Alexander Dockter thought he was safe after having escaped the trenches. He was wrong.
On its way to England, his ship is torpedoed by a german U-boat and he has to find his way up to the deck. But the rising water is not the only threat that lurks...
When Alexander reached F-Deck, the ship was already starting to lean to one side. He entered a large room which was, to his surprise, completely empty and dark. The only things inside where a propaganda poster that hanged on the wall, with a light above it and a gramaphone on the floor beneath it.
As he got closer her recognized the poster. He'd seen it often back in Scotland. It depicted a father and his children. The son was playing on the ground with his toys, while the daughter was sitting in her fathers lap and asking him a question:
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Alexander kneeled down to inspect the gramophone, but sudddenly noticed that there was earth everywhere around it. "What the...?" he stood up and turned around.
The room was now suddenly full of earth, with at least a dozen wooded crosses scattered all around him, illuminated by candles
He started to panic again. "No... No! This can't be happening. This isn't real, none if this can possibly be real."
Alexander looked back to the poster in shock. The faces of the father and the children were now disfigured, as if the color had melted. And the daughter was also asking a different question.
"Daddy, why did you MURDER your platoon?"
He was guilty and he knew it. Tears started to fall down his cheeks as he looked at the graves. "I'm so sorry... so sorry. There was nothing I could have done... I-I'm just one man. I couldn't..." He kept telling himself that lie over and over again. That he couldn't possible have made a difference. But was it true? He will never know. And that will torment him forever.
He lit another match and started walking around, when he noticed a switch on the wall. As soon as he turned the light on, the gaves, poster, gramophone and earth had disappeared and he was standing in the sleeping quarters. "I'm losing my mind..." he whispered and stormed out of there. "I'm definitly losing my mind."
Alexander continued through the maze of corridors and doors until he found himself in a strange room. Upon entering, he saw facial construction masks, lined up on a shelf. These masks would often be used to "fix" the faces of soldiers that were shot in the face or had the misfortune of getting pieces of shrapnel in their face during an artillery barrage. He sudddered at the thought, as he had seen first hand on what these injuries looked like.
A poster on the wall caught his attention. It depicted a man, whos upper torso had been surgically opened and it said: "Second Life Act. A chance to serve again!"
Second Life Act. This seemed familair to Alexander. Where did he heard that before? It sounded very familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. A medical report lay on a table and Alexander gaped in horror whn he read it.
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"Highland Platoon... That was my Platoon." he whispered. "But it says here that they brought him back to life. Is that even possible?" It sounded absurd.
He suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched. This time however, he simply stormed out of the room without looking back.
He ran through the corridors and eventually found himself in yet another room, a sleeping quarter. The was a note on his desk any something told him that it was meant for him, so he read it.
July 5th Report.
He has escaped the grave. He will never escape those he left to rot.
We are always behind you. Just watch.
Another shiver ran through Alexanders spine. July 5th was the day his platoon took part in that fateful attack. That warning was definitly meant for him. Put who put it there?
As he exited the room, he saw a tall soldier peeking at him from around the corner at the end of the corridor, before quickly disappearing behind it.
Alexanders heart skipped a beat when he had spotted him. Could it be possible that his platoon members were brought here on this ship, then reanimated and now they are after him for revenge? He started to doubt what was real and what not.
He suddenly felt the urge to get even faster off this ship than before and took the stairs up to the next deck.
