Day 29
We went through everything again after breakfast. We cleaned our weapons. I distributed ammunition and had the combat luggage put together. I went with them to the house by the sea and we sat down on the balcony in the sun, drank a can of beer that I had for everyone in my luggage. We enjoyed the light and the air.
Day 30
We got ready. Today we wanted to make a second attempt and storm the barracks at the sports field again.
At the bunker door we took up position and moved away. Everything went smoothly to the house, which we had already taken as a base. We spied the sports field. A Hunter had joined in. We agreed that Thort and I would destroy the Hunter. Amelie was to take the runners under fire from the second row.
After we had destroyed the Hunter, we would also take care of the runners. We went into position and started. Thort and I shot the Hunter. He exploded before he even realized what was going on. We unleashed one inferno on the sports field and one runner after another exploded. Some of them went to Amelie’s account. As we advanced on to the barracks, she walked behind me in a staggered manner and fired stubbornly. When I heard her loading her Klaucke behind me, I turned around briefly and she smiled at me.
I even saw her flip the safety lever on the gun. Then we kept fighting. A second wave with six runners came across the sports field. I turned to Amelie and told her to go to the barracks, open her and take anything that might be important.
Thort and I fought the runners. Thort fired with the shotgun and I with my G3. A short time later we stood between the smoking debris of the robots. We examined the sports field, we found a map and recordings of a radio operator. I found a lot of ammunition. A Klauke pistol and another Automatgevär 4. I ammunitioned it, took a test shot with it and passed it on to Thort. I briefly explained to him how the gun works and gave him some more magazines to change and put the steel magazine in his pocket.
I even took the time with him to practice changing the magazine and loading it. Thort understood very quickly and was happy about the new weapon. We looted the robots, then we set off on our way back. Amelie sniped some runners and a Hunter also put on a whimsical dance in front of our rifle mouths.
Thort had a lot of fun. Amelie also screamed after every hit when she destroyed a runner, according to "YEEEEEEEAAAAA!!!." She had licked blood. We walked through the town like a fire roller. Nothing could stop us.
When we got back to the bunker unscathed, we clapped together. Thort exclaimed enthusiastically, "We showed them the tin cans we kicked. After dinner we sat in the common room. We decimated the bunker’s beer stocks and celebrated wildly. The walls of the Salthamm bunker trembled with the rhythms of Nirvana, AC / DC and Deep Purple.
Day 31
We all woke up a little bit scathing. Take our breakfast. Then I asked everyone back in the classroom. I explained once again the fight on the sports field not without explicitly praising Amelie. She beamed again and laughed happily. Then we sat down and examined the map we found and the radio operator’s notes.
From them it became clear that the people were all evacuated to the Vesslan bunker. In the military map, the location of the bunker was clearly marked. We planned our route there. I made the proposal as a stage goal to choose the farm Seggesta. Stay there one night and then leave for the Vesslan Bunker the next day.
Thort said, "Seggesta is the farm where Ronja lives."
"Do you mean Ronja Sandström?" I asked. "About as big as Amelie, just long, curly red hair?"
"Yes! exactly the little Sandström. How do you know her Helldiver?"
"She was my dance partner at the dance school but it was three or four years ago."
"I know her from the roofing. I repaired the roof for them. Are poor swallowers. She’s a pretty thing. Got pregnant from the mainland by some guy. Then he ran away and let her sit. Well, I then repaired the roof for little money and gave her something for the little one.
I’ve already taken them to Östervik you know, so for shopping. Well, and then I went out with her so that she also had a little fun. It’s just a poor girl. "
"I hope they could all be evacuated." I said.
We decided to stay in the bunker for another day. Clean up, prepare our luggage and then march away.
I then asked everyone again to go to the shooting range to teach Amelie in the use of the G3 and to do some shooting exercises with her. She should also get such a weapon if we found one more. She managed to load and cock the weapon on her own. When she was shooting, she complained about the gun’s recoil. I explained to her that this is related to the larger calibre. She would just need a little more practice. Her hit rate was quite good and she surprisingly also found the safety lever. We were still sitting in the communal room together cleaning our weapons, drinking beer and smoking.
Day 32
We prepared everything for our departure. We cleaned everything up, cleaned the kitchen and the communal room. Amelie pouted because she couldn’t take her sandals with her. I offered to put a note with her name on it and deposit it in the bunker’s clothing stock. We had to decide what to take with us and what not. I handed out a lot of ammunition because we didn’t know what we were going to do and when we were going to get supplies. My hopes were on the Vesslan bunker.
Day 33
We were ready, Amelie moaned a little, because the equipment was too heavy for her. But I made it clear to her that we couldn’t do without a part.
“You’re going to have to get used to it,” I told her.
We set off. I took over the top Amelie went behind me the final formed Thort. We pulled out our pistols and marched off. The sun just rose and the weather seemed to be getting good, there were only a few clouds in the sky. I stopped more often and searched the area. Occasionally we saw a few runners. We bypassed them, because I didn’t want to engage in a firefight in the open area if it wasn’t inevitable.
Around noon we saw the buildings of Seggesta in the distance. As we got closer, we couldn’t see any movement. But I saw that barricades were standing in front of the house. I had a queasy feeling. In a group of trees that offered us a little cover, we took a cigarette break. I explained to them that we had to approach the farm again, as in Salthamm. I suggested going long at the edge of the forest. We got as close as possible.
Then I told Amelie to run to a tractor and look for cover. Then I moved on. I peered around the tractor and scouted the area. There was nothing to see in the farm. Then I ran up to the barn and slipped in. Then I saw Thort advancing to Amelie. I carefully opened one of the doors and peered into the yard.
Then I waved at Amelie. Fast and quiet like a cat she came running. I continued to peer out the yard and saw a side entrance to the house. I quickly sprinted there. Thort advanced to the barn. I was still waiting for Amelie. Then I secured the entrance. Carefully I opened the door to the hallway, I had already heard the ticking, scurrying sound of a tick and could already see the ominous glow through the door gap.
I changed the G3 against the Klaucke, cocked it and hit the door jerky. Then I fired at the tick that was sitting in the hallway. I walked in cautiously. A second tick came out of a room quickly crawling I also did it. Then it seemed calm. Amelie came after me. She also had her Klaucke ready to fire. Thort had already arrived at the entrance.
Thort went upstairs to Amelie and I searched the lower rooms. In the hallway of the main entrance we found the body of a woman. It was badly prepared and shredded by heavy bullets, certainly the work of a Hunter. In the main entrance, which was barricaded, we found the body of a man. The shotgun still in the hand. Like the woman, he was badly wounded and pierced of great calibre. There were large dried-up pools of blood on the floor. The smell of the corpse was bad. I took the shotgun out of the man’s hand. It was a weapon just like “Old Bethan” a pump gun.
Suddenly we heard Thort screaming. ""Ohhhhh nooooooooo, Ohhh God, have mercy!" Amelie and I turned around on the heel and fell up the stairs. Thort knelt on the ground and cried. On the upper floor was a terrible smell of corpses that took our breath away. Amelie kept her forearm pressed in front of her nose and mouth. As I approached, I saw why Thort was crying.
Ronja was sitting on a couch, her right side of her head was ripped open, tissue fragments, fragments of bones and parts of the brain stuck to her face. The face had a sad expression, her broken eyes staring at the opposite wall. There was a bloody bundle on her lap. I struggled for my mastery myself. Carefully I went to her and closed her eyes. The way she looked, she had to be dead for a long time. I pressed the cloths of the bundle to the side with my hand and saw in it the little blood-smeared face of a child. The head was badly damaged by a shot. I also closed his little eyes to the child. It was a horrible, horrible sight.
Amelie was behind me and I told her
" Please don’t look, it’s too gruesome.
I took Ronja’s Colt caliber 44 out of her hand lying on the sofa. She must have shot her child first in sheer desperation. Like Thort, I would have liked to have started loudly. But I struggled desperately for my composure. I ran to the windows and ripped everyone open, because the smell was unspeakable. Then I took Thort and said we’d go down.
Downstairs, Thort cried loudly, “These criminals, these pigs, I’m killing them all, why, why, this little woman and the child hasn’t done anything to anyone, these dirty murderers.”
Amelie and I hugged Thort and tried to comfort him.
It was bad to see this big, strong man crying so much. Amelie also looked at me that I wasn’t doing well. We decided to bury the people. Next to the house was a flowerbed and the floor did not seem too stony. In the barn I found two spades and some shovels. I gave my G3 to Amelie and asked her to watch and report it to us immediately if she saw anything suspicious. Thort and I dug a large pit. Then we put straw in the pit and put the bodies of the woman and the man, obviously Ronja’s parents, on it.
Then we went upstairs. We wrapped Ronja in a blanket. Thort took her in her arms and carried her down the stairs in tears. I had the child on my arm. We put her between the parents and put the child in her arms. Amelie had taken the flowers from the flowerbed and placed them on the corpses. Next to the child, she laid a small bouquet of flowers.
Amelie sniffled a little at the sight of the little child’s corpse.
"Who does that?" she asked in a trembling voice.
I took Amelie in my arms and told her
‘These aren’t people, but I’m going to hold them accountable and if it’s the last thing I do in my life.’
We stood in a circle. I asked everyone
"Helm off to prayer please."
Then we prayed together for those killed. We stood in a circle around the open grave so that we could protect each other if the machines attacked us. Amelie said a prayer in French. It sounded very nice.
"Does anyone want to say anything else?" I asked. Everyone denied it.
“Then let’s close the tomb Thort.” He nodded.
We covered straw over the corpses and then poured the grave. When we finished it was already dawning. At the end I pressed the spade to the head end into the earth. Thort tied a branch to the spade and made an improvised cross.
We went into the house and locked the doors. The smell on the upper floor was quite gone. We had ripped open the windows all over the house and made a draft. We heated our food over the Esbit cookers. Luckily we had a few cans of beer in our luggage, they weren’t particularly cold, but better than nothing. On the upper floor was a bed in the adjoining room we let Amelie sleep in it. I was adjusting an armchair Thort slept on a couch.