Rise of the Undead 1943 Read Online Free PDF Page A

gleam in the torchlight. Lewis shakes
his head and follows after Smith leaving the room empty. As he passes the
threshold, there’s a metallic click from under the floor.
    The group stands at the “T” intersection spread out with weapons
pointed into the darkness in both directions. The bodies of Harris, Margrave, and
the two other Americans have been wrapped in ponchos. The men are uneasy, on
edge. All eyes are on the bodies of the dead Germans and Radcliff. Oddball sits
with his head in his hands, rocking back and forth, “Sonofabitch sonofabitch
sonofabitch sonofabitch.”
    Pilch lights up a smoke and sticks it in Oddball’s mouth, “Easy
buddy, it’s all over.”
    Johnson kicks one of the Germans with his boot, “Why’d they
come at us like that?” he spits into the dirt.
    “And what the fuck were those screams,” Clint asks.
    Matty looks at Radcliff, “This guy ain’t even German; he’s
British.”
    “Traitor?” Pilch asks.
    “He probably just lost his fucking mind down here,” Oddball
says.
     “We should get the hell out of here,” Johnson says.
    Oddball eyes Harris’ mutilated corpse, “Guess you’re in
command now, Sarge.”
    Johnson laughs, “Yeah, right.”
    “C’mon Sarge, whaddya say? Let’s get out of here,” Oddball
pleads.
    Monte shakes his head, “In case you guys missed it, there’s
still a German unit down here somewhere.”
    Oddball’s voice goes up several octaves, “But we just lost
four guys and…”
    The men are startled by the sounds of boots echoing behind
them. They look up to see Lewis and Smith running down the hallway toward them.
    “Sarge!” Smith calls, “The door leading out of here. It
ain’t there no more.”
    “What?”
    “It closed!” Lewis yells.
    Pilch looks at Yusif, “God-damn-it, this rag-head led us
right into a German trap!”
    As Monte steps toward Lewis and Smith, a thick rock door
slides down from above, Monte falls back narrowly missing being crushed. He
looks up to see they are cut off from Smith and Lewis.
    “What the hell?” he says standing up.
    Yusif bends down to inspect the door. It fits perfectly in a
groove, like the hallway was never there.
    Oddball stands up, frantic, “We gotta get the hell out of
here!”
    Monte looks at the door, “Who’s got those breaching charges?”
    “Lewis,” Matty reports quietly.
    The floor rumbles. Dirt falls from the ceiling. All eyes
look up. Metal on metal grinds beneath them. Monte leans down to the door to
listen to the growing rumble.
    Yusif joins him, “It sounds like . . . water.”
    Smith and Lewis stand on the other side of the door pushing
on the heavy stone block. They hear the rumble.
    “I don’t like this. I really, really don’t,” Smith says looking
around scared.
    Water starts filling the hallway, rising up from the floor.
    “Holy shit!” Lewis cries out.
    Smith starts to run for the other end of the hallway, “Come
on!”
    Lewis follows splashing through the quickly rising water.
    Yusif looks Monte in the eyes, worried. Monte leans close to
him a talks in a whispered voice so that the rest of the men can’t hear, “What
do you think?”
    Yusif glances at the wall, “There is an aquifer in this
area.”
    “Damn.”
    “You have engineers?”
    Monte nods, “Three days back.”
    Yusif rubs his jaw thinking, “There may be another way out.”
    Monte nods, “Yeah, let’s keep this quiet; I don’t want the
men to panic.”
    Yusif nods in agreement.
    “I got an idea,” Matty says pulling out two grenades as Monte
stands.
    “Put ‘em away,” Monte orders him.
    “We’ll blow it open,” Matty says hopefully.
    Monte shakes his head, “No, we’ll have to find another way
out.”
    Johnson steps forward, “No disrespect, ‘Sergeant’ . . . but
what the hell are you talking about?”
    “Oh, man. That’s it. We’re gonna die,” Oddball says
panicked.
    Pilch steps up to Monte, “Come on, Monte; we gotta blow the
door.”
    “That’s Sergeant.”
    Johnson