Chapter 1: Snow, snow and a cold surprise
It is the middle of autumn in 1941. The city Berlin is being hit by rain. Third Reich was at his apartment eating his late breakfast. He stared out the window at the pouring rain. Reich was absorbed in his thoughts. < The rain has been falling down on the city for days. When will it stop... > "That tickles!", he suddenly laughed when his dog Kira licked his hand. He then stroked her head. She sat down next to him and enjoyed the stroking. Reich's children entered the room and when the tallest of them stopped, they fell on top of each other. Reich started giggling and helped them up, then everyone laughed.
"Now how about having breakfast together?", he asked after his children sat down at the table. "Yes!", they cried out together. Reich got up and went into the kitchen while the children played with the dog. After they had breakfast, they sat at the table together and played the board game 'Mensch ärgere dich nicht' until the phone rang and they had to abandon the game. "Mr. Reich, some of our soldiers have made an amazing discovery!", the voice called out his secretary into the telephone. "And what discovery did the make?", he asked skeptically, since she was never so upset otherwise.
"They found a strange object crashing into the ground in Soviet territory near Moscow and they thought you knew it best." He repeated: "In the middle of Soviet territory?" It seemed very strange to him. "Yes!", she answered him. He continued with his questions: "Are you sure?" "Yes, I asked the soldiers again on the phone and they confirmed it." Reich trusted his secretary very much and wanted to know what was so special there. "All right then. Cancel all appointments for the next 4-6 days, get me a car and take care of my family please!", he ordered and hung up. Third Reich put on his jacket, packed his food, drink and warmer clothes and went to his children, who looked at him in amazement, since he otherwise never left the apartment like this.
"Kids, I'll probably be back home in 4-6 days. Please don't worry, because my secretary will take care of you for so long." But a child didn't want that. "Dad, please stay here, you...", FRG thought for a moment and continued, "you are the best storyteller and papa there is and that woman could never replace you." "I'm very sorry but it's important." He kissed everyone on the forehead and left. "See you soon!" "Goodbye dad!" "We love you papa!" "See you in a week papa!" He closed the door and walked to the waiting car. Reich got in and put the warm clothes on the other seat. The car drove off and he fell asleep after an hour's drive.
A few hours later, Third Reich was woken up by his chauffeur. He slowly opened his eyes sleepily and stretched himself a bit. It was the middle of the night. He took the warm clothes and put them on. Now he was ready to get out of the car. When he opened the door, an ice cold wind blew in his face and he winced. He didn't expect it to be that cold, but it's too late to turn back. A few soldiers gathered and lined up to greet him. After a while, a snowstorm came up, which made it difficult for them to walk, as they hadn't expected a storm. But a little later, they were only a few kilometers away from the specified location. Reich said goodbye to the group and went on alone.
After a while the snow was almost up to his knees. Third Reich was freezing all over, it seemed to him that all the jackets were of no use. Reich could hardly breathe because of the cold. He saw some trees around him and knew he was now in the large forest that was drawn on the map he was given before he left the soldiers. Now he recognized something brown in the distance, but it was wider and smaller than a tree, a hut. He was very relieved when he finally saw the hut. He knocked on the door and waited, but nobody opened it. Surprised, he opened the door. "Hello, is anyone here?", Reich called into the hut. The hut was filled with darkness.
He took a match and lit it to at least have some light. He saw a candle with to his left and lit it. He closed the door so that he wasn't so cold anymore, but shortly afterwards he smelled a horrible smell that made his stomach turn. He turned his back to the door again. Third Reich widened his eyes and felt like his heart stopped in shock. There were bodies everywhere, some had been shot, some were hanging from the ceiling and some looked unharmed, but all looked as if they were made of ice.
He didn't get out of this state of shock for a while, but his stomach knocked him out. He opened the door and walked a few meters outside. Reich tried to calm down, but he just couldn't, so he threw up and kept walking through the terrible cold, which took his strength, the burning in his mouth and in his throat didn't make the situation any better. He ran on for a few hours, Third Reich didn't even know whether it was day or night. His matches and food were gone, and he was lost. > Great! I have to keep going, there is no way back for me. < A little later he saw a road that immediately gave him more hope.
Standing at the side of the road, he still couldn't believe his luck until he remembered that he was still in Soviet territory. A light came towards him and Reich panicked and turned around, ran a few meters back into the forest, hid behind a tree and watched what was happening. The car stopped and a tall man got out. Reich knew immediately that he had been spotted and ran deeper into the forest. Looking back, he saw that the man who is now on the passenger side was taking out a lantern and a rifle. His fear increased immeasurably and he wanted to take another look at the man, but he heard a crack and another, this time even louder.
Suddenly he fell and felt the cold enveloping him like a coat. Reich was able to hold his breath before he fell into the water and he immediately tried to swim up, but the coats were so heavy that they pulled him down even more. Third Reich took them off as fast as he could and swam to the surface where he took a deep breath. He climbed out and saw the man a few yards from the lake walking around the lake. He freed his wings for support, stood up and carefully slid onto the bank. He kept running quickly, even if the deep snow stopped him. Suddenly a shot was heard and he felt a strong pain shoot up his right arm. His wings wrapped around him and he heard another shot that sent him falling into the deep snow.
He looked down, breathing heavily and saw the blood coming out of his wounds. Tears of pain and fear escaped him. He felt himself slowly passing out and looked at the man who was now standing at his feet. He tried one last time to get up, but he couldn't and everything around him went black.
