My Immortal The Vampires of Berlin by Lee Rudnicki

born here—rearmed Germany and led us into another stupid war. Those of us who were dumb enough to pick up arms are now left with a choice. Surrender or die!”
    “There’s still a way out!” Sebastian insisted.
    “Fairy tales! This battle is the sequel to Stalingrad, only Hitler and his cronies are stuck here with us in the
Kessel
this time. There is no way out, no means to fight back and nothing left to fight for!”
    Klaus dismissed Sebastian with a wave and the despondent group trudged down the street after him.
    But Sebastian wouldn’t give up. “You have to believe me! There is a way out!” he shouted.
    Klaus stopped in his tracks and went straight for Sebastian. The other men crowded around the two warriors, like a schoolyard fight. Just when they were about to come to blows, a kid with round glasses and an oversized helmet jumped right between them. “Are you sure you can get us out of Berlin? Are you really sure?” he asked.
    Sebastian looked at the kid and the bazooka-like
Panzerfaust
that he clutched in his arms in disbelief.
Jesus. Is this what had become of the invincible Wehrmacht? There truly is no hope.
“How old are you, kid?” he asked.
    “Thirteen, sir. Next month.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “Dieter, sir. Dieter Hübner.”
    “Well, little Dieter Hübner, you should be at home with your mother, not wandering the streets of Berlin with a weapon that is bigger than you are.”
    Dieter held up the
Panzerfaust
. Large red letters on the metal tube read
Achtung! Feuerstrahl!
“I may be young, sir, but I can fight like a man. I blasted a T-34 yesterday!”
    Axel, a handsome young
Luftwaffe
pilot with long, unkempt blonde hair slapped the kid on the back. “And the Russians they pulled out of it looked like burnt schnitzel!”
    “And then a thousand tanks replaced it,” Frederick replied. “Stalin has an endless supply. We must surrender. It’s our only hope.”
    “If you surrender, they will kill you,” Sebastian said. “And if you’re not lucky enough to be killed quickly, you will get shipped off to Siberia to experience a wintery hell in a prison camp until you die from frostbite.”
    Wolf arrived. He was nervous and uncomfortable to be out in the open with snipers in the area, but he was determined to get his friend out of there. “Sebastian, leave these men alone. They made their decision and we made ours. We have to leave. Now.”
    “Excuse me, sir,” Dieter asked. “Do you really know a way out of Berlin?”
    “No, kid. No, I don’t,” Wolf replied. “And don’t listen to my friend here. He got shot in the head tonight. I think that maybe his brains spilled out.”
    “Major, we need firepower to get to the Brandenburg airfield,” Sebastian argued. “They can help us get there and we can save their lives in the process.”
    Wolf laughed out loud. “Are you out of your mind? Children and men who are old enough to remember the Battle of Waterloo are not going to help us do anything but die. That’s not the firepower we need—we need
soldiers
.”
    Sebastian raised his voice just loud enough to be heard by everyone. “Attention group. My commanding officer and I have devised a plan to get out of Berlin. We can’t promise you that it will work, but we can promise you that we’re going to shoot anybody who gets in our way.”
    The soldiers laughed.
    Sebastian pointed at Dieter, “Who else—besides this brave member of the Hitler Youth—will help us execute our plan?”
    Wolf angrily grabbed Sebastian’s arm and whispered into his ear. “
Plan?
What the hell plan are you talking about? We don’t have a plan.”
    “I agree with you, major. Our plan is
genius
,” Sebastian said loudly. He prayed that Wolf wouldn’t interrupt him again. “Raise your hand if you will join us!” he shouted. “We have a genius plan—who is with us?”
    No one moved.
    Wolf smiled. “Can we go now?”
    Sebastian looked into their eyes, desperately trying to get a read.
Their