9.) The Unseen Casualties

(this chapter contains Child soldiers and murder though not historically accurate this is a chapter that is not for the easily offended.)

December 27, 1944, We spent a few days getting ready for another invasion we were pushing forward into Europe. It was baffling I was still alive, I had seen some of the worst things imaginable, and I know why people say you wouldn't wish some things on your worst enemy. It's because, honestly, some things would destroy that person, this war is a reminder of how ugly humans can get. Why was I fighting? War was something I could have avoided altogether. I joined to escape America and hope to make a better life when or if I got back. The fact of the matter was, I was a fool. My father before me chased after a woman who is quite literally a monster, and here I am trying to save someone who devours people. IRoNy

Lately, Carter has been getting a lot more ravenous, what went from every other day has become three times a day. It only started a day ago, but I'm beginning to feel lightheaded. John has frequently been checking in on me to make sure I don't pass out. I don't know what he knows, but he's been watching me—even more than he used to.

On top of that, he has been watching Carter just as much. We've been giving him the slip every time Carter needs to feed. I think John is going to catch on soon. Even if Carter says, John isn't who he says he is. I can't help but feel a little bit more secure. If Carter loses control, he may drain me dry. I think he even tried to use that trick that Edward and Jacob did to me—forcing me to give him more blood. I can't be upset with him. Carter is in a fucked up situation. Of course, I don't think he has experience in it yet. I saw right through it. I wonder what would happen if he succeeded. He couldn't go out in sunlight. It was then that a frightening thought came to my mind. I couldn't trust John, and I couldn't believe Carter. In war, you needed to trust a man beside you.

It was cold as hell, so he would just have to cover his face from the sunlight. The major problem was whenever he went out in the sunshine. It would burn him. He tried it once, which ended badly. The second he went out in the sun. Almost burned him to the bone. His wound increases his hunger. It seems like to heal immediately; they have to feed on humans. It was still in the dead of winter so he could keep my wound covered.

The battle of Arden took only took place a week ago. A week since those events unfolded. A week since I've been a target. Another thing I noticed was he never got cold anymore. He was used to it. For me, it was cold as fuck in Europe. So cold some of us went out and stole the thermals from our dead.

The cuts on my wrist began to start hurting. I had to keep reopening the wound, the slice mark above wrist that never stayed closed. Pretty soon, I would have to find a better spot. The medics said that it could get infected if it doesn't close, from what it looks like it is getting infected, so I'm going to have to clean it again. It's a good thing it wasn't my right hand. Even though I am left-handed, all of these guns were right-handed. My knife, I did an excellent job of keeping my wound open. I kept it sharpened because it helped me out more times than I can count. My sidearm reliable.

We were on the outskirts of a city, but we concluded that there were people there or was there. As we got closer, I saw it. I saw something that would make a priest lose their face. I saw something I would not wish on anybody; this was a living nightmare. They---were They were children shot and hung. Some were even just hung. What made it worse was that some of them shot in the stomach or the legs. The bodies emaciated to the point you could see their skulls. What in God's green earth happened? Some of them were just left bleed out while hanging. A lot of them had their eyes open glazed over with death. Boys and girls just hung from a noose or even crucified like Jesus Christ.

Their bodies naked, or had little to no clothes on them. I knew the krauts were brutal, but this was something entirely new. Cold air kept the bodies fresh. You could see some of their arms and legs frostbitten. It was a new nightmare, but it also gave me a question what the fuck was in that city? Was it deserted? Or was there an enemy platoon of children waiting for us? I looked at the bodies I wanted to give them a proper burial, but I knew someone was watching us, I could feel it. To make it worse was that is wasn't a warning to us no.

It is for people who did not want to fight in the war. They knew the war was over, and yet they still kept on pushing. All they have to do is let go of this pointless war. I looked around only to find some of my teammates puking or ignoring it; we were all veterans, yet this was something new. I knew this was a warning because of German writing. I wanted to know what it said now.

John was looking down; he could barely form words, but I needed him to look past the nightmare. I needed to know what the hell these signs said. I can understand some German writing, but this was something different I could tell. "Private John, what does it say?" He looked at me. His eyes were trying to come off as stone-cold, but he had a deep sadness in him from this. He hesitated, but then he asked, 'Do you want to know, sir?' I said nothing, as he then began to read words. His voice was mournful and Sympathetic. 'I am a traitor and will not fight for my country. (Ich bin ein Verräter und werde nicht für mein Land kämpfen.) It's painted in black ink. I look back a lot of our comrades; we're trying to get themselves together. We had seen bodies before we had seen people die before; we had even seen some civilians get shot. It was something new though the magnitude of death against children nonetheless made me question their tactics. What the fuck was wrong with these people?

We were walking to investigate an area, to see not sure of the name. It was a nightmare; there will be buildings all around us, even if they were all mostly ruined; it was almost as if it was an ambush waiting to happen. Then it happened, a bang and then a bullet it had a soldier near me. We were in the middle of the road we were in a kill zone, they all kept on firing we came with six people, and we were already down to five. So much death in this part of the city, the real problem was that there were no people here outside of soldiers fighting us. We couldn't see them; we were going to die if we did not get out of here. We went into a nearby building, from the looks of it was an old butcher shop. We could hear the bullets hitting the glass and tearing through everything, and all we could do was stay low.

They could have won this, All they had to do was drop a few cooked grenades down into the middle of us, and we would not have had enough time to react. It was only four of us left, and I was hell-bent on trying to keep the rest of my team alive even if I wasn't leading them. I did not want to watch more people die. I can't believe they shot Major Richard I wish I got to know him. We were on the ground, down on our stomachs. Carter tapped me and pointed to the back; there was a doorway. It was an exit—only other doorway. We began crawling back there and noticed a metal door we opened it, and it was a freezer. It could be an excellent opportunity to get to drop on them or be slaughtered like dogs. Either way, they could have us surrounded. We began crawling into the freezer. It's stunk like a grave because it didn't have any ice in it, and the meat left inside started rotting. The shooting finally stopped, but they saw us run into this building. Especially since we were in the middle of the road, Now all we had to do was wait. Calling for help was not an option; we had no radio. Heard voices outside, but they sounded young. I checked my MP40; it was fully loaded. The voices were getting closer. I could not understand the German Language; they were talking too fast; it sounded like they were scared.

I looked at John, and he began to say, 'they don't sound like they are adults.' The realization came to me all too late. These were children fighting us. It was dark in the room, and we couldn't stay here, 'I think we should talk to them.' It was one of the soldiers that were with us; it was Private First Class Zosley. He was a young white American he had black hair buzzcut style small gray eyes and a thin nose he had a round baby face and lacked any facial hair. He was still young, but I respected his resolve to help others. "We can't do that; they are the enemy." He didn't like the idea of shooting kids, and neither did I. He looked down, and then he put his gun down. We tried to stop him but was already out of the freezer, Our eyes were wide as he said something in German and I heard the guns drop. I looked outside the fridge, and I saw them on the ground crying; what did he say?

I looked at the others; they were just as surprised as me. Carter's hood was off; maybe he was tired of covering his face. "What did you say to them?" as I looked at Zosley, he then said, 'I said we are here to help.' I look down at the kids. They could not have been older than 14. It was only about four kids. The rest lynched; they didn't want to fight, so they were to be executed. "Ask them who did this." I clenched my weapon so tight I felt it shaking, I was going to kill the fucker for this. 'Corporal, are you okay?' I looked at Private Carter he saw my anger all over me in the dimly lit butcher shop. "No," I said in a calm voice. I looked at Carter; it was about time he fed. I knew he needed to feed, but we would do that later.

It was still bright, but it was getting late. Two of the kids look to be twins. They both had blue eyes blonde hair. They look different in their rights; one was slightly taller than the other. One sport at a parted smooth flat top, while the other had an off-centered slick pull back. They look like they were the youngest of the group. They both had babyfaces, but box faces, but with round chins, they were around 12 years old. Just what was promised to these kids to make them join? Then there was the other two. One was a girl; one was a boy. The girl looked to be the oldest; she was the second tallest. She had grey eyes and was a brunette. Her face was round but had a slightly sharp chin. She was still growing she looked to be about 15, why were all of these kids here? Then there was the one beside her, the last one. He was of medium height he was the same as height the shorter twin. He had red hair and blue eyes; he also freckles. His hair was curly, and he was skinny, too skinny, he looked malnourished. He had a round face with a sharp chin. All the kids had a look of warriors in their faces. They had seen the war for what it was they had seen some of the closes of friends getting lynched and shot for turning down fighting in this war. I can only imagine the things they had to say. They all hate dark SS uniforms. I knew the war for them was going by bad. It couldn't have been this bad, could it?

Their uniforms were barely their size; some were even oversized. They did not know how to take care of them, judging from how it looked. One of the children also had long sleeves; they couldn't fit their arms. They indeed rushed these kids out in a hurry.

We went outside to scout ahead we needed to see what else was here I left John and Zosley to talk the children. I think I heard the kids saying something about them being hungry. I'm hungry ( Ich habe Hunger). I hadn't taken to much time talking to them or even bothered looking at them. I was focusing on information. We needed all the information they had at the same time he needed to feed. I was getting tired of it, but I had to let it happen for a while longer. I need to wait until we get to Lilith. She would know what to do with him. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to stay with her. That woman was more than a human being, but a lot less than us in the same aspect. I trust a lot of my teammates; I have seen them on the battlefield. Their somethings that soldiers do that most will never understand.

We keep a level head, we enjoy our food as if it's the last thing on earth no matter how nasty it could be, we also check our guns, some of us even smoke. I had seen John do none of that. War was something no human mind could cope with or understand. I hope his mind doesn't break. I've noticed that plenty of times. Though that's not something, I got from him.

"Carter, what else did you see when that vampire decided to attack you all?" When we got to a secluded place, I got ready to make a new cut. Before he would bite me this time, he looked down guilty for a second and said, 'I was scared shitless.' I damn near pissed myself. He dropped his head even further, almost like a child who had done something wrong. ' Joseph kept his cool until he collapsed to his knees in fear. We saw the kraut in that black uniform murder a few soldiers with his bare hands. He was so fast it was unnatural. We couldn't even shoot. 'His eyes were watering with blood.

That was the last day he could say he was a man. 'I didn't want to say yes, and Joseph was on his knees begging for him not to kill him he agreed so quickly where it took me a few moments.' He said as tears of blood flow down his face. I had no idea vampires cried blood. I had no idea the were cursed to be that. I put my hand on his back he then tried to compose himself and said. 'It was John who was calm during the entire encounter. He didn't even flinch.' He was working hard to rub the blood from his eyes. It was fruitless. The blood was thick and smeared a bit. I sliced a new wound in my left arm. I had to press hard it hurt a lot, but the blood began to flow out. He then began to suck hard. I felt lightheaded, but I had to keep him satisfied until the end of the reconnaissance mission.

After he's done feeding, we looked around the area again, and we made our way back. We weren't far, but it was getting dark. We had to move quickly. We then heard screaming it was one of our men we hurried up. I still felt like we were moving too slow. I hope to high heaven. It wasn't another vampire. I knew it was something wrong. I turned to Carter and said, "use your real speed and figure out what the hell is going on." In that instant, he's gone. It would take too long for me to get there. I was only a man, nothing more. I'm finding myself wanting to have some of that power. I just don't want to be someone or something that kills people; this was a fear and a want.

It felt like hours went by. Even though it was only minutes. I heard the screaming again. I was almost there. I recognized the area, or at least I had hoped I did. I listened to the screams. They were much closer. I turned them. It was dark as hell out here.

I finally saw the butcher shop, but I took my time. I did not want to arouse any suspicion. I took my time walking to the broken freezer at the back of the building.

I heard more screaming; it was never the kids, though, which was the worst part. It was only one of my men. I looked around for Carter. He was nowhere to be seen. Where the fuck was he? I got to the freezer, and I saw it our flashlights were on, but there was blood everywhere. The area is dimly lit, the flashlights were the only thing that showed any light. I finally saw it. Zosley was clenching his neck as he was bleeding out of it. He was spewing blood but still had life in him. I don't know how much time he had left.

I scanned the room to see John fighting two of the orphans; it was the twins. Those two were fast too fast. John was moving almost at their speed, but why? It looked like he could handle them both. I then heard gunshots; it wasn't from John. It was Carter he was fighting one the orphans with his M1 but to no avail. He was fighting was experienced. These bastards were fast. They weren't humans; they were all vampires who did this to them? I could only think it was that blond kraut, they were only kids. I finally noticed it was a hot breath on the back of my neck. I tried to turn around, but it was too late, it was the middle one, he was holding me down. I was watching Zosley bleed out, and I knew John was struggling on the right. He then started speaking, but it wasn't in German. His accent wasn't that thick, but German, 'My master, told me you were her bastard.' His arms had so much strength for someone so small. I was fighting to stay conscious. "You don't have to do this." Is all I could let out.

He chuckled, he got humor out of doing this? I continued, "You were just a kid once. None of this is necessary." I was still struggling to breathe. He then said, 'I haven't been a child in a long time, stupid human.' He was chuckling, but the thing that was going through my mind was why I was fighting so hard to keep these fuckers off me? What was the point of these attacks?

I looked around everybody was fighting these orphans, but Zosley was still alive I don't know-how. I think God that he was still alive. Then I saw him arm his gun. He stopped clenching his throat and had started shooting, where John was fighting. I heard them howling in pain and swearing in German and English. The one on my back loosened his grip. I never knew my enemy's names, now that I think about it I never bothered wanting to know their names. To me, all of these cunts were all my enemies. I don't know why they decided to attack me, all I know for sure is that I'm going to kill every one of these fuckers when I get the chance. I have spent my entire life struggling. I will not spend the rest of it being beat down because my mother was the queen of the vampires. The bitch didn't even care about me. She left when I was an infant.

I stopped struggling; I let him keep his grip. He wasn't paying attention, so I grabbed my 1911. It was always either on my chest holster or my side holster. Thank God I put on my side. I grabbed it, and I put it to his temple. He didn't even notice it, he was still worried about his friends, and that was his mistake. I shot multiple times in his face. I then turned to see that the other two were still on the ground we had no wooden stakes, and then the most beautiful thing I thought about was my M1 It had a wood finish it had to be wood. I shot him four more times, and I stabbed a gun through his chest. I kept going until I saw him burst, his blood all over my body. I had to make peace with myself that these weren't kids anymore; they were just monsters in the shape of kids.

The twins were fighting John, but John was getting his ass beat he was covered in bruises, but he was not bleeding. I don't know how he was holding his own, or maybe I'm crazy, perhaps the truth it was right in front of me. The logic was unimportant, there was one way to figure it out, but I couldn't let him die before I figured it out for myself. I was aiming at the shorter twin. The kids were still healing from the other bullets shot by Zosley. I looked over he was still bleeding. The puddle was getting more prominent; I need to hurry. I don't need any more of my comrades to die. I shot them with my M1 until I heard the ping, that was all shots in clips. I missed two but landed three. Two in the smaller one and one in the other. They were crying in pain again, but I knew it wasn't over.

I swapped out to my 1911 shot another four in them. I put a new clip in my M1 and checked 1911 empty. I needed to put an end to this fight. The fact that we were still alive was baffling me.

The twins were still on the ground. John then pulled out a piece of wood. The question is, where did he get it from? 'I had it ever since we fought Hans.' I looked at him; it was almost as if he was reading my mind. I held out my hand. He looked down at the ground. 'Are you sure you want to do this, Gabriel?' My eyes narrowed; it finally came to me, but I couldn't do this, not now. He's not human.

"Yes, I want to do this." The air shifted around me; my hand still extended. "Give me the stake private." I did not want to repeat myself, and he understood. He handed me the stake, and I murdered two more monsters. I knew I was killing kids deep down inside; this is what they were. This was their reality they were given. I stabbed one, and I watched him blow up like a hot air balloon. The blood was everywhere. The blowback was astonishing. I had so much all over me.

I turned my attention to the taller one. He was crawling away, leaving a trail behind him. Some of his organs were dangling out of him like fruit from a tree, but he was still healing. He could have run away, but he had his legs shot to hell by the M1. He then turned on his back and said, 'please don't kill me.' I could hear the fear in his voice, but I did not stop myself. I got closer to him, cautious and prepared. I shot him again five more times not because I enjoyed it, but because I saw the blood on his mouth. It was Zosley's he was the one that fed on Zosley. I heard him scream in pain. I then began to get the stake ready so that I could stab him. As I was dealing with the killing blow, I heard him say, 'The queen never left your side you fool.' He then burst into the blood. The funny thing is there was never really any bones left. It was almost as if it all just dissolved. I knew he wasn't wrong.

It slipped my mind, but then I saw Carter, the girl was completely subdued, but there was no way he could keep her down for long. She was still fighting, but she knew it was over. You could see it in her eyes. At this point she was just a rabid animal, I prepped the stake and Carter had her in a headlock, she kept struggling while he had her in a headlock, but it was no way to she was getting out. I got closer to her, walking with the bloody stake and leaving a trail of blood behind me. I drove it through her chest. She gasped for air one final time. She then looked at me she didn't say anything she just smiled at me then spit on me then blew up like all the rest. Carter was beaten up, but he got the blowback just like I did. My body now completely covered in blood, I look to the ground, and I look to the now dull and bloody stake. It was finally over, but there was one more elephant in the room. There was one more problem that must be dealt with, and it was John. I knew it wasn't 'John' that was the queen vampires. I then turned to her, and it was a long pause, but I knew it was time for me to put it into my war, it was time I went with my mother. So I turned to her knowing she was wearing that human mask

and played the part of human so well and said

"so what now, Lilith?"

End of chapter 9 The Unseen Casualties