In the final days of Nazi Germany, deep within a hidden SS compound, a deadly experiment goes horribly wrong. When a mysterious chemical substance is accidentally released, it transforms soldiers into mindless creatures and grotesque mutations. Otto...
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The air reeked of decay. In the farthest corner of the SS experimental compound, Otto clung to the shadows of his cell, listening. The guards outside argued in clipped whispers, but something else caught his attention - a distant rumble, almost like thunder, but it came from beneath the ground. The lights overhead flickered.
Otto's throat tightened. He shifted, eyes tracing the lines of cracked concrete walls, the faint hum of the dying generator the only thing breaking the silence. The compound wasn't a fortress - it was a tomb.
One of the guards spat out a curse, thudding his rifle against the door. "Something's wrong," the guard muttered to his companion. "Since last night - too quiet."
"Shut up. Orders are orders. You don't ask questions in here."
Otto barely moved as he listened. He'd been in this place too long to flinch at a raised voice. But something was different today, the tension tighter. The guards' unease set his skin crawling.
Then, the ground trembled again. The lights went out.
"What the hell?" The second guard's voice cracked. A fumbling of keys. "Get the backup - "
The explosion tore through the air like a punch to the chest. Dust rained from the ceiling. Otto pressed himself against the cold wall, heart pounding. Shouts, gunfire - then silence.
For a long moment, nothing. He waited, breath shallow, listening to the irregular drip of water leaking through the walls.
Footsteps, uneven and slow. Heavy breathing, like someone suffocating.
Otto squinted through the darkness. The dim emergency lights flickered back to life, revealing the hallway just beyond his bars. The first guard stumbled into view, dragging his left leg. Blood soaked his uniform, the skin on his face peeling away, eyes milky white.
Otto's hands clenched.
The guard collapsed against the bars, his breath ragged, fingers twitching like they didn't belong to him. Otto edged back. The smell - rotting meat - grew worse as the guard's body convulsed. A gurgle in the throat, then silence.
But his eyes opened again, unfocused, blank.
Something was wrong. Otto stood motionless, heart slamming against his ribs as the dead man's body jerked into movement, crawling to its feet with a sickening crack of bone. No words, no groan - just a slow, jerky turn of the head.
The dead guard's hand slipped inside his pocket, fingers fumbling, pulling out the key to Otto's cell.
The moment those lifeless fingers dropped the key to the floor, Otto bolted.
He grabbed the key, his hands trembling as he struggled to unlock the cell. A quick glance behind him confirmed the worst - the guard wasn't human anymore. The creature lurched forward, its jaw snapping open and shut with stiff, unnatural motions, teeth clacking like rusted gears.
Otto shoved the cell door open, darting down the narrow corridor. His feet pounded the concrete as the building groaned, settling into the chaos of whatever had been unleashed.
More shouts echoed from deeper inside. He caught a glimpse of another guard - the second one - pinned beneath a pile of rubble, screaming as something tore into him, blood spraying across the walls. Otto kept running, chest burning, legs ready to give out.
At the end of the hallway, the door to the main lab was ajar. Green smoke billowed through the crack, curling along the ceiling like the compound itself was breathing. Otto hesitated, hearing the gurgling sounds of more monsters dragging their disfigured limbs across the floor.
Ahead, the laboratories sprawled like a nightmare. Stainless steel tables upended, glass vials shattered, and tanks filled with greenish liquid spewed their contents across the floor. The air was thick with chemical stench, burning his lungs.
He wasn't alone.
Two SS officers backed toward him, their faces drawn tight with fear, rifles aimed at the doorway. Inside the lab, a figure stood, hunched over - something once human, now barely recognizable. Patches of skin hung from its face, eyes gleaming with mindless hunger.
"What the - " The taller officer glanced at Otto. "Get back! Stay out of the lab!"
But Otto didn't move. He watched as the monster lunged at the officers with terrifying speed. A scream cut through the air, a gunshot - then blood splattered across the walls. The second officer hit the ground, rifle clattering from his hands as the thing tore into him, teeth sinking into flesh.
Otto turned, sprinting down the adjacent corridor, toward the storage area. The fire alarms blared now, shrieking in broken intervals as the sprinklers sputtered to life, spraying a thin mist that did nothing to combat the spreading flames.
Inside the storage room, Otto skidded to a stop. Crates, chemicals, everything labeled in the strange codes the SS scientists had scrawled. It didn't matter. He spotted the fuel tanks - rows of them. Enough to set the whole place ablaze.
His fingers shook as he yanked down a torch from the wall. No hesitation now. He'd seen enough. If these monsters got out, there wouldn't be anything left of the world to run to.
The chemicals spilled onto the floor as he overturned the canisters, the liquid slick against his boots. The smell of gasoline mixed with the rotting stench of death.
Footsteps behind him. Shambling. Guttural noises - wet, throaty. One of the infected SS officers appeared in the doorway, his eyes vacant, jaw hanging loosely from his face. He was barely human, a shell filled with nothing but hunger.
Otto struck the torch against the wall, sending a flare of sparks into the air. The officer groaned, stepping closer, his boots slipping in the chemical spill.
Without looking back, Otto tossed the torch onto the ground.
The fire roared to life, racing across the floor with terrifying speed. The flames licked at the walls, devouring everything in their path. The officer stumbled, arms flailing as the fire consumed him. His screams barely reached Otto's ears as he bolted toward the exit.
The heat followed him, fierce and unrelenting. He sprinted through the compound's entrance, out into the cold night air.
Behind him, the compound exploded in a thunderous blaze, flames shooting into the sky. The green smoke rose higher, twisting like a vengeful spirit above the treetops.
Otto didn't look back. He ran. His lungs burned, feet pounding the earth until he was deep within the forest, where the heat and smoke couldn't reach him.
The compound was gone, reduced to ashes. But as Otto stood in the darkness, catching his breath, he knew the nightmare wasn't over. Whatever hell they had unleashed inside those walls could return again.
So he ran - ran as far and as fast as he could, never looking back.
....
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