“Gah, where those sheep be?”  The man gazed out across the large rolling fields.  The moon was high in the sky, lighting up the valley around him.  He straightened his back up, “Ugh,” he bent over in pain, holding himself up on his cane, “I’m too old for this.”  He took a seat on a nearby rock, looking over the valley, he saw large clouds of fog slowly creeping over the mountain tops and slinking down into the valley below.  “Tis a strange thing, fog this time of year.”

“Baaaah!”                       

The man’s head turned at the sound of his lost sheep.  It came further up the path of the mountain side.  He stood, grunting as he did, wiping his hands on his old worn pants.  The man took one last look down the mountain.

The fog had made its way across the valley and started climbing the other side of the mountain, reaching for the old man like a wounded predator still trying for the kill.

“Lord, protect me tonight.”  He whispered out into the night air.  The shepherd began climbing up the path, following the sounds of his lost sheep.

Several minutes passed and the man was now surrounded in the fog.  He pulled a flashlight out of one of his pockets and scanned the area.  He could make out a small clearing with a path leading up to the side of the mountain.

Gravel crunched beneath the man’s feet as he followed the path, shinning his light side to side in the fog.  He held his flashlight up as he neared the flat face of the mountain.  A large metal door stood in front of him, cemented in the side of the mountain.

“Hmm,” The man looked side to side and scratched his head.  He made sure no one was around and then he pressed on the thick cold metal.  “I don’t think I’ve seen this here before.”

The door didn’t budge.

The shepherd shrugged and turned back to the clearing.  He took one step away to leave and stopped dead in his tracks.

The door behind him made a clicking sound and started to swing open with a slow, metallic creak.

The man turned and shined his light on the half-open door.  Inside was too dark for his light to make out any clear objects.  The man edged closer to the metal door and peeked inside.  “Hello?”  His voice echoed throughout the chamber.

He pushed the door open and stepped out of the fog and into the large room.  He scanned the walls with his light.  It was a drab grey all around, save for the pipes and wires that clung to the walls like vines.  There was what looked like a picture on the far side of the entrance, but it was too faded to tell what it was.

He stepped deeper into the chamber.  Glass and papers were scattered all across the ground.  Tables were flipped over and old computers lay in scrap heaps.  Bugs scattered as his light flashed passed them.

The man made his way deep into the chamber until he was inside a large circular room.  He shined his light around the walls until he stepped on something hard.  His light glinted off the object as he shown it down on the ground.

He bent down, letting out a sigh, and picked up the small circular object.  It was a brass cylinder, hollowed out on the inside.  It looked like a bullet casing.  The shepherd dropped it and instantly stood, making his way to the metal door.  He wasn’t staying any longer than he had to.

He stopped just before the faded picture.  He looked up and dusted off the image.  The shepherd gasped as he saw the image of an old evil, one that had brought the world to war when the shepherd was much younger.

The man’s eyes were drawn to a reddish-brown substance splattered on the wall beneath the picture.  He held his hand out and touched the substance.  It was familiar to him.  It looked the same as when he slaughtered sheep.  It was blood, but there were no sheep here.

The shepherd shook his head and wiped his hands clean.  He made the sign of the cross, touching his head then down to his chest twice, “Lord, save me.”  He ripped the picture from the wall and tossed it to the floor.  He quickly stormed out of the chamber, slamming the metal door back into place.  “And make it so this place remains lost to time, Lord.”

The shepherd turned back to the clearing.  His head started to hurt, a strange stillness settled across the clearing.  The shepherd dropped his flashlight and cane.  His hands pressed hard against his head, but the immense pain wouldn’t leave.  His head felt like it was going to explode if he stayed here one second longer.

The fog drifted away from the clearing, revealing concrete pillars laid out in a circular pattern.  The air started to rush away from the center, blasting the remaining fog out of the clearing.

The shepherd’s eyes were turning bright red, the blood vessels swelling up with pressure, when a loud crack sounded deep into the night and all the pressure was relieved in an instant.  He coughed up a few times, spewing a bit of blood onto the gravel.  He looked up as his sheep trotted past him, hopping down the trail to the farm with incredible speed.

The shepherd gasped as a bell shaped device sat in the middle of the concrete pillars.  It had come out of nowhere.  His marvel was short lived as the device’s door suddenly started opening with the whine of hydraulic pressure releasing.

The small ramp slammed on the ground and a figure emerged from inside the bell.  It was tall and stiff.  Its posture was rigid and upright with inhuman accuracy.  Its stride was slow and methodical.  The being’s red eyes scanned the clearing, finally resting on the shepherd.  It walked closer and the shepherd could see it clearer now.

It was made of a shiny metal and resembled a human, but it was emotionless and cold.  A red band with a black swastika was tied around its arm.  There was no mouth on its head, only several small holes where an emotionless, mechanical voice could be heard.  “Scanning lifeform.”

The shepherd grabbed his cane and stumbled to his feet, kicking out gravel as he did so.  His flashlight rolled about as frantically ran away.  He started to sprint down the trail as he heard the machine’s voice again.

“Lifeform is forty-three percent Hebrew.  Object, eliminate.”  The machine’s arm rose, and with pinpoint accuracy, aimed at the retreating shepherd.  A bright green light shot from the machine’s arm and hit the shepherd straight in the chest.

The shepherd dropped to his knees and looked down.  A large hole replaced the center of his chest, the flesh cauterized in a perfect circle.  The shepherd was unable to take another breath, his voice caught in his throat as he dropped face down into the dirt.

The cold emotionless voice spoke out again, “Object eliminated.  Area secure.”

Several other machines stepped out of the bell and formed a perimeter around the clearing, their feet thumping down on the gravel below.

Then one left boot stepped out of the bell followed by a right metal foot.  The half-machine raised its right fleshy arm up to wipe away condensation from its right metallic eye.  The red light scanned the area with the upmost precision, while its left robotic arm adjusted the hat atop its head.  The cyborg turned back inside the bell and finally spoke, “My dear Maria, are you coming?  We have finally returned home after all these years.”  The left arm of the cyborg glimmered off of the light radiating from inside the bell.

A small, delicate hand reached out and took the cold hard metal.  An elderly lady, her face creased with the lines of age, stepped out of the light of the bell and into the cool night air.  She took a deep breath, wrapping her silver, overgrown hair around her body, she spoke, “My dear Hans, it has been ages since we have been in our time, but now, we have finally returned.”

Hans Kammler smiled, his red eye glaring at the lady without a single blink, “And now, we shall take back what is rightfully ours.”